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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 28

1 And from there I went towards the east, into the midst of the mountain range of the desert, and I saw a wilderness that was solitary, full of trees and plants. 2 Water gushed forth from above. 3 Rushing like a copious watercourse which flowed towards the northwest,⁠ it caused clouds and dew to ascend on every side.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 28:3 and Revelation 22:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation’s image of a river of life echoes an image found in 1 Enoch, where the same divine river flows through an empty desert. Revelation expands on this tradition to have the river flow into the New Jerusalem.

Passages

1 Enoch 28:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And from there I went towards the east, into the midst of the mountain range of the desert, and I saw a wilderness that was solitary, full of trees and plants. 2 Water gushed forth from above. 3 Rushing like a copious watercourse which flowed towards the northwest, it caused clouds and dew to ascend on every side.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Revelation 22:1

New Testament
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life—water as clear as crystal—pouring out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 flowing down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. 3 And there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him,
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

... In Joel 3, which foretells the defeat of the nations and the restoration of Jerusalem, we are told that not only will all the streams of Judah will be filled with water and a spring issue from the Temple (compare Ezekiel 47:1-12), but that also Egypt and Edom will become deserts, lands of waste (3:18-19). In the Book of the Watchers, there is an aqueduct in the midst of the desert (1 Enoch 28:3), which echoes the familiar theme of life-giving water appearing in the midst of desolation. Finally, the stream that runs through the New Jerusalem of Revelation is explicitly called the ὕδατος ζωῆς [water of life] (22:1). ...
Lorenzo DiTommaso, The Dead Sea New Jerusalem Text: Contents and Contexts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 188–189.

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 28:3 and Revelation 22:1

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