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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 14

1 The book of the words of righteousness,⁠ and of the reprimand of the eternal Watchers, in accordance with the command of the Holy Great One in that vision. 2 I saw in my sleep what I will now tell with a tongue of flesh and with the breath of my mouth, which the Great One has given to men so that they may converse and understand with the heart. 3 Just as He has created and given to man the power to understand the word of wisdom, so He created me also and gave me the power to reprimand the Watchers, the children of heaven.⁠ 4 I wrote out your petition, and in my vision it was made clear that your petition will not be granted for all the days of eternity, and that judgment has been finally passed on you. Your petition will not be granted. 5 From now on you will not ascend into heaven for all eternity, and on the earth the decree has gone out to bind you for all the days of the world.⁠ 6 Before that you will see the destruction of your beloved sons, and you will take no pleasure in them, for they will fall before you by the sword. 7 Your petition for them will not be granted, nor will your petition for yourselves, even though you weep and pray and speak all the words contained in the writing I have written. 8 And the vision was shown to me.⁠ In the vision, clouds called me and a mist summoned me; the path of the stars and the lightnings sped me on and hurried me, and the winds in the vision gave me wings and carried me upward, lifting me into heaven.⁠ 9 I went in until I came near a wall built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire,⁠ and it began to frighten me.⁠ 10 I went through the tongues of fire and came near a large house built of crystals. The walls of the house were like a mosaic floor of crystals, and its foundation was of crystal. 11 Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their sky was clear as water.⁠ 12 A flaming fire surrounded the walls, and its doorways blazed with fire. 13 I entered that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice. There were no delights of life in it; fear covered me, and trembling seized me. 14 As I shook and trembled, I fell on my face. 15 I saw in a vision, and there was a second house, greater than the first, and the whole doorway stood open before me, and it was built of flames of fire.⁠ 16 In every way it so surpassed the other in splendor and magnificence and size that I cannot describe its splendor and its size to you. 17 Its floor was of fire, and above it were lightnings and the path of the stars, and its ceiling also was flaming fire.⁠ 18 I looked and saw a lofty throne inside it.⁠ Its appearance was like crystal,⁠ and its wheels were like the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim.⁠ 19 From underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire, so that I could not look at it.⁠ 20 The Great Glory sat on it, and His garment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow.⁠ 21 None of the angels could enter and look on His face because of its magnificence and glory, and no mortal could look on Him.⁠ 22 A flaming fire was all around Him, and a great fire stood before Him; no one near Him could come close.⁠ Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, yet He needed no counselor.⁠ 23 The most holy ones who were near Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him. 24 Until then I had lain face down, trembling, and the Lord called me with His own mouth and said to me: 'Come near, Enoch, and hear my word.'⁠ 25 One of the holy ones came to me and woke me, and made me rise up and approach the door, and I bowed my face down.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 14:21 and Revelation 5:11

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation 5 describes angels around God's throne numbering ten thousand times ten thousand, a detail that parallels 1 Enoch 14 where the same language describes the overwhelming number of the divine army that surround God.

Passages

1 Enoch 14:21

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
19 From underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire, so that I could not look at it. 20 The Great Glory sat on it, and His garment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. 21 None of the angels could enter and look on His face because of its magnificence and glory, and no mortal could look on Him. 22 A flaming fire was all around Him, and a great fire stood before Him; no one near Him could come close. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, yet He needed no counselor. 23 The most holy ones who were near Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Revelation 5:11

New Testament
9 They were singing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. 10 You have appointed them as a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand—thousands times thousands— 12 all of whom were singing in a loud voice: “Worthy is the lamb who was killed to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and praise!”
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... Significantly, the phrase “day and night” used by John to denote the ceaseless worship of God comes close to what the Book of Watchers states about “the holy ones of the watchers who approached him (God)” in 1 Enoch 14:23 “they did not depart by night” and, if we may follow Nickelsburg’s emendation of the text, “did not leave ⟨by day⟩.” Only these two texts from the Second Temple period share this language in relation to the heavenly worship (also Revelation 7:15), while several documents apply the phrase to the cultic activity of priestly groups (1 Chronicles 23:3; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 7.14.7; 1QS vi 6–12). Though in reverse order, the presence of “myriads of myriads” and “thousands of thousands” is shared by two passages in the Book of Parables (40:1; 71:8; for the same order see Apocalypse of Zephaniah 4:1; 8:1; 1 Clement 34:6) with Revelation 5:11, whereas Psalm 68:17 refers to “a myriad thousands,” and the Book of Giants, in a tradition that relates to Daniel 7, describes the worship of God by “thousands” and “hundreds.” The sequence in Revelation, however, corresponds to that of the Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 14:22) and to Daniel 7:10, either text of which is likely to have shaped the wording here ..."
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 294–295.

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1 Enoch 14:21 and Revelation 5:11

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