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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 75

1 The leaders of the thousands, who oversee the entire creation and all the stars, are also responsible for the four intercalary days, inseparably linked with their duties according to the annual calendar. These days serve during the four days that are not included in the annual count. 2 Due to these lights, people often miscalculate, for these lights indeed serve at specific world-stations: one in the first portal, one in the third, one in the fourth, and one in the sixth portal of heaven, ensuring the year's precision through its distinct 364 stations. 3 Uriel, the angel appointed by the Lord of glory to oversee all the celestial bodies in heaven and on earth, showed me the signs, times, years, and days.⁠ These celestial bodies govern the sky and are visible on Earth, leading day and night—the⁠ sun, moon, stars, and all entities that make their circuits in the celestial chariots. 4 Uriel also showed me twelve gates located around the sun’s chariot in heaven, through which the sun's rays emerge, bringing warmth to the earth when they open at their designated times. 5 The gates also affect the winds and the spirit of the dew, which are open in the heavens at the extremities. 6 There are twelve portals in the sky at the earth’s extremities, through which the sun, moon, and stars, and all heavenly operations emerge, moving from east to west. 7 Many windows are situated to the left and right of these portals, and one window, when opened during its season, produces warmth, corresponding to those gates from which the stars emerge as commanded, and where they set according to their number. 8 I saw chariots in heaven, moving above these portals where the stars that never set revolve. 9 One chariot is larger than all the others, and it traverses the entire world.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 75:3 and 1 Peter 3:22

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 Peter says that angels and powers are under Jesus’s authority, using language similar to 1 Enoch that describes the angel Uriel ruling over the sun, moon, and stars. Both describe a hierarchy in cosmic order, where heavenly beings have ranks and roles.

Passages

1 Enoch 75:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 Due to these lights, people often miscalculate, for these lights indeed serve at specific world-stations: one in the first portal, one in the third, one in the fourth, and one in the sixth portal of heaven, ensuring the year's precision through its distinct 364 stations. 3 Uriel, the angel appointed by the Lord of glory to oversee all the celestial bodies in heaven and on earth, showed me the signs, times, years, and days. These celestial bodies govern the sky and are visible on Earth, leading day and night—the sun, moon, stars, and all entities that make their circuits in the celestial chariots.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

1 Peter 3:22

New Testament
18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit. 19 In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. 21 And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Peter

References

"... The idea of powers reminds one of references to celestial beings designated by words such as 'authorities' or 'powers' in various texts ... both terms can be found in the Pauline epistles (1 Cor 15:24; Eph 1:21; 3:10, 6:12; Col 1:16; 2:10, 15) ... Another passage of interest is 1 Peter 3:22, where it is said of Jesus Christ that he 'has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him' ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 461.

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 75:3 and 1 Peter 3:22

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