Episode Transcript
Carey Griffel: [00:00:00] Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot, where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel and today we are back in to the Book of Enoch.
Now two episodes ago, in episode 107, I read the Book of the Watchers from 1st Enoch. Today, we're going to get into the parables of Enoch, and they are a little bit longer, and I have quite a bit to say about them. And so, when I was trying to organize this episode, I was really trying to fit it into one episode, and I was like, there's just no way I can do that.
But neither could I do it into two episodes without doing some sort of weird, strange arrangement to the text. So we're going to be doing this in three separate episodes because there are [00:01:00] three sections to this book. Now, remember, this is a section of the book First Enoch. Like, we think of that as one book, right? Because it's in one kind of codex that we put it in. But originally, all of the different pieces of the book of First Enoch were not all originally one text. And that's going to be really obvious when we start reading this text, and it sounds so very different from the Book of the Watchers.
Now, a reminder as well, we do have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Enoch, and they're kind of related, but they're also very different themselves. And so just because somebody somewhere along the line decided to call these 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Enoch, it doesn't really mean that we should think of all of those things as a composite.
Now, probably 2nd Enoch was based on the [00:02:00] ideas of 1st Enoch, and 3rd Enoch was following along in the tradition of this Enochian literature. But they're very separate. And just like the books 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Enoch are separate, we also have five different sections or books within the Book of First Enoch itself.
So it gets a bit confusing. And in episode 107, I did read the Book of the Watchers, and I talked about that. That is the story of the Watchers who come down on Mount Hermon, the story of Genesis 6 with the Sons of God before the Flood, and all of that kind of stuff.
Now, the Parables of Enoch, which we're going to start reading today, is the second part of what we know of as the Book of First Enoch, and I understand that it gets a little bit confusing because from a chronological writing perspective, it was the last section written. But here we have [00:03:00] fit it into the second part of the overall narrative because of where it fits.
Now we don't have any bits of the parables of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls. We do have other sections of the Book of First Enoch. We definitely have the Book of the Watchers in the Dead Sea Scrolls. We don't have the parables of Enoch.
Now, we might say something about how that makes it more or less authoritative, and I don't think that necessarily has to be the case, because we need to keep in mind that the community at the Dead Sea had particular goals and ideas in mind. And I think that it's very clear that the parables of Enoch just did not fit with the goals of the community at Qumran. And because there's a disconnect there, well, we're not going to end up expecting to see the parables of Enoch amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, because they [00:04:00] just didn't have a use for it. That doesn't mean that it's not old, it doesn't mean that this section of the Book of 1 Enoch was written by a Christian, as some people will contend.
Now, there's reasons why people think that this was written in response to Christianity, rather than before Christianity. But there are pieces of internal evidence which suggest that this was still probably written before the time of Jesus, and it was probably still written in the context of the Maccabean revolt and all of that, which was well before Jesus. And that being said, this is one of those texts that it's going to be helpful if we read other Second Temple texts at the same time to kind of get that mentality into our mind.
Now, why do people think that the parables of Enoch was written after the time of Christ? Well, mostly it's [00:05:00] due to the overabundance of the use of the term Son of Man here in the parables of Enoch. Now, we're used to thinking of Son of Man in the context of Jesus, right? And even if it's not in the context of Jesus, we're thinking in terms of Messiah, and there is a lot of messianic context to the parables of Enoch.
So before we get into this, I want to kind of talk about the terminology that we're going to be looking out for as we read. And I get that apocalyptic literature can be pretty hard to read, But my suggestion is to not try to catch everything at once. If some of it doesn't really jive and make sense to you, it's okay, you kind of skip over those parts and those bits of imagery so that you can get the overall picture and storyline.
I feel like this section of First Enoch does have somewhat less bizarre imagery that's harder to figure out than what we had at the end of the Book of Watchers. [00:06:00] Because the Book of Watchers has an overabundance of geographical imagery and context that we're just missing. At the same time, this is also very repetitive, and sometimes it will say things that seem or feel contradictory to us, and sometimes those things are internally contradictory, But sometimes it's just bringing out a nuance in a different way.
Alright, so we have quite a few messianic titles here in the parables of Enoch. The one we're primarily interested in, is the Son of Man. This doesn't show up in the first parable. So, I'm going to be talking more about the Son of Man next week when we get into reading the second parable.
The Son of Man language shows up in chapters 46, chapter 48, both of those are in the second parable. We also get it in chapters 62 and 69 [00:07:00] in the third parable. And like I said, there is a lot we're going to be talking about as far as the Son of Man, and what it means, and where it comes from, and how the New Testament gets that context as well. But I'm going to leave that for next time.
Another term that we have in the second parable, which we won't be talking about today, is the Anointed One. This is the actual term, Messiah. And again, because it's in the second parable, we'll kind of be talking about that a lot next time. But a word of caution, just because we don't have the term Anointed One in a text, doesn't mean that we don't have a messianic text. Because when we're thinking about the Messiah, we're thinking in broader terms than just one word. We're thinking of a whole paradigm, a whole framework, a whole matrix of ideas that fit into the concept of the Messiah.
