Enoch's Second Dream Vision

Chapter 85

1 After this I saw another dream, and I will tell you the whole dream, my son.⁠ 2 Enoch raised his voice and spoke to his son Methuselah: 'To you, my son, I will speak. Listen to my words, and pay attention to the dream-vision of your father.⁠ 3 Before I married your mother Edna, I saw in a vision on my bed:⁠ a bull came up out of the earth, and this bull was white; and after it came a heifer, and along with this heifer came two young bulls, one of them black and the other red. 4 The black bull attacked the red one and chased him across the earth,⁠ and after that I could no longer see the red bull. 5 But the black bull grew, and the heifer went with him, and I saw that many oxen came from him which looked like him and followed him. 6 The first cow left the presence of the first bull to search for the red one, but could not find him, and mourned for him with a great lamentation and searched for him. 7 I watched until the first bull returned to her and calmed her, and from that time on she cried no more. 8 Afterward she bore another white bull, and following him she bore many bulls and black cows. 9 In my sleep I saw that white bull also grow and become a great white bull, and from him came many white bulls that resembled him. 10 They began to produce many white bulls, which resembled them, one following another, many.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 85:4 and Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:15

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Rabbinic

Summary

Rabbinic tradition in Ecclesiastes Rabbah describes Cain pursuing Abel, a detail not found in the narrative of Abel's murder in Genesis 4, but found in other Jewish traditions, such as in the Animal Apocalypse in 1 Enoch 85.

Passages

1 Enoch 85:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

3 Before I married your mother Edna, I saw in a vision on my bed: a bull came up out of the earth, and this bull was white; and after it came a heifer, and along with this heifer came two young bulls, one of them black and the other red. 4 The black bull attacked the red one and chased him across the earth, and after that I could no longer see the red bull. 5 But the black bull grew, and the heifer went with him, and I saw that many oxen came from him which looked like him and followed him. 6 The first cow left the presence of the first bull to search for the red one, but could not find him, and mourned for him with a great lamentation and searched for him.

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

Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:15

Rabbinic · Aggadah

“And God seeks the pursued” – Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: God will always seek [to save] the pursued. You find a righteous man pursuing a righteous man; “and God seeks the pursued.” A wicked man pursuing a righteous man; “and God seeks the pursued.” A wicked man pursuing a wicked man; “and God seeks the pursued.” God seeks the pursued in any circumstance.
Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon, in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Rabbi Nehorai: The Holy One blessed be He always seeks the blood of the pursued from the pursuers.⁵ Know that it is so; Abel was pursued by Cain, and the Holy One blessed be He chose only Abel, as it is stated: “The Lord turned to Abel and to his offering” (Genesis 4:4). Noah was pursued by the members of his generation, and the Holy One blessed be He chose only Noah, as it is stated: “For you I have seen righteous before Me” (Genesis 7:1). Abraham was pursued by Nimrod, and the Holy One blessed be He chose Abraham, as it is stated: “You are the Lord God who chose Abram” (Nehemiah 9:7). Isaac was pursued by the Philistines, and the Holy One blessed be He chose Isaac, as it is stated: “They said: We have seen that the Lord has been with you” (Genesis 26:28). Jacob was pursued by Esau, and the Holy One blessed be He chose Jacob, as it is stated: “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel as His treasure” (Psalms 135:4). Joseph was pursued by his brothers, and the Holy One blessed be He chose Joseph, as it is stated: “He established it as testimony for Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt” (Psalms 81:6).

700–950 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ecclesiastes Rabbah

References

"... The description of Cain’s murder of Abel (1 Enoch 85:4) is difficult to interpret. That Cain “pursued” Abel is mentioned in late rabbinic sources (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:15). The author of the Vision may know such a haggadic detail of the account, but then the order of the verbs “struck” and “pursued” is strange. For this reason we might reverse the subject and object of the second verb. After Cain killed Abel, the latter pursued him across the earth like a Greek fury, seeking vengeance. This notion appears in Gen 4:10 and is expounded in 1 Enoch 22:5–7, where Abel’s spirit cries out against Cain and his progeny. This is perhaps the easiest explanation of the passage and is consonant with Cain’s status as a wanderer and fugitive on the earth, one who has been driven from God’s presence and finds a dwelling far from Eden (Genesis 4:12–16). The expression “could not see” (1 Enoch 85:4) is used elsewhere in the Vision to indicate extinction (89:6, 67) ..."

George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 371.

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

Enoch's Second Dream Vision

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 85:4 and Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:15

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 85:4

Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:15

References

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