Texts in Conversation
In 1 Samuel, a harmful spirit troubles Saul until David plays music. In 3 Enoch, the spirit is named among the winds of heaven, treating Saul's affliction as a force with a place in the heavenly world.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Samuel 16:23
Hebrew Bible
20 So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a container of wine, and a young goat and sent them to Saul with his son David. 21 David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him a great deal, and he became his armor-bearer. 22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse saying, “Let David be my servant, for I am very pleased with him.” 23 So whenever the spirit from God would come upon Saul, David would take his lyre and play it. This would bring relief to Saul and make him feel better. Then the evil spirit would leave him alone.
3 Enoch 23:8
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
There blows the "Evil Wind" as it is written (1 Sam. xvi. 23): "and the evil wind departed from him". There blow the "Wind of Wisdom" and the "Wind of Understanding" and the "Wind of Knowledge" and the "Wind of the Fear of H'" as it is written (Is. xi. 2): "And the wind of H' shall rest upon him; the wind of wisdom and understanding, the wind of counsel and might, the wind of knowledge and of the fear of H'". There blows the "Wind of Rain", as it is written (Prov. xxv. 23): "the north wind brings forth rain".
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Notes and References
“... Interestingly, too, the lengthy passage that describes the winds (3 Enoch
23, §35)59 does not make use of the metrological imagery that I noted to be sig-
nificant in the Parables; rather, it brings together an array of biblical texts that
speak of the winds and combines their imagery. In fact, there is only one point
in 3 Enoch where scales/balance imagery is used, in 18:20 (§27):
Why is his name called Šoqedḥozi? Because he weighs men’s merits in
scales in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be he.60
So, while there appears to be more entanglement with the content of Parables
of Enoch and 2 Enoch than is seen in the biblical material or even in b.Ḥagigah, ...”
Macaskill, Grant
The Entangled Enoch: 2 Enoch and the Cultures of Late Antiquity
(p. 138) Brill, 2024
* 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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