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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 14:8 and 2 Corinthians 12:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In 2 Corinthians, Paul describes a heavenly journey, a common Jewish apocalyptic tradition similar to Enoch in 1 Enoch 14. His claim to have reached the “third heaven,” compared to others who say the fifth or seventh heaven, may reflect humility.

Passages

1 Enoch 14:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

2 Corinthians 12:2

New Testament
1 It is necessary to go on boasting. Though it is not profitable, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know that this man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows)
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Corinthians

References

"... Why does Paul only ascend to the third heaven? By the mid-first century CE a seven-tiered cosmology had replaced an older three-tiered cosmology represented by the earliest portions of 1 Enoch 14. Is Paul clinging to an old fashioned cosmology? More likely, given the context of the passage where Paul is playing the fool in his debate with the boastful super-apostles that have disturbed his Corinthian disciples, is the view of Paula Gooder that Paul sets himself up as a failed mystic. He only reached the third heaven; a thorn in the side—an angel of Satan—stopped him going further, prevented him being too highly exalted (v. 7). He did not see God enthroned in the seventh heaven. He only heard some things he cannot report. His was a failed invasion of heaven, not an ascent! ..."
Crispin Fletcher-Louis, “Jewish Mysticism, the New Testament, and Rabbinic-Period Mysticism,” in The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature, ed. Reimund Bieringer, Florentino García Martínez, and Didier Pollefeyt, JSJSup 136 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 429–470.

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 14:8 and 2 Corinthians 12:2

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