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1 Enoch

About this book

A Final Book by Enoch

Chapter 108

1 Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days. 2 You who have done good will wait for those days until an end is made of those who do evil and the power of the wrongdoers comes to an end. 3 You, however, wait until sin passes away; for their names will be erased from the book of life and from the books of the holy ones,⁠ and their offspring will be destroyed forever, and their spirits will be slain, and they will cry and lament in a place that is a chaotic wilderness, and they will burn in the fire; for there is no earth there.⁠ 4 I saw there something like an invisible cloud; because of its depth I could not look over it, and I saw a flame of fire blazing brightly, and things like shining mountains circling and sweeping to and fro. 5 I asked one of the holy angels who was with me and said to him: 'What is this shining thing? For it is not a heaven but only the flame of a blazing fire, and the voice of weeping, crying, and strong pain.'⁠ 6 He said to me: 'This place which you see is where the spirits of sinners and blasphemers are cast, and of those who do wickedness, and of those who pervert everything that the Lord has spoken through the mouth of the prophets, the things that will be. 7 For some of these things are written and inscribed above in heaven, so that the angels may read them and know what will happen to the sinners, and to the spirits of the humble, and of those who have afflicted their bodies and been rewarded by God, and of those who have been put to shame by wicked men. 8 They loved God and loved neither gold nor silver nor any of the good things in the world,⁠ but gave over their bodies to torture.⁠ 9 Since they came into being, they did not long after earthly food, but regarded everything as a passing breath, and lived accordingly,⁠ and the Lord tested them greatly, and their spirits were found pure, so that they should bless His name.⁠ 10 All the blessings destined for them I have recounted in the books. And He has assigned them their reward, because they were found to be such as loved heaven more than their life in the world,⁠ and though they were trampled underfoot by wicked men, and experienced abuse and reviling from them and were put to shame, yet they blessed Me. 11 And now I will summon the spirits of the good who belong to the generation of light, and I will transform those who were born in darkness, who in the flesh were not rewarded with the honor their faithfulness deserved. 12 I will bring out in shining light those who have loved My holy name, and I will seat each one on the throne of his honor.⁠ 13 They will shine for times without number, for righteousness is the judgment of God; for to the faithful He will give faithfulness in the dwelling of upright paths. 14 They will see those who were born in darkness led into darkness,⁠ while the righteous will shine brightly. 15 The sinners will cry aloud and see them shining, and they will indeed go where days and seasons are prescribed for them.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 108:8 and 1 John 2:15

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 John reflects a common Jewish tradition where love for the world is associated with attachment to wealth and material things, a tradition also found in 1 Enoch 108. Both contrast this worldly orientation with love for God.

Passages

1 Enoch 108:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
7 For some of these things are written and inscribed above in heaven, so that the angels may read them and know what will happen to the sinners, and to the spirits of the humble, and of those who have afflicted their bodies and been rewarded by God, and of those who have been put to shame by wicked men. 8 They loved God and loved neither gold nor silver nor any of the good things in the world, but gave over their bodies to torture. 9 Since they came into being, they did not long after earthly food, but regarded everything as a passing breath, and lived accordingly, and the Lord tested them greatly, and their spirits were found pure, so that they should bless His name.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

1 John 2:15

New Testament
14 I have written to you, children, that you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one. 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, 16 because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 John

References

"... The writer’s argument is strengthened by contrasting loving God with the love of silver and gold, implying that not to love God is to be devoted to the other. As no effort is made to introduce the possibility that devotion to God does not necessarily mean that one is oriented towards a love of wealth, it seems that the sinners singled out in the text belong to a particular social stratum, much as the main opponents in the Epistle. A similar connection between loving God and disdain for the world occurs similarly in the Similitudes at 48:7 (though formulated in terms of hating the present world order); 2 Baruch; in the Johannine tradition at John 12:25; and especially 1 John 2:15 which refers to material possessions (“do not love the world or the things in the world”, NRSV) ..."
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, 1 Enoch 91–108 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2007), 721.

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 108:8 and 1 John 2:15

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