Phillip J. Long - Discussion of 2 Enoch

Resources for 2 Enoch (Slavonic)

https://readingacts.com/2016/07/07/resources-for-2-enoch-slavonic/

by Phillip J. Long

July 7, 2016

I am happy that Jim Davila has been posting links to my Enoch series on his PaleoJudaica blog. He also included a few links to older posts on PaleoJudaica that might be of interest.

I failed to mention in my introductory post that 2 Enoch was only known in Slovonic until recently. In No longer ‘Slavonic’ only: 2 Enoch attested in Coptic from Nubia, Jim reports on the re-discovery of fragments of 2 Enoch in Coptic. The fragments of 2 Enoch chapters 36-42 were found in 1972. Joost Hagan published his paper in New Perspectives on 2 Enoch: No Longer Slavonic Only (Andrei Orlov, Gabriele Boccaccini, eds.; Leiden: Brill, 2012). If Brill wants to send me a copy, I’d be glad to review this book!

2 Enoch: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US is a report from The fifth Enoch Seminar held in Naples in 2009. Interesting note: “Even so, very few scholars know Slavonic. Of the sixty delegates of this year’s Enoch Seminar, only eight were specialists in this language.”

OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC WATCH: The “Other” Lost Scriptures: Beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls, Slavonic texts break all the rules (Philip Jenkins, Aleteia). here Jim takes some issue with Jenkins’s claim that “The shorter, older version takes us back to a work written by an Alexandrian Jew somewhere around the 1st century AD—roughly the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” As he rightly objects, “he Greek text went through a long period of transmission in the Byzantine period, then it was translated into Old Church Slavonic and again underwent a long period of transmission before the surviving late medieval manuscripts were produced.”

Jim also had a short note on Grant Macaskill, The Slavonic Texts of 2 Enoch (Leiden, Brill, 2013). According to the Brill catalog, “The book also includes an introductory discussion of the manuscripts and the problems associated with text-critical work on them, and a translation of the neglected manuscript B, with notes on the significance of its readings for the reconstruction of an ur-text.”

I should also mention Andrei Orlov’s collection of resources for Slavonic Enoch.

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What is 2 Enoch?

https://readingacts.com/2016/07/05/what-is-2-enoch/

by Phillip J. Long

July 5, 2016

“In every respect 2 Enoch remains an enigma” (OTP 1:97). Dates for 2 Enoch range from pre-Christian to early medieval. Józef Milik thought the book was the work of a Christian monk dated the book to the ninth or tenth century A.D. based on a neologism which describes Enoch’s copying of 360 manuscripts from the Angel Vreveil (Uriel? chapter 23). Milik reconstructs a Greek term which accounts for a mistake by the Slavonic translator. This term is found no earlier than the early ninth century, therefore the author is a Greek monk from that century (Milik, 111-112). On the other hand, Anderson suggests elements of the book go back to the turn of the era, perhaps written by the Theraputae described by Philo (although they seem to have revered Moses rather than Enoch, OTP, 1:96). It is hard to know if the book came from Jewish or Christian circles, it is “hardly in the mainstream of either” (OTP, 1:95).

Christfried Böttrich has argued for a three-stage composition of the book: A Jewish core, dated prior to A.D. 70 and deeply mystical; a Christian redaction interested in typological equivalents, and a final Byzantine redaction which was mainly interested in chronology (Böttrich, 40).

John Collins considers 2 Enoch to be a Jewish document dating to no later than the first century A.D. on the basis of the book’s interest in sacrifice. Since it was written in Greek and has allusions to Egyptian mythology as well as some affinity with Philo of Alexandria, an Egyptian provenance is likely (Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, Third Edition, 302-3).

The most compelling evidence for a Jewish origin of at least chapters 68-73 is the date of Enoch’s final translation into heaven – the sixth day of Tsivan, the beginning of the festival of the first fruit. Anderson states there are a number of places in the apocalyptic literature when early historical events are linked to this festival. It would be nearly impossible for a medieval Slav creating this text to have known about such a practice (Anderson, OTP 196, note c). It is possible, however, a Slavic monk took the date from another source because it was so common. On the whole, Anderson’s point is well made even though buried in a footnote.

Since the publication of Anderson’s translation, which includes both the shorter and longer recension side by side, there have been a number of studies on 2 Enoch including translations into Greek, English, Spanish and French. Of main interest are the Melchizedek traditions found in the book since it is quite different from both Jewish (Qumran) and Christian traditions (including a virgin birth probably based on Matthew 2 and Luke 2, but with several quite a bizarre departures!)

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Bibliography: Christfried Böttrich, “Recent Studies in the Slavonic Book of Enoch” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 9 (1991): 35-42; Józef Milik,Enoch, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 (London: Oxford, 1976).

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Enoch’s Journey through the Heavens – 2 Enoch 1-22

https://readingacts.com/2016/07/06/enochs-journey-through-the-heavens-2-enoch-1-22/

by Phillip J. Long

July 6, 2016

The book begins with Enoch’s vision soon after he fathered Methuselah. He is caught up into heaven by glorious angelic beings (chapter 1). He then instructs his sons to walk before the Lord by praying and giving generous gifts to the Lord (2:2). In chapters 3-6 Enoch describes his trip through the first heaven where he sees the angels who govern the stars and the various storehouses of heaven. In chapter 7 he is brought to the second heaven where he saw prisoners hanging in darkness, awaiting judgment. This “hanging prisoner” theme will be used by later apocalypses for images of Sheol, Hades, etc. (Apoc. of Ezra 4, Vision of Ezra 19-22).

Paul was caught up into the Third Heaven (2 Cor 12)

The third heaven contains Paradise which is described as an ideal and beautiful place prepared for the righteous (chapter 8-9). The righteous are defined as those who are just, who clothe the naked, feed the hungry, lift up the fallen, and help the injured and the orphans and worship the Lord only. This list of “virtues” is not unlike Matthew 25:40 in which Jesus describes the “sheep” are those who have done these things to the “least of my brothers.” In chapter 10 Enoch is carried to the north where he witnesses all manner of torture and “cruel darkness.” This place is prepared for those who did not glorify God and practiced sin (which are listed in verse 4-5 in detail.) This too is not unlike the fate of the “goats” in Matthew 25:41-46 as they go to the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Enoch ascends to the fourth heaven where he sees the paths of the sun and moon (chapter 11-17). This is a rather difficult section which is similar to the Astronomical Book of 1 Enoch. The section argues for a 364 and a quarter-day year (14:1) and attempts to precisely define each of the 12 months (16:2).

The fifth heaven contains an innumerable army lead by Grigori, the Greek word for “watchers” (chapter 18). The whole army is downcast since these are the angels which turned from the Lord along with the prince Satanail. The angels descended to Mt. Hermon where they intermarried with the daughters of men and defiled the earth. Enoch recommends they repent, pray to the Lord and perform a liturgy in order appease the Lord’s wrath.

The sixth heaven contains seven groups of angels who are glorious, but all identical (chapter 19). There are angels which worship God and record the deeds of mEnoch In this scene there are seven phoenixes (a hint for an Egyptian provenance; cf., SibOr 8:139-159, 2 Baruch 6), seven cherubim, and seven “six-winged beings” singing in unison.

In the seventh heaven Enoch sees the fiery armies of archangels and a wide variety of angelic beings (chapter 20). Enoch is so frightened the angelic guides must pick him up and strengthen him. They show him the throne of the Lord at a great distance (it is in the tenth heaven). He moves to the very edge of the seventh heaven here he sees the seraphim. The angel guides depart and are replaced by Gabriel, the archangel (chapter 21). With Gabriel he sees the eighth heaven, which contains the zodiac.

Enoch is then brought by Michael into the presence of the Lord in the tenth heaven (chapter 22). The Lord is described as “so very marvelous, and supremely awesome and supremely frightening.” Michael strengthens Enoch and asks the Lord to allow Enoch to stay before the throne of God forever. The Lord has Michael “extract Enoch from his earthly clothes,” which seems to be removing his soul, since after he is anointed with oil he had become like the glorious ones but without any physical difference.

