Texts in Conversation
Revelation 20:14 describes the final judgment in which death and the grave are cast into the fiery abyss, a scene that parallels 1 Enoch 90:25 in the Animal Apocalypse where the seventy shepherds are judged and thrown into a similar abyss of fire.
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1 Enoch 90:25
Pseudepigrapha
22 And He said to that man who wrote before Him, being one of those seven white ones, and said unto him: 'Take those seventy shepherds to whom I delivered the sheep, and who taking them on their own authority slew more than I commanded them.' 23 And behold they were all bound, I saw, and they all stood before Him. 24 And the judgement was first held over the stars, and they were judged and found guilty, and went to the place of condemnation, and they were cast into an abyss, full of fire and flaming, and full of pillars of fire. 25 And those seventy shepherds were judged and found guilty, and they were cast into that fiery abyss. 26 And I saw at that time how a similar abyss was opened in the midst of the earth, full of fire, and they brought those blinded sheep, and they were all judged and found guilty and cast into this fiery abyss, and they burned; now this abyss was to the right of that house. 27 And I saw those sheep burning and their bones burning. 28 And I stood up to see until they folded up that old house; and carried off all the pillars, and all the beams and ornaments of the house were at the same time folded up with it, and they carried it off and laid it in a place in the south of the land.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Revelation 20:14
New Testament
11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
Date: 92-96 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A similar conclusion can be reached in relation to the books of judgment referred to as “opened” in Revelation 20:12. The important parallels in Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 90:20), the Book of Giants (4Q530) and Daniel 7:9–10 demonstrate how much currency traditions formed during the 2nd century B.C.E. still had when Revelation was composed. More specifically, Revelation envisions the opened books relating to the expanse of deceased humanity (“great and small”), while the texts in Daniel 7 and the Book of Giants are concerned with the judgment to be executed against the fourth beast (Daniel 7:8) and the ante-diluvian giants, respectively. The Enochic Animal Apocalypse, on the other hand, conceives of the judgment in the broadest possible terms; it is meted out to several groups, all who “were found to be sinners”: the fallen stars (1 Enoch 90:21), the seventy angelic shepherds (90:22), and the “blinded sheep”, that is, the disobedient of Israel (90:26–27). In a different vein, however, Revelation relates the books to the human dead (Revelation 20:12–13), not to the judgment of demonic powers (20:9). Conceptually, the scope of judgment in the Animal Apocalypse provides the nearest antecedent to Revelation; however, it is difficult to establish that the inclusion of the deeds of dead humans in the opened books can be explained on the basis of literary influence ..."
Stuckenbruck, Loren T.
The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts
(p. 318) Mohr Siebeck, 2014
* 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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