In the Authorized Version of the Epistle of Jude, we read the following
words:—
“Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold,
the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment
upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”[1]
Modern research sees in the Epistle of Jude a work of the second
century: but as orthodox theologians accept its contents as the inspired
utterance of an Apostle, let us diligently search the Hebrew Scriptures
for this important forecast of the second Advent of the Messiah. In vain
we turn over the pages of the sacred Canon; not even in the Apocrypha
can we trace one line from the pen of the marvellous being to whom
uninterrupted immortality is assigned by apostolic[2] interpretation of
Genesis v. 24. Were the prophecies of Enoch, therefore, accepted as a
Divine revelation on that momentous day when Jesus explained the
Scriptures, after his resurrection, to Jude and his apostolic brethren;
and have we moderns betrayed our trust by excluding an inspired record
from the Bible?
Reverting to the second century of Christianity, we find Irenæus and
Clement of Alexandria citing the Book of Enoch without questioning its
sacred character. Thus, Irenæus, assigning to the Book of Enoch an
authenticity analogous to that of Mosaic literature, affirms that Enoch,
although a man, filled the office of God’s messenger to the angels.[3]
Tertullian, who flourished at the close of the first and at the
beginning of the second century, whilst admitting that the “Scripture of
Enoch” is not received by some because it is not included in the Hebrew
Canon, speaks of the author as “the most ancient prophet, Enoch,” and of
the book as the divinely inspired autograph of that immortal patriarch,
preserved by Noah in the ark, or miraculously reproduced by him through
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Tertullian adds, “But as Enoch has
spoken in the same scripture of the Lord, and ‘every scripture suitable
for edification is divinely inspired,’ let us reject nothing which
belongs to us. It may now seem to have been disavowed by the Jews like
all other scripture which speaks of Christ—a fact which should cause us
no surprise, as they were not to receive him, even when personally
addressed by himself.” These views Tertullian confirms by appealing to
the testimony of the Apostle Jude.[4] The Book of Enoch was therefore as
sacred as the Psalms or Isaiah in the eyes of the famous theologian, on
whom modern orthodoxy relies as the chief canonist of New Testament
scripture.
Origen (A.D. 254), in quoting Hebrew literature, assigns to the Book of
Enoch the same authority as to the Psalms. In polemical discussion with
Celsus, he affirms that the work of the antediluvian patriarch was not
accepted in the Churches as Divine; and modern theologians have
accordingly assumed that he rejected its inspiration: but the extent to
which he adopts its language and ideas discloses personal conviction
that Enoch was one of the greatest of the prophets. Thus, in his
treatise on the angels, we read: “We are not to suppose that a special
office has been assigned by mere accident to a particular angel: as to
Raphael, the work of curing and healing; to Gabriel, the direction of
wars; to Michael, the duty of hearing the prayers and supplications of
men.”[5] From what source but assumed revelation could Origen obtain and
publish these circumstantial details of ministerial administration in
heaven?
Turning to the Book of Enoch we read: “After this I besought the angel
of peace, who proceeded with me, to explain all that was concealed. I
said to him, Who are those whom I have seen on the four sides, and whose
words I have heard and written down. He replied, The first is the
merciful, the patient, the holy Michael. The second is he who presides
over every suffering and every affliction of the sons of men, the holy
Raphael. The third, who presides over all that is powerful, is Gabriel.
And the fourth, who presides over repentance and the hope of those who
will inherit eternal life, is Phanuel.”[6] We thus discover the source
of Origen’s apparently superhuman knowledge, and detect his implicit
trust in the Book of Enoch as a Divine revelation.
When primitive Christianity had freely appropriated the visions of Enoch
as the materials of constructive dogmas, this remarkable book gradually
sank into oblivion, disappeared out of Western Christendom, and was
eventually forgotten by a Church, which unconsciously perpetuated its
teaching as the miraculous revelations of Christianity.
The Book of Enoch, unknown to Europe for nearly a thousand years, except
through the fragments preserved by Georgius Syncellus (circa 792, A.D.),
was at length discovered by Bruce in Abyssinia, who brought home three
copies of the Ethiopic version in 1773, respecting which he
writes:—“Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris was a
very beautiful and magnificent copy of the Prophecies of Enoch, in large
quarto; another is amongst the Books of Scripture which I brought home,
standing immediately before the Book of Job, which is its proper place
in the Abyssinian Canon; and a third copy I have presented to the
Bodleian Library at Oxford, by the hands of Dr. Douglas, the Bishop of
Carlisle.”
