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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 99

1 Woe to you who engage in godlessness, and glory in lying and praise them: You shall perish, and no happy life shall be yours. 2 Woe to those who distort the words of truth, and violate the eternal law,⁠ and transform themselves into what they were not [into sinners]: They shall be trodden underfoot upon the earth. 3 In those days, prepare yourselves, righteous ones, to raise your prayers as a memorial, and set them as a testimony before the angels, so that they may present the sins of the sinners as a memorial before the Most High.⁠ 4 In those days the nations shall be stirred up, and the families of the nations shall rise on the day of destruction.⁠ 5 And in those days the impoverished shall go forth and carry off their children, and they shall abandon them, so that their children shall perish through them: Yes, they shall abandon their suckling children and not return to them, and shall have no pity on their loved ones. 6 And again I swear to you, sinners, that sin is prepared for a day of unceasing bloodshed.⁠ 7 And those who worship stones, and carved images of gold, silver, wood, stone, and clay, and those who worship impure spirits and demons, and all kinds of idols not according to knowledge, shall receive no help from them.⁠ 8 And they shall become godless by reason of the folly of their hearts, and their eyes shall be blinded through the fear of their hearts and through visions in their dreams.⁠ 9 Through these, they shall become godless and fearful; for they shall have conducted all their work in a lie, and shall have worshiped a stone: Therefore, they shall perish instantly. 10 But in those days, blessed are all who accept the words of wisdom, understand them, observe the paths of the Most High, and walk in the path of His righteousness, and do not become godless with the godless; for they shall be saved. 11 Woe to you who spread evil to your neighbors; for you shall be slain in Sheol. 12 Woe to you who make deceitful and false measures, and to those who cause bitterness on the earth; for they shall be utterly consumed. 13 Woe to you who build your houses through the grievous toil of others, and all their building materials are the bricks and stones of sin; I tell you, you shall have no peace. 14 Woe to those who reject the measure and eternal heritage of their fathers and whose souls follow after idols; for they shall have no rest. 15 Woe to those who commit unrighteousness, aid oppression, and slay their neighbors until the day of the great judgment. 16 For He shall cast down your glory, inflict affliction on your hearts, arouse His fierce indignation, and destroy you all with the sword; and all the holy and righteous shall remember your sins.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 99:4 and Mark 13:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 Enoch 99 warns of nations becoming violent and families falling apart in a future time of chaos. In Mark, Jesus follows this apocalyptic tradition with a description of war, natural disasters, and families turning against each other at the end.

Passages

1 Enoch 99:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 Woe to those who distort the words of truth, and violate the eternal law, and transform themselves into what they were not [into sinners]: They shall be trodden underfoot upon the earth. 3 In those days, prepare yourselves, righteous ones, to raise your prayers as a memorial, and set them as a testimony before the angels, so that they may present the sins of the sinners as a memorial before the Most High. 4 In those days the nations shall be stirred up, and the families of the nations shall rise on the day of destruction. 5 And in those days the impoverished shall go forth and carry off their children, and they shall abandon them, so that their children shall perish through them: Yes, they shall abandon their suckling children and not return to them, and shall have no pity on their loved ones. 6 And again I swear to you, sinners, that sin is prepared for a day of unceasing bloodshed.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Mark 13:8

New Testament
3 So while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that all these things are about to take place?” 5 Jesus began to say to them, “Watch out that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will mislead many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. These are but the beginning of birth pains.
60–75 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mark

References

"... Despite the absence of the terms ‘woes’ or ‘birthpangs’, the details in this passage use the same vocabulary to describe the same familiar phenomena. Such descriptions in the rabbinic writings bear remarkable consistency in content and approach to the centuries-old Old Testament prophecies of the Day of the Lord and its antecedents previously described; equally, they bear striking similarity to many of the much more nearly contemporary sayings of Jesus relating to the End, which are stated in terms full of Old Testament allusion: he describes the beginning of the birth-pains in Mark 13:8 as follows: ‘Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.’ On family breakdown he says: ‘Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death’ (Mark 13:12); and regarding the spiritual health of the people: ‘And then many will be caused to stumble and will betray and hate one another. Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will vanish’ (Matthew 24:10, 12). Jesus’ ready usage of themes and terminology familiar from both Old Testament and the later writings of the Rabbis is entirely consistent with his own rabbinic background. The apocalyptic literature of the period up to the 2nd century AD is essentially eschatological in content, employing many of the same themes and motifs as the rabbinic writings. Here, consequently, the woes are mentioned far more frequently: Charles goes as far as to state that ‘The woes before the Messianic Age are a feature of all Apocalypse.’ Three typical examples show very similar themes to both the biblical and the rabbinic texts: 1 Enoch 99:4-5, 7; 100:1-2 (2nd Century BC - 1st Century AD) ..."
Robin Anthony Steedman, “Colossians 1:24 and Vicarious Suffering in the Church” (PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2013), 251–252.

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 99:4 and Mark 13:8

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