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1 Enoch 72 incorporates ideas from Enuma Elish about the ordered paths of the sun, moon, and stars and the heavenly gates they move through. Both describe a structured cosmos set by divine command, showing 1 Enoch following Mesopotamian traditions.
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Enuma Elish V
The Seven Tablets of Creation
Ancient Near East
He fashioned heavenly stations for the great gods, And set up constellations, the patterns of the stars. He appointed the year, marked off divisions, And set up three stars each for the twelve months. After he had organized the year, He established the heavenly station of Ne-beru to fix the stars' intervals. That none should transgress or be slothful He fixed the heavenly stations of Enlil and Ea with it. Gates he opened on both sides, And put strong bolts at the left and the right. He placed the heights of heaven in her Tia-mat's belly, He created Nannar, entrusting to him the night.
Date: 1800 - 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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1 Enoch 72:2
Pseudepigrapha
2 The first rule of the luminaries: 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: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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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 th rough 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 ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82
(p. 420) 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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