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1 Enoch

About this book

The Apocalypse of Weeks

Chapter 93

1 After that, Enoch began to recount from the books. 2 And Enoch said: 'Concerning the children of righteousness, the elect of the world, and the plant of uprightness, I will speak these things. Yes, I, Enoch, will declare them to you, my sons: according to what appeared to me in the heavenly vision, and what I have known through the word of the holy angels, and have learned from the heavenly tablets.' 3 Enoch began to recount from the books and said: 'I was born the seventh in the first week, while judgment and righteousness still prevailed. 4 After me, in the second week, great wickedness will arise, and deceit will have sprung up; and in it there will be the first end. And in it a man will be saved; and after it is ended, unrighteousness will grow up, and a law will be made for the sinners. 5 After that, in the third week at its close, a man will be chosen as the plant of righteous judgment, and his descendants will become the plant of righteousness forevermore. 6 After that, in the fourth week, at its close, visions of the holy and righteous will be seen, and a law for all generations and an enclosure will be made for them. 7 After that, in the fifth week, at its close, the house of glory and dominion will be built forever.⁠ 8 After that, in the sixth week, all who live in it will be blinded, and the hearts of all of them will godlessly forsake wisdom. And in it a man will ascend; and at its close the house of dominion will be burnt with fire, and the whole race of the chosen root will be scattered. 9 After that, in the seventh week, an apostate generation will arise, and its deeds will be many, and all its deeds will be apostate.⁠ 10 At its close the elect righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness will be chosen, to receive sevenfold instruction concerning all His creation. 11 For who among all the children of men is able to hear the voice of the Holy One without being troubled? And who can think His thoughts? And who is there that can look on all the works of heaven? 12 And how could there be one who could look on heaven, and who is there that could understand the things of heaven and see a soul or a spirit and could tell of it, or ascend and see all their ends and think them or do like them? 13 And who is there of all men that could know the breadth and the length of the earth, and to whom has the measure of all of them been shown?⁠ 14 Or is there anyone who could discern the length of heaven and how great its height is, and on what it is founded, and how great the number of the stars is, and where all the lights rest?

Texts in conversation

Compare Job 38:4 and 1 Enoch 93:11

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch depicts God asking rhetorical questions, similar to the questions asked of Job, that challenges humans' ability to understand divine power or purpose. 1 Enoch reshapes this tradition for an apocalyptic setting where these details are revealed.

Passages

Job 38:4

Hebrew Bible
3 Get ready for a difficult task like a man; I will question you, and you will inform me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding. 5 Who set its measurements—if you know—or who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its bases set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 when the morning stars sang in chorus, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 “Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, coming out of the womb,
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

1 Enoch 93:11

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
11 For who among all the children of men is able to hear the voice of the Holy One without being troubled? And who can think His thoughts? And who is there that can look on all the works of heaven? 12 And how could there be one who could look on heaven, and who is there that could understand the things of heaven and see a soul or a spirit and could tell of it, or ascend and see all their ends and think them or do like them? 13 And who is there of all men that could know the breadth and the length of the earth, and to whom has the measure of all of them been shown? 14 Or is there anyone who could discern the length of heaven and how great its height is, and on what it is founded, and how great the number of the stars is, and where all the lights rest?
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... 1 Enoch 93:11–14 combines the literary features of rhetorical questions and a catalogue of the hidden aspects of creation. Wisdom texts, such as Job 38–39 and Proverbs 30:1–4, also combine rhetorical questions and lists of places and things. The combination in Job and Proverbs makes the point that humankind cannot fathom the profound character of God’s works in much of creation. In so-called apocalyptic literature, however, such combinations serve an entirely different purpose. Michael Stone suggests that some primitive formulaic lists were first modified by verbs and then expanded by references to regularity and proportionality. In 1 Enoch 93:11–14, the speculative content of such lists has been further adapted to the interrogative formulation of the wisdom tradition. The rhetorical questions imply that human knowledge of (esoteric) created phenomena is now possible because it was revealed to Enoch and has been imparted to the righteous as an eschatological gift ..."
Randal A. Argall, 1 Enoch and Sirach: A Comparative Literary and Conceptual Analysis of the Themes of Revelation, Creation and Judgment, EJL 8 (Atlanta: Scholar's, 1995), 124–125.

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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Job 38:4 and 1 Enoch 93:11

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