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Enoch and the Mysteries of God – 2 Enoch 23-37

https://readingacts.com/2016/07/07/enoch-and-the-mysteries-of-god-2-enoch-23-37/

by Phillip J. Long

July 7, 2016

After he becomes like the angels, Enoch is instructed by Vrevoil, the swiftest of the archangels who records all the Lord’s deeds. After being instructed for 30 days and 30 nights, Enoch records this instruction in 366 books (22:10-23:6; Recension A has 360 books). After writing the books, Enoch is invited to sit next to the Lord with Gabriel.

God proceeds to explain “mysteries” of creation and the fall to Enoch:

• Chapter 24 – God created visible from invisible.
• Chapter 26 – An invisible thing (Adiol) descends and God commands it to disintegrate. A great light comes from this creature; the great light becomes the “great age” of creation. God established his throne in this creation.
• Chapter 27-28 – God creates water and land from the light and darkness. Seven circles are established for seven stars. This is the first day of the creation week.
• Chapter 29 – On Monday (the second day) God fashions rock from the fiery substance of heavEnoch On this day Satanail falls, he was hurled out of heaven and is now flying around in the air above the bottomless pit.
• Chapter 30 – On Tuesday (the third day) God commands the earth to create trees and grasses; God laid out paradise as a gardEnoch On Wednesday (the fourth day) God establishes the stars, sun and moon in the various circles of the heavens. On Thursday he commands the seas to bring forth fish and birds. On Friday God creates Man out of seven components with seven properties. Man was assigned to the earth as a second angel, to reign as a king. He was named Adam and given free will to either love God or hate him (30:15).
• Chapter 31 – Adam is given a single task but the devil entered paradise and corrupted Eve. This devil did not speak to Adam, therefore it is on account of Eve the Lord curses mankind. This is obviously at odds with Romans 5:12-21 where Adam is blamed for death and sin, Eve is not mentioned.
• Chapter 32 – Adam is removed from the garden after his transgression (after only five and a half hours!)
• Chapter 33 – Enoch is told there will be 7000 years of human existence, with an eighth thousand with not days, months, or years (probably an eternal state.) Presumably there will be one thousand for each of the days of creation. The idea of seven creational days = 7000 years of human history crosses over into Christianity via the Epistle of Barnabas but is not found in the Bible.
• Chapter 34 – The judgment of the flood on the sinner who accepted a different yoke than the Lord’s yoke. The sins listed here are fornication and sodomy.
• Chapter 35 – God promises to allow one righteous man from Enoch’s line to survive the flood for the purpose of passing along the words of Enoch.
• Chapter 36 – Enoch is commanded to live for thirty days on the earth for the purpose of passing on the wisdom he has learned during his heavenly journeys.
• Chapter 36 – Enoch is returned to earth by one of the senior angels.

While this section claims to survey human history from creation to the flood, the point is to exhort the reader to a moral in the light of imminent judgment. Creation is the basis for morality, sin is not the normal state, nor is sin the fault of Adam (Eve is to blame; Satan is to blame; but not Adam). While God will surely judge the sinner, he offers salvation for the one committed to following his commands. These commands make up the bulk of the rest of the book. There are some obvious differences from the biblical text with respect to salvation history in 2 Enoch, primarily in Adam’s culpability for the fall. Even in Genesis Adam is held ultimately responsible; Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:24 make clear it was through Adam sin entered the world. To shift the blame to the woman exalts Adam.

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2 Enoch and the Sermon on the Mount – 2 Enoch 38-63

https://readingacts.com/2016/07/08/2-enoch-and-the-sermon-on-the-mount-2-enoch-38-63/

by Phillip J. Long

July 8, 2016

When Enoch returns to his family in chapter 38 he begins to instruct them in what he has learned while in heaven. Enoch He mourns for his children who have not seen the face of the Lord (chapter 39) and then urges them to pay close attention because all which he is about to say he learned directly from the Lord (40:1). He recounts heavenly wonders (the storehouses of the winds, etc.) and describes to them the horrors of hell (chapter 40, 42:1-2). He describes the wonders of Paradise in a series of “happy is he . . .” formulas akin to the Beatitudes found in the Sermon on the Mount (41:3-14). Of note among these beatitudes the admonishment to “sow the right seed” (cf. Matt 13:1-9) and clothing the naked and feeding the hungry (Matt 25:34-39).

People can have more or less honor than others, chapter 43 has a list of the things which may bring honor to a person in this life. The best of all of these is the one who fears God – “he will be the most glorious in that age” (Chapter 43). Chapter 44 instructs the reader on how to speak without insult, since this too will be judged on the “great day of judgment.” God requires a pure heart rather than sacrifice, pure gifts rather than bribery (Chapter 45-46). This will all be judged when the Lord sends out a “great light” which will judge without favoritism. This is often thought to be a Christian interpolation, OTP 172, note c. If it is, it is not a very obvious one and is present in manuscripts of both recensions. It may simply refer to the final judgment without detailing who the judge will be. Enoch hands over the books he created in heaven with a special emphasis on the 364-day year once again (chapter 47-48).

Enoch forbids his children to swear oaths, but rather they should say “Yes Yes” or “No, No” (Chapter 49). This is obviously similar to the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:34-37. As in the Gospels, the emphasis in 2 Enoch is on telling the truth in the first place. This is the most obvious of several links to the Sermon on the Mount in this section of 2 Enoch. There are significant differences as well. In chapter 53 Enoch warns his children not to rely on the fact their father is in heaven (“do no say, “our father is in heaven”) while the Lord’s Prayer begins by addressing God directly as father. Likely Jesus is working through the same common stock of rabbinical ethical teachings in the Sermon on the Mount which the author of 2 Enoch has in mind. It is also possible 2 Enoch is influenced by Matthew. The difference is the increased internalization of the commands of God found in Matthew 5-7. Murder is bad, but hatred and anger are worse. Adultery is bad, but lust is worse. This “internalized ethic” is missing from 2 Enoch.

• Beatitudes (2 Enoch 41:3-14, Matt 5:1-11)
• Murder (2 Enoch 60, Matt 5:21-26)
• Oath Making (2 Enoch 49, Matt 5:34-37)
• Vengeance (2 Enoch 50, Matt 5:38-48)
• Treasures in Heaven/Alms (2 Enoch 51, Matt 6:1-4; 19-24)
• Praising God (2 Enoch 52, Matt 6:5-13)

In chapters 54-57 Enoch announces he is about to return to heaven, so Methuselah asks for a blessing from his father. Enoch asks that all of the children be brought to him so that he may bless them all. This blessing reviews much of the previous material, exhorting his family toward proper ethical conduct using the beatitude form (chapters 58-63). There are a number of parallels to Jesus in this section as well. For example, 2 Enoch 61:1 has a version of the “golden rule” (cf. Matt 7:12). In 61:2 Enoch states there are “many shelters prepared for people, good ones for the good and bad ones for the bad,” which is roughly parallel to John 14:1-2. The obvious difference is that Jesus refers only to his own disciples, while Enoch refers to houses for all the dead, and far more for the wicked dead than the righteous. 2 Enoch 63 describes the doing of good to the poor without complaint. If one does this good deed, God will reward him. This idea is possibly in the background when Jesus responds to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:21 (and parallels).

If Christfried Böttrich is correct and there is a “Jewish core” in 2 Enoch which pre-dates the fall of Jerusalem, it may then be fair to ask why so much of this material is like the Sermon on the Mount. If the parallels were “Christian,” then one would think they would be closer to Jesus’ teaching than they are. As they appear in 2 Enoch, the various topics and beatitude forms are close enough to make us recall Jesus’ teaching, but not close enough to suggest direct dependence. It is probably the case that Jesus and the author of 2 Enoch both reflect the ethical teaching of the pre-A.D. 70 period. Philip Sigal argues that Jesus had an anonymous impact on the rabbinic halakah (Philip Sigal, The Halakah of Jesus of Nazareth According to the Gospel of Matthew [Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986]))

It is well beyond the evidence to argue these parallels in 2 Enoch are drawn from Jesus’ teaching via rabbinic material, but it is possible to observe the topics and methods of ethical teaching in this section of 2 Enoch roughly parallel the topics and themes of the Sermon on the Mount. Another aspect which muddies the argument is the status of the Sermon on the Mount as an actual “teaching setting” of Jesus. While it is certain Jesus taught the material in Matthew 5-7, it is also fairly certain Matthew has arranged the material in the way it now appear. It is possible Matthew and 2 Enoch reflect a tradition of rabbinic debates on these topics. Matthew is following a distinctly Christian one (something like Q, perhaps), while 2 Enoch follows a more Jewish collection.

