1 Enoch

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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 54:8 and Jerusalem Berakhot 9:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Rabbinic

Summary

Rabbinic tradition in tractate Berakhot describes the waters above as masculine and the waters below as feminine, a pairing also seen in 1 Enoch 54 where they join together. This imagery shows how apocalyptic themes continued in Rabbinic writing.

Passages

1 Enoch 54:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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.'

300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Jerusalem Berakhot 9:2

Rabbinic · Jerusalem Talmud

And Rebbi Levi said: The upper waters are male and the lower ones female. What is the reason? (Is. 45:8) The verse starts: “The heavens should pour down from high, and the skies should flow with justice,” speaking of rain. The Babli has two contradictory sermons in this matter. Rav Yehudah is reported in Taänit 6b that rain is the earth’s husband because in Is. 55:10 it is said that rain makes the earth give birth, while Rebbi Abbahu (there and Berakhot 59b) says that a benediction is recited only if “the bridegroom goes towards the bride,” meaning that drops jump up from the earth towards the descending rain. [This is the traditional interpretation, given by Ashkenazic Rabbenu Gershom and Sephardic Rabbenu Ḥanan‘el. Rashi, sensing the apparent contradiction, has a prosaic interpretation, that on both sides of the street the gutters will spout water one towards the other.] “The earth shall open,” like a female who opens before a male; “they should bear fruit of help,” that is being fruitful and multiplying; “and justice shall sprout together,” that is rainfall; “I, the Eternal, did create it,” for that I created it, for the well-being of the world. Rebbi Aḥa stated it in the name of Rebbi Simeon ben Gamliel169This is the end of Rebbi Simeon ben Eleazar’s text in Tosephta Taäniot. In the Babli (Taänit 6b), this passage appears as a statement of the Amora Rebbi Abbahu.: Why is it called “fertilizing,” because it impregnates the earth.

375–425 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jerusalem Berakhot

References

"... There are many straightforward parallels between Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezar and Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha that are also firmly based in Scripture. The points that all three share must derive then from the one that not only is the oldest, but the one from which the other two self-consciously draw. Therefore it must be assumed that PRE derived such material from its understanding of Scripture, rather than from a knowledge of apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature ... Some of the PRE parallels that Friedlander argues are based upon Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha can also be traced to rabbinic literature. While it is true that the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha are often older than the (redacted) rabbinic texts, one cannot necessarily argue that their temporal priority gives them greater weight. Since PRE certainly has other passages "borrowed" from earlier rabbinic literature, it may be assumed that such three-way parallels (PRE, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, rabbinic literature) derive from rabbinic literature ... Waters from heaven are masculine, waters from beneath the earth are feminine (PRE 52; 1 Enoch 54:8; y. Berakhot 9:2) ..."

Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein, “Pseudepigraphic Support of Pseudepigraphical Sources: The Case of Pirqe de Rabbi Eliezer,” in Tracing the Threads: Studies in the Vitality of Jewish Pseudepigrapha, ed. John C. Reeves, EJL 6 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1994), 35–54.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 54:8 and Jerusalem Berakhot 9:2

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 54:8

Jerusalem Berakhot 9:2

References

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