Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch describes hidden chambers where winds, clouds, and dew are released, and 4 Ezra similarly describes chambers storing the winds. Both share cosmology where natural forces are kept in heavenly storehouses, based on ancient Near Eastern traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 41:3
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 There, I saw the dwellings of the chosen and the holy, and my eyes saw 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: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Ezra 5:37
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
35 He said to me, “You can’t.” And I said, “Why, Lord? Why was I born? Why wasn’t my mother’s womb my grave, that I might not have seen the anguish of Jacob, and the wearisome toil of the people of Israel?” 36 He said to me, “Count for me those who haven’t yet come. Gather together for me the drops that are scattered abroad, and make the withered flowers green again for me. 37 Open for me the chambers that are closed, and bring out the winds for me that are shut up in them. Or show me the image of a voice. Then I will declare to you the labor that you asked to see.” 38 And I said, “O sovereign Lord, who may know these things except he who doesn’t have his dwelling with men? 39 As for me, I lack wisdom. How can I then speak of these things you asked me about?”
Date: 70–132 CE (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 ..."
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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