Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch 72 incorporates ancient Near Eastern cosmology found in Enuma Elish and the Hebrew Bible that describes the ordered paths of the sun, moon, and stars and the heavenly gates they move through.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Enuma Elish V
The Seven Tablets of Creation
Ancient Near East, Babylonian
He (i.e. Marduk) made the stations for the great gods; The stars, their images, as the stars of the Zodiac, he fixed. He ordained the year and into sections he divided it; For the twelve months he fixed three stars. After he had organized the year, He founded the station of Neberu to determine their bounds; That none might err or go astray, He set the station of Enlil and Ea along with him. He opened great gates on both sides, He made strong the bolt on the left and on the right. In the midst of it he fixed the zenith; The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he entrusted to him.
Date: 1800–1750 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Enoch 72:2
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 The first rule of the lights: the Sun rises from the eastern portals of the heavens and sets in the western portals. 3 I observed six portals for the sun's rising and setting, and for the moon's rising and setting. The leaders of the stars and their groups also follow this path: six portals in the east and six in the west, all precisely aligned, with numerous windows on either side.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
"... 1 Enoch 72:2 is the first passage in which we meet the central topic of the heavenly gates. The concept of a door or gate through which the sun passes upon rising is familiar from Akkadian literature. In the Hymn to the Sun-God, in a context speaking of Shamash's rising, a gate is mentioned (I.13-15), while in Enuma Elish V.9-10, as Marduk is arranging the luminaries, one reads ... In Gilgamesh IX.42-45, as the hero Journeys to Utnapishtim ... that is, there appears to be a gate for the rising and setting sun ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 420.
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,