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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 54

1 And I looked and turned to another part of the earth, and saw there a deep valley with burning fire. 2 They brought the kings and the mighty, and began to throw them into this deep valley.⁠ 3 There, my eyes saw how they made these instruments, iron chains of immense weight. 4 I asked the angel of peace who was with me, 'For whom are these chains being prepared?'⁠ 5 He said to me, 'These are being prepared for the armies of Azâzêl, so they may take them and throw them into the abyss of complete condemnation,⁠ and they shall cover their jaws with rough stones as the Lord of Spirits commanded.' 6 Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Phanuel will seize them on that great day, and throw them into the burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may avenge their wickedness in submitting to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth.'⁠ 7 'In those days, punishment will come from the Lord of Spirits, and he will open all the chambers of waters above the heavens, and the fountains beneath the earth. 8 And all the waters will merge: the water above the heavens is masculine, and the water beneath the earth is feminine.⁠ 9 They will destroy all who live on the earth and those who live at the ends of the heaven. 10 And when they acknowledge their wrongdoing that they committed on the earth, by these they will perish.'

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 54:6 and Matthew 13:41

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In Matthew, Jesus describes angels sent to remove the unrighteous and throw them into a fiery furnace in judgment, language that resembles 1 Enoch where angels take the rebellious powers and also throw them into a fiery furnace.

Passages

1 Enoch 54:6

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
5 He said to me, 'These are being prepared for the armies of Azâzêl, so they may take them and throw them into the abyss of complete condemnation, and they shall cover their jaws with rough stones as the Lord of Spirits commanded.' 6 Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Phanuel will seize them on that great day, and throw them into the burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may avenge their wickedness in submitting to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth.' 7 'In those days, punishment will come from the Lord of Spirits, and he will open all the chambers of waters above the heavens, and the fountains beneath the earth.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Matthew 13:41

New Testament
40 As the poisonous weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The one who has ears had better listen! 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... fornacem ardentem ... Gehenna is described as a fiery furnace in Matthew 13:42, 52; 1 Enoch 54:6; Targum Neofiti Genesis 15:17; Genesis Rabbah 6:6 (referring to Malachi 3:19; Isaiah 31:9); compare also Acts of John 114. Furnaces appear as one form of infernal punishment among others in Vision of Ezra 48, 50, 51; Barlaam 30:281; and the Latin redactions of the Apocalypse of Paul ..."
Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 319.

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 54:6 and Matthew 13:41

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