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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 20

1 Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain.⁠ 2 He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years.⁠ 3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)⁠ 4 Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.⁠ 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. 7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. 9 They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely.⁠ 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.⁠ 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened,⁠ and another book was opened—the book of life.⁠ So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.⁠ 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.⁠ 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.⁠ 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 90:25 and Revelation 20:14

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation 20 describes the final judgment where death and the grave are thrown into a fiery abyss, a moment that parallels 1 Enoch 90 in the Animal Apocalypse where the seventy shepherds are judged and thrown into a similar abyss of fire.

Passages

1 Enoch 90:25

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
22 He said to that man who wrote before Him, who was one of those seven white ones, and said to him: 'Take those seventy shepherds to whom I handed over the sheep, and who, taking them on their own authority, killed more than I commanded them.' 23 And I saw that they were all bound, and they all stood before Him. 24 The judgment was first held over the stars, and they were judged and found guilty, and went to the place of condemnation, and they were thrown into an abyss, full of fire and flaming, and full of pillars of fire. 25 Those seventy shepherds were judged and found guilty, and they were thrown into that fiery abyss. 26 I saw at that time how a similar abyss was opened in the middle of the earth, full of fire, and they brought those blinded sheep, and they were all judged and found guilty and thrown into this fiery abyss, and they burned; now this abyss was to the right of that house. 27 I saw those sheep burning, and their bones burning. 28 I stood up to watch until they folded up that old house; and they carried off all the pillars, and all the beams and ornaments of the house were folded up with it at the same time, and they carried it off and laid it in a place in the south of the land.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Revelation 20:14

New Testament
11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... A similar conclusion can be reached in relation to the books of judgment referred to as “opened” in Revelation 20:12. The important parallels in Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 90:20), the Book of Giants (4Q530) and Daniel 7:9–10 demonstrate how much currency traditions formed during the 2nd century B.C.E. still had when Revelation was composed. More specifically, Revelation envisions the opened books relating to the expanse of deceased humanity (“great and small”), while the texts in Daniel 7 and the Book of Giants are concerned with the judgment to be executed against the fourth beast (Daniel 7:8) and the ante-diluvian giants, respectively. The Enochic Animal Apocalypse, on the other hand, conceives of the judgment in the broadest possible terms; it is meted out to several groups, all who “were found to be sinners”: the fallen stars (1 Enoch 90:21), the seventy angelic shepherds (90:22), and the “blinded sheep”, that is, the disobedient of Israel (90:26–27). In a different vein, however, Revelation relates the books to the human dead (Revelation 20:12–13), not to the judgment of demonic powers (20:9). Conceptually, the scope of judgment in the Animal Apocalypse provides the nearest antecedent to Revelation; however, it is difficult to establish that the inclusion of the deeds of dead humans in the opened books can be explained on the basis of literary influence ..."
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 318.

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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1 Enoch 90:25 and Revelation 20:14

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