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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 51

1 Stretch out your hands to the poor according to your strength.⁠ 2 Do not hide your silver in the earth. Help the faithful man in distress, and distress will not find you in the time of your trouble. 3 And endure everything for the Lord's sake, every painful and cruel yoke placed on you, and in this way you will find your reward on the day of judgment. 4 It is good to go morning, midday, and evening into the Lord's dwelling, for the glory of your creator. 5 Because every breathing thing glorifies him, and every creature visible and invisible returns praise to him.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Enoch 51:2 and Matthew 6:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Matthew 6 and 2 Enoch 51 both emphasize the value of giving in secret, rejecting public displays of righteousness done for human praise. Both draw on an ethical tradition rooted in honor and shame culture.

Passages

2 Enoch 51:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
1 Stretch out your hands to the poor according to your strength. 2 Do not hide your silver in the earth. Help the faithful man in distress, and distress will not find you in the time of your trouble. 3 And endure everything for the Lord's sake, every painful and cruel yoke placed on you, and in this way you will find your reward on the day of judgment.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

Matthew 6:4

New Testament
1 “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward! 3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 5 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward! 6 But whenever you pray, go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... Enoch forbids his children to swear oaths, but rather they should say “Yes Yes” or “No, No” (Chapter 49). This is obviously similar to the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:34-37. As in the Gospels, the emphasis in 2 Enoch is on telling the truth in the first place. This is the most obvious of several links to the Sermon on the Mount in this section of 2 Enoch. There are significant differences as well. In chapter 53 Enoch warns his children not to rely on the fact their father is in heaven (“do no say, “our father is in heaven”) while the Lord’s Prayer begins by addressing God directly as father. Likely Jesus is working through the same common stock of rabbinical ethical teachings in the Sermon on the Mount which the author of 2 Enoch has in mind. It is also possible 2 Enoch is influenced by Matthew. The difference is the increased internalization of the commands of God found in Matthew 5-7. Murder is bad, but hatred and anger are worse. Adultery is bad, but lust is worse. This “internalized ethic” is missing from 2 Enoch ... Compare Treasures in Heaven/Alms (2 Enoch 51, Matthew 6:1-4; 19-24) ..."
Phillip J. Long, 2 Enoch and the Sermon on the Mount – 2 Enoch 38-63 (Grace Christian University, 2016), 1–4.

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 51:2 and Matthew 6:4

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