In fact, [00:08:00] the term Messiah doesn't really show up in the Old Testament nearly as often as we might actually expect it to. Five times in the Old Testament, it's just referring to priests. Primarily, the reference for Messiah is in regards to kings. And sometimes it's not even Israelite kings. In Isaiah 45, 1, the term is used for Cyrus, a Persian king.
Because the term, anointed one, is usually a kingly term, then it came to be seen as connected to political sovereignty, and because of the exile, people were seeing how there needed to be a deliverer to return to the previous state of kingship that they were enjoying. We also have the terms branch or stump that is related to this messianic concept.
Okay, so now the terms that do [00:09:00] show up in the first parable that we're gonna be reading today are the chosen or the elect one. We have also the righteous one, and we have the concept of wisdom.
Now, how do we know that those are Messianic terms? Well, because they're used in parallel to things like the Anointed One. And they're certainly used in terms of thinking about the Messiah and what Jesus did.
Now, some of these terms might make a little more sense to us than others. One question we might have is whether the term chosen or elect one is referring to something that is related to what we think of today as Calvinism. Is 1st Enoch a Calvinistic text because it talks an awful lot about elect ones versus sinners, right?
Well, that's probably a whole topic that we can get into another [00:10:00] time. But suffice to say, for now, that the way that the people of the Second Temple were thinking about election and being chosen is very different than how a modern Calvinist would typically think of that.
I not every Calvinist is the same, and there is a really broad range of ideas within that. But as you read 1 Enoch itself, whether we're reading the Book of the Watchers or we're reading the parables here, it's really clear that being chosen and being elect has something to do with how one is relating to the law and keeping the law. And that's just not the kind of conversation we're going to expect from a Calvinist today. Not in the same way as what we see in the second temple period.
So my suggestion to us is that just because terminology is bringing up associations in our mind in certain ways, [00:11:00] that doesn't necessarily mean that what the ancient person was saying was the same thing that we are thinking about today.
The idea of being righteous is primarily about judgment, and judgment is a really big theme in the Book of First Enoch as a whole. We also see righteous as a quality. So there's a relatedness to the people who are righteous and the Messiah. And that's going to be really important when we talk about the Son of Man concept next time.
Now, the concept of wisdom. This one is a little bit tricky for us sometimes because of the way the word is in Hebrew and the way wisdom is seen and talked about in many places.
For instance, why is wisdom associated with Jesus and Jesus being wisdom at the beginning of creation? But then you turn to places [00:12:00] like Proverbs, where it seems like wisdom was created, or at least that's a possible interpretation from the language that we see in Proverbs.
And also, why is wisdom seen as feminine, or being embodied in a female? Although the Old Testament doesn't use the term Lady Wisdom, that's kind of what we have in our mind, because it describes wisdom in a female voice. The really easy answer for that, though, is that Hebrew is a gendered language.
That means that words have gender whether or not that word is actually associated with gender and sexuality in general. Like the word man is going to be masculine, and the word woman is going to be feminine in a language that is gendered. But then you're going to have words like chair, and a chair is going to have a gender that has absolutely nothing to do [00:13:00] with male or female. It's just the way the language is structured.
So, the word wisdom is a grammatically feminine term. That means that when that term is being personified, it's going to be personified in a female way. That doesn't necessarily have anything at all to do with actual gender. So, when Jesus is wisdom, and we have wisdom at the beginning of creation, we're not supposed to be thinking of some female deity here. This is just an outcome of the language.
But let's go ahead and read a few pieces of text here about wisdom. The most famous is going to be in Proverbs 8. Proverbs 8, verse 1 says, quote, Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice? End quote.
Okay, so this is a piece of poetry, and [00:14:00] we know it's poetry because there's parallelism here. We have wisdom calling in one line, and in the next line, we have understanding lifting up her voice. So, in parallel, we have wisdom and understanding. And again, it's female, because wisdom is being anthropomorphized, and by doing so, it has to be done in a female way because of the grammar and no other reason.
Proverbs 8, verses 22 through 31 says, quote, The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way. Before his works of old, from everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While he had not [00:15:00] yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world, when he established the heavens, I was there, when he inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became fixed, when he set for the sea its boundary, so that water would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was beside him, as the master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth. And having my delight in the sons of men. End Quote.
All right, so clearly we have personification, and there is some suggestion that wisdom was created here, and I'm not going to try to bog you down with grammar and too much semantics here, but the term that is established or [00:16:00] created or that kind of word that you're gonna see in translation doesn't necessarily mean created.
