1 Enoch 14:18

Pseudepigrapha

15 And in every respect it so excelled in splendour and magnificence and extent that I cannot describe to you its splendour and its extent. 16 And its floor was of fire, and above it were lightnings and the path of the stars, and its ceiling also was flaming fire. 17 And I looked and saw ⌈⌈therein⌉⌉ a lofty throne: its appearance was as crystal, and the wheels thereof as the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim. 18 And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. 19 And the Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. 20 None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him.

Revelation 4:2

New Testament

1 After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said: “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was standing in heaven with someone seated on it! 3 And the one seated on it was like jasper and carnelian in appearance, and a rainbow looking like it was made of emerald encircled the throne. 4 In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne, 6 and in front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. In the middle of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

 Notes and References

"... The vision of the open door is followed by a heavenly ascent, a common topos in both Greco-Roman and Jewish antecedent traditions. Himmelfarb rightly notes that the development of heavenly journeys to the divine throne-room in ancient Jewish tradition begins with the ascension of Enoch (1 Enoch 14).5 This initial development takes place within a vision but includes the ascension of the seer (compare ALD 4; Testament of Levi 2–8). John is ‘in the spirit’, a phrase which denotes a trance-like state that involves an ascent apart from the body. Other traditions that take up the heavenly ascent motif include multilayered heavens, much like what is found in the later Enochic traditions and the Hekhalot literature. The BOW and Revelation, however, only know of a three-tiered cosmos consisting of underworld, earth, and heaven (1 Enoch 10:12–13; 14:5; 15:10; Rev 4:1–2; 12:7–12; 20:2–3). Since other texts closely associated with early Christian texts also attest a three-tiered universe, we can conclude that these, as well as John, were in conversation with a stream of tradition such as that reflected in 1 Enoch 14 ..."

Mathews, Mark D. Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful: Perspectives on Wealth in the Second Temple Period and the Apocalypse of John (p. 168) Cambridge University Press, 2013

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