Texts in Conversation
In 2 Enoch, Enoch sees God's face glowing like hot iron and finds it terrifying. In the Ladder of Jacob, a similarly fiery and terrifying human face represents the God who speaks to Jacob from above the ladder.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Enoch 22:1
Secrets of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 On the tenth Heaven, Aravoth, I saw the appearance of the Lord's face, like iron made to glow in fire, and brought out, emitting sparks, and it burns. Thus I saw the Lord's face, but the Lord's face is ineffable, marvellous and very awful, and very, very terrible. 2 And who am I to tell of the Lord's unspeakable being, and of his very wonderful face? and I cannot tell the quantity of his many instructions, and various voices, the Lord's throne very great and not made with hands, nor the quantity of those standing round him, troops of cherubim and seraphim, 3 nor their incessant singing, nor his immutable beauty, and who shall tell of the ineffable greatness of his glory? 4 And I fell prone and bowed down to the Lord,
Ladder of Jacob 1:3
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
3 And the top of the ladder was a face like a man's, hewn out of fire. 4 Now it had twelve steps up to the top of the ladder, and upon each step up to the top were two human faces on the right and on the left — twenty-four faces seen down to their chests, on the ladder. 5 But the middle face was higher than them all, which I saw made of fire, to the shoulder and the arm, very terrifying, more than the twenty-four faces. 6 And as I looked, there were the angels of God ascending and descending on it; but the Lord was set above it, and he called me, saying, Jacob, Jacob.
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
“... The depiction leaves the impression that God’s voice is hidden behind this fiery terrifying “face” as a distinct divine manifestation, behind which God conveys to Jacob his audible revelation about the Promised Land and the blessings upon Jacob’s descendants. This description of the celestial “Face” as the fiery anthropomorphic extent, which serves as the embodiment of the deity leads us to another Slavonic text in which the theme of the fiery Face looms large. This text is 2 (Slavonic) Enoch, a Jewish apocalypse, the hypothetical date of which (c. first century CE) is in close proximity to the date of Ladder. 2 Enoch 22 contains a theophanic depiction of the Face of the Lord, which emits light and fire. The important detail that connects this passage with Ladder is that the Face in 2 Enoch is similarly defined as “fiery” and “terrifying.” Another parallel is that in both 2 Enoch and Ladder the Face is understood as the luminous representation of the deity, behind which He can convey His audible revelation to visionaries. ...”
Orlov, Andrei A.
From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
(pp. 402-403) Brill, 2007
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,