Texts in Conversation
In Job, God asks whether anyone has seen the gates of darkness or knows where light resides, questions that mark the limits of human knowledge. 1 Enoch answers them, with Enoch taken to the western edge of the earth to see those gates himself.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Job 38:19
Hebrew Bible
16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea or walked about in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness? 18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all. 19 “In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place, 20 that you may take them to their borders and perceive the pathways to their homes?
1 Enoch 35:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 And from there I went towards the west to the ends of the earth, and saw there three portals of heaven open, similar to those I had seen in the east, with the same number of portals and the same number of outlets.
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Notes and References
... In this connection it seems to me important that Enoch visits some of the places that Job (chapter 38) knows he cannot. Thus, for example, in 1 Enoch 17:6-8 it is said that Enoch reaches the great darkness and goes 'where no flesh walks', that he sees the place where the waters of the deep pour out, the mouths of all the rivers and the mouth of the deep. This may be compared with Job 38:16-21: Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? ... Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness? ...
Knibb, Michael A.
Essays on the Book of Enoch and Other Early Jewish Texts and Traditions
(p. 108) Brill, 2009
* 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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