It could simply mean brought forth. And that is something that we kind of see in Genesis 1 with the light that is brought forth. And I've argued in previous episodes that this is a manifestation of God himself, like his glory is the light. That's why the light itself isn't said to be created, because it's not, but it is being brought forth. It's entering existence. It's entering creation.
And so for wisdom to be brought forth, it doesn't have to be created. Many people have seen connections with Proverbs 8 and John 1 with Jesus being the Word of God, and the Word of God being the Creator, and all of these ideas kind of intersecting together. What seems off is, again, the fact that wisdom is spoken of in a female way, [00:17:00] but once you understand the grammatical necessity of that in Hebrew, then that means that you don't have to take that grammatical necessity into an ontological necessity and make Jesus or the Creator feminine.
I want to read a couple of other texts about wisdom that I think are really relevant.
I'm going to read from the Wisdom of Solomon. This is chapter 7, verses 24 through 26. It says, quote, For wisdom is more moving than any motion. She passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the almighty. Therefore, can no defile thing fall into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of his goodness. End quote.
Couple of really interesting [00:18:00] connections with wisdom there and creation is the brightness of the everlasting light, and the mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness. And that sure sounds like the description in the New Testament of Jesus, right? Very cool stuff there.
One thing I also want to mention in regards to wisdom is this connection to water and fountains and springs. These things are very commonly associated with the concept and anthropomorphizing of wisdom. And we'll see that in the Book of Enoch.
One more text from Sirach, chapter 24, verses 1 through 11. Quote, Wisdom shall praise herself, and shall glory in the midst of her people. In the congregation of the Most High shall she open her mouth, and triumph before his power. I came out of the mouth of the Most High, and covered [00:19:00] the earth as a cloud. I dwelt in high places, and my throne is in a cloudy pillar. I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, and walked in the bottom of the deep. In the waves of the sea, and in all the earth, and in every people and nation I got a possession. With all these I sought rest, and in whose inheritance shall I abide? So the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and He that made me, caused my tabernacle to rest, and said, Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thine inheritance in Israel. He created me from the beginning, before the world. And I shall never fail. In the holy tabernacle I served before him. And so was I established in Zion. Likewise in the beloved city he gave me rest. And in Jerusalem was my power. End quote.
In the first parable of Enoch that we're going to read today, we're going to see some language [00:20:00] about wisdom and dwelling.
Some other things we're going to be seeing in this book is definitely a heavy theme on sinners versus the righteous in judgment. All of the messianic terms we've talked about, have something to do with divine judgment. and is associated with kings as judges. We have the concept of exaltation and dominion and all of these things like that. And wisdom is important because wisdom is necessary for right judgment.
As opposed to the Book of the Watchers, It's the son of man who is given the throne in order to judge. So the eschatological Messiah is centered on the concepts of kingship and judgment. Things have to be made right. And how is that done when there's sin and evil? Again, these are things we're going to be talking about as we look at these parables.
Later, we'll probably talk about the concept of [00:21:00] atonement and how atonement isn't about mitigating judgment. You sin in a way that puts you in the position of condemnation, and you gain the consequence for that if you don't repent. It's repentance that allows you to be back into right relationship with God.
And opportunity is obviously given for repentance. So this isn't just a piling on of people lamenting that they could never do that. No. Rather, there's a presumption that people really can repent. And that is the point of this literature, to bring people into that state of repentance.
As we read this text, we need to think of the time before Jesus and how Israelites were thinking of their community versus other people.
We also need to keep in mind that angelic behavior and ontology [00:22:00] is very different than what we're going to see in the Old Testament. Not that there isn't continuity, because there is, and there is certainly a level of consistency of development, but there's going to be some changes and some differences.
Again, we don't have it in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it was probably written before or during the first century. Some people think it was written by Christians to justify Jesus' title of the Son of Man, but there's some really strong reasons that I would object to that.
Having this text being written by Christians doesn't make sense in light of the themes and the details that we see in the parables. For instance, one of the big things is that it seems like Enoch is the son of man. You don't really figure that out, probably, until the end of the book. But Enoch is called the Son of Man, and some people [00:23:00] will say, Oh, it's just calling him a human then, and it's not calling him the Messiah, unlike the rest of the book. But I think that's making a false distinction that we want to see, if we want to be seeing this text in light of Jesus instead of Enoch.
But since it's not a canonical book, and we shouldn't be taking it as a canonical book, that's not really a problem, right? Like, it's fine for this book to be calling Enoch the Son of Man and the Messiah, because it's not a Christian work at all, but it does fit into a lot of the thinking of the Second Temple period.
We also see salvation in the light of following Torah in the parables.. And that's problematic when we come to the Christian idea of behavior and discipleship, right? Where we're following Jesus. And that necessitates having the Torah written on our hearts, but that's not the same as following [00:24:00] the written Torah.
There's also the fact that early Christians do not quote or reference the parables of Enoch. So if this was a Christian writing, we would probably expect other Christians to be quoting it.
