The Book of the Watchers

Chapter 1

1 The words of Enoch's blessing, with which he blessed the chosen and righteous,⁠ who will live through the days of tribulation when all the wicked and godless will be removed. 2 He began his parable⁠ and said, Enoch, a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me. I heard everything from them, and from them I understood what I saw, not for this generation, but for a distant one yet to come. 3 Regarding the chosen I spoke, and took up my parable about them: The Holy Great One will emerge from His dwelling,⁠ 4 And the eternal God will walk upon the earth, even on Mount Sinai, and appear from His camp and reveal His might from the heavens above.⁠ 5 Everyone will be struck with fear and the Watchers will tremble, and great fear and trembling will grip them to the ends of the earth.⁠ 6 The high mountains will shake, the hills will be leveled, and they will melt like wax before the fire⁠ 7 The earth will be completely torn apart, and everything on it will perish, and there will be judgment upon all people. 8 But with the righteous, He will establish peace. He will protect the chosen, and mercy will be upon them. They will all belong to God, prosper, and be blessed. He will aid them, and light will shine for them,⁠ and He will make peace with them.⁠ 9 Look! He comes with tens of thousands of His holy ones⁠ to pass judgment upon all,⁠ to annihilate all the wicked,⁠ to convict every soul of all the godless deeds they have committed,⁠ and of all the harsh words that godless sinners have spoken against Him.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 1:9 and Cassiodorus, Comments on Jude

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Early Christian

Summary

The Christian theologian Cassiodorus, in his commentary on Jude, discusses why the epistle quotes 1 Enoch, demonstrating how 1 Enoch continued to influence Christian tradition and interpretation for centuries.

Passages

1 Enoch 1:9

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

6 The high mountains will shake, the hills will be leveled, and they will melt like wax before the fire 7 The earth will be completely torn apart, and everything on it will perish, and there will be judgment upon all people. 8 But with the righteous, He will establish peace. He will protect the chosen, and mercy will be upon them. They will all belong to God, prosper, and be blessed. He will aid them, and light will shine for them, and He will make peace with them. 9 Look! He comes with tens of thousands of His holy ones to pass judgment upon all, to annihilate all the wicked, to convict every soul of all the godless deeds they have committed, and of all the harsh words that godless sinners have spoken against Him.

300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Cassiodorus, Comments on Jude

Early Christian

“Clouds,” he says, “without water; who do not possess in themselves the divine and fruitful word.” Wherefore, he says, “men of this kind are carried about both by winds and violent blasts.” “Trees,” he says, “of autumn, without fruit,”—unbelievers, that is, who bear no fruit of fidelity. “Twice dead,” he says: once, namely, when they sinned by transgressing, and a second time when delivered up to punishment, according to the predestined judgments of God; inasmuch as it is to be reckoned death, even when each one does not at once deserve the inheritance. “Waves,” he says, “of a raging sea.” By these words he signifies the life of the Gentiles, whose end is abominable ambition. “Wandering stars,”—that is, he means those who err and are apostates are of that kind of stars which fell from the seats of the angels—“to whom,” for their apostasy, “the blackness of darkness is reserved for ever. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,” he says, “prophesied of these.” In these words he verities the prophecy. “Those,” he says, “separating” the faithful from the unfaithful, be convicted according to their own unbelief.

530–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Cassiodorus, Comments on Jude

References

"... Eusebius is correct that earlier Christian writers interact with these five Catholic Epistles rather sparingly. Origen is the first to mention explicitly a second epistle of Peter, and while 2 John (and maybe even 3 John) had been used and cited even in the second century, Origen notes contemporary doubts about all three of these letters and does not quote them in his works extant in Greek. Origen makes extensive use of James and approves also of Jude. Clement of Alexandria quotes Jude a few times, and Tertullian so assumes the unimpeachable authority of Jude that he uses its citation of 1 Enoch 1:9 (Jude 14) as a proof for the inspiration of this latter text (De Cultu Feminarum 1.3), though Jerome reports that Jude's use of Enoch had led to doubts about Jude (De Viris Illustribus 4). Pre-Origenic use of James is more difficult to uncover, despite Eusebius's statement that Clement of Alexandria commented on the Catholic Epistles (Historia ecclesiastica 6.14.1). The relative brevity of each of these letters may have played a role in their poor attestation in pre-fourth-century sources ..."

Edmon L. Gallagher and John D. Meade, The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 105–106.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

The Book of the Watchers

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 1:9 and Cassiodorus, Comments on Jude

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 1:9

Cassiodorus, Comments on Jude

References

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