Conference Presentation

2 Enoch in Slavia Orthodoxa: Jewish Apocalyptic Traditions and the World Behind the New Testament

Prof. Florentina Badalanova Geller, PhD

Senior Honorary Research Fellow

University College London

United Kingdom

Presentation Date & Time

9 November 2026

19:00 CET (Serbia time)

Conference

New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies

European Hebrew Journal International Online Conference

Format

Live online via Zoom

Sign Up for Conference Updates by Email

By signing up, you will receive:

• announcements of newly confirmed international speakers
• newly announced presentation topics
• important programme updates and conference news
• Early Bird reminders before ticket prices increase
• important registration information and deadlines
• once a month, a carefully selected digest of important new scientific discoveries and research developments in 2026, especially in Biblical Studies, Hebrew, archaeology, ancient history, Jewish Studies, theology, linguistics, manuscripts, and related fields

Presentation Overview

Editorial conference description — speaker abstract forthcoming

This presentation explores the Slavonic transmission and reception of 2 Enoch within the cultural and intellectual world of Slavia Orthodoxa. Drawing on Prof. Florentina Badalanova Geller's extensive research on the Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch, parabiblical traditions, manuscript transmission, heavenly cosmography, and Jewish-Christian apocryphal literature, the presentation examines how Enochic traditions preserved and transformed in Slavonic sources illuminate the Jewish apocalyptic background of early Christianity and the wider intellectual world behind the New Testament.

Keywords

2 Enoch Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch Book of the Secrets of Enoch Enochic Traditions Jewish Apocalyptic Literature Slavia Orthodoxa Church Slavonic Slavonic Parabiblical Traditions Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Jewish-Christian Apocrypha Early Christianity New Testament Background Heavenly Ascent Celestial Cosmography Byzantine Commonwealth Manuscript Transmission

What Is 2 Enoch?

2 Enoch, commonly known as the Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch or the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, is an apocalyptic work preserved through the Slavonic manuscript tradition. It narrates Enoch's heavenly journey and contains material concerning celestial geography, the structure of the heavens, creation, divine knowledge, angelic beings, and humanity's relationship to the heavenly world.

Its textual history, date, transmission, and earlier linguistic background remain subjects of scholarly discussion. The surviving Slavonic witnesses have therefore become important sources for research into the reception and transformation of ancient Jewish and Jewish-Christian apocalyptic traditions.

Prof. Florentina Badalanova Geller has worked extensively on 2 Enoch, Enochic traditions, celestial cosmography, and the transmission of parabiblical literature in the Slavonic world.

What Is Slavia Orthodoxa?

Slavia Orthodoxa refers to the Orthodox Slavonic cultural and textual sphere shaped by Byzantine Christianity and the circulation of Church Slavonic literature. Within this environment, biblical, apocryphal, liturgical, oral, and iconographic traditions interacted over many centuries.

Prof. Badalanova Geller's research approaches Slavonic sources not merely as late translations, but as witnesses to complex processes of preservation, transmission, reinterpretation, and transformation of earlier traditions. Her scholarship explores the intersection of biblical and parabiblical texts, oral traditions, iconography, cosmology, and religious knowledge across the Byzantine and Orthodox Slavonic worlds.

Academic Profile

Prof. Florentina Badalanova Geller is a scholar of Slavonic philology, parabiblical literature, folklore, anthropology of religion, apocrypha, and the transmission of knowledge.

She is Senior Honorary Research Fellow at University College London and Senior Researcher and Slavonic Database Editor at the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Her research focuses particularly on Slavonic parabiblical heritage, apocryphal literature, oral tradition, iconography, the relationship between orality and literacy, Abrahamic religions, ethnohermeneutics, and knowledge transmission within the Byzantine and Orthodox Slavonic cultural worlds.

A particularly important part of her scholarship concerns the Enochic tradition, including 2 Enoch, celestial cosmography, visionary narratives, Jewish-Christian encounters, apocalyptic literature, and the transmission and transformation of religious traditions in Slavia Orthodoxa.

Education and Academic Qualifications

1974–1979

BA and MA in Slavonic Philology, University of Sofia, Bulgaria.

1978–1979

Foreign student year in Polish Philology, University of Warsaw.

1980–1984

PhD in Philology / Folkloristics, Moscow State University.

1993

Habilitation, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Academic Positions

1985–1992

Research Fellow, Institute of Folklore Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

1992–1994

Senior Research Fellow, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

1992–1994

Associate Professor, Sofia University.

1994–1998

British Council Lecturer in Bulgarian Studies, University of London.

1998–1999

Modern Humanities Research Association Research Fellow, University of London / SSEES.

1999–2004

Lector in Russian and Bulgarian Studies, University College London.

1999–present

Senior Researcher & Slavonic Database Editor, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

2005–2023

Honorary Research Associate, University College London.

2007–2025

Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.

2010–2018

Professor, TOPOI Excellence Cluster, Freie Universität Berlin, on secondment from the Royal Anthropological Institute.

2018–present

Research Fellow, Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg.

2022–2023

Paris Institute for Advanced Study / FIAS Fellow.

2023–present

Senior Honorary Research Fellow, University College London.

2024

Visiting Professor, University of Lausanne.

Scholarly Leadership

European Association of Biblical Studies

Slavonic Parabiblical Traditions — Chair

Enoch Within and Outside the Books of Enoch: Parabiblical Writings, Iconography and Oral Tradition — Chair

Mariological Discourses — Chair

These leadership roles reflect Prof. Badalanova Geller's international scholarly authority in Enochic, Slavonic, and parabiblical research traditions.