Texts in Conversation
Daniel 12 and 1 Enoch 51 both describe a powerful figure arising at a time of distress to deliver the righteous, using similar language to describe each. In Daniel the figure is Michael, a heavenly patron figure for Israel. In 1 Enoch the figure is a messianic figure.
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Daniel 12:1
Hebrew Bible
1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning up to that time. But at that time your own people, all those whose names are found written in the book, will escape. 2 Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 3 But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever.
Date: 2nd Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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1 Enoch 51:5
Pseudepigrapha
4 In those days, the mountains will leap like rams, and the hills will skip like lambs full of milk, and the faces of all the angels in heaven will shine with joy. 5 For in those days, the Elect One shall rise, 6 And the earth shall rejoice, and the righteous shall live upon it, and the chosen shall walk there.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 1 Enoch 51:5 ... this section consists of two complementary tristichs. Each begins with a line that describes the posture of the Chosen One with a verb of motion ('arises' / 'sites down') and continues by recounting a judicial action of the Chosen One - to save the righteous and to denounce the sinners respectively. In form verse 5a corresponds almost exactly to Daniel 12:1 ... THe passages differ in this respect: in Daniel the line introduces a judgment scene that includes a reference to the resurrection of the dead; here it follows the reference to resurrection but precedes the judicial activity of the Chosen One ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82
(p. 185) Fortress Press, 2012
* 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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