I also think that the really heavy focus on judgment and punishment in this book is probably something that you wouldn't see quite as much in Christian writing. Not to say that it's not there, but it gives me some pause that this is trying to be a Christological book.
It's not scripture. The New Testament contradicts some of what it's going to say. And this is clearly also not a full, complete picture of the Messiah. But, this text will help us see the mental picture they had of the messianic figure that they might have been dreaming of.
Now, why am I bothering to read the whole thing? [00:25:00] Well, I considered just reading the S. Morgenstern Good Parts version of First Enoch instead of the whole Parables of Enoch, but I think it's really useful to look at the whole thing, and I think there's a lot we can bring out when we read all of the parts, and it's pretty hard to just cherry pick out some of the parts where I'm not going to read those when all of it is pretty instructive.
And another reason I find it really necessary to do this is because there are people out there that don't understand the historical context of the writing of First Enoch, and they don't see the differences between First Enoch and the New Testament, because they're looking so strongly at the similarities.
And so when you think of First Enoch as this cohesive whole, then you might be tempted to say, well, it should be canonical, right? When really that's just not how it worked.
If we think [00:26:00] that First Enoch, the whole thing itself, is internally consistent, then when we see that Jude is quoting it and it's being referenced by Peter, that's an even stronger contender of people saying, Well, hey, it's Scripture. But if the whole thing, as a whole, is not an actual cohesive text, and if it's not consistent, and if what the whole text is saying is not consistent with the rest of Scripture, then it cannot be a canonical book.
The material it contains might have some really strong things that we need to understand about Jesus and about the context of the flood, for instance, things like that. But that doesn't make the whole text inspired when the whole text is not itself consistent.
Like, every author of a particular text has a [00:27:00] reason for writing what they did that is particular for their situation. The thing about Inspired Scripture is that the human author's intention aligns with God's intention in full. And that is what we have maintained and preserved in Scripture. If you have something like sectarian literature, by its very nature, it's not in accordance to the whole counsel of God, we might say, right?
So, sectarian literature, and when I say sectarian literature, I mean the literature that is going to be used primarily by different Jewish sects, sectarian literature might have ideas that are applicable to all of Judaism and all of Christianity, but it's going to have ideas that are not consistent with the actual history of Israel and the Jewish people at large and Christianity at large.
And so when that's [00:28:00] the case, then something literally cannot be canonical. It can be insightful and useful, but not canonical.
We don't know what sectarian group produced the Parables of Enoch, but it's a pretty good logical supposition that it was some sort of sectarian group. Not the ones that established the Dead Sea Scrolls, but some other group.
Alright, we still haven't started reading the book. But first, I do want to kind of lay out a little bit of this messianic profile that we typically think of in regards to the full and complete picture. What we have in the parables of Enoch, is quite focused in certain ways.
We do not have anything that looks like a suffering messiah. We do not have anything that looks like atonement. Now, there is a place or a way to see the suffering messiah in the Book of Enoch at large, but that's not the section we're reading today, [00:29:00] and it's a pretty complex argument, so we'll leave that for later.
We do not see a priestly messiah. We do see some intercession, but it's not really, like, a priestly idea. As I said, there's really no focus on atonement. The focus is instead on judgment and repentance. There's a very strong emphasis on law keeping. There is an emphasis on prophecy.
And, interestingly enough, Moses and Sinai is kind of downplayed in favor of Enoch, like the person of Enoch. And that could be just because it's like, well, we already have the book of Moses, and now here we have something about Enoch. And so, of course, we're not going to focus on Moses in the book of Enoch.
But there's some interesting points in that the Son of Man is worshipped, and it's probably Enoch. And also, Torah itself seems to [00:30:00] be an object of worship. So there's kind of a strong disconnect there. And interestingly, the worst offenders, the worst sinners, are those kings and mighty ones who oppress the righteous.
In other words, even Gentile idolaters can be forgiven if they repent.
This is very similar to New Testament writings in certain ways. It fits within the wisdom literature tradition. We have the idea of a pre existence for the Messiah. Which is really strange and you're like, how does that fit with Enoch? And frankly, the answer is we don't know how that fits in with the idea of Enoch being the son of man.
Of course, the New Testament really has an emphasis on kingship and judgment itself as well. There is the idea of the inclusion of Gentiles, which I wonder if that's another reason we don't see this in the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is [00:31:00] resurrection language. There's glorification and transformation and new creation in the messianic age.
There's the defeat of the evil powers, very similar to what we see in the Book of Watchers. Not as detailed, but the ideas definitely connect in the explanation for evil.
Some major other problems, other than the ones I've already mentioned, are that humans can become angels, or become divine, or possibly are preexistent. And those are not common ideas. We have Torah keeping as salvation itself, rather than following the Messiah. And we might wonder if the punishment described is actually in line with other scripture. But I'll leave that to you to think about.
