1 Enoch 9:2

Pseudepigrapha

1 And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. 2 And they said one to another: 'The earth made †without inhabitant cries the voice of their crying† up to the gates of heaven. 3 ⌈⌈And now to you, the holy ones of heaven⌉⌉, the souls of men make their suit, saying, "Bring our cause before the Most High.".' 4 And they said to the Lord of the ages: 'Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, 〈and God of the ages〉, the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages! 5 Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee. 6 Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven, which men were striving to learn:

Romans 8:19

New Testament

18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God who subjected it—in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.

 Notes and References

"... Jewett points out that Paul’s maternal personification of creation may have been influenced by Roman depictions of Mother Earth—for example, on the Ara Pacis in Rome—although he contrasts her relaxed posture there with the mood of “eager expectation” (ἀποκαραδοκία) that Paul attributes to creation (8:19). He also mentions as parallel the personification of the earth in the Book of the Watchers, where the earth cries out to heaven on behalf of her inhabitants, who are being devoured by the giants (1 Enoch 7:6, 9:2). Joseph R. Dodson compares the personification of creation in Romans with that in the Wisdom of Solomon, but he finds that the personified creation behaves in quite different ways in the two works. These comparisons are helpful, but much more illuminating parallels can be found in 4 Ezra. Some of the aforementioned analogies by which Uriel explains eschatological matters to Ezra compare the earth to a pregnant woman. For example, in response to a question from Ezra about a possible delay of the final judgment, Uriel answers, “Go and ask a woman who is with child if, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the child within her any longer” (4:40). After Ezra answers that it cannot, Uriel draws out the analogy: “The underworld and the treasuries of the souls are like the womb. For just as a woman who is in travail makes haste to escape the pangs of birth, so also do these [places] hasten to give back those things that were committed to them from the beginning” (4:41–42; compare 1 Enoch 51:1; 2 Baruch 30:2, 50:2) ..."

Hogan, Karina M. "The Apocalyptic Eschatology of Romans" in Stuckenbruck, Loren T. (ed.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition and the Shaping of New Testament Thought (pp. 155-174) Fortress Press, 2017

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