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In 3 Enoch, angels object to Enoch entering heaven. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Sanhedrin gives them a similar objection to humanity's creation, answered by God's promise to carry and sustain people.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
3 Enoch 4:6
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
Hence the Holy One, blessed be He, lifted me up in their lifetime before their eyes to be a witness against them to the future world. And the Holy One, blessed be He, assigned me for a prince and a ruler among the ministering angels. In that hour three of the ministering angels, 'UZZA, 'AZZA and 'AZZAEL came forth and brought charges against me in the high heavens, saying before the Holy One, blessed be He: "Said not the Ancient Ones (First Ones) rightly before You: 'Do not create man!'" The Holy One, blessed be He, answered and said to them: "I have made and I will bear, yes, I will carry and will deliver". (Is. xlvi. 4.)
Sanhedrin 38b:6
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
When history arrived at the time of the people of the generation of the flood and the people of the generation of the dispersion, i.e., the Tower of Babel, whose actions were ruinous, the angels said before God: Master of the Universe, didn’t the first set of angels speak appropriately before You, that human beings are not worthy of having been created? God said to them concerning humanity: “Even to your old age I am the same; and even to hoar hairs will I suffer you; I have made and I will bear; and I will carry, and I will deliver you” (Isaiah 46:4), i.e., having created people, I will even suffer their flaws.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... I. "The primeval ones": The tradition behind
this is found in b.Sanh 38b: When God wanted
to create man. he first created a company of
angels and asked their advice. They opposed the
creation of man. so God destroyed them. The
same fate befell a second company, but a third
company allowed man to be created. However,
when the generation of the Flood came, these
angels said: "Lord of the Universe, did not the
first company of angels speak aright?" God
replied. "Even to old age I am the same, and
even to grey hairs will I carry" (Isa 46:4). This
tradition has been adapted here: (1) The third
company of angels is identified with 'Uzzah,
'Azzah, and 'Aza'el; (2) the charge brought
against mankind in general is incongruously
applied specifically to Enoch: (3) the point of the
expression "the first ones" (i.e. the first company
of angels) has been obscured. The talmudic form
of the tradition clearly has priority; what we have
in 3En is a rather clumsy reworking of it. On
the theme of angelic opposition to man. see 1:3.
n. f, and 5:10, n. I. ...”
Philip S. Alexander
"3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch" in James H. Charlesworth (ed.) The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1
(p. 259) Doubleday, 1983
* 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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