Now, why are these called parables? Because they're not going to really seem like parables when we think about New Testament parables. And they're really not. [00:32:00] So I don't actually know why they're called the parables of Enoch. it's better to think of them as the actual visions of Enoch, but they are very allegorical and symbolic. And they're meant to teach wisdom. So, perhaps that's the light of parable that we should think about.
Through the understanding of what happens to the righteous and what happens to the wicked, the person who's hearing this or reading it should learn how to properly live so that you find yourself on the right side of judgment.
As far as the outline of the sections, we have three parables. Chapters 38 to 44 is the first parable, and it's focused on the judgment and the fate of the righteous and the wicked. \
Then we have chapters 45 to 57. That's the second parable. It's focused on the wicked, or the sinners, or those who deny the name of the Lord. [00:33:00] And this has most of the Messianic language, probably because of all of that judgment going on.
Then we have the third parable, chapters 58 to 69. This focuses on the fate of the elect.
Then we have what they call additional material in chapters 70 and 71. And some people think this is a later editor that added this on, because this is where we have Enoch himself being referred to as the Son of Man.
Again, I don't really think that's the case. I don't really think that this has to be edited material, or later material itself, because I think it corresponds well to the rest of the book, and I think there is a suggestion in Chapter 39, where Enoch mentions himself as blessed or destined for glory, and that could just be general salvation language, putting himself in the group of the elect. [00:34:00] But it seems to me, like it might foreshadow his blessedness as the elect one. And in addition, he's given this unique vision, which corresponds to understanding how to be saved, and be among the righteous. And so the one being given the information for dissemination might be the one who uniquely lives it out. So I don't really think there's that much of a disconnect here.
Unlike the Book of Watchers, where the deity is with the Holy Ones, here we have a real focus on the Righteous One in the congregation of the Righteous, and it's the Righteous One who is going to preside.. We'll see a lot of elements about secrets, supernatural and celestial and meteorological imagery.
As far as the characters, we have the Righteous, sometimes the Holy Ones, and those are sometimes humans and sometimes the angelic host. [00:35:00] Then we have the Wicked, who are otherwise known as the Kings and the Mighty. Then we have the Lord of Spirits. That is the designation for God in the Book of Parables. This is the only place in 1 Enoch where we have the term Lord of Spirits. And then, of course, we have the Messiah, or the Righteous One. And we have angels, including archangels, and angels as presiding spirits.
This does not use the term Watchers, unlike the Book of the Watchers. It does use the term Those Who Sleep. Which are probably good watchers, so they're not using the term watchers because they're kind of thinking of the term watchers as the bad guys, right?
Alright, so chapter 37 is kind of an introduction. We have wisdom, we have the Lord of Spirits, which is, again, similar to the Old Testament term, Lord of Hosts. [00:36:00] But also, this could be referring to God as the Father of Human Spirits.
See Hebrews 12, 9, for instance, that says, quote, Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live, end quote.
Or Numbers 16, 22, that says, quote, And they fell on their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, Shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation, end quote.
And Numbers 27 16 that says, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation. End quote.
And something to note, the word spirit, or wind, is the same word, and there's a lot of meteorological discussion, so it can get a little confusing as to whether it's talking about spirits, like beings, or whether it's just talking about [00:37:00] wind, but when it's talking about meteorological and weather elements, it's talking about angels presiding, so it's probably a both and kind of a thing.
Okay, so again, I'm going to be reading from my copy of Dr. Heiser's Companion to the Book of Enoch, A Reader's Commentary, Volume 2. This is the book that goes through the parables of Enoch. So again, if you want more information about this section that we're reading here and the section where we'll be talking about the next two weeks, I highly recommend picking up this book.
Again, just like in episode 107, this isn't the best translation, but you can find it online easily, even without buying anything.
All right, chapter 37, the introduction, says, quote, The second vision which he saw, the vision of wisdom, which Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of [00:38:00] Ca inan the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, saw. And this is the beginning of the words of wisdom, which I lifted up my voice to speak, and say to those which dwell on earth, Hear, ye men of old time, and see, ye that come after, the words of the Holy One which I will speak before the Lord of Spirits. It were better to declare them only to the men of old time, but even from those that come after, we will not withhold the beginning of wisdom. Till the present day, such wisdom has never been given by the Lord of Spirits, as I have received according to my insight. According to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits, by whom the lot of eternal life has been given to me. Now three parables were imparted to me, and I lifted up my voice and recounted them to those that dwell on the earth. End quote.
Alright, chapter 38. We're gonna be talking about the congregation of the righteous. We're gonna be [00:39:00] referring to the righteous one, or the elect one. We're gonna be talking about light and glory. And the Holy Ones are probably people and not angels, like in the Book of the Watchers, although Holy Ones as angels do show up elsewhere in the parables.