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Enoch and the Birth of Melchizedek – 2 Enoch 64-73

https://readingacts.com/2016/07/11/enoch-and-the-birth-of-melchizedek-2-enoch-64-73/

by Phillip J. Long

July 11, 2016

In Chapter 64 Enoch once again is about to go up into heaven, this time as 2000 people watch. Enoch is described in this chapter as “glorified before the face of the Lord for all eternity” and the one the Lord chose in preference to all the people of the earth. OTP 190 note c comments this is such high praise it would not have pleased either Jew of Christian. The manuscript evidence show a high degree of “embarrassment” over this glowing endorsement of Enoch!

As with the previous moments when Enoch was about to go into heaven, he instructs the gathered people rather than ascend into heaven (chapters 65-67). Like the previous sections, Enoch exhorts his audience to good works based on the creation of the universe. In 66:6 there is an “affliction list” – walk before the Lord in longsuffering, meekness, affliction, distress, faithfulness, truth, hope, weakness, derision, assaults, temptations, deprivations, and nakedness. This list is not unlike Romans 8:35 and Paul’s own list of afflictions in 2 Cor. 4:8 and 11:16-29. The righteous ought not to expect an easy life even when they seek the Lord.

Chapters 69-73 contain a version of the flood narrative beginning with Enoch’s translation into heaven (68:1-4) and the response by his son Methusalem. This section reads quite differently than the rest of the book; Enoch is no longer the subject, Methusalem and later Melchizedek, Nir and Noah are the main characters. There is less ethical exhortation and more prose narrative than anywhere else in the book. This section is therefore probably from another source.

Enoch and his brothers construct an altar on the spot where Enoch ascended and sacrificed “in front of the face of the Lord.” (68:5-7). Chapter 69 describes Methusalem’s sacrifices. After the people bring the animals to sacrifice, Methusalem’s face glows radiantly and prays aloud to the Lord, asking him to accept the sacrifice.

As he prays, the altar is shaken and the knife leaps into his hand. From that time on he is honored as a prophet. Methusalem remained at the altar of the Lord for ten years, during which time not a single person “turned away from vanity” (chapter 71). Methusalem’s son Lamekh has two sons, Nir and Noe. After Methusalem is given a disturbing vision of the coming flood, Nir is made a priest. Methusalem dies and people continue to turn away from the Lord. The devil, we are told, came to rule a third time (70:24-25).

Nir’s wife Sopanim becomes pregnant in her old age, having been sterile (chapter 71). This is described as a “virgin” birth. While this story has elements similar to Matthew 2 and Luke 2, the differences are fantastic and legendary. She is embarrassed by this pregnancy and hides herself until the child is due. When Nir discovers she is pregnant he rebukes her and intends to send her away because she has disgraced him, but instead she falls dead at his feet. Noe discovers this and tells Nir that the Lord has “covered up our scandal.” They bury the Sopanim in a black shroud in a secret grave.

The child, however, was not dead and came out of the dead mother as a fully developed child. This terrifies Nir and Noe, but since the child is “glorious in appearance” they realize the Lord is renewing the priesthood in their bloodline. They name the child Melkisedek. We are told that Melkisedek will be the head of “thirteen priests who existed before” and later there will be another Melkisedek who will be the head over twelve priests as an archpriest. Melkisedek is only with Nir for forty days, then the Lord instructs Michael to go and take the boy up to heaven. The Lord calls him “my child Melkisedek” (72:1-2). The child is to be placed in Paradise forever. Nir is so grieved by the loss of his son. He also dies leaving no more priests in the world, allowing the world to become even more evil. Noe is therefore instructed to build the ark in chapter 73.

This strange miraculous birth story for Melkisedek is part of an interest in the King of Salem first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 14:18. Psalm 110:4 describes the king / messiah as a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. This text is cited twice in Hebrews 5:6-10 and 7:1-17 and applied to Jesus. The writer of Hebrews is likely tapping into a common image of a true priesthood which runs outside of the line of the Levites and Aaron. In the case of 2 Enoch, the “legendary” elements of Melchizedek’s story pre-date the flood. This could be used to argue for an early date for this section as well, since the Melchizedek legend was popular in the first century. It is possible a medieval writer created a pre-flood Melchizedek birth story, but it is more likely 2 Enoch is reflecting a first century or earlier tradition.

Melchizedek was an important figure for the Qumran community, 11QMelch is a poorly preserved but an important fragment in which the character Melchizedek is tied to Old Testament texts on the Jubilee and describes him as returning to proclaim liberty, probably based on Is. 61:1 (line 6). There are no real parallels between this Melchizedek legend and anything in the first century, implying this section is to be dated rather late.

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[res: observation: Note the parallels in the bible between Melchizedek and Jesus Christ regarding the Priesthood of God. This would be a fruitful study.]

~ END of 2 ENOCH ~

Phillip J. Long - Discussion of 1 Enoch, Part 7 Final

The Apocalypse of Weeks – 1 Enoch 93:1-10; 91:11-17

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/28/the-apocalypse-of-weeks-1-enoch-931-10-9111-17/

by Phillip J. Long

June 28, 2016

The Apocalypse of Weeks is a brief recounting of human history as a series of weeks. This vision concerns the “elect ones in the world” (93:1). Enoch has learned these future events through a heavenly vision given by holy angels and understood from heavenly tablets (93:2). This triple proof underscores the surety of the vision.

The First Week (93:3) – Enoch was born seventh in the first week, a time when “judgment and righteousness endure.”

The Second Week (93:4) – After Enoch’s time “great and evil things” arise and the “first consummation” takes place. Only one man survives (Noah); the flood does not deal with sin. Therefore, this man makes a law for sinners (the Noahic Covenant).

The Third Week (93:5) – During this week a man is elected as a “plant of righteousness” and a second man as an “eternal plant of righteousness.” The first is Abraham, the second is Moses (eternal since he was “assumed” into heaven).

The Fourth Week (93:6) – During this week visions of old and righteous ones will be seen and “a law will be established as a fence.” This probably refers to the writing of the Pentateuch (i.e., the Law).

The Fifth Week (93:7) – This week will see the completion of “a house and a kingdom,” the establishment of the Davidic kingdom.

The Sixth Week (93:8) – At the end of the week the house and kingdom will be burnt, people will be blindfolded and the “chosen root” dispersed. This is period from David to the Exile.

The Seventh Week (93:9-10) – In the seventh week an apostate generation will arise, all of their deeds will be criminal. The elect ones will give sevenfold instruction to the flock. Since this is post exilic, it could refer to the “criminal activities” of the pre-Maccabean period (Jason and Menelaus purchasing the high priesthood, radical Hellenization, the murder of Onias). On the other hand, it could refer to the Hasmoneans themselves since they united the high priesthood with the king for several generations. In either case, this is the time of the author of the Apocalypse. There is no explicit reference to the Maccabean revolt or a judgment which puts an end to the criminal activity (i.e. Judas Maccabees as a messiah figure.)

The Eighth Week (91:12-13) – After the judgment (which is not described in the text, unless 92:3-5 should be inserted here), there will be an “eighth week” which will be a week of righteousness (91:12-13). During this period a house will be built for the great king “in glory forevermore” (91:12-13). There is an implication that the first seven weeks occur before this week of righteousness, therefore all of history before the ideal period is seven “weeks.” This is reminiscent of the epistle of Barnabas which describes the history of the world in seven creational days, with the seventh being the idealized age (i.e., the kingdom).

The Ninth Week (91:14) – In this period there will be a righteous judgment and all sinners will depart from the earth and be “written off for eternal destruction.” Those who are not judged as sinners will “direct their sight to the path of uprightness.”

The Tenth Week (91:15-16) – In the seventh part of the tenth week there will be a judgment executed by the angels of heaven – the old heaven will pass away and a new heaven will appear; the powers of heaven will shine eternally sevenfold. This “new heaven” idea is drawn from Isaiah 66:17-25 and is found in Revelation 21:1 as well.

“Many Weeks” (91:17) – After the sequence of ten weeks there will be an unending period, an “eternal state” during which sin will no longer exist.

