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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 48

1 In that place, I saw the fountain of righteousness which was inexhaustible; around it were many fountains of wisdom. All the thirsty drank from them, were filled with wisdom, and their dwellings were with the righteous, holy, and elect.⁠ 2 At that time, the Son of Man was named in the presence of the Lord of Spirits, and his name was acknowledged before the Head of Days. 3 Yes, before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were made, his name was known before the Lord of Spirits. 4 He will be a staff for the righteous to lean on and not fall, and he will be the light of the Gentiles, and the hope for those who are troubled of heart.⁠ 5 All who dwell on earth shall bow and worship before him, and will praise, bless, and sing to celebrate the Lord of Spirits.⁠ 6 For this reason, he has been chosen and hidden before Him, before the creation of the world⁠ and forever.⁠ 7 The wisdom of the Lord of Spirits has revealed him to the holy and righteous; for he has preserved all of the righteous because they have hated and despised this world of unrighteousness,⁠ and have hated all its works and ways in the name of the Lord of Spirits:⁠ for in his name they are saved, and it has been according to his good pleasure in regard to their life.⁠ 8 In these days, the kings of the earth who own the land will look downcast because of the works of their hands; for on the day of their trouble and affliction, they will not be able to save themselves.⁠ 9 And I will hand them over to the hands of my elect: as straw in the fire, they shall burn before the face of the holy; as lead in the water, they shall sink before the face of the righteous,⁠ and no trace of them shall be found anymore.⁠ 10 On the day of their affliction, there shall be peace on the earth. They shall fall before them and not rise again; and there shall be no one to help them up, for they have denied the Lord of Spirits and His Anointed.⁠ Blessed be the name of the Lord of Spirits.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 48:1 and Sirach 24:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Deuterocanon

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Summary

1 Enoch 48 presents the Son of Man using language drawn from Sirach, where wisdom comes from God and fills the world, suggesting that Enoch adapts these wisdom traditions to describe the Son of Man’s preexistence and divine role.

Passages

1 Enoch 48:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 In that place, I saw the fountain of righteousness which was inexhaustible; around it were many fountains of wisdom. All the thirsty drank from them, were filled with wisdom, and their dwellings were with the righteous, holy, and elect. 2 At that time, the Son of Man was named in the presence of the Lord of Spirits, and his name was acknowledged before the Head of Days. 3 Yes, before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were made, his name was known before the Lord of Spirits.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Sirach 24:3

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
1 Wisdom will praise her own soul, and will proclaim her glory in the midst of her people. 2 She will open her mouth in the congregation of the Most High, and proclaim her glory in the presence of his power. 3 “I came out of the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth as a mist. 4 I lived in high places, and my throne is in the pillar of the cloud. 5 Alone I surrounded the circuit of heaven, and walked in the depth of the abyss.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... the Enochic Son of Man differs from his prototype in Daniel 7, who is enthroned only after the judgment has taken place. The motifs of human prayer and angelic intercession (47:1–2), also missing in Daniel 7, are drawn from an earlier part of 1 Enoch (chapter 9). Chapters 48–49, which recount the naming of the Son of Man, reflect the author’s other sources. The first of these is the account of the commissioning of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 49:1–6 (compare 48:2 and Isaiah 49:1; 48:4 and Isaiah 49:6; 48:6 and Isaiah 49:2). The title “the Chosen One,” which runs through much of chapters 48–49, corresponds to the same title in Second Isaiah. That the Son of Man was named before the creation of the universe and the present age (48:3, 6) parallels the characteristic attributed to heavenly Wisdom in Proverbs 8:22–31 (compare Sirach 24:3), a connection that is strengthened by the ascription of “wisdom” to the Son of Man (1 Enoch 48:1; 49:1–2). The author’s final source is evident in 48:8, 10, and 49:3, which paraphrase verses in the royal oracles in Psalm 2 (verse 2) and Isaiah 11:1–5 (verse 2), respectively. The title “the Anointed One” (48:10) appears also in 1 Enoch 52:4. The wording of 49:4bc corresponds to Second Isaiah’s first Servant poem (compare Isaiah 42:1) ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, “First and Second Enoch: A Cry against Oppression and the Promise of Deliverance,” in The Historical Jesus in Context, ed. Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison Jr., and John Dominic Crossan, Princeton Readings in Religions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), 87–109.

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 48:1 and Sirach 24:3

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