This priceless manuscript, destined, some day, to reveal the forgotten
source of many Christian dogmas and mysteries, rested in Bodleian
obscurity, until presented to the world through an English translation
by Dr. Laurence, Archbishop of Cashel, formerly Professor of Hebrew at
Oxford, who issued his first edition in 1821, in apparent
unconsciousness that he was giving to mankind the theological fossils
through which we, in the clearer light of our generation, may study the
“Evolution of Christianity.”
The scarcity of Archbishop Laurence’s translation, before the
publication of the second edition in 1833, produced an impression in
Germany that the work had been suppressed by its author; but this report
is contradicted in the preface to the third edition, issued in 1838, in
response to a large order from America.
The Book of Enoch excited more interest on the Continent than in
England. It was translated into German by Dr. Hoffman in 1838, into
Latin by Gfrörer in 1840, again into German by Dillmann in 1853, and has
been discussed by Weisse, Lücke, Hilgenfeld, and Kalisch, the latter of
whom uttered the prediction, that the book of Enoch “will one day be
employed as a most important witness in the history of religious
dogmas.” The day and the hour have come, the clock has struck, and in
thus publishing an edition of Archbishop Laurence’s translation of the
Book of Enoch, we place within the reach of all readers of the English
language, the means of studying the pre-Christian origin of Christian
mysteries.
Turning towards the “Preliminary Dissertation” of Archbishop Laurence,
in which he discusses, with impartial criticism and accomplished
scholarship, the origin of the Book of Enoch, we find him attaining the
important conclusions, that it was written by a Jew of the Dispersion in
his own language, whether Hebrew or the later Aramæan acquired in exile;
that the version in the hands of the author of the Epistle of Jude and
the Ante-Nicene Fathers was a Greek translation; and that the Ethiopic
edition, whether translated from Aramæan or Greek, is the same work as
that cited by the Apostle.
In attestation of the theory of an Aramaic or Syro-Chaldæan origin,
Archbishop Laurence refers to the “most ancient remains of the Cabbala
(Hebrew traditions) contained in the ‘Zohar,’ a species of philosophical
commentary upon the Law, combining theological opinions with the
allegorical subtleties of the mystical school. In this celebrated
compilation of what was long supposed to constitute the hidden wisdom of
the Jewish nation, occasional references are made to the Book of Enoch,
as a book carefully preserved from generation to generation.” Archbishop
Laurence then gives extracts from the “Zohar,” referring to important
passages in the Book of Enoch, and infers that “the authors of the
Cabbalistical remains wrote their recondite doctrines in Chaldee,” and
possessed a copy of the Book of Enoch, written in that language or in
Hebrew, “which they regarded as the genuine work of him whose name it
bore, and not as the spurious production of a later age.”
Archbishop Laurence then considers the probable date of the work, and
infers, from the quotation of Jude, that it must have been written
antecedent to the Christian era, but not before the Captivity of
Babylon, because it contains the language and imagery of Daniel, “in the
representation of the Ancient of Days coming to judgment with the Son of
man.” But since Archbishop Laurence wrote, modern criticism has
disclosed how nebulous is the date of Daniel, so that it becomes as
reasonable to assume that the author or compiler borrowed from the Book
of Enoch, as to attribute plagiarism to the pseudo-patriarch. The
learned translator, however, discovered more satisfactory proof, through
internal evidence, that the book “was written long subsequent to the
commencement, and even to the conclusion, of the Babylonian Captivity.”
That section of the Book of Enoch, extending from chapter lxxxii. to
xc., contains an allegorical narrative of the royal dynasties of Israel
and Judah, from which Archbishop Laurence constructs a history extending
from Saul to the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great, and infers
that the Book of Enoch was written “before the rise of Christianity;
most probably at an early period of the reign of Herod.” The Archbishop
adds: “That it could not have been the production of a writer who lived
after the inspired authors of the New Testament, or who was even coeval
with them, must be manifest from the quotation of St. Jude—a quotation
which proves it to have been in his time a work ascribed to Enoch
himself.”
