Texts in Conversation
2 Baruch describes hidden places shown to Moses, storing light, angels, and time and 4 Ezra similarly describes storehouses of light at creation. Both imagine secret spaces that shape how the world is ordered, reflecting common Jewish apocalyptic ideas.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Baruch 59:11
Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
9 And the number of the offerings, and the earths which have not yet come: 10 And the mouth of Gehenna, and the station of vengeance, and the place of faith, and the region of hope: 11 And the likeness of future torment, and the multitude of innumerable angels, and the flaming hosts, and the splendour of the lightning and the voice of the thunders, and the orders of the chiefs of the angels, and the treasuries of light, and the changes of the times, and the investigations of the law. 12 These are the bright fourth waters which you have seen.
Date: 70–135 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Ezra 6:40
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
38 I said, “O Lord, truly you spoke at the beginning of the creation, on the first day, and said this: ‘Let heaven and earth be made,’ and your word perfected the work. 39 Then the spirit was hovering, and darkness and silence were on every side. The sound of man’s voice was not yet there. 40 Then you commanded a ray of light to be brought out of your treasuries, that your works might then appear. 41 “On the second day, again you made the spirit of the firmament and commanded it to divide and to separate the waters, that the one part might go up, and the other remain beneath. 42 “On the third day, you commanded that the waters should be gathered together in the seventh part of the earth. You dried up six parts and kept them, to the intent that of these some being both planted and tilled might serve before you.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In 2 Baruch, which has come to us in Syriac, there is a brief mention of the “treasuries of the light,” listed among the range of secrets revealed to Moses by God ... 4 Ezra also contains a reference to “treasuries of light,” (6:40), contained in an expanded description of the divine command in Genesis 3. This reflects a wider concern within that book to assert God’s sovereignty over creation, and hence the demands of monotheism. Importantly, while this reference contributes to the growing postbiblical tradition of treasuries that contain light, it has no programmatic or structural significance ..."
Grant Macaskill, “Meteorology and Metrology: Evaluating Parallels in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch,” JSP 29.2 (2019): 79–99.
* 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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