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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 22

1 And from there I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain of hard rock. 2 And there were four deep, wide, and very smooth hollow places⁠ in it. How smooth and deep and dark they are to look at. 3 Then Raphael, one of the holy angels who was with me, said to me: 'These hollow places have been created specifically for the spirits of the souls of the dead to gather, so that all the souls of the children of men should gather here. 4 They are meant to assemble here until the day of their judgment and until their appointed time, until the great judgment comes upon them.' 5 I saw the spirit of a dead man pleading, and his voice rose to heaven and made a plea. 6 And I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said to him: 'This spirit that pleads, whose is it, whose voice rises and makes a plea to heaven?' 7 And he answered me saying: 'This is the spirit of Abel, whom his brother Cain killed, and he pleads against him until his seed is wiped from the face of the earth, and his descendants are destroyed among the seed of men.' 8 Then I asked about it, and about all the hollow places: 'Why is one separated from the other?' 9 And he answered me and said: 'These three have been made so that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made for the spirits of the righteous,⁠ which includes the bright spring of⁠ water.⁠ 10 And one has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime. 11 Here their spirits shall be kept in great pain until the great day of judgment and punishment and torment of those who are cursed forever, and retribution for their spirits.⁠ There they shall be bound forever. 12 And such a division has been made for the spirits of those who make their plea, who testify about their destruction, when they were killed in the days of the sinners. 13 Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and they shall be companions of the transgressors; but their spirits shall not be slain on the day of judgment nor shall they be raised from there.' 14 Then I blessed the Lord of glory and said: 'Blessed be my Lord, the Lord of righteousness, who rules forever.'

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 22:9 and Luke 16:26

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In Luke, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus describes a great divide between the righteous and the unrighteous after death. This detail follows Jewish apocalyptic traditions, such as 1 Enoch’s vision of chambers for spirits waiting for judgment.

Passages

1 Enoch 22:9

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
7 And he answered me saying: 'This is the spirit of Abel, whom his brother Cain killed, and he pleads against him until his seed is wiped from the face of the earth, and his descendants are destroyed among the seed of men.' 8 Then I asked about it, and about all the hollow places: 'Why is one separated from the other?' 9 And he answered me and said: 'These three have been made so that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made for the spirits of the righteous, which includes the bright spring of water. 10 And one has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime. 11 Here their spirits shall be kept in great pain until the great day of judgment and punishment and torment of those who are cursed forever, and retribution for their spirits. There they shall be bound forever.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Luke 16:26

New Testament
24 So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in anguish in this fire.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. 26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house 28 (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’
75–85 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Luke

References

"... Go down to the depths ... Literally go down to Hades. “Hades” is the Greek term used to translate Sheol in the LXX. It can refer to the place of the dead (Psalm 89:48), the opposite of heaven (Psalm 139:8; Amos 9:2), or the place of the unrighteous dead (1 Enoch 22:3-13; 63:10; 99:11; 2 Esdras 7:36). It is used in the latter sense in Luke 16:22-26 and probably should be understood in the same way here. Whether in Jesus’ day there was a clear distinction between “Hades” and hell (Gehenna) is much debated but still uncertain. What is clear is that it designates a place of punishment for the unrighteous. The imagery comes from Isaiah 14:13, 15 ..."
Robert H. Stein, The New American Commentary: Luke (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 307.

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 22:9 and Luke 16:26

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