Chapter 38, quote, The coming judgment of the wicked, the first parable, When the congregation of the righteous shall appear, And sinners shall be judged for their sins, And shall be driven from the face of the earth, And when the righteous one shall appear before the eyes of the righteous, Whose elect works hang upon the Lord of spirits. And light shall appear to the righteous and the elect who dwell on the earth. Where then will be the dwelling of the sinners and where the resting place of those who have denied the Lord of spirits. It had been good for them if they had not been born. When the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed and the sinners judged, and the godless driven from the [00:40:00] presence of the righteous and elect. From that time, those that possess the earth shall no longer be powerful and exalted, and they shall not be able to uphold the face of the holy. For the Lord of Spirits has caused his light to appear on the face of the holy, righteous, and elect. Then shall the kings and the mighty perish, and be given into the hands of the righteous and holy. And thenceforward, none shall seek for themselves mercy from the Lord of Spirits, for their life is at an end. End quote.
Chapter 39 has a few textual issues, but it refers to 1 Enoch chapters 6 through 11, which is the main storyline of the Watchers. And there's a contrast with the righteous who live with angels who didn't rebel, and so they're already in heaven, right? We have the concept of angelic intercession. Which, again, we see that in the Old Testament as well, but we don't see it in the [00:41:00] New Testament, because by the time Jesus comes, we no longer need angelic intercessors, because we have Jesus as our intercessor. So this is, again, another proof against it being a Christian text.
We have heavenly books and winged throne guardians. Those who sleep not. And the idea of wings is probably less about flying and more about protection. And when it says that the Lord of Spirits has destined me for blessing and glory, I think this is talking about Enoch as the elect one. Again, it could just be about his salvation, but considering how this is at the beginning and at the end we have Enoch being the son of man, I think it's a really strong connection.
Chapter 39, quote, And it shall come to pass in those days that elect and holy children will descend from the high heaven, and their seed will become one with the [00:42:00] children of men. And in those days Enoch received books of zeal, and wrath, and books of disquiet, and expulsion. And mercy shall not be accorded to them, saith the Lord of Spirits. And in those days a whirlwind carried me off from the earth, and set me down at the end of the heavens. And there I saw another vision, The Dwelling Places of the Holy, and the Resting Places of the Righteous. Here Mine Eyes saw their dwellings with his righteous angels, and their resting places with the holy, and they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men, and righteousness flowed before them as water, and mercy like dew upon the earth. Thus it is amongst them for ever and ever. And in that place Mine Eyes saw the elect one of righteousness and of faith. And I saw his dwelling place under the wings of the Lord of Spirits. And righteousness shall prevail in his days. And the righteous and elect shall be without number before him for [00:43:00] ever and ever. And all righteous and elect before him shall be strong as fiery lights. And their mouth shall be full of blessing. And their lips shall extol the name of the Lord of Spirits. Righteousness before him shall never fail and the brightness shall never fail before him. There I wish to dwell and my spirit longed for that dwelling place and there hereto for hath been my portion for so hath it been established concerning me before the Lord of Spirits. In those days, I praised and extolled the name of the Lord of Spirits, with blessings and praises, because he hath destined me for blessing and glory, according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits. For a long time my eyes regarded that place, and I blessed him and praised him, saying, Blessed is he, and may he be blessed from the beginning and for evermore. And before him there is no ceasing. He knows before the world was created what is forever, and what will be from generation into [00:44:00] generation. Those who sleep not, bless thee. They stand before thy glory and bless, praise, and extol, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of spirits. He filleth the earth with spirits. And here my eyes saw all those who sleep not. They stand before him and bless and say, Blessed be thou, and blessed be the name of the Lord for ever and ever. And my face was changed, for I could no longer behold. End quote.
Alright, chapter 40. We have four archangels, or presences, or faces. They are named. And they are to intercede and pray for people. There's a lot of language that seems very similar to Ezekiel 1 and the throne of God. And there's an interpretive angel that we'll see regularly. This is the angel of peace.
Chapter 40. Quote. And after that, I saw thousands of thousands, [00:45:00] and ten thousand times ten thousand. And I saw a multitude beyond number and reckoning, who stood before the Lord of Spirits. And on the four sides of the Lord of Spirits, I saw four presences. Different from those that sleep not, and I learned their names, for the angel who went with me made known to me their names, and showed me all the hidden things. And I heard the voices of those four presences, as they uttered praises before the Lord of Glory. The first voice blesses the Lord of Spirits forever and ever, and the second voice I heard blessing the Elect One, and the Elect Ones who hang upon the Lord of Spirits. And the third voice, I heard pray and intercede for those who dwell on the earth and supplicate in the name of the Lord of Spirits. And I heard the fourth voice, fending off the satans, and forbidding them to come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on earth. After that, I asked the angel of peace who went with me, who showed me everything that is hidden. [00:46:00] Who are these four presences which I have seen, and whose words I have heard and written down? And he said to me, This first is Michael. The merciful and long suffering. And the second, who is set over all the diseases and all the wounds of the children of men, Is Raphael. And the third, who is set over all the powers, is Gabriel. And the fourth, who is set over the repentance unto hope of those who inherit eternal life, is named Phanuel. And these are the four angels of the Lord of Spirits, and the four voices I heard in those days. End quote.
