the end of the first century CE. He seems to have had a mystical experience like that described in 2 Enoch, showing that such teachings were known in the time of Jesus. Exactly the same experience, however, is implied in the Book of Job, and so must have been part of the Hebrew tradition for a very long time. Eliphaz taunted Job about the limits of his wisdom and asked him: ‘Have you listened in the council of God?’ He also asked him ‘Are you the first man … brought forth before the hills?’ (Job