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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 18

1 I saw the treasuries of all the winds:⁠ I saw how He had equipped them for the whole creation and the firm foundations of the earth.⁠ 2 And I saw the cornerstone of the earth: I saw the four winds that support the earth and the dome of heaven.⁠ 3 And I saw how the winds stretch out the vaults of heaven and have their station between heaven and earth; these are the pillars of heaven. 4 I saw the winds of heaven which turn and guide the course of the sun and all the stars to their setting. 5 I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds; I saw the paths of the angels. I saw at the end of the earth the dome of heaven above. 6 And I proceeded and saw a place that burns day and night, where there are seven mountains of magnificent stones, three towards the east, and three towards the south. 7 And as for those towards the east, one was of colored stone, and one of pearl, and one of jacinth, and those towards the south of red stone. 8 But the middle one reached to heaven like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the throne was of sapphire.⁠ 9 And I saw a flaming fire. 10 And beyond these mountains is a region at the end of the great earth: there the heavens were completed. 11 And I saw a deep abyss,⁠ with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike in height and depth. 12 And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no dome of heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it; there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place.⁠ 13 I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains,⁠ and to me, when I inquired about them,⁠ 14 The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth; this has become a prison for the stars and the army of heaven.⁠ 15 And the stars which roll over the fire are those which have transgressed the command of the Lord at the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times.⁠ 16 And He was angry with them, and bound them until the time when their guilt should be consummated, even for ten thousand years.'

Texts in conversation

Compare Hesiod, Theogony 806 and 1 Enoch 18:12

Classical · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch describes the edge of the earth where the heavens end, similar to how Hesiod’s Theogony places Tartarus at the edge of the earth. Greek traditions about cosmology and the prison of the Watchers likely shaped the imagery.

Passages

Hesiod, Theogony 806

Classical
[805] Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and primeval water of Styx to be: and it spouts through a rugged place. And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of the dark earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, [810] loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. And there are shining gates and an immovable threshold of bronze having unending roots, and it is grown of itself.1And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos.
730–700 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hesiod, Theogony

1 Enoch 18:12

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
11 And I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike in height and depth. 12 And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no dome of heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it; there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place. 13 I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired about them,
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... The place beyond the mountains brings Enoch to the 'end of the great earth' according to the Greek, or 'beyond the great earth' according to the Ethiopic. The site offers a terminus of some sort; it is here apparently where the heavens meet the earth. I translate 1 Enoch 18:10 as follows: 'is a place, the end of the great earth. There the heavens are completed.' Black considers this expression 'great earth' to be highly unusual. He suggests that a misreading of the Aramaic has occurred and offers instead 'beyond the ends of the earth', a phrase familiar from Targum Proverbs 30:4. While the expression 'great earth' seems rather awkward, Nickelsburg observes a verbal parallel with Hesiod’s Theogony which locates Tartarus, the prison of the titans, at 'the ends of the huge earth. We learn, then, in 1 Enoch 18:10 that at this site the heavens are finished or gathered together. For Charles and Black, this latter expression conveys that the site is where the heavens come to an end or are completed (so 1 Enoch 18:5 and 33:2). Some Ethiopic manuscripts read instead: 'there the waters were gathered together.' Dillmann, Lods, and Uhlig prefer this variant. Dillmann describes the site as the place where waters are collected, the same as the encircling Okeanos of 1 Enoch 17:7–8 ..."
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), 128–129.

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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Hesiod, Theogony 806 and 1 Enoch 18:12

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