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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 61:5 and Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 32

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Early Christian

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Summary

The Christian theologian Tertullian quotes an unnamed scripture about the dead returning from the land and sea. This is likely a paraphrase of 1 Enoch, which was used as an authoritative source of theology to teach about resurrection.

Passages

1 Enoch 61:5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 32

Early Christian
But so that the resurrection does not seem to be proclaimed only of those bodies that are committed to tombs, you have it written: “And I will command the fishes of the sea, and they will bring up the bones they have eaten, and I will join joint to joint and bone to bone.” “So,” you say, “the fishes too will be raised, and the other beasts and the flesh-eating birds, so that they may vomit up those they devoured, since in Moses too you read that blood is required from all beasts?”

References

"... Barnes dates the treatise On the Resurrection of the Flesh to 206-207, still before Tertullian became a Montanist. Ernest Evans outlines the first parts of On the Resurrection of the Flesh in this way: 'The first (paragraphs 1-41) which almost serves the usual purpose of an exordium, relates the heretical half-beliefs with which Tertullian is in conflict, to the opinions of philosophers and to the prejudices of the general non-Christian public. In part two (paragraphs 5-17) are set out the general principles which are to govern the interpretation of the relevant passages of Scripture: namely, the dignity of the flesh, the power of God. and the necessary requirements of the divine judgement. Parts three (18-39) and four (40-56) take up the testimony of the Scriptures, first expounding their positive teaching, and then rescuing from perverse misunderstanding or misinterpretation a number of apostolic texts of which the adversaries have claimed the support. It is within this third part that Tertullian may again resort to the Book of Enoch ... Tertullian then goes on to defend this thesis in the remainder of the paragraph ... Once he has argued his point, he begins 33 with: 'That is enough concerning the prophetic document. Evans notes regarding the way in which Tertullian opens his quotations that this seems as if it should derive from Revelation 20:13, but that the line actually comes from 1 Enoch ..."
James C. VanderKam and William Adler, eds., The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity, CRINT 3.4 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1993), 53–54.

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 61:5 and Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 32

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