This brief Apocalypse gives the same general outline as Similitudes and the Book of Visions. There will be an end to sin and corruption in the future. A judge will make right what is wrong and the ages which follow this judgment will be an ideal sinless state. The Apocalypse of Weeks develops this idea of a coming new age very much in outline form, not unlike the book of Daniel. If this sort of an outline of history was well known in the first century (from Daniel, 1 Enoch, etc.), then it is possible the language of “kingdom” used in the Gospels evoked imagery in the minds of the first listeners similar to the Apocalypse of Weeks.

Jesus claims to be given authority to judge (John 5:27, Mt. 28:18) and clearly associates himself with the eschatological Son of Man in Mark 14:62. It is the authority of Jesus which is questioned in the Temple by the chief priests (Mark 11:27-33).

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The Epistle of Enoch – 1 Enoch 99-105

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/29/the-epistle-of-enoch-1-enoch-99-105/

by Phillip J. Long

June 29, 2016

The final chapters of 1 Enoch are advice to his children and follow a pattern not unlike the Old Testament wisdom literature. There is a general admonition to listen to the words of the father and walk in righteousness. What follows are a long series of “woe” statements condemning various sins and “unwise” activities. The rich, the deceitful, the idolater, the oppressor, the one who has luxury, the blasphemous, etc. are all warned of the judgment in store for them. Most of this material is in the format of “woe to the sinner because . . .” There are a few notable exceptions to this format which are eschatological in nature. Chapter 101 is another wisdom piece not unlike God’s speech in Job. It contains a series of rhetorical questions about nature intended to underscore God’s sovereign control of the universe.

In 99:3-10 there is a bit of non-woe material introduced with “in those days.” The righteous need to prepare to “raise a memorial” in prayer because of the wickedness of those days. Women will abort babies and commit infanticide, it will be a time of “unceasing blood.” There will be idolatry which “blindfolds” the sinner so that they will not be saved. This idea of a blindness in the last days which prevents sinners from perceiving the truth is found in 2 Thess. 2:11 – God sends a “spirit of delusion” which prevents people in the last days from seeing the truth. Matthew 24:4-13 describes people in the last days as believing lies, false prophets and increasing wickedness.

In 100:1-6 a final judgment is described. Fathers and sons will kill each other (100:2, cf. the less violent Luke 12:52, fathers against sons, etc.) The gore of the final battle is so deep a horse walks up to his chest in blood (100:3, cf. Ezek. 39:17; Rev 14:20). Angels will go into secret places and gather those who caused others to sin in order to execute them on the great judgment day (100:4). The righteous, however, will be protected by angels until sinners are judged. From that time on they will live in peace and “no one will make them afraid.” They are “saved” from the judgment because they gave heed to the words of “this book.”

In 102:1-11 the terror of the final judgment is described. “In those days” sinners will be unable to hide from the terrors as angels fulfill the orders of the Lord (cf. Rev. 6:16-17). Sinners will go down to Sheol in sorrow (102:5), but the righteous have no need to fear, there will be no righteous in Sheol (102:4, 11).

Chapters 103 and 104 use an oath motif along with the woe formula to describe the “two ways,” the way of the righteous and the way of the sinner. Verses 1-4 describes the lot of the righteous: those who die will live and rejoice, their spirits will not perish and they will be a memorial before the Lord. Sinners, however, are already dead (103:5). They may have died in prosperity and wealth, but now they are suffering terrible torments on account of their easy lives (103:4-5). The righteous have no need to hide in the coming judgment (104:1-6). The sinner thinks they have nothing to worry about on the great Day of Judgment (104:7), but in fact everything will be made known and judged. Chapter 105 is a brief benediction concluding this section.

The final chapters of 1 Enoch are fragments of other documents appended to the main text. Chapters 106 and 107 are a narrative of the birth of Noah which probably comes from a lost Noah Apocalypse (Charles, Commentary, 2:278). When Noah is born, he has white skin and hair as red as a rose; his eyes glowed like the sun. As soon as he was born, he spoke to the Lord. Lamech is naturally upset by this odd child and runs to his father Methuselah for advice. Methuselah in turn sends him to Enoch who predicts the flood as a judgment for sin and names the boy Noah. Enoch also predicts Noah will be the remnant for Lamech in the “oppression” to come. These predictions are confirmed because they were written on heavenly tablets (107:1-2).

The final chapter of 1 Enoch is described as “another book of Enoch” which was written for Methuselah (108:1). Enoch tells his son that those who observe the law ought to wait patiently (108:1-3). He describes a vision of an invisible burning cloud which is explained by an angel as the place where sinners go (108:4-7). Those who love God endure, although they suffer in the body, because God will make recompense for what they have suffered (108:8-10). The righteous who endure will eventually see the end of those who are unrighteous (108:11-15).

~ END of 1 ENOCH ~

God's Word Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow

Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)

TELESCOPING

“Telescoping" is the fallacy of projecting our modern ideas back upon ancient texts. Jesus' teachings of radical universal love can be very hard to hear when the modern church projects itself upon his words. We must constantly remind ourselves that, when Jesus spoke of the “word," the Bible was not yet compiled. When he asked people to follow him, there was no institutional church to join. When he asked people to "believe in him,” he was standing right in front of them. There were no creeds yet written, so if we spoke to Jesus about the atonement or the trinity, it is entirely possible that he would have no idea what we are talking about. - Jim Rigby

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In cognitive psychology, the telescoping effect (or telescoping bias) refers to the temporal displacement of an event whereby people perceive recent events as being more remote than they are and distant events as being more recent than they are. The former is known as backward telescoping or time expansion, and the latter as is known as forward telescoping. Three years is approximately the time frame in which events switch from being displaced backwards in time to forwards in time, with events occurring three years in the past being equally likely to be reported with forward telescoping bias as with backward telescoping bias. Although telescoping occurs in both the forward and backward directions, in general the effect is to increase the number of events reported too recently. This net effect in the forward direction is because of forces that impair memory, such as lack of salience, also impair time perception. Telescoping leads to an over reporting of the frequency of events.[3] This over reporting is because participants include events beyond the period, either events that are too recent for the target time period (backward telescoping) or events that are too old for the target time period (forward telescoping). - Wikipedia

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A Timeline of Early to Medieval Alphabets

From my friend Rance Darity comes this gentle reminder what "telescoping" means when post-Jesus institutions interpret Jesus' gospel. What theologians like Sanders, Dunn, and Wright have been reminding us these past 30 years (sic, the New Perspective of Paul directing the church to rediscover the Jewishness of the bible). That to read any of the New Testament, including the "Jewish" gospels, must be read within their own contextual existential communities of Jewishness.

I say existential because by that time the world was bathed in Hellenism and Roman ideology. So even back then the studied Jewish scribe and Pharisee struggled mightily to explain God and their faith as it was encapsulated within a post-Second Temple Reconstructive era (515 BCE) some 450 to 600 years earlier according to their Jewish traditions. Remember too that Pharisaism developed around 135 CE from the more ancient scribal traditions under Ezra and Nehemiah 635 years earlier. That Pharisasm was the ancient precursor to Rabbinic Judaism later established 100 hundred years after Jesus's death which has evolved into the various Jewish Orthodox traditions of today (so it was roughly 500 years in the making if you count the Intertestamental Period between the Old and New Testaments as canonical variants developed within their scribal camps). Overall, these groups were interested in preserving God's Word which they knew as the Tanakh, which was the Jewish canonical collection of Hebrew texts we know as the Old Testament today.

And then into this mix came the Sadducees who were all too willing to mix the Tanakh's Torah teachings with the popular philosophies of their day (a process known as Hellenization) while jettisoning some of the favored Torah teachings of old Judaism from the Hebrew Bible, along with the Prophets (Nevi'im), and Writings (Ketuv'im). In essence then, the Pharisees and their scribes were attempting to honor the old Jewish Scriptures against the incursion of newer non-Jewish ideas and radical redactionism. And yet, having done a yeoman's job in protecting the Bible they were most curiously Jesus's worst enemies who Himself was the living Bible! Talk about your paradoxes, ironies, and riddles!