Archbishop Laurence, furthermore, attains probability of date through
another line of argument. In chapter liv. 9, of the Book of Enoch we
read, “The chiefs of the East, among the Parthians and Medes, shall
remove kings, in whom a spirit of perturbation shall enter. They shall
hurl them from their thrones, springing as lions from their dens, and
like famished wolves into the midst of the flock.” Commenting on this
passage, Archbishop Laurence says, “Now the Parthians were altogether
unknown in history, until the 250th year before Christ, when, under the
guidance of Arsaces (the family name of all their subsequent kings) they
revolted from Antiochus Theus, the then king of Syria. It was not,
however, until the year 230 B.C. that their empire became firmly
established, when Arsaces defeated and took prisoner Seleucus
Callicinus, the Syrian monarch, and first assumed the title of King of
Parthia. By degrees they expelled the Syrian dominion from every
province over which it extended east of the Euphrates; so that from
about the year 140 B.C. their vast empire reached from the Ganges to the
Euphrates, and from the Euphrates to the Caucasus.” These facts would
therefore lead to the conclusion that the Book of Enoch was written
about the middle of the second century B.C.; but as the author adds to
the passage already cited, “They shall go up, and tread upon the land of
their elect, the land of their elect shall be before them. The
threshing-floor, the path, and the city of my righteous people shall
impede the progress of their horses,” Archbishop Laurence connects this
language with the invasion of Syria by the Parthians in the year 54
B.C., and their defeat of Anthony eighteen years later, “when the credit
of the Parthian arms was at the highest; and it is probable that about
the same period, or at least not long after, the Book of Enoch was
written.”
The question now naturally arises, How was this work of fiction accepted
within so short a period, as the genuine production of the patriarch
Enoch? The Archbishop answers by showing, through internal evidence,
that the book was written by a Jew residing at a distance from
Palestine, and having been brought into Judæa in the name of the prophet
Enoch, the obscurity of its origin caused some to accept it as the
genuine production of the patriarch himself. In chapter lxxi.
Pseudo-Enoch divides the day and night into eighteen parts, and
represents the longest day in the year as consisting of twelve out of
these eighteen parts. “Now the proportion of twelve to eighteen is
precisely the same as sixteen to four and twenty, the present division
in hours of the period constituting day and night. If therefore we
consider in what latitude a country must be situated to have a day of
sixteen hours long, we shall immediately perceive that Palestine could
not be such a country. We may then safely conclude that the region in
which the author lived must have been situated not lower than forty-five
degrees north latitude, where the longest day is fifteen hours and a
half, nor higher perhaps than forty-nine degrees, where the longest day
is precisely sixteen hours. This will bring the country where he wrote,
as high up at least as the northern districts of the Caspian and Euxine
seas; probably it was situated somewhere between the upper parts of both
these seas; and if the latter conjecture be well founded, the author of
the Book of Enoch was perhaps a member of one of the tribes which
Shalmaneser carried away, and placed ‘in Halah and in Habor by the river
Goshen, and in the cities of the Medes,’ and who never returned from
captivity.”
Since Archbishop Laurence wrote his “Preliminary Dissertation,” fresh
light has been thrown on the origin of the Book of Enoch through the
publication of Mr. Layard’s “Nineveh and Babylon,” recording the
discovery, in Babylonian ruins, of cups or bowls of terra cotta, covered
on the inner surface with inscriptions in ink, which have been
deciphered by Mr. Thomas Ellis of the Manuscript Department in the
British Museum, as amulets or charms against evil spirits, disease,
calamity, and sudden death, composed in the Chaldean language mingled
with Hebrew words,[7] and written in characters which combine Syriac and
Palmyrene with the ancient Phœnician. These inscriptions are undated;
but Mr. Ellis attained the conclusion through internal evidence, that
these cups belonged to the descendants of the Jews who were carried
captive to Babylon and the surrounding cities.
But the most important revelation attained through these discoveries of
Mr. Layard lies in the interesting fact, mentioned in his work, that the
names of the angels inscribed on these cups, and those recorded in the
Book of Enoch, are, in many instances identical, so that no doubt
remains as to the Hebrew-Chaldee origin of that great Semitic work,
whether assignable to human genius or Divine revelation; and the exhumed
amulets of Jews of the Dispersion attest the accuracy of Archbishop
Laurence’s conclusions respecting the nationality of Pseudo-Enoch.
