Texts in Conversation
Tobit and 1 Enoch both describe angels carrying human prayers to the divine throne, following Jewish traditions of heavenly intercession that developed early in the Second Temple period.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 9:3
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 They said to one another: 'The earth, left without inhabitants, cries out, and the voice of their crying reaches the gates of heaven.' 3 'And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men plead, saying, "Present our case before the Most High."' 4 They said to the Lord of the ages: 'Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, and God of the ages, the throne of Your glory stands through all generations, and Your name is holy and glorious and blessed through all ages!
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tobit 3:16
Deuterocanon
15 and that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my father either, in the land of my captivity. I am the only daughter of my father, and he has no other child to be his heir, nor has he kinsman near him, nor has he relation, that I should keep myself for a wife to him. Seven husbands of my are dead already; and why should it be mine to live on? And if it pleases you not to slay me—O Lord, now hear my reproach. 16 At the very same time the prayer of both was heard before the glory of God. 17 And Raphael was sent to heal them both: the case of Tobit to remove the white films from his eyes, that he might see the light of God with his eyes; and in the case of Sarah the daughter of Raguel, to give her for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to unbind Asmodaeus the evil demon from her; because it belonged to Tobias that he should inherit her rather than all those which wished to take her, At that time did Tobit return from the courtyard into his house, and Sarah the daughter of Raguel herself also came down from the upper chamber.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... For “before the glory of the majesty”, we should perhaps read “before the glory of the Great One”, a corruption that could go back to the Aramaic. Compare the parallelism of “the Most High” and “the Great Holy One” in 1 Enoch 10:1. Compare also 1 Enoch 104:1 and Tobit 3:16; 12:15, where the suggested phrase occurs in the context of the heavenly intercession of the angels ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 208.
* 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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