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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 61

1 And I saw in those days how long cords were given to those angels, and they took to themselves wings and flew,⁠ heading north.⁠ 2 I asked the angel, 'Why have those angels taken these cords and departed?' And he replied, 'They have gone to measure.'⁠ 3 The angel who accompanied me said, 'These shall bring the measures of the righteous, and the ropes of the righteous to the righteous, so that they may rely on the name of the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.' 4 The chosen will begin to dwell with the chosen, and these are the measures which shall be given to faith and which shall strengthen righteousness. 5 And these measures shall uncover all the secrets of the depths of the earth, and those who were destroyed in the wilderness, and those devoured by beasts, and those eaten by the fish of the sea,⁠ so that they may return⁠ and rely on the day of the Chosen One;⁠ for none shall be destroyed before the Lord of Spirits, nor can any be destroyed.⁠ 6 And all who dwell above in heaven received a command and power and one voice and one light like fire.⁠ 7 And with their first words, they blessed, extolled, and praised with wisdom, and they were wise in speech and in the spirit of life. 8 And the Lord of Spirits⁠ placed the Chosen One on the throne of glory, and he shall judge all the works of the holy above in heaven, and in the balance their deeds shall be weighed. 9 And when he lifts up his face to judge their secret ways according to the word of the Lord of Spirits, and their path according to the way of the righteous judgment of the Lord of Spirits, then they all shall speak and bless with one voice, and glorify, exalt, and sanctify the name of the Lord of Spirits. 10 And He will summon all the armies of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the army of God, the Cherubic, Seraphim, and Ophanim, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities, and the Chosen One, and the other powers on the earth and over the water.⁠ 11 On that day, they shall raise one voice, and bless and glorify and exalt in the spirit of faith, wisdom, patience, mercy, judgment, peace, and goodness, and shall all say with one voice: 'Blessed is He, and may the name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed forever and ever.' 12 All who do not sleep above in heaven shall bless Him: all the holy ones in heaven shall bless Him, and all the chosen who dwell in the garden of life: and every spirit of light who is able to bless, glorify, exalt, and sanctify His blessed name, and all flesh shall immensely glorify and bless His name forever and ever. 13 For the mercy of the Lord of Spirits is great, and He is long-suffering, and all His works and all that He has created He has revealed to the righteous and chosen in the name of the Lord of Spirits.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 61:10 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 Enoch 61 describes the Chosen One summoning an army of angels and holy ones to join in judgment and praise. 2 Thessalonians similarly describes Jesus being revealed from heaven with an army of angels that execute judgment.

Passages

1 Enoch 61:10

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
8 And the Lord of Spirits placed the Chosen One on the throne of glory, and he shall judge all the works of the holy above in heaven, and in the balance their deeds shall be weighed. 9 And when he lifts up his face to judge their secret ways according to the word of the Lord of Spirits, and their path according to the way of the righteous judgment of the Lord of Spirits, then they all shall speak and bless with one voice, and glorify, exalt, and sanctify the name of the Lord of Spirits. 10 And He will summon all the armies of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the army of God, the Cherubic, Seraphim, and Ophanim, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities, and the Chosen One, and the other powers on the earth and over the water. 11 On that day, they shall raise one voice, and bless and glorify and exalt in the spirit of faith, wisdom, patience, mercy, judgment, peace, and goodness, and shall all say with one voice: 'Blessed is He, and may the name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed forever and ever.'
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

2 Thessalonians 1:7

New Testament
5 This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. 6 For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. 8 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, 10 when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed—and you did in fact believe our testimony.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Thessalonians

References

"... As has already been noted, the context of 1 Enoch and the parallel text, Deuteronomy 33:2-4, where it is employed, is that of theophany. This fits in with the primary themes in Jude as these passages describing God's giving of the Law at Sinai and his theophany with the presence of “myriads of angels,’ reference “the very beings that Jude’s opponents ‘slander’ (verse 8) by their antinomian mindset.” It is also argued that not only Jude, but also other New Testament writers, in their eschatological doctrine, are influenced by the language of an attendant angelic company in their depiction of Christ's second coming. Thus the “holy ones” are identified with the holy angels, the heavenly army of the Divine warrior, as in Zechariah 14:5, which is likely the main background to the early Christian expectation that the Lord at his Parousia would be accompanied by a retinue of angels. (Compare with Matthew 16:27; 25:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7) Jude’s use of the “holy ones” to refer to angels, as it is used in 1 Enoch, therefore, signifies both Jude's highly developed angelology and his strong dependence on and high regard for 1 Enoch ..."
Bruk Ayele Asale, 1 Enoch as Christian Scripture: A Study in the Reception and Appropriation of 1 Enoch in Jude and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahado Canon (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020), 51–52.

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 61:10 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7

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