Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch describes hidden chambers from which winds, clouds, and dew are released, while 4 Ezra likewise speaks of closed chambers storing the winds. Both texts share a cosmology in which natural forces are kept in heavenly storehouses, a view rooted in ancient traditions but further developed in apocalyptic literature.
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1 Enoch 41:3
Pseudepigrapha
2 There, I saw the dwellings of the chosen and the holy, and my eyes beheld all the sinners being expelled, those who deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, dragged away, unable to endure the punishment from the Lord of Spirits. 3 My eyes also saw the mysteries of lightning and thunder, and the secrets of the winds, how they are distributed to blow across the earth, and the mysteries of the clouds and dew, observing where they originate and how they moisten the dusty earth. 4 I saw hidden chambers from which the winds are dispersed, the chamber for hail and winds, the chamber for mist, and of the clouds, with the cloud above floating over the earth since the beginning of time.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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4 Ezra 5:37
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha
35 He said to me, ‘You cannot.’ ‘Why not, my lord?’ I asked. ‘Why then was I born? Why could not my mother’s womb have been my grave? Then I should never have seen Jacob’s trials and the weariness of the race of Israel.’ 36 He said to me, ‘Count me those who are not yet born, collect the scattered drops of rain, and make the withered flowers bloom again; 37 unlock me the storehouses and let loose the winds shut up there; or make visible the shape of a voice. Then I will answer your question about Israel’s trials.’ 38 ‘My lord, my master,’ I said, ‘how can there be anyone with such knowledge except the One whose home is not among men? 39 I am only a fool; how then can I answer your questions?’
Date: 70-100 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Another interesting parallel to the Enochic material is found in [4 Ezra] 5:37, which speaks of the “closed
chambers” in which the winds are stored; the expression is similar to the one found in Parables of Enoch 41:3 ..."
Macaskill, Grant
Meteorology and Metrology: Evaluating Parallels in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch
(pp. 79-99) Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2019
* 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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