A Medieval Version of the Septuagint (the Hebrew OT written in Koine Greek
during the 3rd and 2nd BCE era under King Ptolemy)

Then came a competing bible begun under Egpytian King Ptolemy from Alexandria comparable to what King James of England did in the early 1600s later known as the King James Bible. Unlike James the Ptolemy's commissioned the creation of the Septuagint during the 3rd to 2nd Century BCE, and to be written from the old Hebrew Canon (using the Masoretic tradition from the 7th and 10th Centuries BCE) into Koine Greek - which  was the common language everyone spoke and understood throughout Egypt, eastern Africa, and the Middle East. In time, since people could only read Greek, even the Jews of the New Testament era of Jesus' day would prefer the Septuagint over their own Jewish bible. They could read it and understand it and it was this bible which Jesus and His disciples preached out of. Later on this same undertaking was again made when St. Jerome was commissioned  by Pope Damasus I in 382 CE to update the Septuagint into a Latinized Version of the bible known as the Latin(Catholic) Vulgate. Being a wise old man, and contemporary to St. Augustine, Jerome used not only the Septuagint but also the Masoretic text of the Hebrew bible to recapture what may have been lost through the centuries in translation and transmission. Having done this job the Catholic Church of the Roman Empire could distribute its pages to its priests throughout the ancient world that all Latin-speaking people might know and understand God's good news in Christ.

The  Vulgate of Clementine. Prologue of St. John
(the Hebrew OT written in Latin by Jerome c.382 AD)

But if one goes even further back into time before the restored Second Temple era (constructed in 515 BCE to be later destroyed by Rome in 70 CE 585 years later), back into the time of old Israel and Judah themselves, back into the time of the tribes of Israel before they were a kingdom, and even further back into the time of Moses and Abraham, then God's revelation of Himself had changed and synthesized greatly down through these eras. So it was no small task for the scribes of Ezra's day to recapture and attempt to encapsulate Israel's profound history over 1500+ years of oral tradition with the God who loved and led them unto salvation by works of redemption throughout their turbulent eras.

One of Many Interpretive Designs of the Biblical Canon

So that by the first century of the Christian Era (CE) - into this theological soup of parsing, reparsing, and interpretive synthesis - comes Jesus, who speaks the "word" of God come to Israel after so many long years of "divine silence" (...but not really. God was always there bespeaking Himself to His children). But especially into the stage of human travail and mis-allocation of God's words by His children to sharpen-up and re-form the points of discussion of what God had been saying all these many long years since Adam's day. But this time God spoke through Himself (aka Jesus) without interpreter. And He spoke directly into the Jewish society of His children having lost their way in too many words and ideas about divinity, holiness, sin, and the afterlife.

Now this is not unlike the church today whereby we do this same task of the scribe and the Pharisee by attempting to historically discover God's Word and traditions when redacting the Christian Canon into our own era's travails and mis-allocations. And to speak it plainly without losing its way within out extra-biblical influences (unless those influences conform with biblical theology) as the Sadduccees once did. And to contemporize the preaching of God's good news buy placing it in the common language and understanding of our times (English, predominantly). Even as Jesus and His disciples did when reading from the Greek Septuagint rather than from the Jewish text which would have been gibberish to their listeners. Why? Because their audience could read, write, and speak in Koine Greek - even as their Jewish leadres and neighbors did who had long ago forgotten their mother language of Judaism through centuries of war and dissettlement. Again, we see the painstaking guidance and leadership of God to carefully maintain the pith, the center, of His revelation to man. And what is this teaching God wants us to know? Read on...

The many variants of Redaction to Interpreting the Bible
both in its meaning, transmission, adjudication, and relevancy

So then how does one interpret the Bible? And which Bible does one interpret? A Bible that is literal or a Bible that is a living paraphrase? In point of fact the Septuagint was all of this. And then there is the problem of redaction - how does one interpret the Bible we have? And finally there is the problem of examining our own needs-and-wants placed upon both bible and God which may be more scribal and Pharisaical in doing the hard of being faithful to the various traditions of the OT (and now the NT whose essence is distilled in the Gospels of Jesus). But even so, each era must have its "Jesus-like" moments of clarity (and human clarions) which removes man's words from God's words to hear afresh God's call to love and to act in love. That the gospel of God in the OT and the gospel of God in the NT demonstrated through His life and death is no more, nor no less, than to love one another when boiled down to its essence. And when you think about it it really isn't that hard is it? Bible interpretation has much less to do with what we believe, our Creeds and our doctrines, then how our beliefs affect our actions towards others. There's the nub of it. With James, Paul says faith without works is dead, ineffectual, unlively, a dung pile. But with it, each of our dung piles - our compost piles - may become composted gardens of resurrection enriching and nourishing all who look upon God's faithfulness and beauty.

So what is the work of God in our world today? It is no different than His work over the many long centuries of time. It is to renew our fellowship both in Himself and with one another that a spiritual healing might cleanse our benighted lands so full of turmoil and darkness. To repent of our divisive and discriminating inequities and injustices that prevent us from sitting at a table of fellowship with one another. To worry less about being "biblical" and more about being "unrighteous." To seize the days of opportunity we have now that we might build a new society of men and women focusing on the majors, the knowns, the necessaries rather than the minors, the preferentials, and ideologicals. To do the best work as we can like the scribes and Pharisees to preserve as pure a sense of God within our communities but to let go of these efforts if they should miss the simple and sublime beauty that God is love and offers this love of peace and binding to broken hearts everywhere crucified upon the pangs of sin and death.

And lastly, like God's words to Abraham, to Moses, to the prophets and kings of Israel's long history , these words are no different then Jesus and the apostles words to us now. Yes, culturally Gods words must be worked out in all of its existential variations by society, tribe, and geographic region, no less than we must always do when doing the hard work of redacting our understanding of the divine. But as a gentle reminder to us God bespoke His ancient word to ancient peoples again and again and again until finally He spoke them through Himself we know as as our Savior-God Jesus. To show to us who He is, and what it means to be in fellowship with the Creator of life, who redeems His creation from all its hard burdens of freedom gifted from the moment of our birth unto the twilight years of our grave and into the midnight sun of eternity with Him as our Lord, Shepherd, and Friend. Amen and amen.

R.E. Slater

July 9, 2015

A Word of Admonition

To not forget to "gyroscope" in the days of "telescoping."

To remember at all times our bearings, headings, and drift.

- res

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TRANSMISSION OF THE BIBLE -

ITS TREES, HERITAGE, ARRANGEMENT, OUTLINE

* * * * * * * * * *

A Timeline of Textual Transmissions

Textual Transmission of the Hebrew Canon

Textual Transmission of the Jewish Old Testament

Textual Transmission of the Christian New Testament

OT Canonical Arrangement

Comparison Timeline of OT Eras to one another

Comparison Outline of NT Canonical Arrangement to one another

Lessons from the Book of Joel

Lessons from the Book of Joel

by R.E. Slater

June 30, 2016

Introduction

Over the past month or more I have been introducing myself and my readers to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha through external abstracts and Phillip Long's commentaries. Throughout the entirety of Long's review of 1 Enoch has come the realization of how closely (but not without exaggeration) this book follows the apocalyptic literature within the Old Testament (sic, Genesis, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, perhaps Joel, etc). So if the supposition is true that the writer of 1 Enoch wrote after the establishment of the OT apocalyptic literature (sometime during, or after, the Maccabbean war in the Intertestamental period) than it may also be true that there is a remarkable similarity between 1 Enoch's summary writings (of creation, of mankind's (and the angel's) spiritual history, and of the end times to come) to the apocalyptic books later to be written and included by the church into the NT (parts of the Synoptics, Paul, Peter, Revelation, for example). As such, the storytelling author of 1 Enoch borrowed liberally from the OT literature even as the NT writers borrowed liberally both from the OT literature and outside sources such as the book of 1 Enoch.

But why?

Because not only was 1 Enoch a very popular book during the pre-NT era but its imagery was vivid enough to be encapsulated and moved forward by the perceptive NT writers who were part of a growing new movement known as the first century church. More simply, popular cultural ideas were synthesized and then utilized to explain the Jesus-event within a time of turbulent societal evolution. In essence, though 1 Enoch was not a canonized OT book it related the main presumptions of the Jewish people so very well in its mythologized and very creative storytelling as to provide fertile imagery for Jesus and His apostles to tell of God's salvation to man and the coming judgment upon all those who would refuse obedience and submission to the rule of God.

