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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book

The Seventh to Tenth Heavens

Chapter 20

1 And those two men lifted me up from there onto the seventh Heaven, and I saw there a very great light, and fiery troops of great archangels, bodiless forces, and dominions, orders and governments,⁠ cherubim and seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones, nine regiments, the Ioanit stations of light,⁠ and I became afraid, and began to tremble with great terror, 2 and those men took me, and led me after them, and said to me: 3 'Have courage, Enoch, do not fear,' and showed me the Lord from a distance, sitting on His very high throne. For what is there on the tenth heaven, since the Lord dwells here? God is in the tenth heaven, in the Hebrew language he is called Aravat. And all the heavenly troops would come and stand on the ten steps according to their rank, and would bow down to the Lord,⁠ 4 and would again go to their places in joy and happiness, singing songs in the boundless light with small and tender voices, gloriously serving him.

Texts in conversation

Compare 4Q405 23 i 7 and 2 Enoch 20:3

Dead Sea Scrolls, Prayers, Hymns, and Liturgy · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

The Dead Sea Scroll 4Q405 and 2 Enoch both reflect a Jewish cosmology with multiple heavens, each inhabited by angels who enter and exit through gates. In both, heavenly liturgy and movement follow an ordered pattern, describing a strict hierarchy.

Passages

4Q405 23 i 7

Dead Sea Scrolls, Prayers, Hymns, and Liturgy · Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice
6 […] … his whole offering. The gods praise him when they first stand, and all the [spirits of] the firmaments of 7 purity rejoice in his glory. And there is a sound of blessing from all his divisions, telling of the firmaments of his glory, and his gates praise 8 with a voice of rejoicing. At the entrances of the gods of knowledge in the doorways of glory, and at all the goings out of the holy angels to their dominion, 9 the doorways of entrance and the gates of going out proclaim the glory of the King, blessing and praising all the spirits of 10 God when they go out and when they come in through the holy gates. And there is none among them who skips over a statute, and never against the words of 11 the King do they set themselves. They do not run from the way, and they do not linger outside his boundary. They are not too exalted for his missions, 12 and they are not too lowly. For he will show mercy in the dominion of the fury of his destroying [wrath]; he will not judge while his glorious anger abides.
160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q405

2 Enoch 20:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
3 'Have courage, Enoch, do not fear,' and showed me the Lord from a distance, sitting on His very high throne. For what is there on the tenth heaven, since the Lord dwells here? God is in the tenth heaven, in the Hebrew language he is called Aravat. And all the heavenly troops would come and stand on the ten steps according to their rank, and would bow down to the Lord, 4 and would again go to their places in joy and happiness, singing songs in the boundless light with small and tender voices, gloriously serving him.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

References

"... The focus of this discussion is on Galatians and 1 Corinthians, but letters attributed to Paul, such as Colossians and Ephesians should be taken into account in any discussion of “the apocalyptic Paul.” The apocalyptic background of the cosmology of Ephesians was recognized long ago, and apocalyptic issues pervade the Letter to the Colossians with concern for the activities of the angels and the emulating of them (Col 2:16–18; compare 2:21). We know from the apocalypses and later Jewish mystical material that strict preparation was a necessary prerequisite for the receipt of visions. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, just as the angels in heaven have their allotted place in the heavenly liturgy (4Q405 23 i; compare 2 Enoch 20:3–21:1), so the earthly community is given a position corresponding to God’s everlasting purpose (1QS 2:22–26; 5:23–24; 6:8–10). It is possible that the problem addressed had two components: the ritual preparations and the visions themselves and an unhealthy concentration on other, lesser, heavenly beings, rather than Christ. In the light of this, the remarkable words in Colossians 1:15–20 and 2:9 become comprehensible. Passages such as Justin, Dialogue 114, where Christ is identified with the human figure on the throne of glory, suggest that Christ as the image of the invisible God is the concrete expression of God, the divine kabod (compare John 12:42; and 1:18; compare 2 Cor 4:6; 1 Cor 15:49). He took the form of a slave who had put on a heavenly, glorious body (Phil 2:6; compare 3:21) ..."
Christopher Rowland, “Paul as an Apocalyptist,” in The Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition and the Shaping of New Testamenmt Thought, ed. Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017), 131–154.

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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4Q405 23 i 7 and 2 Enoch 20:3

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