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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 40

1 And now, my children, I know all things, for this is from the Lord's lips, and my eyes have seen this, from beginning to end. 2 I know all things, and have written all things into books, the heavens and their end, and their fullness, and all the armies and their marchings. I have measured and described the stars, the great countless multitude of them.⁠ 3 What person has seen their orbits and the places where they enter? For not even the angels see their number, while I have written all their names. 6 And I measured the sun's circle, and measured its rays, counted the hours, 7 I also wrote down all things that go over the earth, I have written the things that are nourished, and all seed sown and unsown, which the earth produces and all plants, and every grass and every flower, and their sweet smells, and their names, 8 and the dwelling-places of the clouds, and their composition, and their wings, and how they bear rain and raindrops. 9 And I investigated all things, and wrote the road of the thunder and of the lightning,⁠ and they showed me the keys and their guardians, their rise, the way they go; it is let out in measure by a chain, so that it does not, by a heavy chain and violence, hurl down the angry clouds and destroy all things on earth. 10 I wrote the treasure-houses of the snow, and the storehouses of the cold and the frosty airs, and I observed their season's key-holder, who fills the clouds with them, and does not exhaust their treasure-houses. 11 And I wrote the resting-places of the winds and observed and saw how their key-holders bear weighing-scales and measures; first, they put them in one weighing-scale, then the weights in the other and let them out according to measure skillfully over the whole earth, so that they do not make the earth rock by heavy breathing. 12 And I measured out the whole earth, its mountains, and all hills, fields, trees, stones, rivers, all existing things I wrote down, the height from earth to the seventh heaven, and downward to the very lowest hell, and the judgment-place, and the very great, open and weeping hell. And I saw how the prisoners are in pain, 13 expecting the limitless judgment. And I wrote down all those being judged by the judge, and all their judgments and all their works.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Enoch 40:9 and 3 Enoch 37:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In 2 Enoch, Enoch learns where thunder and lightning are stored in heaven. In 3 Enoch, Ishmael also sees those weather elements stored in heaven, following a tradition based on early apocalyptic literature such as Ezekiel.

Passages

2 Enoch 40:9

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
9 And I investigated all things, and wrote the road of the thunder and of the lightning, and they showed me the keys and their guardians, their rise, the way they go; it is let out in measure by a chain, so that it does not, by a heavy chain and violence, hurl down the angry clouds and destroy all things on earth. 10 I wrote the treasure-houses of the snow, and the storehouses of the cold and the frosty airs, and I observed their season's key-holder, who fills the clouds with them, and does not exhaust their treasure-houses. 11 And I wrote the resting-places of the winds and observed and saw how their key-holders bear weighing-scales and measures; first, they put them in one weighing-scale, then the weights in the other and let them out according to measure skillfully over the whole earth, so that they do not make the earth rock by heavy breathing.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

3 Enoch 37:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: In the seven Halls there are standing four chariots of Shekina, and before each one are standing the four camps of Shekina. Between each camp a river of fire is continually flowing. 2 Between each river there are bright clouds [surrounding them], and between each cloud there are put up pillars of brimstone. Between one pillar and another there are standing flaming wheels, surrounding them. And between one wheel and another there are flames of fire round about. Between one flame and another there are treasuries of lightnings; behind the treasuries of lightnings are the wings of the stormwind. Behind the wings of the storm-wind are the chambers of the tempest; behind the chambers of the tempest there are winds, voices, thunders, sparks [upon] sparks and earthquakes [upon] earthquakes.
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... First, the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch are distinctive in their development of an extended scheme within which the imagery of the storehouse functions as the governing device within accounts of meteorology. While the imagery is widely found in the biblical material and in postbiblical texts, these texts are distinctive in developing it in an extended way, with the imagery of the storehouse and/or treasury governing the account. Most texts use the store- house/treasury image as part of a wider range of images associated with the meteorological elements or, in the postbiblical literature, with light and lumi- naries. Even those texts that do contain more extended accounts of the places in which the meteorological elements or luminaries are contained, such as the Rule of the Community, do not use the storehouse as the principal image, but include it within a wider list of heavenly places. The closest parallels are found in b.Ḥagigah 12b and 3 Enoch 37 (§55), which is undoubtedly significant, but both are marked by a number of differences. In the case of b.Ḥagigah 12b, the storehouses are associated with elements reserved for eschatological punishment—there is no interest in meteorology, as such—and in the case of 3 Enoch 37/§55, the real interest is in the divine throne. 3 Enoch 48c/§72, which refers in a broader way to the storehouses, is also uninterested in meteo- rology itself; it is more clearly driven by a concern to show Metatron’s position of delegated authority over the angels. ...”
Grant Macaskill, The Entangled Enoch: 2 Enoch and the Cultures of Late Antiquity (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill BV, 2024), 143.

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 40:9 and 3 Enoch 37:1

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