Enoch's Journey Eastward

Chapter 20

1 And these are the names of the holy angels who watch.⁠ 2 Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus.⁠ 3 Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. 4 Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the lights. 5 Michael, one of the holy angels, namely, the one set over the best part of mankind and over chaos. 6 Saraqâêl, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. 7 Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. 8 Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 20:2 and 2 Peter 2:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

Summary

2 Peter reflects the cosmology of 1 Enoch, referring to Tartarus as the place where rebellious angels are kept in prison. This blending of Jewish apocalypse and Greek mythology shows how early Christian tradition incorporated existing cosmology.

Passages

1 Enoch 20:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

1 And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. 2 Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. 3 Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. 4 Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the lights. 5 Michael, one of the holy angels, namely, the one set over the best part of mankind and over chaos. 6 Saraqâêl, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. 7 Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. 8 Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.

300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

2 Peter 2:4

New Testament

3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not sitting idly by; their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into Tartarus¹⁶ and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, 6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly,

120–130 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Peter

References

"... [katatartaroun] means “to cast into Tartarus,” and was almost always used with reference to the early Greek theogonic myths, in which the ancient giants, the Cyclopes and Titans, were imprisoned in Tartarus, the lowest part of the underworld, by Uranos, Kronos and Zeus. They are not used in the Greek version of 1 Enoch; though τάρταρος (“Tartarus”) is used of the place of divine punishment in 1 Enoch 20:2, as elsewhere in Jewish Greek literature (LXX Job 40:20; 41:24; Prov 30:16; Sib. Or. 4:186; Philo, Mos. 2.433) ..."

Michael S. Heiser, A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader's Commentary (Crane, MO: Defender, 2019), 1:115–116.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Enoch's Journey Eastward

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 20:2 and 2 Peter 2:4

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 20:2

2 Peter 2:4

References

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