Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch 9 and Susanna describe prayers spoken when God is silent during injustice. In 1 Enoch, the prayer laments violence on the earth and in Susanna, the falsely accused woman cries out. Neither asks to be rescued; both use prayer to protest to God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 9:11
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
9 The women have borne giants, and as a result the whole earth has been filled with blood and unrighteousness. 10 And now the souls of those who have died are crying out and pleading at the gates of heaven, and their laments have risen up; they cannot stop because of the lawless acts committed on the earth. 11 You know all things before they happen, and You see these things and allow them, and You do not tell us what we should do about them.'
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Susanna 1:42
Deuterocanon
40 But having taken this woman, we asked who the young man was, 41 but she would not tell us. We testify these things.” Then the assembly believed them, as those who were elders of the people and judges; so they condemned her to death. 42 Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, “O everlasting God, you know the secrets, and know all things before they happen. 43 You know that they have testified falsely against me. Behold, I must die, even though I never did such things as these men have maliciously invented against me.” 44 The Lord heard her voice.
Date: 200–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... the prayer is not really a petition that God act as one’s predications of him would lead one to expect; it is, in effect, an indictment that God has failed so to act and has not answered the cry that a beleaguered humanity has raised to him. It is perhaps not by accident that a similar claim is made in Job 24 or in psalms of individual lament (compare Psalm 22:2). The only prayer of those listed above that parallels the form of 1 Enoch 9:4-11 (i.e., with no petition) is Susanna 42-43, which follows Susanna’s initial cry (verse 35) and subsequent condemnation (verses 36–41). Here too there is no petition, only her complaint that God is not acting in keeping with his knowledge of her situation ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 206.
* 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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