Oh yeah, so we had the satans, and "satan" just means accuser, but by the time of the New Testament, there had been some development in the idea of wicked spirits and Satan as a single person versus multiple satans, which you will also see in [00:47:00] the Dead Sea Scrolls.
So don't get too hung up on that term Satan.
In chapter 41. We'll see secrets. We'll see a kingdom divided which is probably referring to earthly kings and could connect to Daniel 5 Versus 26 through 28. We have punishment, we have weather and orbits of celestial beings or, you know, all of the celestial objects. We have a judge appointed, but there's no specific messianic title here.
And there's something I want to talk about before I read this chapter, which is called the Two Spirits Doctrine of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was also commonly related to the two ways of, like, the Didache and other Christian writings.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have a suggestion that there are two spirits that are opposite. The Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Falsehood, or the [00:48:00] Prince of Lights, versus the Angel of Darkness.
I'm going to read from the book The Dead Sea Scrolls Today by James Vanderkam. He says, quote, in God's predestined plan, there are two ways. The way of light and the way of darkness, the way of good and the way of evil. There is no mediating option. The entire universe is involved in this duality, which is ultimately under God's firm control. Angels who are numerous, and humans belong in one or the other of the two camps. The two camps are engaged in constant warfare with one another, a conflict that will end only when God comes in final judgment and gives victory to the Sons of Light and their angelic allies. The cosmic war between these two primal forces also played itself out in the lives of individuals. Each person had some amount of light [00:49:00] and of darkness. Or, to put it another way, everyone is sinful, even the sons of light.
Let me read from one of the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It says, quote, The angel of darkness leads all the children of righteousness astray. And until his end, All their sin, iniquities, wickedness, and all their unlawful deeds are caused by his dominion in accordance with the mysteries of God. Every one of their chastisements and every one of the seasons of their distress shall be brought about by the rule of his persecution. For all his allotted spirits seek the overthrow of the sons of light. End quote.
Vanderkam in the Dead Sea Scrolls today continues by saying, The community rule goes on to enumerate the kinds of actions that result from the two spirits and to offer a programmatic declaration.
Another quote from the Dead Sea Scrolls. [00:50:00] Quote, The nature of all the children of men is ruled by these two spirits, and during their life all the hosts of men have a portion of their divisions and walk in both their ways. And the whole reward for their deeds shall be for everlasting ages, according to whether each man's portion in their two divisions is great or small. For God has established the spirits in equal measure until the final age, and has set everlasting hatred between their divisions . Truth abhors the works of injustice. And injustice hates all the ways of truth. And their struggle is fierce in all their arguments, for they do not walk together. End quote.
Quoting from the Community Rule of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it also says, quote, Every man born of Israel who freely pledges himself to join the council of the community shall be examined by the guardian at the head of the congregation concerning his understanding and his deeds. If he [00:51:00] is fitted to the discipline, he shall admit him into the covenant, that he may be converted to the truth, and depart from all falsehood, and he shall instruct him in all the rules of the community. End quote.
Okay, so that's some good background for what we're going to read in chapter 41 of the parables of Enoch here.
Chapter 41 says, quote, And after that, I saw all the secrets of the heavens. And how the kingdom is divided and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance. And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy and my eyes saw there all the spirits being driven from thens, which deny the name of the Lord of spirits and being dragged off and they could not abide because of the punishment which proceeds from the Lord of spirits. And there my eyes saw the secrets of the lightning and of the thunder. And the secrets of the winds, how they are divided to blow over the earth. And the secrets of the clouds and [00:52:00] dew, and there I saw from whence they proceed in that place, and from whence they saturate the dusty earth. And there I saw closed chambers, out of which the winds are divided, the chamber of the hail and winds, the chamber of the mist and of the clouds, And the cloud thereof hovers over the earth from the beginning of the world. And I saw the chambers of the sun and moon, whence they proceed, and whither they come again, and their glorious return, and how one is superior to the other, and their stately orbit, and how they do not leave their orbit. And they add nothing to their orbit, and they take nothing from it. And they keep faith with each other, in accordance with the oath by which they are bound together. And first the sun goes forth and traverses his path according to the commandment of the Lord of Spirits. And mighty is his name for ever and ever. And after that, I saw the hidden and the visible path of the moon. And she accomplishes the course of her path in that place by day and by night. The one holding a position [00:53:00] opposite to the other before the Lord of Spirits. And they give thanks, and praise, and rest not, for unto them is their thanksgiving rest. For the sun changes oft for a blessing or a curse, and the course of the path of the moon is light to the righteous, and darkness to the sinners in the name of the Lord, who made a separation between the light and the darkness, and divided the spirits of men and women. And strengthen the spirits of the righteous in the name of his righteousness. For no angel hinders, and no power is able to hinder, for he appoints a judge for them all, and he judges them all before him. End quote.
