Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch highlights heaven and earth together to show how creation reveals divine order, using the same distinctive pairing found in Deuteronomy where they are invoked as covenant witnesses against Israel. By adopting this language, 1 Enoch may be drawing on Deuteronomy to attempt to establish its own authority.
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Deuteronomy 4:26
Hebrew Bible
24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God. 25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, 26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated. 27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you among the nations where the Lord will drive you.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
1 Enoch 2:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 Observe everything that occurs in the heaven, how the celestial bodies do not alter their paths, and the luminaries in the sky, how they all rise and set orderly, each in its own season, without deviating from their assigned courses. 2 Look at the earth, and pay attention to the things that unfold from beginning to end, how consistent they are, how nothing on earth changes, how all of God’s works appear to you. 3 Observe the summer and winter, how the entire earth is filled with water, and how clouds, dew, and rain cover it.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A feature which is sometimes repeated in Deuteronomy is, namely, that heaven and earth are invoked as witnesses against Israel when it makes the covenant with its Lord ... It seems, however, that so far, we have only surmised a possible and not too close relationship between 1 Enoch 2 and Deuteronomy ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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