1 Enoch 99:4

Pseudepigrapha

1 Woe to you who work godlessness, And glory in lying and extol them: Ye shall perish, and no happy life shall be yours. 2 Woe to them who pervert the words of uprightness, And transgress the eternal law, And transform themselves into what they were not [into sinners]: They shall be trodden under foot upon the earth. 3 In those days make ready, ye righteous, to raise your prayers as a memorial, And place them as a testimony before the angels, That they may place the sin of the sinners for a memorial before the Most High. 4 In those days the nations shall be stirred up, And the families of the nations shall arise on the day of destruction. 5 And in those days the destitute shall go forth and carry off their children, And they shall abandon them, so that their children shall perish through them: Yea, they shall abandon their children (that are still) sucklings, and not return to them, And shall have no pity on their beloved ones. 6 And again I swear to you, ye sinners, that sin is prepared for a day of unceasing bloodshed.

Mark 13:8

New Testament

1 Now as Jesus was going out of the temple courts, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at these tremendous stones and buildings!” 2 Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. All will be torn down!” 3 So while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that all these things are about to take place?” 5 Jesus began to say to them, “Watch out that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will mislead many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. These are but the beginning of birth pains.

 Notes and References

"... Despite the absence of the terms ‘woes’ or ‘birthpangs’, the details in this passage use the same vocabulary to describe the same familiar phenomena. Such descriptions in the rabbinic writings bear remarkable consistency in content and approach to the centuries-old Old Testament prophecies of the Day of the Lord and its antecedents previously described; equally, they bear striking similarity to many of the much more nearly contemporary sayings of Jesus relating to the End, which are stated in terms full of Old Testament allusion: he describes the beginning of the birth-pains in Mark 13:8 as follows: ‘Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.’ On family breakdown he says: ‘Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death’ (Mark 13:12); and regarding the spiritual health of the people: ‘And then many will be caused to stumble and will betray and hate one another. Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will vanish’ (Matthew 24:10, 12). Jesus’ ready usage of themes and terminology familiar from both Old Testament and the later writings of the Rabbis is entirely consistent with his own rabbinic background. The apocalyptic literature of the period up to the 2nd century AD is essentially eschatological in content, employing many of the same themes and motifs as the rabbinic writings. Here, consequently, the woes are mentioned far more frequently: Charles goes as far as to state that ‘The woes before the Messianic Age are a feature of all Apocalypse.’ Three typical examples show very similar themes to both the biblical and the rabbinic texts: 1 Enoch 99:4-5, 7; 100:1-2 (2nd Century BC - 1st Century AD) ..."

Steedman, Robin Anthony Colossians 1:24 and Vicarious Suffering in the Church (pp. 251-252) University of Birmingham, 2013

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