All right, now in chapter 42, we're going to see Wisdom personified, and we're going to see that she can't find a dwelling place with man, which is really interesting compared to the other things that we read about Wisdom. So here in the Book of Parables, because she can't find a dwelling place with [00:54:00] man, she returns to the angels.
interesting section of Proverbs here that I'll read. Proverbs 1, verses 20 through 23 says, quote, wisdom shouts in the street. She lifts her voice in the square. At the head of the noisy streets she cries out. At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings, How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge. Turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. End quote.
It's interesting, again, we're going to have connections with water and it seems like wisdom is presented often as like the tree of life or the rivers of Eden.
Chapter 42 says, quote, Wisdom found no place where she might dwell, then a dwelling [00:55:00] place was assigned her in the heavens. Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling among the children of men, and found no dwelling place. Wisdom returned to her place, and took her seat among the angels. And unrighteousness went forth from her chambers, whom she sought not, she found, and dwelt with them, as rain in a desert, and dew on a thirsty land. End quote.
So here we have Wisdom personified, and we have Unrighteousness personified, and Wisdom doesn't find a dwelling place, but Unrighteousness accidentally finds dwelling places. And there seems to be a distinction between the flow of a fountain, and rain, or dew, or mist. Like, there's a difference there, and probably in the future we'll be having a whole episode about the symbolism of water and the differences there, because it's not actually all the [00:56:00] same. Because you might think that rain in a desert and dew on a thirsty land is a good thing, but when that is coming from unrighteousness, well, it's not really creating a garden. It's still just the desert.
Okay, so chapters 43 and 44, we'll put them together because 44 is super short, it's like one verse.
Chapter 43 says, quote, And I saw other lightnings and the stars of heaven, and I saw how he called them all by their names, and they hearkened unto him. And I saw how they are weighed in a righteous balance according to their proportions of light. I saw the width of their spaces and the day of their appearing. And how their revolution produces lightning. And I saw their revolution according to the number of the angels and how they keep faith with each other. And I asked the angel who went with me, who showed me what was hidden, what are these? And he said to me, [00:57:00] the Lord of Spirits have showed thee their parabolic meaning or their parable. These are the names of the Holy who dwell on the earth and to believe in the name of the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.
Chapter 44. also another phenomenon I saw in regard to the lightnings, how some of the stars arise and become lightnings and cannot part with their new form end quote.
Okay, so that ending is a little bit mysterious. Well, there are potential textual issues here, and so that kind of leaves things up in the air. Instead of cannot abandon their form, it could mean something about remaining with them. Which, that seems very opposite, so I don't know.
We don't need to go into all of the mysteries of this book, because again, this isn't canonical, but it's very useful, right? And this kind of language is very familiar to us from the Old Testament.
In Isaiah, [00:58:00] chapter 40, verse 26, says, quote, Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their host by number, he calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one of them is missing. End quote.
Psalm 147, verse 4 says, quote, He counts the number of the stars, he gives names to all of them. End quote.
There's also a big connection between the righteous on earth and the angels in heaven. Just like we see in chapter 39 where it was referring to Enoch himself.
In Daniel 12 verses one through three, it says, quote. Now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And at that [00:59:00] time, your people, everyone who's found within the book will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars, forever and ever. End quote.
There are not that many passages in the Old Testament that we can point to about resurrection per se. And so the fact that we have in Daniel 12, this association between righteous and stars and heaven is really interesting, but that doesn't mean that people become angels. Okay, so let's put that to the side. Although we will be seeing that context in the next episode, when we're talking about the second parable.
Alright, so that is the end of the first parable of the [01:00:00] parables of Enoch. Each of the parables gets a little bit longer each time, so it's gonna give me a little bit less time to talk. But next time we're gonna be focused very much on the idea of the Son of Man and what that means, where it comes from, what the context is when Jesus uses it, and all of that kinda stuff. And next episode is going to be why I'm really interested in the parables of Enoch, because that context is really useful for understanding Jesus and his work.
So, here we've had the Lord of Spirits, next we'll see the Head of Days and the Son of Man, which, yes that's a callback to Daniel 7, but there's also going to be a lot more than that. So, look forward to next time, thank you for joining me here in this episode, in this introduction to the parables of Enoch, which I hope is really helpful, because I think a lot of people [01:01:00] focus on the Book of the Watchers and don't realize how very steeped in messianic context this part of the book of 1 Enoch is, which is very helpful to us Christians.
I don't know how many times I've heard people wonder why Jesus calls himself the Son of Man and why that is the most used title for himself. Once you see it, it's going to be awesome. So please join me next time. Thank you for joining me this time. I really appreciate you guys and I hope you've enjoyed this.
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