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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 25

1 I commanded in the very lowest parts, that visible things should come down from invisible, and Adoil came down very great, and I saw him, 2 and he had a belly of great light. And I said to him: 'Become undone, Adoil, and let the visible come out of you.' 3 And he came undone, and a great light came out. And I was in the middle of the great light, and as light is born from light, a great age emerged, and showed all creation, which I had thought to create.⁠ 4 And I saw that it was good. And I placed for myself a throne, and took my seat on it, and said to the light: 'Go up higher and fix yourself high above the throne, and be a foundation to the highest things.' 5 And above the light there is nothing else, and then I bent up and looked up from my throne.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Enoch 25:3 and 4 Ezra 6:40

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

4 Ezra and 2 Enoch share a tradition that describes light emerging from divine storehouses at the beginning of creation, offering a similar explanation for how light could appear before the creation of the sun and stars.

Passages

2 Enoch 25:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
1 I commanded in the very lowest parts, that visible things should come down from invisible, and Adoil came down very great, and I saw him, 2 and he had a belly of great light. And I said to him: 'Become undone, Adoil, and let the visible come out of you.' 3 And he came undone, and a great light came out. And I was in the middle of the great light, and as light is born from light, a great age emerged, and showed all creation, which I had thought to create. 4 And I saw that it was good. And I placed for myself a throne, and took my seat on it, and said to the light: 'Go up higher and fix yourself high above the throne, and be a foundation to the highest things.'
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

4 Ezra 6:40

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · 2 Esdras
38 I said, “O Lord, truly you spoke at the beginning of the creation, on the first day, and said this: ‘Let heaven and earth be made,’ and your word perfected the work. 39 Then the spirit was hovering, and darkness and silence were on every side. The sound of man’s voice was not yet there. 40 Then you commanded a ray of light to be brought out of your treasuries, that your works might then appear. 41 “On the second day, again you made the spirit of the firmament and commanded it to divide and to separate the waters, that the one part might go up, and the other remain beneath.
70–132 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4 Ezra

References

"... In 2 Baruch, which has come to us in Syriac, there is a brief mention of the “treasuries of the light,” listed among the range of secrets revealed to Moses by God ... 4 Ezra also contains a reference to “treasuries of light,” (6:40), contained in an expanded description of the divine command in Genesis 3. This reflects a wider concern within that book to assert God’s sovereignty over creation, and hence the demands of monotheism. Importantly, while this reference contributes to the growing postbiblical tradition of treasuries that contain light, it has no programmatic or structural significance ..."
Grant Macaskill, “Meteorology and Metrology: Evaluating Parallels in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch,” JSP 29.2 (2019): 79–99.

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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2 Enoch 25:3 and 4 Ezra 6:40

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