Hugo Odeberg

Hugo Odeberg was a Swedish theologian and specialist in Jewish texts. He was born in Amal in 1898 and was professor of exegetical theology at Lund University from 1933 to 1964.

Working from a manuscript in the British Museum, he published 3 Enoch, or the Hebrew Book of Enoch (Cambridge University Press, 1928), the first critical edition and English translation of the text. 3 Enoch, also called Sefer Hekhalot, describes the rabbi Ishmael's ascent to heaven, where he meets Metatron, who reveals that he was once the man Enoch. Odeberg dated its oldest parts to the 1st century CE, a sensational claim at the time. Most later scholars place the work much later, in the 5th to 6th centuries or after, compiled in Babylonia.

Odeberg's political views have been criticised: Swedish biographers note that he was often accused of a pro-Nazi stance before and during the Second World War, while also recording his long friendships with Jews in Sweden.