Ignorance of the contents of the Apocrypha, as canonized by the Church
of Rome, is so general in England that many otherwise well-informed
people imagine that the Book of Enoch may be found in its pages, whereas
it has been lost to all English readers, except those who may possess or
have access to copies of the English translation last issued in 1838. On
this aspect of the question Archbishop Laurence writes:—
“The fate of the Apocryphal writings in general has been singular. On
one side, from the influence of theological opinion or theological
caprice, they have been sometimes injudiciously admitted into the Canon
of Scripture; while on the other side, from an over-anxiety to preserve
that Canon inviolate, they have been not simply rejected, but loaded
with every epithet of contempt and obloquy. The feelings perhaps of both
parties have on such occasions run away with their judgment. For
writings of this description, whatever may or may not be their claim to
inspiration, are at least of considerable utility, where they indicate
the theological opinions of the periods at which they were composed.
This I apprehend to be peculiarly the case of the Book of Enoch; which,
as having been manifestly written before the doctrines of Christianity
were promulgated to the world, must afford us, when it refers to the
nature and character of the Messiah, as it repeatedly does so refer,
credible proof of what were the Jewish opinions upon those points before
the birth of Christ; and consequently before the possible predominance
of the Christian creed.”
Archbishop Laurence thus clearly recognized that the visions of Enoch
preceded the teaching of Jesus; but it was not given to him, or to his
generation, to see how deeply his conclusions affected the supernatural
claims of Christianity.
Turning to the contents of the Book of Enoch, the first six chapters
announce the condemnation of transgressors and the blessings of the
righteous, through the triumphal advent of the Messiah, forecast in the
famous prediction quoted by the author of the Epistle attributed to
Jude.
Chapters vii. to xvi. record the descent of two hundred angels on the
earth, their selection of wives, the birth of their gigantic offspring,
and the instruction of mankind in the manufacture of offensive and
defensive weapons, the fabrication of mirrors, the workmanship of
jewellery, and the use of cosmetics and dyes, combined with lessons in
sorcery, astrology, divination, and astronomy—all which Tertullian
accepts as Divine revelation, when he denounces woman as the “devil’s
gateway,”[8] and assures her, on the authority of the inspired Enoch,
that Tyrian dyes, Phrygian embroidery, Babylonian cloth, golden
bracelets, gleaming pearls, flashing onyx-stones, and brilliant
emeralds, with all the other adjuncts of an elegant toilette, are the
special gifts of fallen angels to female frailty. The advent of the
angels multiplies transgressions on earth, they are condemned to “the
lowest depths of the fire in torments,” and Enoch, as the messenger of
God, announces to them the eternity of their punishment.
Chapters xvii. to xxxvi. give a graphic description of the miraculous
journeys of Enoch in the company of an angel, from whom he learns the
secrets of creation and the mysteries of Infinity. From the top of a
lofty mountain “which reached to heaven,” he beheld the receptacles of
light, thunder, and lightning, “the great darkness or mountains of gloom
which constitute winter, the mouths of rivers and of the deep, _the
stone which supports the corners of the earth_, and the four winds which
bear up the earth, and constitute the pillars of heaven.”[9] Is not this
obviously the inspired cosmology, through which the author of the Book
of Enoch unconsciously condemned mediæval physicists to the stake for
impiously proclaiming the mobility of the earth? If an inspired prophet
saw the stone which supports the corners of the earth, how inexpiable
the guilt of men, who fostered scepticism through the heliocentric
theory of a world coursing swiftly round the sun!
But had not the Book of Enoch disappeared for centuries out of Europe,
before the persecution of Galileo and the martyrdom of Bruno? We answer
that its teaching had survived, as numerous other superstitions have
passed from generation to generation long after all knowledge of their
origin has been lost to the theologians who accept them as Divine.