Now I have been spending not a little bit of time over the past several years in examining the kind of judgment God will execute upon a sinful world. Some of this has been mentioned before when dealing with the several topics of hell, salvation, or God's character. Nevertheless, the bible itself, along with much of the literature written by mankind since time immemorial has dealt with the consequences of living in sin, the retribution that comes with causing willful oppression upon others, or ignoring the wisdoms and moralities of common life observances by a society. As such, the burden of public opinion leans in the direction that if there is a judgment for sin it will always be executed - if not in this life than in the life to come. For myself, I would prefer this judgment to be as a result of living in sin and ignoring the commands of God to live a godly, righteous life. This, as opposed to accusing God of purposely casting sinners into a tortuous hell to pay restitution for an innumerable eternity. It seems more natural to place the burden upon the willfully sinful person than upon a holy, righteous God who warns us out of love that He is incapable to spare us from sin's experience/power/seal/death should we ignore His solution of salvation through His Son and the fellowship of His holy community found in His people.

Again, this is a personal opinion. I am not denying a judgment-to-come but what I am refusing to accept is placing the cause of this judgment solely upon God alone. Yes, in some sense God is seen as Judge and Ruler of this world and His creation. We have investigated what these subjects might mean under the topics of divine sovereignty: whether God's sovereignty is beneficial (vs. harming); partnering (vs. controlling); at all times loving and good (vs. a wrathful love and duplicious goodness); and so forth. These topics would fall under the headings of Arminianism vs. Calvinism which I'll mention in my next article in a short review of Roger Olson's book, Against Calvinism.

Now back to our conversation. What does this all mean? Why this long introduction to the book of Joel? Well, let's continue on....

The Book of Joel as Apocalyptic Literature of a Future Eschaton

How then do we interpret the Book of Joel? Does it predict a divine future full of wrath and judgement? Or does it depict a Jewish congregation's (if not the suffering world's) hope for divine retribution? If it is prophetic, than the work of God in this world has lost - all God's efforts have failed to redeem, to bring shalom into His creation, except by divine force. If prescriptive (sic, dogmatic/creedal), than Israel (or Judah, or its remaining exilic remnants) had given up in witnessing to their neighbors of their glorious God and are found waiting for the coming judgment of the "Day of the Lord" to consume mankind in a great flood of apocalyptic revenge. This position would likewise make of God's divine rule one that was ineffectual, incompetent, or both, so that again, God has lost His battle with evil and must end its reign by force rather than by the Cross. And if not by the Cross, then in essence, the Cross is made weak and loses too.

How then are these two approaches to the book of Joel any different in today's churches which wait for divine judgment while praying for its imminence? When Jesus and the Apostles used the book of Joel they likewise spoke of an end time apocalyptic as remarkable for its fearful warnings as for its pleas to repent. More significantly, in their pleas for repentance each servant of the Lord - whether Jesus or the apostles - became consumed with a missional fire which unleashed God's Holy Spirit power of redemption upon a sin-torn world. They were not found sitting around commiserating on the woes of the world and praying for God's imminent return. No. They were busy praying for God's mighty work of salvation to be declared amongst the habitations of mankind and that He would delay His return just long enough until every last sinner had escaped into the ark of atonement which Jesus had provided through His death and resurrection.

So then, let us ask again, "How are we to interpret the Book of Joel?" If whether prophetically or descriptively of God's people who are scattered across this wicked world as his surviving remnant then two things must stand out:

One, the church must repent of its wickedness and do what its founders did... take up a missional fire which preaches God's word and become active in humanitarian enterprise dispensing grace, hope and healing. And secondly, to not isolate itself from the world so that the church loses its saltiness. But rather, to become deeply involved in the world in ways that will redeem the world and bring to it God's peace and love, care and nurture. The question then is not whether God is coming again, whether He judges of not, or whether sin will have its day upon the rails of God's throne. Nay. The question is whether we as believers and followers of Christ have given up and are simply waiting for God's judgment to fall upon sinful mankind to prove us right and everyone else wrong.

But hadn't this attitude of exasperation and failure been demonstrated before?

If so, then by whom?

Remember the story of Jonah and the whale? Yup, you got it. Jonah was sent by God to the wicked Ninevehites (Assyria) with a message of fearful repentance. Though he was glad to announce God's coming destruction upon their heads he actually first ran away from God's call to duty by shipping in the opposite direction across the Mediterranean Sea. At the last, upon being belched up upon the shore Jonah resigned himself to God's call and attended to his duty which was fearfully received by the Ninevehites when beholding the bleached white oracle of God spitefully pronouncing judgment throughout the plush and luxurious city walls. The people, in response, repented immediately and fell for a time under God's sparing grace. But the story doesn't end there because the last half of Jonah's tale tells of his sulking petulance over having not witnessed God's ruinous judgment fall upon the detested Assyrians. So there he sat upon an unshaded hill for a long time as God ministered to his hard heart even to the point of providing an unwanted plant for shade so angry was Jonah with God's lack of judgment. And I'm afraid today's church is no less kind to this sinful world when despairing of God's rule and falling into a stupor of rage and anger when praying for God's coming wrath.

The point? Let not God's church do this wicked thing. But let His people relent of their posture of doom-and-gloom and disinvolvent in the world but seek to reconcile the world with God in every possible way. But not simply through gospel preaching but also through humanitarian ministries giving shape and meaning to the words of Jesus vouchsafing redemptive reconciliation. Why? Because as any good parent, coach, teacher, or director will tell you - you can preach to the troops all you want but until-and-unless you become personally involved with the lives of those you wish to affect words have very little power. Preach? Yes. But not to the exclusion of working. And if  wishing to preaching then first work. Let your good works preach a better sermon for you than mere words can. And what about our broken hearts yearning for God's rule and reign? Do you not suppose that in working with those we detest, or think of as sinful, or even as our enemy, we will discover how wrong we have been in our judgments? Relational ministries will do a world of good in re-righting the discriminating, or hateful, impulses of our own sinful hearts. The result? If Jesus Christ is in our ministries than the work of God through His Holy Spirit will bespeak release from sin's bondage for both parties; a greater freedom to live pleasingly for Christ; and the tasty fruits of hope, healing, and a new fellowship of community with those the church once considered condemnable. This is the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

Thus the book of Joel is to be a motivator to Christian action regardless of its prophetic content or its dialectical meaning for a congregation stuck on the perpetual wheel of waiting for divine revenge. An action that cannot come unless God's people become active in this world by sharing God's love which offers hope and healing to all who seek Him. If we believe in the power of God, and in the Cross, and in the power of the Holy Spirit which accompanies God's stunning atonement than let us not weaken it by giving up. Or praying its early end. Or by isolating ourselves by discriminating dogmas and confessions. Or by resorting to heavy-handed force to "make" disbelievers submit. We must be a people who must love and accept and help all whom we might normally not love, accept, or help. Let us not do the work of the devil but learn to do the work of God. This is true revival meted upon judgment, repentance, and restoration.

Peace, 

R.E. Slater

NT Notes to the Book of Joel

The Book of Joel is referred or alluded to numerous times in the New Testament. A few notable (but not exhaustive) examples:

*The Apostle Peter quotes “the prophet Joel” directly in Acts 2:16-21.

*The Lord Jesus refers to Joel 2:10, “the sun and the moon [will] grow dark and the starts lose their brightness” before the Day of the Lord, when He describes the signs of the last days in Matthew 24:29.

*The Apostle Paul cites Joel 2:32, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved,” in Romans 10:13.

*The Apostle John alludes to Joel 2:10 when he describes events of the Tribulation in Revelation 8:12

The Apostle John alludes to the Book of Joel and language of the locust invasion in Revelation chapter 9.

Phillip J. Long - Discussion of 1 Enoch, Part 6

The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries – 1 Enoch 72-82

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/17/the-book-of-the-heavenly-luminaries-1-enoch-72-82/

by Phillip J. Long

June 17, 2016

This section is a lengthy discourse on celestial bodies with the goal of calculating the length of a year correctly.

