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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book

Enoch Teaches His Sons

Chapter 39

1 Oh my children, my beloved ones, listen to your father's warning, as much as is according to the Lord's will. 2 I have been allowed to come to you today, and to announce to you, not from my lips, but from the Lord's lips, all that is and was and all that is now, and all that will be until judgment-day. 3 For the Lord has let me come to you, so hear the words of my lips, of a man made big for you, but I am one who has seen the Lord's face, like iron made to glow from fire it sends out sparks and burns. 4 You now look at my eyes, the eyes of a man big with meaning for you, but I have seen the Lord's eyes, shining like the sun's rays and filling the eyes of man with awe.⁠ 5 You see now, my children, the right hand of a man that helps you, but I have seen the Lord's right hand filling heaven as he helped me. 6 You see the scope of my work like your own, but I have seen the Lord's limitless and perfect scope, which has no end. 7 You hear the words of my lips, as I heard the words of the Lord, like great thunder incessantly, with the hurling of clouds. 8 And now, my children, listen to the speeches of your earthly father, how frightening and overwhelming it is to come before the face of the ruler of the earth, how much more terrifying and overwhelming it is to come before the face of the ruler of heaven, the controller of the living and the dead, and of the heavenly troops. Who can endure that endless pain?

Texts in conversation

Compare Sirach 23:19 and 2 Enoch 39:4

Deuterocanon · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

Sirach 23 and 2 Enoch 39 describe God’s eyes as brighter than the sun and able to see everything. Both follow the ancient belief in extramission where the eyes make their own light, applying it to God to show that nothing can be hidden from his sight.

Passages

Sirach 23:19

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
18 A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls hide me. No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid? The Most High will not remember my sins.” 19 The eyes of men are his terror. He doesn’t know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, seeing all the ways of men, and looking into secret places. 20 All things were known to him before they were created, and also after they were completed.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

2 Enoch 39:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
3 For the Lord has let me come to you, so hear the words of my lips, of a man made big for you, but I am one who has seen the Lord's face, like iron made to glow from fire it sends out sparks and burns. 4 You now look at my eyes, the eyes of a man big with meaning for you, but I have seen the Lord's eyes, shining like the sun's rays and filling the eyes of man with awe. 5 You see now, my children, the right hand of a man that helps you, but I have seen the Lord's right hand filling heaven as he helped me. 6 You see the scope of my work like your own, but I have seen the Lord's limitless and perfect scope, which has no end.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

References

"... At first blush Jesus appears to be making a physiological claim about the role of the eye, but the saying is sandwiched between two sayings that set pursuit of money and pursuit of God in opposition to each other. Moreover, the word ἁπλοῦς was rarely used in physiological descriptions, but it was frequently used in an ethical sense. Thus it would appear that, as in 5:25-26, the humdrum imagery of the saying conceals a deeper theological claim. Much has been written about this saying and its Lukan parallel (11:34-36). There are two key exegetical questions. The first is the meaning of ὁ λύχνος τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν ὁ ὀφθαλμός. Allison notes that modern exegetes have incorrectly assumed that this refers to the eye acting as a window that allows light into the body. Ancient Jews, however, thought that the eye contained its own light, hence the metaphor of a lamp, which is a source, not a channel, of light. (Examples include 2 Samuel 12:11; Sirach 23:19; Daniel 10:6; Testament of Job 18:3) Allison goes on to read the conditionals in 6:22b-23 so that the apodosis entails the realization of the protasis, rather than the reverse as is usually the case ..."
Nathan Paul Eubank, “Wages of Righteousness: The Economy of Heaven in the Gospel According to Matthew” (PhD diss., Duke University, 2012), 90–91.

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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Sirach 23:19 and 2 Enoch 39:4

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