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1 Enoch 90 describes the Jerusalem temple folded up and replaced with a greater and permanent temple. This apocalyptic language is echoed in Revelation 21 which describes creation passing away as a new, permanent, and heavenly temple is revealed.
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1 Enoch 90:28
Pseudepigrapha
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. 29 And I saw until the Lord of the sheep brought a new house greater and loftier than that first, and set it up in the place of the first which had been folded up: all its pillars were new, and its ornaments were new and larger than those of the first, the old one which He had taken away, and all the sheep were within it. 30 And I saw all the sheep which had been left, and all the beasts on the earth, and all the birds of the heaven, falling down and doing homage to those sheep and making petition to and obeying them in every thing.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Revelation 21:1
New Testament
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. 2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.” 5 And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Then he said to me, “Write it down, because these words are reliable and true.”
Date: 92-96 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 1 Enoch 85-90 is a long allegorical account of the history of Israel from the Creation to the messianic age. There is some mixing of metaphor, but in general men, Israelites and others, are represented by various kinds of animals. The present passage is the close of the allegory, which was written probably in or not long after the time of the Maccabees ... The old Jerusalem is to be replaced by a new one which God himself will establish. The idea of a new Jerusalem, or new Temple, is fairly a common in apocalyptic writings, compare Revelation 21:2 ..."
Barrett, C. K.
The New Testament Background: Writings from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire That Illuminate Christian Origins
(pp. 327-328) Harper San Francisco, 1995
* 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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