• Chapter 72 – The Sun
• Chapter 73 – The Moon
• Chapter 74 – Systems of Rotation
• Chapter 75 – The Stars and Their Positions
• Chapter 76 – The Twelve Winds
• Chapter 77 – Four Directions, Seven Mountains, Seven Rivers
• Chapter 78 – Names for the Phases of the Sun and Moon
• Chapter 79 – Conclusions on the Seasons
• Chapter 80 – Parallels Between Sinners and Seasons

In Chapter 81 Enoch is told to read from the “tablets of heaven” and to report this reading to his son Methuselah. These books seem to contain all that will happen to all the flesh of the earth, although this “determinism” is based on astrological prediction. Enoch passes this knowledge onto his son in chapter 82. There is a clear statement in 82:4-6 that the true astronomical year ought to be 364 days. The computations which Enoch learned are true because they were communicated to him by the angel Uriel himself.

This section of 1 Enoch is quite esoteric and seems more or less unrelated to the study of the New Testament. John Collins observes the point of this section is to “prevent sin by calendrical error . . . right observance is determined by an understanding of the heavenly world” (Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, 62). The major issue at the heart of this section of 1 Enoch is the length of the year. Everything in the unit serves as a proof for a 364-day calendar rather than a 360-day calendar.

While an arcane and difficult topic for the modern reader, the issue was of critical importance in the first century since it has ramifications for proper worship. The problem of the calendar is therefore important for the New Testament studies as well as Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship because of the dating of Passover. If one holds Passover according to the wrong calendar, does it count? Is it a sin to celebrate Passover on the wrong date? The Qumran community thought keeping the wrong date to be sinful and condemned the priestly aristocracy for using a 360-day calendar, while the Qumran community used a 364-day calendar. That 1 Enoch supports a 364-day calendar may account for the popularity of the book at Qumran.

I need to make another important observation about this calendar. There is nothing special about the calendar in 1 Enoch (or at Qumran for that matter)! It is simply a solar calendar. It is not “God’s Calendar” nor is it an apocalyptic roadmap for the future.

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The Dream Visions – 1 Enoch 82-83

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/21/the-dream-visions-1-enoch-82-83/

by Phillip J. Long

June 21, 2016

1 Enoch 83-90 is a new section since there is a break from the astronomical speculations of the previous section, although it is related to chapter 82 as a continuation of Enoch’s dialogue with Methuselah (83:1). These two chapters serve as an introduction to the Animal Apocalypse, a slightly veiled allegory of history up to the Maccabean period.

Enoch received these visions before he was married and still living with his grandfather, Mahalalel (Gen 5:12-17). After Enoch receives a vision the coming flood (83:2b-2), he relates his dream to his grandfather Mahalalel. This is Enoch’s first vision, and like Samuel and Eli (1 Sam 3), Enoch requires guidance from his grandfather to understand the vision.

Within the world of the story, the vision refers to the coming flood. But the description goes beyond Genesis 7 to convey “a picture of cosmic collapse and annihilation” (Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch, 349). As is typical in the Enoch literature, the imagery of the flood is conflated with the ultimate judgment of God.

1 Enoch 83:3-4 I saw in a vision the sky being hurled down and snatched and falling upon the earth. When it fell upon the earth, I saw the earth being swallowed up into the great abyss, the mountains being suspended upon mountains, the hills sinking down upon the hills, and tall trees being uprooted and thrown and sinking into the deep abyss. (OTP 1:61)

Mahalalel explains that sin is so great the earth must “sink into the abyss” (primordial chaos), but there is a possibility God would allow a remnant to remain on the earth. He therefore counsels Enoch to pray for the earth (83:6-9), which he does (83:10-11, 84:1-6). Enoch first praises God and acknowledges his greatness (83:2-4). These two verses resonate with many texts in the Hebrew Bible, although it is remarkably similar to Daniel 2:37-38 (describing Nebuchadnezzar) and 7:14 (describing the rule of the Son of Man), but also Isaiah 66:1-2 (heavens as God’s throne, the earth as his footstool).

1 Enoch 84:2 Blessed are you, O Great King, you are mighty in your greatness, O Lord of all the creation of heaven, King of kings and God of the whole world. Your authority and kingdom abide forever and ever; and your dominion throughout all the generations of generations; All the heavens are your throne forever, and the whole earth is your footstool forever and ever and ever.

Enoch’s request on behalf of the present generation. Even if the angels must come under judgment, Enoch prays that God would allow a remnant of humans survive the devastation. He asks God to raise up the righteous and true flesh “as a seed-bearing plant” (84:6). Within the world of the story, this obviously refers to the world after the flood and the family of Noah as a righteous family to repopulate the world: 1 Enoch 10:3; 65:12; 67:3 each describe Noah as a preserved seed.

But the image of a plant which survives the coming judgment resonates with description of the righteous remnant in Isaiah 6:13. At the time 1 Enoch 83-84 was written, the final judgment is still in the future. The prayer is that God will once again preserve the righteous remnant in that coming apocalyptic judgment.

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The Animal Apocalypse, Part 1 – 1 Enoch 85-90

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/22/the-animal-apocalypse-part-1-1-enoch-85-90/

by Phillip J. Long

June 22, 2016

The Animal Apocalypse is one of the most remarkable sections of 1 Enoch. As Daniel Olson says, the Animal Apocalypse “an original theological interpretation of human history.” Olson argues in his recent dissertation this allegory was written early in the Maccabean period as propaganda to support Judas’s actions. Olson dates the section precisely: it was “probably written about 165 BCE and then updated in mid- 161, following the battle of Adasa in March (1 Macc 7:39-50; 2 Macc 15:15-17).” Nickelsburg places 1 Enoch 90:9b-10, 12-16 in italics as a possible interpolation made around 163-161 B.C. The allegory therefore presents a history up to a point in Maccabean Revolt, but the intervention of the Lord of the sheep did not occur in history, nor does the judgment described in 90:20-27 reflect a historical event in the Maccabean period. Similar to Daniel 11, the history is only accurate up to the point when the author begins to speculate about a future intervention by God to restore Israel.

The story begins and ends with Eden. Enoch sees a white bull and a heifer (Adam and Eve) to whom two bulls were born, one black and the other red. The black bull gored the red one, killing it (Cain and Abel). The heifer came after the black bull but the first white bull quiets her and she gives him another white bull (Seth), along with many other bulls and black cows. The third bull (Seth) is white, a reference to the purity of the line of Seth.

Beginning with chapter 86, the Apocalypse offers a history of the pre-flood world. The stars mingle with the cows in the following chapter, giving birth to elephants, camels and donkeys. The cattle become frightened and they begin to bite and gore one another, referring to the fallen angels (Genesis 6; 1 Enoch 6-11). In 1 Enoch 87 a snow-white person comes down from heaven and rescues Enoch out of the chaos and tells him to watch the elephants and other animals. Four heavenly beings seize the fallen stars in chapter 88 and place them in the Abyss, bound hand and foot.

In the earliest part of the vision the identifications are obvious and straightforward, but as the allegory becomes more detailed there is more difficulty determining what the original writer had in mind. The basis for much of the imagery of the animal apocalypse seems to be Ezekiel 34 (sheep and shepherds) as well as the frequent imagery in the Psalms of Israel as the sheep of God’s pasture (95:6-7, for example). 1 Enoch 89:2-9 refers to the Flood. One of the four angels teaches the white bovine how to build an ark and this bovine becomes a man and builds it. The rising waters destroy all the animals, the ark lands and a man and three cows exit the ark.

The rest of Genesis and slavery in Egypt is summarized by 89:10-27. Israel are represented by sheep who are surrounded by wolves and rescued by the Lord of the Sheep (Israel in Egypt and the Exodus). This dazzling Lord leads the sheep out of a swamp and into the desert. In the desert the Lord begins to open the eyes of the sheep (89:28-38). One of the sheep leads the nation becomes a man and is taken up into heaven, a clear reference to Moses (v. 36).

The sheep are then led across a stream (the Jordan) into “a good place,” a “pleasant and glorious land” (89:39). In 89:39-50, the sheep settle in the land. When the sheep become dim-sighted another sheep is appointed to lead them, and their eyes open again (the “Judges cycle”). The sheep are oppressed by a variety of animals (Gentiles). The kings of Israel are rams, Solomon himself is a “little ram” who built a house for the Lord of the Sheep (89:50).

