Apocalyptic Literature: On 1 Enoch

The following notes are representative of what we studied this past week for my Apocalyptic Literature class with Dr. Andrei Orlov.

TEXT: 1 Enoch 1-36 = Book of the Watchers. Esp. chs. 14-15 – Enoch’s vision of the Heavenly Temple• Genesis 5-6 (in Hebrew). (You should probably look at these passages first for this post to make sense.)

Readings:
• Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Charlesworth, 1 Enoch 1:5-89.
• The Apocalyptic Imagination, John J. Collins, ch. 2
• M. Himmelfarb, “From Ezekiel to the Book of the Watchers,” in: Ascent to Heaven, 9-28

Additional Readings: A. Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition, chapters 1-2.

Paradise Lost by Gustave Dore

Comparing 1 Enoch 6-7 to Genesis 5-6

In class, Dr. Orlov had us look at the similarities between 1 (Ethiopic) Enoch 6-7 and Genesis 5-6 (see links above–the Enoch link uses R.H. Charles’ translation, which I don’t think is as good as the translation in Charlesworth).  They are presenting the same basic story, but Enoch has many more details. Gabriele Boccaccini (of Univ. of Michigan) believes Gen 6 is an abbreviated version of the more ancient Enoch/Watchers tradition–the author/compiler of Genesis is acknowledging the known story for his audience.

Gen 5-6 is quite faithful to the Enochic story. Did Genesis provoke this tradition, or was it borrowing from an older tradition? Perhaps both Gen and Enoch are based on an older tradition (I favor this theory).

We looked at Gen 5-6 in Hebrew. Where our English translation has God, the Hebrew text alternates between the term elohim and ha-elohim (the definite article). So what we should have is God and the God–or, more likely–God and the gods (or divine beings or angels).  In the Dead Sea Scrolls, ha-elohim seems to refer to angels.

When it says “elohim” without the article “ha”, it is referring to God (according to James VanderKam–Enoch: A Man for All Generations)  We see ha-elohim (angels) and Elohim in the same verse (5:24). This is not a mistake–this is a deliberate differentiation.  This alternating between the two terms goes on throughout the whole story.

Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. 

p `~yhi(l{a/ Atßao xq:ïl’-yKi( WNn<¨yaew> ~yhi_l{a/h’*-ta, %Anàx] %Leîh;t.YIw:

In the first instance of “God” in this verse, the Hebrew has “ha-elohim”. The second instance, it is simply “elohim”. Why the difference? According to VanderKam, the verse should say: 

And Enoch walked with the angels (watchers); and he was not, for God took him.

This is what we see in 1 Enoch. Before Enoch is taken up into heaven, he is already in frequent contact with the angels. Going back to Gen 5:22–Enoch walked with the ha-elohim (angels, not God).  In verses 22 and 24–Enoch walked–the Hebrew verb is halach.  Dr. Orlov suggested that this can be translated as “he went to and fro, back and forth”. He was making repeated trips. Going back and forth on behalf of the angels. 

 So verse 24 is appears to be summarizing the story in 1 Enoch where Enoch is going back and forth on behalf of angels– God took him up into heaven and he intercedes on behalf of the Watchers.

Gen 6:11–Instead of stating that the Earth was corrupt in the face of God (liphnei ha-elohim), it makes more sense to say: the Earth was corrupt in the presence of the angels. This fits the Enochic story that the angels came to the Earth and it was corrupted by their presence.

A personal note: I believe that the preceding points are good evidence that if Genesis is not paraphrasing from an older Enochic tradition, then at least both of them are borrowing from a related older tradition. Does that mean, then, that we should incorporate the story of Semihaza, Azazel, and the other Watchers coming down to Earth and marrying human women–giving birth to giants–into our belief system? Should we accept it as reality or as “gospel truth”? Not necessarily.

