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1 Enoch 14 describes a heavenly house surrounded by fire and made of crystal. This imagery parallels the cosmology in the Greek Septuagint translation of Ezekiel, where a solid firmament like shining crystal appears above the living creatures.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 14:9
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
8 And the vision was shown to me. In the vision, clouds called me and a mist summoned me; the path of the stars and the lightnings sped me on and hurried me, and the winds in the vision gave me wings and carried me upward, lifting me into heaven. 9 I went in until I came near a wall built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire, and it began to frighten me. 10 I went through the tongues of fire and came near a large house built of crystals. The walls of the house were like a mosaic floor of crystals, and its foundation was of crystal. 11 Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their sky was clear as water.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Ezekiel 1:22
Septuagint
20 Wherever the cloud happened to be, there was the spirit ready to go: the living creatures went, and the wheels, and were lifted up with them; because the spirit of life was in the wheels. 21 When those went, the wheels went; and when those stood, the wheels stood; and when those lifted themselves off the earth, they were lifted off with them: for the spirit of life was in the wheels. 22 And the likeness over the heads of the living creatures was as a firmament, as the appearance of crystal, spread out over their wings above. 23 And their wings were spread out under the firmament, reaching one to the other; two wings to each, covering their bodies. 24 And I heard the sound of their wings when they went, as the sound of much water: and when they stood, their wings were let down.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The vision of 1 Enoch 14 comes in the middle of the scene where Enoch is described as having ascended unto heaven to intercede on behalf of the fallen angels. It is introduced in 14, 8 where Enoch says that in his dream vision he saw himself uplifted to heaven by clouds. The first thing which Enoch says he saw in heaven is a wall which is built of white marble and surrounded by tongues of fire (14, 9). As it turned out, the wall surrounded a house. The house, no doubt, is identical with the heavenly divine palace, yet the manner in which it is described requires our comment. The house, its walls, its floor and its groundwork, were built of crystal. Now, this description of the marble-like appearance of the walls most probably derives from Ezekiel 1, 22, where the prophet says that “Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, shining like crystal” (LXX). This description of what the walls of the house looked like is quite rare, and actually its main parallel is to be found in two places connected with the visions of the Hekhalot mystics ..."
Ithamar Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism, 2nd rev. ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 71–72.
* 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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