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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 43

1 And I saw other lightnings and the stars of heaven, and I saw how He called them all by their names⁠ and they listened to Him.⁠ 2 And I saw how they are weighed in a righteous balance according to their proportions of light: I observed the width of their spaces and the day of their appearing, and how their movements produce lightning, and their movements according to the number of the angels, and how they maintain faith with each other. 3 And I asked the angel who accompanied me and showed me what was hidden: 'What are these?' 4 And he said to me: 'The Lord of Spirits has shown you their symbolic meaning: these are the names of the holy who dwell on the earth⁠ and believe in the name of the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.'

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 43:4 and Daniel 12:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Daniel 12 promises the wise will one day shine like the stars as their reward. 1 Enoch presents this as a current reality, saying the stars already are the names of the holy ones who live on earth and trust God.

Passages

1 Enoch 43:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 And I asked the angel who accompanied me and showed me what was hidden: 'What are these?' 4 And he said to me: 'The Lord of Spirits has shown you their symbolic meaning: these are the names of the holy who dwell on the earth and believe in the name of the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.'
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Daniel 12:3

Hebrew Bible
2 Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 3 But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. 4 “But you, Daniel, close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will dash about, and knowledge will increase.”
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Daniel

References

... 3-4 Following the form we saw in chapter 40, having described what he 'saw' (43:1ab, 2a), Enoch now recounts his request for an interpretation and the answer of 'the angel who went with me and showed me what was hidden.' Reference to 'what was hidden' brings us back to the same motif in 41:3 at the beginning of this section. What is hidden is the correspondence between the heavenly and the earthly realms. The names of 'the holy ones' who dwell on earth (see Excursus: The Righteous, the Chosen, and the Holy) are related to the names of the angels, the holy ones who reside in heaven. When the righteous look to heaven at night, they see the guarantee of their protection by their patron angels, with whom they will eventually dwell in heaven (39:4-5). ...
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 146.

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 43:4 and Daniel 12:3

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