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1 Enoch 61 describes the dead being restored on judgment day, including those devoured by beasts and eaten by fish. The Apocalypse of Peter takes up this tradition, having God command wild beasts and birds to give back the flesh they ate.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 61:5
Pseudepigrapha
4 The chosen will begin to dwell with the chosen, and these are the measures which shall be given to faith and which shall strengthen righteousness. 5 And these measures shall uncover all the secrets of the depths of the earth, and those who were destroyed in the wilderness, and those devoured by beasts, and those eaten by the fish of the sea, that they may return and rely on the day of the Chosen One; for none shall be destroyed before the Lord of Spirits, nor can any be destroyed. 6 And all who dwell above in heaven received a command and power and one voice and one light like fire.
Apocalypse of Peter 1:12
Revelation of Peter
Early Christian
11 See now what will come upon them in the last days, when the day of God and the day of the decision of the judgment of God comes. From the east to the west all the children of men will be gathered together before my Father, who lives forever. And he will command hell to open its bars of adamant and give up all that is in it. 12 He will command the wild beasts and the birds to restore all the flesh that they have devoured, because he wills that all people should appear; for nothing perishes before God, and nothing is impossible with him, because all things are his. 13 For all things come to pass on the day of decision, on the day of judgment, at the word of God: and as all things were done when he created the world and commanded all that is in it and it was done — so also will it be in the last days; for all things are possible with God. Therefore he says in the scripture: Son of man, prophesy upon the bones and say to the bones: bone to bone in joints, sinews, nerves, flesh and skin and hair on them, and soul and spirit.
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Notes and References
... It is possible that the Apocalypse of Peter is dependent on 1 Enoch 61:1 (which would make it the earliest evidence of the existence of the Parables of Enoch), but most likely that all three texts are dependent on a common tradition. In the Apocalypse of Peter this tradition in chapter 4:4 occurs in a form exactly parallel to 4:3 and so becomes a variant of the tradition that the place of the dead will give back the dead. 1 Enoch 61:5 deals with a problem in the old concept of resurrection as the return of the dead from Sheol. Since Old Testament thought did not distinguish sharply between the grave and the underworld, those who are in Sheol are those who have been buried. But the question may then arise: what of those who are not buried? 1 Enoch 61:5 mentions three examples: those who die in the desert where there is none to bury them, those who die at sea and are eaten by fish, those who are eaten by wild animals. ...
Bauckham, Richard
The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
(pp. 285-288) Brill, 1998
* 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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