It is interesting to note that some early Christians (as can be seen by early texts such as The Cave of Treasures and the Armenian Adam and Eve accounts) believed that the “sons of God” referred to in Genesis were the sons of Seth, the righteous son of Adam. The sons of Seth are referred to as the sons of God and even “angels.” So, when the story speaks of the sons of God coming down to marry the daughters of men, some Christians believed that it was the sons of Seth coming down from their land (which was on the mountain of God just below Eden), breaking their covenants, and mingling with the daughters of Cain. Could this be the correct understanding of what is happening in Gen. 5-6? Or were the early Christians just mixing the Genesis and Enochic accounts? It is hard to know. However, I tend to like this version of the story.

Furthermore, Dr. Orlov suggested that the Enoch story that we have may have been a Second Temple embellishment of an older tradition, aimed at creating polemics against the Zadokite priests of the second temple, whom the Enochic writers saw as corrupt. When the story speaks of angels descending from heaven to marry the daughters of men, it may simply be a metaphor for the corrupt temple priests marrying foreign women outside the covenant. This is a theory put forward by some scholars, including David W. Suter in Tradition and Composition in the Parables of Enoch.  So, while the Enochic tradition and the story of the Watchers is something to take seriously and something we must deal with, it is possible that the story that we have in 1 (Ethiopic) Enoch is not the original tradition.

Further Items of Interest in 1 Enoch 1-36 (The Book of the Watchers)

While you can read the whole story on your own (following the link above), I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post here one of the most exciting parts of the Enoch story–his ascension into heaven and vision of God on His throne in the heavenly temple. This takes place beginning in ch. 14:8:

And the vision was shown to me thus: Behold, in the vision clouds invited me and a mist summoned me, and the course of the stars and the lightnings sped and hastened me, and the winds in the vision caused me to fly and lifted me upward, and bore me into heaven. And I went in till I drew nigh to a wall which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire: and it began to affright me. And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals: and the walls of the house were like a tesselated floor (made) of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal. Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their heaven was (clear as) water. A flaming fire surrounded the walls, and its portals blazed with fire. And I entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice: there were no delights of life therein: fear covered me, and trembling got hold upon me. And as I quaked and trembled, I fell upon my face. And I beheld a vision, And lo! there was a second house, greater than the former, and the entire portal stood open before me, and it was built of flames of fire. And in every respect it so excelled in splendour and magnificence and extent that I cannot describe to you its splendour and its extent. And its floor was of fire, and above it were lightnings and the path of the stars, and its ceiling also was flaming fire. And I looked and saw therein a lofty throne: its appearance was as crystal, and the wheels thereof as the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim. And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. And the Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him. The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh Him: ten thousand times ten thousand (stood) before Him, yet He needed no counselor. And the most holy ones who were nigh to Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him. And until then I had been prostrate on my face, trembling: and the Lord called me with His own mouth, and said to me: ‘ Come hither, Enoch, and hear my word (the translation in Charlesworth has “Come near to me, Enoch, and to my holy Word”).’ And one of the holy ones came to me and waked me (Charlesworth: “lifted me up”), and He made me rise up and approach the door: and I bowed my face downwards.

This chapter is great in that it presents to us a vision of heaven, and the heavenly temple in particular. The heavenly temple is divided into three sections–a courtyard, delineated by a wall of crystal and tongues of fire; a more glorious first house, or hall, with crystal and fire, and the heavens and cherubim depicted on the ceiling; and an inner house, more glorious than Enoch can describe, with fire on both floor and ceiling. In this inner sanctuary, Enoch sees the throne of God (which is described with expressions similar to the merkavah chariot throne in Ezekiel) and an anthropomorphic God sitting on the throne. He is granted the great privilege, despite his fear, of remaining in God’s presence and speaking with Him.

Also, there is a neat explanation of the Tree of Life in chapters 24 and 25:

…And fragrant trees encircled the throne. And amongst them was a tree such as I had never yet smelt, neither was any amongst them nor were others like it: it had a fragrance beyond all fragrance, and its leaves and blooms and wood wither not for ever: 5 and its fruit is beautiful, and its fruit n resembles the dates of a palm. Then I said: ‘How beautiful is this tree, and fragrant, and its leaves are fair, and its blooms very delightful in appearance.’ 6 Then answered Michael, one of the holy and honoured angels who was with me, and was their leader. 25:1 And he said unto me: ‘Enoch, why dost thou ask me regarding the fragrance of the tree, 2 and why dost thou wish to learn the truth?’ Then I answered him saying: ‘I wish to 3 know about everything, but especially about this tree.’ And he answered saying: ‘This high mountain which thou hast seen, whose summit is like the throne of God, is His throne, where the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit, when He shall come down to visit 4 the earth with goodness. And as for this fragrant tree no mortal is permitted to touch it till the great judgement, when He shall take vengeance on all and bring (everything) to its consummation 5 for ever. It shall then be given to the righteous and holy. Its fruit shall be for food to the elect: it shall be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King.

