Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch and Judith use similar language to describe God’s knowledge of events before they occur, reflecting a later Jewish tradition that presents God as having complete knowledge of the world and its future.
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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)
Judith 9:5
Deuterocanon
4 and gave their wives for a prey, and their daughters to be captives, and all their spoils to be divided among your dear children; which were moved with zeal for you, and abhorred the pollution of their blood, and called upon you for aid. O God, O my God, hear me also who am a widow. 5 For you did the things that were before those things, and those things, and such as come after; and you planned the things which are now, and the things which are to come. The things which you planned came to pass. 6 Yes, the things which you determined stood before you, and said, ‘Behold, we are here; for all your ways are prepared, and your judgment is with foreknowledge.’
Date: 100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 1 Enoch 9:11 ... In this final strophe, the author returns to the subject of God's omniscience (compare with verse 5). It is, first of all, construed as knowledge rather than sight; contrast verse 5. Moreover, God's omniscience is foreknowledge, a point made somewhat more strongly and with deterministic connotations in Judith’s prayer (Judith 9:5-6; compare also Testament of Moses 12:4-5). Verse 11 returns to the language of verse 5 and God's seeing the events on earth. What God sees are the specific events in question. Thus, the pattern of verse 5 + verses 6-8 is repeated: God's omniscience; his awareness of the specific events of concern to the person praying ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 213.
* 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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