Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch describes a boundary at the edge of the earth where the heavens end, following Greek tradition in Hesiod’s Theogony, which places Tartarus beyond the edge of creation. The Greek cosmology serves to depict the prison of the Watchers.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Hesiod, Theogony 743
Classical
[740] It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods. There stands the awful home of murky Night [745] wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold
Date: 730–700 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Enoch 18:11
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
10 And beyond these mountains is a region at the end of the great earth: there the heavens were completed. 11 And I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike in height and depth. 12 And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no dome of heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it; there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place. 13 I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired about them,
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 18:11: This description (chasma mega) is a word-for-word parallel to Hesiod’s description of Tartarus ..."
Michael S. Heiser, A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader's Commentary (Crane, MO: Defender, 2019), 1:181.
* 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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