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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 1 Enoch 93:9 and Matthew 24:10

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In Matthew, Jesus’ description of a lawless generation that turns inward and betrays one another resembles 1 Enoch’s portrayal of a generation that is lawless and rejects wisdom. Jesus may have been influenced by a similar Jewish apocalyptic tradition.

Passages

1 Enoch 93:9

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

Matthew 24:10

New Testament
8 All these things are the beginning of birth pains. 9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name. 10 Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, 12 and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... If we conclude that the sayings about “this generation” were not created by the Q circle, but rather stem from pre-existing tradition and probably even the original Jesus movement, may we not, by the same historical logic that produced the communal history of the Q people, infer that Jesus himself was led to this way of speaking not by a theological system but rather by concrete experiences of rejection? I not only think we can, but we should. (a) Even in the Gospels the sayings have been placed in contexts where Jesus is speaking to crowds or opponents. That is, the “hortatory tendency” of the Gospels could not transform these sayings into general teaching about the state of Jesus’ contemporaries. They have retained their polemical edge, and it is hard to imagine that they at one time functioned differently. (b) In addition, it is unlikely that Jewish eschatological expectations are sufficient to explain the state of the tradition as it stands. To be sure: one finds in Second Temple texts the idea that lawlessness would increase as birth pangs of the Messianic age (4 Ezra 5:2; m. Sotah 9:15). Jesus may even have inherited a belief in “the dismal state of Israel in the time preceding the final judgment” (see 1 Enoch 93:9; Jubilees 23:14). However, those notions cannot sufficiently explain the Jesus tradition, since what we find is not general commentary on “this generation” and its depravity, but rather sayings that have opposition to and/or rejection of Jesus in view. For instance: why is “this generation” worse than the Ninevites? Because the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, whereas “this generation” has not. Even if Jesus entered his ministry with some eschatological expectation about a sinful generation preceding the end, these sayings imply it was his own rejection that triggered him to speak about it ..."
Tucker S. Ferda, “Jesus and the Galilean Crisis: Interpretation, Reception, and History” (PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2016), 371–372.

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 93:9 and Matthew 24:10

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