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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 30

1 And then I created all the heavens, and the third day was. Tuesday. On the third day I commanded the earth to grow great and fruitful trees, and hills, and seed to sow, and I planted Paradise, and enclosed it, and placed flaming angels as armed guardians, and thus I created renewal. 2 Then evening came, and morning came, the fourth day. Wednesday. On the fourth day I commanded that there should be great lights on the heavenly circles. 3 On the first uppermost circle I placed the stars, Kruno, and on the second Aphrodit, on the third Aris, on the fifth Zeus, on the sixth Ermis, on the seventh the lesser moon, 4 and adorned it with the lesser stars. 5 And on the lower I placed the sun for the illumination of day, and the moon and stars for the illumination of night. 6 The sun, so that it would go according to each animal, twelve, and I appointed the succession of the months and their names and lives, their thunderings, and their hour-markings, how they should succeed. 7 Then evening came and morning came the fifth day. Thursday. On the fifth day I commanded the sea, that it should produce fish, and feathered birds of many varieties, and all animals creeping over the earth, moving over the earth on four legs, and soaring in the air, male and female, and every soul breathing the spirit of life. 8 And evening came, and morning came, the sixth day. Friday. On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man from seven substances:⁠ one, his flesh from the earth; two, his blood from the dew; three, his eyes from the sun; four, his bones from stone; five, his intelligence from the swiftness of the angels and from cloud; six, his veins and his hair from the grass of the earth; seven, his soul from my breath and from the wind. 9 And I gave him seven natures: to the flesh, hearing, the eyes for sight, to the soul, smell, the veins for touch, the blood for taste, the bones for endurance, to the intelligence, sweetness. 10 I devised a skillful saying to express this: I created man from invisible and from visible nature, from both come his death and life and image, he knows speech like some created thing, small in greatness and again great in smallness, 11 and I placed him on earth, a second angel, honorable, great and glorious, 12 and I appointed him as ruler to rule on earth and to have my wisdom, and there was none like him on earth among all my existing creatures. 13 And I appointed him a name, from the four component parts, from east, from west, from south, from north,⁠ 14 and I appointed for him four special stars, and I called his name Adam,⁠ 15 and showed him the two ways, the light and the darkness, and I told him:⁠ 'This is good, and that is bad,' so that I might learn whether he has love toward me, or hatred, so that it would be clear which of his race love me. 16 For I have seen his nature, but he has not seen his own nature, therefore through not seeing he will sin worse, and I said: 'After sin what is there but death?' 17 And I put sleep into him and he fell asleep. And I took from him a rib, and created him a wife, 18 so that death would come to him through his wife, and I took his last word and called her name mother, that is to say, Eva.

Texts in conversation

Compare Wisdom of Solomon 9:9 and 2 Enoch 30:8

Deuterocanon · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In the Wisdom of Solomon, wisdom is with God as a companion when he makes the world, and Solomon asks God to send her to him. In 2 Enoch, wisdom is a servant instead of a companion, as God commands his wisdom to create the first human.

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 9:9

Deuterocanon
8 You gave a command to build a sanctuary on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city where you live, a copy of the holy tent which you prepared from the beginning. 9 Wisdom is with you and knows your works, and was present when you were making the world, and understands what is pleasing in your eyes, and what is right according to your commandments. 10 Send her from the holy heavens, and ask her to come from the throne of your glory, that being present with me she may work, and I may learn what pleases you well.
50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

2 Enoch 30:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
8 And evening came, and morning came, the sixth day. Friday. On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man from seven substances: one, his flesh from the earth; two, his blood from the dew; three, his eyes from the sun; four, his bones from stone; five, his intelligence from the swiftness of the angels and from cloud; six, his veins and his hair from the grass of the earth; seven, his soul from my breath and from the wind. 9 And I gave him seven natures: to the flesh, hearing, the eyes for sight, to the soul, smell, the veins for touch, the blood for taste, the bones for endurance, to the intelligence, sweetness.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

References

“... Other studies have noticed that, in 2 Enoch’s creational account, God’s wisdom and his word are also mentioned as the agents of creation. Indeed, in both recensions of 2 Enoch 30:8, the Deity commands his wisdom to create man. Like Adoil and Arukhas at the very beginning of creation, another demiurgic mediator, Sophia, is commissioned to help the Deity with the later stages of the creational process by assisting him in the creation of humankind. Scholars often see the Sophia traditions as the formative bedrock for later Jewish mediatorial developments, including the Johannine Prologue. A reference to Sophia as God’s helper in 2 Enoch 30 is important to our study because it points to the complex creational universe of the Slavonic apocalypse, which is a Jewish text that strives to accommodate several mediatorial trends. It is intriguing that in both cases (Adoil and Sophia) the demiurgic agents act as the Deity’s servants who fulfill the “commands” of their master. In 2 Enoch 30:8, the Deity narrates to the seer that he “commanded” his wisdom to create man. [...] Martin Hengel notes that in Wis 9:1 “the creative word of God and the personified Sophia appear in a parallelismus membrorum: ‘O God of my fathers, Lord of mercy who hast made all things by thy word and by thy wisdom hast formed man.’ Word and wisdom of God are here nearly identified.” ...”
Andrei A. Orlov, Divine Scapegoats: Demonic Mimesis in Early Jewish Mysticism (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2015), 172–173, 296.

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Wisdom of Solomon 9:9 and 2 Enoch 30:8

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