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1 Enoch

About this book

Enoch's Journey to the Northwest

Chapter 17

1 And they brought me to a place where those present were like flaming fire, and when they wished, they appeared as men.⁠ 2 And they led me to a place of darkness,⁠ and to a mountain whose peak reached to heaven.⁠ 3 And I saw the places of the sun and moon and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder in the utmost depths, where there was a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightnings.⁠ 4 And they took me to the living waters,⁠ and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun.⁠ 5 And I came to a river of fire where the fire flows like water and pours into the great sea towards the west.⁠ 6 I saw the great rivers and came to the great river and to the great darkness, and went to the place where no flesh walks. 7 I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place from where all the waters of the deep flow. 8 I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 17:4 and Bava Batra 84a

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Rabbinic

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Summary

1 Enoch 17 describes a journey to the fiery west where the sun sets and living waters flow, mixing images of life and death. Rabbinic tradition in Bava Batra uses this imagery, showing how apocalyptic themes continued in Rabbinic texts.

Passages

1 Enoch 17:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 And they led me to a place of darkness, and to a mountain whose peak reached to heaven. 3 And I saw the places of the sun and moon and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder in the utmost depths, where there was a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightnings. 4 And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun. 5 And I came to a river of fire where the fire flows like water and pours into the great sea towards the west. 6 I saw the great rivers and came to the great river and to the great darkness, and went to the place where no flesh walks.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Bava Batra 84a

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud
The Gemara asks: And according to that which entered our mind initially, that the sun is white, doesn’t it redden in the morning and evening? The Gemara answers: In the morning it becomes red as it passes over the site of the roses of the Garden of Eden, whose reflections give the light a red hue. In the evening the sun turns red because it passes over the entrance of Gehenna, whose fires redden the light. And there are those who say the opposite in explaining why the sun is red in the morning and the evening, i.e., in the morning it passes over the entrance of Gehenna, while in the evening it passes over the site of the roses of the Garden of Eden.
450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Bava Batra

References

"... This paradisiacal scene is frustrated, however, by reference to the fire of the west in the same verse. Does the author intend for us to associate the mysterious waters of life (living waters) with the fire of the west or are we to understand these extraordinary phenomena as located in two different places? If the latter, then one can easily imagine the life-giving waters situated in the vicinity of the northern ‘mountain of God’ (1 Enoch 17:2) which also is reminiscent of paradise; the tour jumps, then, to the fire which receives every setting sun, another distinct site located in the west. If the life-giving waters are associated with the fire, they too are to be found in the west and hence, should be considered as part of a complex of traditions distinct from paradise. The west, as will be recalled, is frequently associated with the realm of the dead ..."
Kelley Coblentz Bautch, A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17–19: "No One Has Seen What I Have Seen", JSJSup 81 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 71.

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 17:4 and Bava Batra 84a

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