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In 1 Kings, the heavenly host stands on God's right and left. In 3 Enoch, people arrange the heavenly bodies beside their idols in the same way, making false worship a copy of God's heavenly court.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Kings 22:19
Hebrew Bible
17 Micaiah said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. Then the Lord said, ‘They have no master. They should go home in peace.’” 18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you he does not prophesy prosperity for me, but disaster?” 19 Micaiah said, “That being the case, listen to the Lord’s message. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the heavenly assembly standing beside him on his right and on his left. 20 The Lord said, ‘Who will deceive Ahab, so he will attack Ramoth Gilead and die there?’ One said this and another that.
3 Enoch 5:9
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
And they brought down the sun, the moon, planets and constellations, and placed them before the idols on their right hand and on their left, to attend them even as they attend the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written (1 Kings xxii. 19): "And all the host of heaven was standing by him on his right hand and on his left". What power was in them that they were able to bring them down? They would not have been able to bring them down but for 'Uzza, 'Azza and 'Azziel who taught them sorceries by which they brought them down and made use of them.
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Notes and References
“... Here, the exegetical context is important to note. Although
1 Kgs
22:19 describes the heavenly worship of God, this prooftext is used in
3 Enoch 5 (§§7-8) to explain the opposite: the exact nature of the ido-
latry of Enosh’s Generation. As such, this passage presupposes rabbinic
exegetical traditions about Gen 4:26, which understood this verse as
specifying the “Generation of Enosh” as the predeluvian era in which
idolatry first arose.4? The Targumim, for instance, depict people at the
time of Enosh calling idols by the name of the Lord (Tg. Neof., Tg. Ps.-
J., Frg. Tg. ad Gen 4:26). As such, the origins of idolatry are under-
stood as the exact inversion of divine worship or, more specifically, as
the innovative adaptation of a proper mode of worship for an improper
object: idols. ...”
Annette Yoshiko Reed
From Asael and Semihazah to Uzzah, Azzah, and Azael: 3 Enoch 5 (§§7–8) and Jewish Reception-History of 1 Enoch
(p. 118) Mohr Siebeck, 2001
* 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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