Texts in Conversation

1 Enoch and 4 Ezra both describe the return of Israel’s scattered tribes as the last act before judgment. 1 Enoch depicts them flying on chariots and riding the wind, while 4 Ezra depicts them marches them home across the dried-up Euphrates River.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE

1 Enoch 57:1

Pseudepigrapha
1 And it happened after that, I saw another group of chariots, with men riding them, arriving on the winds from the east, the west, and the south. 2 The sound of their chariots was heard, and when this disturbance occurred, the holy ones from heaven took notice, and the foundations of the earth shifted from their places, and the noise was heard from one end of the sky to the other, all in one day. 3 And everyone will fall down and worship the Lord of Spirits. And this marks the end of the second Parable.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)

4 Ezra 13:47

2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha
46 They have lived there ever since, until this final age. 47 Now they are on their way back, and once more the Most High will stop the channels of the river to let them cross. 48 ‘That is the meaning of the peaceful assembly that you saw. With them too are the survivors of your own people, all who are found inside my sacred boundary.
Date: 70-100 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References

#6119
... Different from 56:5-8, which is given as a straightforward prediction, the contents of these verses are recounted as something that Enoch “saw” (verse 1). Unfortunately, there is no account of an interpreting angel explaining the less-than-clear vision, and we are left to choose among three possible interpretations of the chapter. (1) A majority of commentators see here a description of the return of the Israelite dispersion. (2) A few others understand it to refer to the arrival of another hostile army. (3) This may reflect prophetic predictions that the gentiles will flow to Jerusalem to pay tribute to the God of Israel. That the people riding in a host of chariots represent the returning Israelite dispersion is taken for granted by commentators who espouse the first interpretation. This is understandable, since such a return is a common topic in biblical and in later Jewish literature and this time. See, for example, Isaiah 27:12-13; 49:12; 60:4-9; 66:19-20; Zechariah 8:7-8; Tobit 13:9-18; 14:5; Baruch 4:21-5:9; Psalms of Solomon 8:28 (34); 11; 4 Ezra 13:39-50. ...
Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (p. 213) Fortress Press, 2012

* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.

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