1 Enoch 98:16

Pseudepigrapha

12 Woe to you who love the deeds of unrighteousness: wherefore do ye hope for good hap unto yourselves? know that ye shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous, and they shall cut off your necks and slay you, and have no mercy upon you. 13 Woe to you who rejoice in the tribulation of the righteous; for no grave shall be dug for you. 14 Woe to you who set at nought the words of the righteous; for ye shall have no hope of life. 15 Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write down their lies that men may hear them and act godlessly towards (their) neighbour. 16 Therefore they shall have no peace but die a sudden death.

Luke 12:20

New Testament

16 He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, 17 so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”

 Notes and References

"... It is not surprising that the God Luke depicts would not only have a vested interest in the man's use of his goods, but would also evaluate the man's plans as foolish. God's announcement invites the hearers of the parable and readers/hearers of Luke to evaluate the use of one's possessions in light of one's inevitable death and the potential imminence of one's demise. This rhetorical strategy is employed by Ben Sira and Lucian, both of whom use the inevitability and uncertain timing of death as an opportunity to assess one's use of possessions. God's question (And the things you prepared – whose will they be?) reveals an interest not only with the end of the man's life but also with the life of the man's possessions after his death. Unlike 1 Enoch, the possessions in this story have a life of their own, one whose end does not coincide with the death of the rich man. God's question invites reflection upon the ongoing life of the rich man's possessions. What kind of life will the rich man's possessions have after he dies? More to the point: whose life will the rich man's possessions influence once he dies? The man's strategy is foolish since its realized outcome depends upon two unreliable factors, the fragility of goods and precariousness of plans for the future. One becomes rich toward God by giving alms since this act of love becomes an unfailing treasure in heaven. In contrast to the ephemerality and unreliability of goods and plans for the future, giving alms is an act of love that can never be destroyed. Luke assumes that all else can be taken away from someone, whether it be possessions or, in the extreme case, one's life ..."

Rindge, Matthew S. Illustrating Wisdom: Luke 12:16-21 and the Interplay of Death and Possessions in Sapiential Literature (pp. 246-247) Emory University, 2008

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