1 Enoch

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Chapter 21

1 I went on to where things were chaotic. 2 There I saw something terrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place that was chaotic and terrible.⁠ 3 There I saw seven stars of heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and blazing with fire. 4 Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and why have they been thrown in here?'⁠ 5 Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me and was their leader, said: 'Enoch, why do you ask, and why are you so eager for the truth?⁠ 6 These are among the stars of heaven that transgressed the command of the Lord, and they are bound here until ten thousand years, the time fixed for their sins, are completed.'⁠ 7 From there I went to another place, still more terrible than the first, and I saw something dreadful: a great fire there that burned and blazed, and the place was split open as far as the abyss, full of great descending columns of fire.⁠ I could see neither its extent nor its size, nor could I guess at it. 8 Then I said: 'How fearful this place is, and how terrible to look at!' 9 Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said: 'Enoch, why are you so full of fear and fright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the sight of this pain.' 10 He said to me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be held forever.'⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld I and 1 Enoch 21:7

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

Summary

Ishtar’s Descent describes the netherworld as a dark house where the dead dwell in dust and nothing escapes. 1 Enoch 21 draws on this tradition, reshaping it to describe a fiery abyss where rebellious angels are imprisoned forever.

Passages

Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld I

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld

To the Netherworld, the Land of No Return, Istar, the daughter of Sin, set her mind. Indeed, the daughter of Sin set her mind to the dark house, the dwelling of Irkalla, to the house which none leaves who enters, to the road where traffic is one-way, to the house, whose dwellers thirst for light, where dust is their food, clay their bread. They see no light, they dwell in darkness, clothed like birds in garments of feather. Over the door and the bolt dust has settled, over the door beam a deathly silence has sunk.

2300 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld

1 Enoch 21:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

6 These are among the stars of heaven that transgressed the command of the Lord, and they are bound here until ten thousand years, the time fixed for their sins, are completed.' 7 From there I went to another place, still more terrible than the first, and I saw something dreadful: a great fire there that burned and blazed, and the place was split open as far as the abyss, full of great descending columns of fire. I could see neither its extent nor its size, nor could I guess at it. 8 Then I said: 'How fearful this place is, and how terrible to look at!' 9 Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said: 'Enoch, why are you so full of fear and fright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the sight of this pain.' 10 He said to me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be held forever.'

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

References

“… There are not many clues provided, though, about the location of the watchers’ prison from the parallel tradition in 1 Enoch 21:7–10. Since the story of the watchers, their sins, and punishment plays a significant role earlier in the Book of the Watchers, we may find other clues in the Enochic corpus about the place of incarceration. In 1 Enoch 10:11–12, the angels, following the destruction of their offspring, will be bound under hills for seventy generation until their time of judgment. From there they shall be led to an abyss of fire which will serve as their prison for all eternity (1 Enoch 10:13). It not clear from this tradition, though, where the pit is to be found. Similar accounts of the angels’ prison are found elsewhere in the Enochic corpus. The Similitudes also feature a place of imprisonment for Azazel and fellow angels: a deep valley of burning fire (1 Enoch 54:1–6). Charles identifies the place as the Valley of Hinnom in Jerusalem, also referred to as Gehenna. More reminiscent of 1 Enoch 18:11 is the description of the watchers’ prison as a pit full of pillars of fire. …”

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), 87, 138.

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

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld I and 1 Enoch 21:7

Summary

Passages

Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld I

1 Enoch 21:7

References

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