Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Unpacking First Enoch the Apocryphal Writing Quoted by Jude by Bart Ehrman in my previous post, I began to describe the Jewish apocryphal book First Enoch, the only apocryphon clearly quoted in the New Testament and apparently quoted as authoritative scripture. See Jude verses 14 and 15.
[00:00:21] Here I pick up where I left off, describing what the opening section of the book, the Book of the Watchers, is all about.
[00:00:28] The apocalyptic strain of the book is obvious from the outset.
[00:00:33] After a short poem, the author launches directly into his account of the coming judgment by describing a future theophany to literally end all theophanies.
[00:00:44] The great holy one will come from his dwelling, and the eternal God will tread from thence upon Mount Sinai he will appear with his army he will appear with his mighty host from the heaven of heavens all the watchers will see and quake, and those who are hiding in all the ends of the earth will sink.
[00:01:01] All the ends of the earth will be shaken and trembling, and great fear will seize them. The Watchers Unto the ends of the earth.
[00:01:08] The high mountains will be shaken, and will fall and break apart, and the high hills will be made low, and melt like wax before the fire. The earth will be wholly rent asunder, and everything on earth will perish, and there will be judgment on Earth. All that's 1 Enoch 1, 3 7.
[00:01:29] This is a thoroughly apocalyptic message of coming destruction, delivered with the poetic resonances of the Hebrew prophets of doom.
[00:01:37] The end will not involve a worldwide flood, but something far more significant, the destruction of the entire created order.
[00:01:45] Even so, in good biblical fashion, the author stresses that some people will be saved with the righteous he will make peace, and over the chosen there will be protection, and upon them will be mercy. They will all be God's, and he will grant them his good pleasure. He will bless them all, and he will help them all light will shine upon them, and he will make peace with them.
[00:02:11] The next section, chapter two, verse one, to chapter five, verse four, explains the harmony and obedience of the natural order that God has created on earth and in the heavens above as an indictment against those who have violated it, that is the fallen angels. Their disobedience will lead to disastrous results.
[00:02:32] Then comes an extended account of the myth of the Watchers, a full expansion that names names Shemihaza, Asael, and the other leaders of the 200 rebellious angels who defy God's law by taking human wives, who bear to them great giants, who themselves then produce the Hein Nephilim. See Genesis, chapter 6, verses 1 to 4 the Nephilim consume everything that humans can produce.
[00:02:59] Still ravenous, they begin to devour the humans themselves and then one another.
[00:03:03] Moreover, they introduce humans to the weapons of war and various divine arts, spells, astrology, magic that lead to massive corruption.
[00:03:14] Ultimately, such acts lead to divine condemnation at the direction of God. Four Archangels destroy the giants and bind their leaders for imprisonment and torture along with humans who sided with them. See chapter 10.
[00:03:28] Of particular importance for the fates of humans is the punishment of the angels Shemihaza and his companions, who were to be bound by the angel archangel Michael for 70 generations in the valleys of the earth until the day of their judgment and consummation, until the eternal judgment is consummated.
[00:03:47] Then they will be led away to the fiery abyss, to the torture and to the prison, where they will be confined forever. And everyone who is condemned and destroyed henceforth will be bound together with them until the consummation of their generations.
[00:04:01] That's chapter 10, verses 12 to 14.
[00:04:06] The binding is long term, with no hope for later release, but is itself only preparatory for a final judgment that will be eternal, tortured by fire in an inescapable prison.
[00:04:19] Equally important, this fate is reserved not merely for angels, but for everyone who is condemned, that is the humans as well, who have participated in the angelic wickedness.
[00:04:31] For this author, this includes virtually the entire human generation, imprisoned for the time being, but awaiting the final judgment and its eternal tortures.
[00:04:40] As we will see, this view of undifferentiated judgment of the damned stands at odds with what we will find later in Enoch's second journey, in chapter 22, verses 9. 13.
[00:04:54] Just as important is the following assurance to the righteous that they will escape the divine wrath to come and lead extraordinarily long and literally fruitful lives.
[00:05:05] They will live until they beget thousands.
[00:05:08] The earth itself, relieved of the presence of evil, will become again a paradise of massive fecundity.
[00:05:16] Then all the earth will be tilled in righteousness. They will plant vines on it, and every vine that will be planted on it will yield a thousand jugs of wine and every seed that is sown on it. Each measure will yield a thousand measures, and each measure of olives will yield 10 baths of oil.
[00:05:34] That's chapter 10, verses 18 to 19.
[00:05:40] Later apocalyptic accounts will multiply this paradisal bounty many times over in both Jewish and Christian traditions.
[00:05:48] So see for example second Baruch, chapter 29, verse 5, and Jesus Apud Papaeus, Apud Irenaeus in adversus heresaces 5, 33, 3 Enoch eventually undertakes two journeys to see the places of torment and reward.
[00:06:05] During the first, he observes the punishments of the Watchers prior to their final judgment in chapters 17 to 19.
[00:06:12] On the second, he sees the interim state of humans and then their ultimate places of glory and horror, currently uninhabited. And that's chapters 21 to 36.
[00:06:23] At this stage in my book, Journeys to Heaven and Hell, I go into some detailed description of these two journeys. What I've given here is enough to provide you with a sense of what is in the Book of the Watchers.
