1 Enoch

About this book

Chapter 88

1 And I saw one of those four who had come forth first, and he seized that first star which had fallen from heaven, and bound it hand and foot, and threw it into an abyss:⁠ now that abyss was narrow, deep, horrible, and dark. 2 And one of them drew a sword and gave it to those elephants, camels, and donkeys; then they began to strike each other, and the whole earth shook because of them. 3 And while I was watching in the vision, look, one of those four who had come forth threw stones from heaven,⁠ and gathered and took all the great stars⁠ whose private parts were like those of horses, and bound them all hand and foot, and threw them into an abyss of the earth.

Texts in conversation

Compare Hesiod, Theogony 715 and 1 Enoch 88:3

Classical · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

Summary

In Hesiod’s Theogony, the gods throw rocks at the Titans, chain them, and imprison them in Tartarus. 1 Enoch incorporates this Greek tradition, describing an angel throwing stones from heaven and locking them in an abyss below the earth.

Passages

Hesiod, Theogony 715

Classical

[710] of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and the battle inclined. But until then, they kept at one another and fought continually in cruel war. And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareos and Gyes insatiate for war [715] raised fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and hurled them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, [720] as far beneath the earth as heaven is above earth; for so far is it from earth to Tartarus. For a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days

730–700 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hesiod, Theogony

1 Enoch 88:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

1 And I saw one of those four who had come forth first, and he seized that first star which had fallen from heaven, and bound it hand and foot, and threw it into an abyss: now that abyss was narrow, deep, horrible, and dark. 2 And one of them drew a sword and gave it to those elephants, camels, and donkeys; then they began to strike each other, and the whole earth shook because of them. 3 And while I was watching in the vision, look, one of those four who had come forth threw stones from heaven, and gathered and took all the great stars whose private parts were like those of horses, and bound them all hand and foot, and threw them into an abyss of the earth.

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

References

... Gabriel’s mission to prod the giants into a war of mutual extermination (10:9) has its counterpart here in verse 2. As in 10:11-12, where Michael binds Shemihazah and his associates in the ‘valleys of the earth’ (here ‘a chasm of the earth’), so in 88:3 the next angel deals with the stars whose sexual transgression was described in 86:3-4. Neither the earth quaking in verse 2 nor Michael’s hurling rocks from heaven in verse 3 is mentioned in the respective passages in 10:9-12. But both details occur in Hesiod’s account of the Titanomachia in Theogony 675, 713-26. ...

George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 374.

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 Hesiod, Theogony 715 and 1 Enoch 88:3

Summary

Passages

Hesiod, Theogony 715

1 Enoch 88:3

References

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library