After passing over the Davidic kingdom briefly, 89:51-67 offers significant detail for the divided Kingdom after Solomon. In verse 59 seventy shepherds are summoned and commanded to watch over the sheep. These shepherds are held responsible for what the sheep do, implying these are the seventy elders or priesthood of Israel (Exod 24:1, Ezek 8:11, 1 Enoch 34:1-31). R. H. Charles called the identity of the seventy “the most vexed question in Enoch” (Charles,Commentary, 2:255). He suggested the seventy were angels since they received their orders from God; humans would have been represented as animals in this context. Charles overlooks the fact some of the characters in the story were humans (Noah, for example, was a bovine who became human when given the commission to build the ark) and he seems to ignore the fact these seventy are judged for their mismanagement of the sheep, as were the elders of Israel.

The exile is briefly narrated in 89:68-72. The sheep are delivered to oppressors and many are killed. A writer records in a book how many have perished. This book was read aloud to the Lord of the Sheep and then sealed. Verse 72 is probably the return from exile and the rebuilding of the city and temple under Ezra and Nehemiah. In 89:73-77 the city and temple are rebuilt, but the sheep are weak and poor-sighted (the post-exilic community in Judah).

The first section of the Animal Apocalypse closely follows the story of the Hebrew Bible from Eden through the exile, although it is remarkable how little is said about David and Solomon. Taken as a propaganda piece for Judas and the future Hasmoneans, the first part of the Animal Apocalypse is more interested in presenting Judas as a legitimate successor to other leaders who were empowered by the Lord of Sheep to lead the people out of slavery and into the glorious land (Moses, Joshua).

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The Animal Apocalypse, Part 2 – 1 Enoch 85-90

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/23/the-animal-apocalypse-part-2-1-enoch-85-90/
by Phillip J. Long

June 23, 2016

The next period of history (1 Enoch 90:1-5) from 426/416 to 265/255 B.C. (Nickelsburg, 395). Thirty-seven shepherds pasture the sheep, then twenty-three shepherds pasture the sheep, fifty-eight seasons total (rather than seventy, as expected). The number could be thirty-five (OTP 1:69 note b, following Charles). If so, then the numbers break down to 12+23+23 = 58. This section seems to track the history between the return from exile and the Maccabean period, although it is very difficult to know what to make of the “fifty-eight seasons” other than a general description of the various Ptolemy and Seleucid kings which fought over Palestine.

Like Daniel 11, the apocalypse grows more detailed in the Maccabean period (90:6-12). A “great horn” grows on one of the lambs and rallies the sheep against the oppressors, likely Judas Maccabees. In 90:13-19 the sheep (Israel) battles the beasts (Gentiles in general, Seleucid in particular). The Lord of the Sheep intervenes in wrath; he strikes the ground with his rod and a great sword is given to the sheep to kill the beasts of the earth. This could refer to the victory of the Maccabean Revolt. If so, it is highly exaggerated. If the Lord of the Sheep is God or a messianic figure, then he did not directly intervene in the revolution against Antiochus IV Epiphanies. Verse 19 is the key: “a great sword was given to the sheep.” This divine passive indicates a human agent was given permission by God to successfully make way against the Gentiles (cf. Rev 6:4).

In 90:20-27 the apocalypse now shifts the future as a great throne is set up in the pleasant land (Israel). We are told only that “he sat upon it,” with the implication that the Lord of the Sheep who struck the earth with his rod is the subject. The Lord begins the judgment of the sheep and their shepherds (Ezekiel 34:1-10, the Lord will judge the shepherd of Israel.) In verse 20 the books are opened and seven shepherds are punished for killing more sheep that they were ordered to (verse 22). Perhaps this refers to the various nations who have oppressed Israel: Assyrian, Babylon, Persia, Ptolemys, Seleucids, etc. In Nahum, for example, Assyria is not judged for their role in the destruction of Samaria since this was ordained by the Lord, but rather for going far beyond the decreed destruction by killing and torturing more victims than necessary. The same theme may be found in Obadiah, concerning Edomite atrocities in 586 B.C. These are cast into the fiery abyss (verse 24), the seventy shepherds are found guilty as well and cast into the abyss to the right of the house (verse 26, presumably Gehenna, to the east of the Temple.)

The Lord of the Sheep renovates the old house (the Temple, or the city of Jerusalem) into a new, greater house (90:28-36). The old Temple is torn apart and replaced with a more beautiful building and ornaments, recalling Ezekiel 40-48. As Nickelsburg points out, traditions about a New Jerusalem are widespread in Second Temple Judaism, including Revelation 21:1-4.

1 Enoch is certainly part of these traditions. The vision cannot refer to the early second temple, which was not at all a beautiful building. This is a prophecy of a restored Solomonic temple or perhaps a reference to the Herodian renovations. It would seem odd, however, for the Herodian temple to be praised so highly. The sheep are white and their wool is “thick and pure” (90:32) and their eyes are opened to see good things. For the first time there is “none among them who do not see” (90:35). All of the sheep which survived and all of the other animals worship the sheep. This may refer to a mass gentile conversion after Israel is established in the land (Charles, 2:258, cf. Isa 14:2; 66:12, 19-21).

Finally, in 90:37-38 a new snow-white bull is born with huge horns. All the sheep and animals of the world fear this new bull. He began to transform all the animals into snow white cows, not stopping until they are all transformed. Although the vision did not focus on David, Nickelsburg “the presence of such a messianic figure here should not be surprising” (1 Enoch, 406). In fact, this ideal shepherd may be drawn from Ezekiel 34. There a new, good shepherd appears in the future, replacing the bad shepherds who had failed to care for God’s sheep.
One problem is that the messianic figure in this section is not a sheep (live David and Solomon), but rather a bull. This figure is a new Adam or Seth, the last characters in the apocalypse to be described as bulls. A “new Adam” soteriology ought to sound familiar to Christian readers. As Nickelsburg says, “The closest analogy is in the two-Adams theology of the apostle Paul (Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch, 407). Even if the reference is to Seth, then this bull is a “son of Adam,” or “son of man.” What is remarkable is that all the animals are transformed into snow-white cattle. This is an unexpected universalism: in the eschatological age, the nations will “convert” and worship the God of Israel.

Enoch awakes from his vision and rejoices in the Lord (90:39-42) and weeps greatly because of the vision which he has seen.

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Introduction to the Epistle of Enoch – 1 Enoch 91-92

https://readingacts.com/2016/06/27/introduction-to-the-epistle-of-enoch-1-enoch-91-92/

by Phillip J. Long

June 27, 2016

This last section of 1 Enoch contains wisdom-like literature which condemns various sinners. The section also contains a “testament” in which Enoch urges his grandchildren to live a moral lifestyle. Included as chapter 93 is an apocalyptic section commonly known as the Apocalypse of Weeks. Both chapter 91 and 92 have superscription in some manuscripts indicating the beginning of the fifth book, therefore chapter 91 may be a conclusion to the dream visions of the previous section. Nickelsburg calls chapter 91 a “narrative bridge” concluding the Dream Visions.

Like Jacob in Genesis 49, Enoch gathers his children to listen to his word (91:1-4, 19) and describes to them the increase of violence in the world which will result in great plagues and finally in judgment (91:5-11). In this judgment all sinners and blasphemers will be cut off. Chapter 91:12-17 seem misplaced since they describe the eighth and ninth weeks; the Apocalypse of Weeks in chapter 93 cuts off after the seventh week. Charles re-arranges the text so that the Apocalypse of Weeks is in order, OTP leaves the text out of order without comment. This is confirmed by Aramaic fragments from Qumran discovered since Charles published (Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, Second Edition, 62).

Chapter 92 also forms an introduction to this final section (verse one). Enoch tells his readers they ought not to be troubled by difficult times, the Holy and Great One has declared “specific days for all things (92:2). The Righteous One will wake from his sleep, and walk in righteousness forever. God himself will give the Righteous One eternal uprightness and authority to judge. The righteous will “walk in eternal light,” while the “sin and darkness will perish forever” will never be seen again.

This short chapter seems to speak of a messianic age, assuming the phrase “Righteous One” ought to be taken as the same as in the book of Similitudes (Righteous One, Elect One, “that son of man,” etc.). There will come an individual who will establish God’s rule on earth and judge fairly between the righteous and the sinner.