Daniel 10:11
Hebrew Bible
8 I alone was left to see this great vision. My strength drained from me, and my vigor disappeared; I was without energy. 9 I listened to his voice, and as I did so I fell into a trance-like sleep with my face to the ground. 10 Then a hand touched me and set me on my hands and knees. 11 He said to me, “Daniel, you are of great value. Understand the words that I am about to speak to you. So stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up shaking. 12 Then he said to me, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel, for from the very first day you applied your mind to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I have come in response to your words.
Date: 2nd Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
1 Enoch 65:9
Pseudepigrapha
7 He explained how silver is extracted from the dust of the earth, and how soft metal originates from within the earth. 8 'For lead and tin are not produced from the earth like silver: they come from a source that produces them, and an angel presides over it, and that angel is pre-eminent.' 9 Afterwards, my grandfather Enoch took me by the hand, raised me up, and said to me: 'Go, for I have inquired of the Lord of Spirits about this upheaval on the earth.' 10 He told me: 'Because of their wickedness, their judgment has been determined and shall not be withheld by Me forever. Because of the sorceries they have discovered and mastered, the earth and those who dwell upon it shall be destroyed.'
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
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Notes and References
"... In visionary texts the visionary normally first fell upon the ground in awe and was then commanded to stand upon his feet. This became a standard part of the visionary experience. It came to mark the point in the vision where the visionary was accepted into the presence of God, and could thus stand in his presence, as the angels do. This motif is first found in the Jewish mystical urtext Ezekiel (2:1), and is repeated in such texts as Daniel 10:11 when Daniel sees the vision of the angel; Joseph and Asenath (14:8, 11) during the conversion of Asenath by the appearance of the angel; 4 Ezra when Ezra is instructed by his companion angel during his visionary ascent (4 Ezra 7:2); the transfiguration as found in Matthew 17:1-9 (verse 7) and Acts 9:6; 22:10; 26:16 during the conversion of Paul through Christ's epiphany. Thus the appearance of a divine being, be it Christ or an angel, caused the recipient to fall on his or her face, and the acceptance of this individual into the presence of the divine being, in effect the acknowledgement that the visionary had been granted the right to stand on sacred ground, 177 was indicated by the command to stand. This motif is also found in magical literature ..."
Ricklefs, Norman
An Angelic Community: The Significance of Beliefs about Angels in the First Four Centuries of Christianity
(p. 208) Macquarie University, 2002
* 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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