1 Enoch

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Chapter 104

1 I swear to you, that in heaven the angels remember you for good before the glory of the Great One: and your names are written before the glory of the Great One.⁠ 2 Be hopeful; for previously you were shamed through suffering and affliction; but now you shall shine as the lights of heaven,⁠ you shall shine and you shall be seen, and the portals of heaven shall be opened to you.⁠ 3 And in your cry, cry for judgment, and it shall appear to you; for all your tribulation shall be visited on the rulers, and on all who helped those who plundered you. 4 Be hopeful, and do not cast away your hopes for you shall have great joy as the angels of heaven. 5 What shall you be obliged to do? You shall not have to hide on the day of the great judgment and you shall not be found as sinners, and the eternal judgment shall be far from you for all the generations of the world. 6 And now, do not fear, you righteous, when you see the sinners growing strong and prospering in their ways: do not be companions with them, but stay away from their violence; for you shall become companions of the armies of heaven. 7 And, although you sinners say: 'All our sins shall not be searched out and written down,' nevertheless, all your sins shall be recorded every day. 8 And now I show you that light and darkness, day and night, see all your sins. 9 Don't be godless in your hearts, and do not lie nor alter the words of uprightness,⁠ nor charge with lying the words of the Holy Great One, nor take account of your idols; for all your lying and all your godlessness do not result in righteousness but in great sin.⁠ 10 And now I know this mystery, that sinners will alter and pervert the words of righteousness in many ways, and will speak wicked words, and lie, and practice great deceits, and write books concerning their words. 11 But when they write down truthfully all my words in their languages, and do not change or diminish anything from my words but write them all down truthfully - all that I first testified concerning them. 12 Then, I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much wisdom. 13 And to them the books will be given, and they will believe in them and rejoice over them, and then all the righteous who have learned from all the paths of uprightness will be recompensed.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 104:2 and Philippians 2:15

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

Summary

1 Enoch promises that those who suffer will one day shine like the lights of heaven, an image of vindication. Philippians follows the same apocalyptic tradition when urging the community to shine like stars in a corrupt world.

Passages

1 Enoch 104:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

1 I swear to you, that in heaven the angels remember you for good before the glory of the Great One: and your names are written before the glory of the Great One. 2 Be hopeful; for previously you were shamed through suffering and affliction; but now you shall shine as the lights of heaven, you shall shine and you shall be seen, and the portals of heaven shall be opened to you. 3 And in your cry, cry for judgment, and it shall appear to you; for all your tribulation shall be visited on the rulers, and on all who helped those who plundered you. 4 Be hopeful, and do not cast away your hopes for you shall have great joy as the angels of heaven.

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

Philippians 2:15

New Testament

12 So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, 13 for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God. 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world 16 by holding on to the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast: that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice together with all of you. 18 And in the same way you also should be glad and rejoice together with me.

56–63 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Philippians

References

"... Three times in Philippians 1–2, transformation caused by the heavenly world comes into view. In the hymn, Christ is proclaimed as Lord Jesus by all powers from heaven, earth, and the underworld (2:10). The scene evokes the enthronization of the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13–14 as well as the enthronization of the slaughtered lamb in Revelation 5:6–14.10 In Philippians 1:23, Paul desires to depart and be with Christ (σὺν Χριστῷ εἶναι) and might thereby echo the apocalyptic promise of companionship with “God’s elected one” or the “Lord of the Spirits” in 1 Enoch 39:4–8.11 And when Paul challenges the community in Philippians 2:15 to become “children of God ... in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world,” he resorts to one of the most traditional apocalyptic images, the resurrection (1 Enoch 104:2; Daniel 12:3; Testament of Moses 10:8–9; 4 Ezra 7:97; 2 Baruch 51:10) ..."

Angela Standhartinger, “Apocalyptic Thought in Philippians,” in The Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition and the Shaping of New Testament Thought, ed. Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017), 233–244.

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

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 104:2 and Philippians 2:15

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 104:2

Philippians 2:15

References

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