 Another interesting line is in ch. 17:

And they took and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, and, when they wished, they appeared as men.

This is indicating that the glorious, luminous angels can sometimes hide their glory and appear as normal human beings. Joseph Smith had similar things to say about divine beings being able to, or having to, hide the fullness of their brilliant glory so that mortals could look at them. Another interesting observation here is the belief, in the Enochic literature, in the capacity that both angels and humans have to traverse between the heavenly and earthly realms. This is a motif that does not generally appear in the Old Testament. Angels come down from heaven, but mortals do not ascend there. 

Other Random Notes:

Sacred Time

Enochic time is reckoned according to the solar calendar–Judah (after the Exile) went to the lunar calendar. Enochic literature advocated solar calendar as more authentic–Qumran calendar was also solar. This is important to them for the dating of sacred time. One of the reasons that the Enochic Jews saw the Zadokite priests as corrupt was because they changed the times and the seasons and sacred feasts. The lunar calendar was adopted by the rabbis–this serves to screw up the calendars/histories we have of the Jews.

Hell (and what we know of ancient traditions)

How much of our Christian idea of Hell comes from 1 Enoch (particularly ch. 21)? Hell is a place of separation, particularly for the Devil and/or rebellious angels. The discussion came up: Does the OT teach that there is no immortality of spirit, as many scholars suggest? Is Sheol/Hades not the place of awaiting for spirits? This is a difficult question. The OT does not speak much of spirits or the state of spirits in the afterlife. However, the Egyptians certainly believed in an afterlife. Isn’t there a cult of ancestors/afterlife in ancient Israel? Is it possible that a cult of the afterlife was suppressed by the rising trend of monotheism? A monotheistic God does not have room for the veneration of dead ancestors.  There are likely many traditions/beliefs that were suppressed by biased editors.

Dr. Orlov suggested that we cannot know all that the ancients believed. He mentioned the Jewish tradition that Moses received two Torahs–the white and the black.  What we have in our Torah is the Black Torah, but Moses also received the White Torah–which is only read in the spaces around the words in the Torah–this is the Oral Torah. It was not allowed to be fixed/written–only passed down by word of mouth. There were many traditions that were not written down. Mishnah was supposed to be oral Torah written down (many oral traditions most certainly lost).

4 Ezra–God says give 22 books to everyone, worthy and unworthy, but give 70 books to the wise and understanding. The 70 books are the oral Torah (what we call pseudepigrapha–Orlov’s comment). The 70 books are the higher knowledge. We need to read Bible with the spectacles of the hidden books.

“Let there be light” is a reference to the creation of the luminous anthropos–spiritual man of light–the word in Genesis (LXX, I think) could be translated as light or man.

Often in these traditions, the hero inherits attributes of anti-hero–In apocalyptic literature, the Son of Man often wears a golden sash– which can be an allusion to the golden serpent that was defeated in beginning.  When Satan is expulsed from heaven, Adam gains the luminous glory/position previously held by Satan. The Watchers fall from heaven, so Enoch is invited to heaven to take their place in the heavenly priesthood. There are always positive and negative protagonists–Cain and Abel, Lucifer and Son of Man, Michael and the Dragon. While the angels have a heavenly priesthood, Satan has an evil priesthood (this last note paraphrased from a personal comment to me from Orlov).

I hope you have been able to gain something of interest from these notes. Again, I apologize for their sketchy and abbreviated nature. I am being presented with so much information in these classes that I struggle to pass the notes into something readable for this blog. Please bear with me as we continue on this quest for light and understanding–through the happy medium of the Department of Theology at Marquette University.

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