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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 10

1 Then the Most High, the Holy and Great One spoke, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, saying to him:⁠ 2 'Go to Noah and tell him in my name to hide himself and reveal to him that the end is near: the entire earth will be destroyed, a deluge is about to cover the whole earth and will wipe out everything on it.⁠ 3 And now instruct him so that he may escape and his descendants may be preserved for all future generations.' 4 And the Lord also said to Raphael: 'Bind Azâzêl hand and foot,⁠ and cast him into the darkness: make a hole in the desert in Dûdâêl, and throw him in.⁠ 5 Place upon him rough and jagged rocks, cover him with darkness, and let him remain there forever, and cover his face so he may not see light.⁠ 6 On the day of great judgment he shall be thrown into the fire.⁠ 7 And restore the earth which the angels have corrupted, and announce the restoration of the earth, so that the plague may be healed, and all the children of men may not perish due to the secrets that the Watchers have revealed and taught their children.' 8 The entire earth has been corrupted by the deeds taught by Azâzêl: attribute all sin to him.'⁠ 9 And to Gabriel, the Lord said: 'Proceed against the bastards, the outcasts, and the children of fornication: and destroy the children of the Watchers from among men; make them fight one another, so they may destroy each other in battle: for they shall not have long lives. 10 And no request made by their fathers on their behalf will be granted; for they hope to live an eternal life, and each one of them thinks he will live five hundred years.' 11 And the Lord said to Michael: 'Go, bind Semjâzâ and his companions who have joined with women and defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness.⁠ 12 And when their sons have killed each other, and they have seen the destruction of their loved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, until the day of their judgment and their ultimate end,⁠ until the judgment that lasts forever is completed. 13 In those days they will be taken to the abyss of fire: to the torment and the prison where they will be confined forever.⁠ 14 And whoever is condemned and destroyed will from then on be bound together with them till the end of all ages. 15 And destroy all the spirits of the corrupt and the children of the Watchers, because they have wronged mankind. 16 Remove all evil from the face of the earth and let every wicked deed end: and let the plant of righteousness and truth emerge; and it will be a blessing. The deeds of righteousness and truth will be planted in truth and joy forever.⁠ 17 And then all the righteous will escape, And shall live until they beget thousands of children, And all the days of their youth and their old age Shall be completed in peace.⁠ 18 And then the whole earth will be cultivated in righteousness, and will be entirely planted with trees and filled with blessings.⁠ 19 And all desirable trees will be planted on it, and they will plant vines on it: the vine they plant will produce abundant wine, and for every measure of seeds sown on it, a thousand will be harvested, and every measure of olives will produce ten presses of oil.⁠ 20 And cleanse the earth from all oppression, from all injustice, from all sin, and from all godlessness: and all the uncleanness that has been committed upon the earth, remove it from the earth. 21 'And all the children of men shall become righteous, and all nations shall worship and praise Me, and all shall worship Me.⁠ 22 And the earth shall be cleansed from all contamination, from all sin, from all punishment, and from all torment, and I will never again send these upon it from generation to generation and forever.'

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 10:4 and 1 Peter 3:19

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 Peter 3 describes Jesus preaching to spirits in prison, echoing 1 Enoch where Azazel and the Watchers are kept in an underground prison until the final judgment. The similarity shows how early Christian tradition developed Jewish apocalyptic tradition.

Passages

1 Enoch 10:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 And now instruct him so that he may escape and his descendants may be preserved for all future generations.' 4 And the Lord also said to Raphael: 'Bind Azâzêl hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: make a hole in the desert in Dûdâêl, and throw him in. 5 Place upon him rough and jagged rocks, cover him with darkness, and let him remain there forever, and cover his face so he may not see light. 6 On the day of great judgment he shall be thrown into the fire. 7 And restore the earth which the angels have corrupted, and announce the restoration of the earth, so that the plague may be healed, and all the children of men may not perish due to the secrets that the Watchers have revealed and taught their children.' 8 The entire earth has been corrupted by the deeds taught by Azâzêl: attribute all sin to him.'
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

1 Peter 3:19

New Testament
15 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. 16 Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. 18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit. 19 In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. 21 And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Peter

References

"... Commentators have long known that there is some connection between 1 Enoch and what is said in 1 Peter 3:18–22, but the exact connections have been vigorously debated. Indeed, so vigorous has the debate been that some have dubbed this passage in 1 Peter the most difficult one in the whole New Testament to understand. Certainly, clarity is not to be had if one fails to read this material in the light of its Jewish and apocalyptic contexts ... Nickelsburg rightly characterized what we find in 1 Enoch as apocalyptic eschatology. The same could be said about the eschatology in 1 Peter, especially 3:18–22 ..."
Ben Witherington, Torah Old and New: Exegesis, Intertextuality, and Hermeneutics (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 397–401.
"... The portrait of Christ in 1 Peter 3:18–22 is modeled on Enoch, his heavenly ascent and condemnation of disobedient angelic spirits. 1 Enoch and 1 Peter 3 illustrate a shift in cosmologies occurring at the turn of the era, conceptions of an ascent through multiple heavenly realms, and a location of imprisoned angelic spirits in one of the lower heavenly realms (rather than under the earth—an earlier view). The disobedient spirits of 1 Peter 3:19 are not the spirits of deceased humans (one traditional view) but are angels that disobeyed God and were imprisoned in the heavens prior to Noah and the flood, as 1 Enoch recounts the myth (6–11, 12–16) ..."
John H. Elliott, “1 Enoch, 1 Peter, and Social–Scientific Criticism A Review Article on a Major 1 Enoch Commentary,” BTB 39.1 (2009): 39–43.

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

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1 Enoch 10:4 and 1 Peter 3:19

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