In the “Evolution of Christianity” we cite the following passage from
Irenæus: “It is impossible that the Gospels can be more or less than
they are. For as there are four zones in the world which we inhabit, and
four principal winds, while the Church is spread abroad throughout the
earth, and the pillar and basis of the Church is the gospel and the
spirit of life, it is right that she should have four pillars exhaling
immortality on every side, and bestowing renewed vitality on men. From
which _fact_ it follows that the Word has given us four versions of the
Gospel, united by one spirit.” We now recognize that this fanciful
theory of a limited number of Evangelists is based on the cosmology of
Enoch; and if in the second century, Irenæus accepted the visions of an
antediluvian patriarch as _facts_, the traditional survival of the
earth’s “corner stone” doubtless controlled the orthodox astronomy of
mediæval theologians.
Proceeding on his journey with the angel Uriel, Enoch furthermore beheld
the prison of the fallen angels, in which struggling columns of fire
ascended from an appalling abyss. He saw the regions in which the
spirits of the dead await the day of judgment; he looked upon the trees
of knowledge and of life, exhaling fragrant odours from leaves which
never withered, and from fruit which ever bloomed; and he beheld the
“great and glorious wonder” of the celestial stars, coming forth through
the “gates of heaven.”
Chapters xxxvii. to lxxi. record the second vision of wisdom, divided
into three parables. The first depicts the future happiness and glory of
the elect, whom Enoch beheld reclining on couches in the habitations of
angels, or standing in thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads
before the throne of God, blessing and glorifying Him with celestial
song, as the Holy, Holy Lord of spirits, before whom righteousness
eternally dwells.
As Enoch uttered his prophecies respecting the elect, before the
existence of Christianity, it is important to learn in what sense he
understood the doctrine of election. The language of the first parable
happily leaves no room for doubt—“The righteous will be elected for
their good works duly weighed by the Lord of Spirits.”[10] Election,
therefore, traced to its original source, means nothing more than Divine
“selection of the fittest”—a theory more consistent with the justice of
God, than the capricious choice of the metamorphical potter, whose
arbitrary fashioning of plastic clay symbolized, in Pauline theology,
the doctrine of predestination.
The second parable (xlv.-lv.) demands the absorbed attention of modern
Jews and Gentiles; for it is either the inspired forecast of a great
Hebrew prophet, predicting with miraculous accuracy the future teaching
of Jesus of Nazareth, or the Semitic romance from which the latter
borrowed His conceptions of the triumphant return of the Son of man, to
occupy a judicial throne in the midst of rejoicing saints and trembling
sinners, expectant of everlasting happiness or eternal fire: and whether
these celestial visions be accepted as human or Divine, they have
exercised so vast an influence on the destinies of mankind for nearly
two thousand years, that candid and impartial seekers after religious
truth can no longer delay inquiry into the relationship of the Book of
Enoch with the revelation, or the evolution, of Christianity.
The third parable (lvi.-lxx.) recurs, with glowing eloquence, to the
inexhaustible theme of Messianic glory, and again depicts the happy
future of the righteous in contrast with the appalling misery of the
wicked. It also records the supernatural control of the elements,
through the action of individual angels presiding over the winds, the
sea, hail, frost, dew, the lightning’s flash, and reverberating thunder.
The names of the principal fallen angels are also given, among whom we
recognize some of the invisible powers named in the incantations
inscribed on the terra cotta cups of Hebrew-Chaldee conjuration.
Chapters lxxi. to lxxxi. contain the “book of the revolutions of the
luminaries of heaven,” the sun, the moon, and the stars, controlled in
their movements by the administration of angels. In commenting on this
section of the Book of Enoch, Archbishop Laurence says, “This system of
astronomy is precisely that of an untutored, but accurate observer of
the heavens. He describes the eastern and western parts of heaven, where
the sun and moon rise and set, as divided each into six different gates,
through which those orbs of light pass at their respective periods. In
the denomination of these gates he begins with that through which the
sun passes at the winter solstice; and this he terms the _first_ gate.
