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In Daniel, a river of fire flows from God's throne. In 3 Enoch, it falls through the heavens onto the wicked in hell, connecting the heavenly courtroom with the place where its judgments are carried out.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Daniel 7:9
Hebrew Bible
9 “While I was watching, thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His attire was white like snow; the hair of his head was like lamb’s wool. His throne was ablaze with fire, and its wheels were all aflame. 10 A river of fire was streaming forth and proceeding from his presence. Many thousands were ministering to him; many tens of thousands stood ready to serve him. The court convened, and the books were opened. 11 “Then I kept on watching because of the arrogant words of the horn that was speaking. I was watching until the beast was killed and its body destroyed and thrown into the flaming fire.
3 Enoch 33:4
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
And underneath the feet of the Chayyoth seven fiery rivers are running and flowing. And the breadth of each river is 365 thousand parasangs and its depth is 248 thousand myriads of parasangs. Its length is unsearchable and immeasurable. And each river turns round in a bow in the four directions of 'Araboth Raqia', and (from there) it falls down to Ma'on and is stayed, and from Ma'on to Zebul, from Zebul to Shechaqim, from Shechaqim to Raqia', from Raqia' to Shamayim and from Shamayim upon the heads of the wicked who are in Gehenna, as it is written (Jer. xxiii. 19): "Behold a whirlwind of the Lord, even his fury, is gone, yes, a whirling tempest; it shall burst upon the head of the wicked".
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Notes and References
“... The only river of fire in the Hebrew Bible is found in Dan. 7:10. It is not
a river of punishment, but the stream that issues forth from the throne of
the Ancient of Days.34 Nevertheless, this river comes to be associated with
hell. In b. Hagigah 13b and 3 Enoch 33 it is said to pour forth onto the
heads of sinners in hell.35 While G. Scholem dates 3 Enoch to the end of
the Talmudic period,36 the participants in the discussion in Hagigah are R.
Jeremiah b. Aba and R. Zutra b. Tuvyah, third-century Babylonian amo-
raim and students of Rav. R. Zutra attributes his statement that the river
falls on the heads of sinners to Rav. If this attribution is correct, the state-
ment goes back to the early third century. ...”
Himmelfarb, Martha
Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature
(p. 111; 112) University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983
* 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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