It of course answers to the sign of Capricornus; and is the southernmost
point to which the sun reaches, both at rising and setting. The next
gate, at which the sun arrives in its progress towards the east at
rising, and towards the west at setting, and which answers to the sign
of Aquarius, he terms the _second_ gate. The next, in continuation of
the same course of the sun, which answers to the sign of Pisces, he
terms the _third_ gate. The _fourth_ gate in his description is that
which is situated due east at sun-rising, and due west at sun-setting,
and which, answering to the sign of Aries, the sun enters at the vernal
equinox. With this _fourth_ gate he commences his account of the sun’s
annual circuit, and of the consequent change in the length of day and
night at the various seasons of the year. His _fifth_ gate is now to be
found in the sun’s progress northwards, and answers to the sign of
Taurus. And his _sixth_ gate is situated still further north; which,
answering to the sign of Gemini, concludes at the most northern point of
heaven to which the sun arrives, and from which it turns at the summer
solstice, again to measure back its course southwards.
“Hence it happens, that the same gates which answers to the six signs
alluded to in the sun’s passage from the winter to the summer solstice,
necessarily also answer to the remaining six of the twelve signs of the
Zodiac in its passage back again.
“The turning of the sun both at the winter and summer solstices, the
first at the most southern, the last at the most northern point of its
progress, must have always struck the eye of those who contemplated the
variety as well as the splendour of its daily appearance. The astronomy
of the apocryphal Enoch was perhaps formed in this respect upon the same
principles as the astronomy of Homer, who places the situation of the
island Συρίη under the _turning of the sun_, ὅθι τροπαὶ ἠελίοιο (Odyss.
lib. xv. 404).”
Chapters lxxxiii. to lxxxix. contain a vision of Enoch giving an
allegorical forecast of the history of the world up to the kingdom of
the Messiah.
Chapter xcii. records a series of prophecies extending from Enoch’s own
time to about one thousand years beyond the present generation. In the
system of chronology adopted, a day stands for hundred, and a week for
seven hundred years. Reference is made to the deluge, the call of
Abraham, the Mosaic dispensation, the building and the destruction of
the Temple of Solomon—events which preceded the date at which the Book
of Enoch was probably written: but when the author, in his character of
a divinely inspired seer, extends his vision beyond the horizon of his
own age, he discloses the vanity of his predictive pretensions, through
prophecies which remain unfulfilled. If, however, the Book of Enoch had
reached us through the Western, as well as the Ethiopic Canon,
apologetic theologians would doubtless affirm that centuries are but
trifles in prophetic time; and that the predictions of the great
antediluvian prophet shall, sooner or later, attain miraculous
fulfilment.
Chapters xciii. to civ. contain the eloquent exhortations of Enoch,
addressed to his children, in which he follows Buddha in commending the
“Paths of Righteousness,” and anticipates Jesus in pronouncing the doom
of sinners and the joys of saints, and gives utterance to the most
emphatic assurance of immortality which has ever flowed from human lips:
“Fear not, ye souls of the righteous, but wait with patient hope for the
day of your death in righteousness. Grieve not because your souls
descend in trouble and sorrow to the receptacle of the dead; for great
joy shall be yours, like that of the angels in heaven. And when you die,
sinners say concerning you, ‘As we die the righteous die. What profit
have they in their works? Behold, like us, they expire in sorrow and in
darkness. What advantage have they over us? Henceforward are we equal;
for behold they are dead, and never will they again perceive the light.’
But now I swear to you, ye righteous ... that I comprehend this mystery;
that I have read the tablet of heaven, have seen the writing of the holy
ones, and have discovered what is written and impressed on it concerning
you. I have seen that all goodness, joy, and glory have been prepared
for you.... The spirits of you who die in righteousness shall exist and
rejoice; and their remembrance shall be before the face of the Mighty
One from generation to generation.”[11] How profound the impression
necessarily produced on the Semitic imagination by this impassioned
language, uttered in an age of faith in inspired dreams and celestial
visions by a supposed visitant of the unseen world, who had conversed
with angels in the presence of the Lord of spirits!
The final chapter of the Book of Enoch records the birth of Noah, and
the further prophecies of Enoch, addressed to Methuselah on the subject
of the birth of Noah and the future deluge.
In attestation of the relationship between the Book of Enoch and
Christianity, we now collate its language and ideas with parallel
passages in New Testament scripture.
Transcriber’s Note:
The following readings were originally printed side-by-side, the Enoch
reading to the left and the New Testament reading(s) to the right. They
are transcribed in this e-book one after another, with the New Testament
readings indented, so as to be readable on modern reading devices, which
often cannot handle multiple columns.
En. lxiv. 4. “And a voice was heard from heaven.”
Matt. iii. 17. “And lo, a voice from heaven, saying.”
En. vi. 9. “The elect shall possess light, joy, and peace, and they
shall inherit the earth.”
Matt. v. 5. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth.”
En. l. 2, 4, 5. “He shall select the righteous and holy from among them;
for the day of their salvation has approached ... and they shall become
angels in heaven. Their countenances shall be bright with joy.... The
earth shall rejoice; and the elect possess it.”
Luke xxi. 28. “Your redemption draweth nigh.”
Matt. xxii. 30. “In the resurrection ... they are as the angels of
God in heaven.”
Matt. xiii. 43. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in
the kingdom of their Father.”
En. xciii. 7. “Those, too, who acquire gold and silver, shall justly and
suddenly perish. Woe to you who are rich, for in your riches have you
trusted; but from your riches you shall be removed.”
James v. 1. “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you.”
Luke vi. 24. “Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your
consolation.”
En. xcvi. 6, 7, 25. “Woe unto you, sinners, who say, ‘We are rich,
possess wealth, and have acquired everything which we can desire. Now
then will we do whatsoever we are disposed to do; for we have amassed
silver; our barns are full.’... They shall surely die suddenly.”
Luke xii. Compare the parable of the rich man whose barns were full,
and who said to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said
unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
En. cv. 26. “And I will place each of them on a throne of glory, of
glory peculiarly his own.”
Matt. xix. 28. “Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel.”
En. lxii. 11. “In his judgments he pays no respect to persons.”
Rom. ii. 11. “For there is no respect of persons with God.”
En. xxxviii. 2. “Where will the habitation of sinners be ... who have
rejected the Lord of spirits. It would have been better for them, had
they never been born.”
Matt. xxvi. 24. “Woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is
betrayed! It would be good for that man if he had not been born.”
En. xix. 2. “So that they sacrifice to devils as to Gods.”
1 Cor. x. 20. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils, and not to God.”
En. xxii. 10, 12. (The angel Raphael addressing Enoch in the region of
the dead:) “Here their souls are separated ... by a chasm.”
Luke xvi. 26 (Abraham addressing Dives from the region of the
blessed:) “Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.”
En. xxxix. 3, 4, 7. “A cloud then snatched me up ... placing me at the
extremity of the heavens. There I saw another vision. I saw the
habitations and couches of the saints ... with the angels ... under the
wings of the Lord of spirits. All the holy and the elect sung before
him, in appearance like a blaze of fire, their mouths being full of
blessings, and their lips glorifying the name of the Lord of spirits.”
2 Cor. xii. “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I
knew a man in Christ ... caught up to the third heaven, ... whether
in the body or out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth. How that
he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which
it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
Rev. xix. 1. “I heard a great voice of much people in heaven,
saying, Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto
the Lord our God.”
En. xlvi. 2. “This is the Son of man ... who will reveal all the
treasures of that which is concealed.”
Col. ii. 3. “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.”
En. ix. 3, 4. “Then they said to their Lord, the King: Thou art Lord of
lords, God of gods, King of kings. The throne of thy glory is for ever
and ever, and for ever and ever is thy name sanctified and glorified.
Thou art blessed and glorified. Thou hast made all things; thou
possessest power over all things: and all things are open and manifest
before thee. Thou beholdest all things, and nothing can be concealed
from thee.”
Rev. xvii. 14; xix. 16. “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
Rev. iv. 11. “Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory, and honour,
and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they are, and were created.”
Heb. iv. 13. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in
his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him
with whom we have to do.”
En. xxiv. 11, 10. “I blessed the Lord of glory, the everlasting King,
because He has prepared this tree for the saints, formed it, and
declared that he would give it to them.... The sweet odour shall enter
into their bones; and they shall live a long life on the earth, as thy
forefathers have lived; neither in their days shall sorrow, distress,
and punishment afflict them.”
Rev. xxii. 2. “On either side of the river was a tree of life, which
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded its fruit every month; and
the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Rev. ii. 7. “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
Rev. xxii. 14. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they
may have the right to the tree of life.”
En. lxxxv. 2. “And behold a single star fell from heaven.”
Rev. ix. 1. “I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth.”
En. lx. 13. “All the angels of power.”