2 Enoch 10 - The Third Heaven: The Place of Torment
2 Enoch 10
Section: Heavenly Journey (Ten Heavens)
Translated by W.R. Morfill, ed. R.H. Charles (1896)
Here they showed Enoch the terrible Places, and various Tortures
X. 1. And the men then® led me to the Northern region §, and showed me there’ a very terrible place. 2. And there are all sorts of tortures in that place. Savage’? darkness and impenetrable’ gloom; and there is no light there?, * but
IX. } Attacks, B, 4 A om.
X. ° Removed me from thence and, B.
7 Bom.
ef. Matt. xxv. 34. See note on Eth. En. lx. 8. Turn away their eyes from unrighteousness: Ps. cxix. 37; cf, Is. xxxiil, 15. Execute righteous judgement: Ezek. xviii. 8. Give bread to the hungry, and clothe the naked: Ezek. xviii. 7: ef. Tob. iv. 16; 4 Ezra ii. 20; Or. Sibyl. ii. 83; viii. 404-405. Assist the orphans who are cppressed: ef. Is. i. 17; Jer. xxii. 3,16. Walk withcut blame before … the Lord: cf. Luke i. 6. Eternal in- heritance: cf. Heb, ix. 15.
XX, 1. Northern region. Te the medern mind it may seem strange that a division of heaven should be assigned to the wicked, but this idea presented no difficulty to the Jews and early Christians. Thus in the O. T. Satan can present himself in
5 Who, B. * Bom. ° Part of the heavens, B.
heaven, Jobi.7, 8; whilein the N. T. evil may not only appear, but can also have a settled habitation there: Eph. vi. 12 ‘the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavens’ (éy rois érovpavioss), In Rev. xii. 7, 8, 9 this condition of things is represented as being at an end. Satan is cast out cf heaven with his angels, and the sphere of his activity and residence is now limited to the earth, Rev. xii. 12. The old idea of wickedness being in heaven reappears in Test. Levi 3, where however it is limited to the second heaven (see also Test. Isaac 146, 147; Test. Jacob 153); but it was snbsequently banished from Christian and Jewish thought. See Introduction. 2. Darkness and… gloom: Apoc, Petri12 réaw cxoreva: Apoc. Pauli, p.62, where one region of
10 The Book of the Secrets of Enoch.
a gloomy fire is always burning’, *and a fiery river goes forth ?. * And all that place has fire on all sides, and on all sides? cold and ice, * thus it burns and freezes *. And the prisoners are very savage * And the angels terrible and without pity, carrying savage * weapons, and their torture was unmerciful. 4. And I said: ‘ Woe, woe! How terrible
is this place!’
’ Neither fire nor flame anda gloom is over that place, B. ‘ In that place; on both sides fire and on both sides, Sok.; B om. Sok. A reads thirst and freezing, B; and murkiness.
terrible place is this! A.
Hades is said cxdrovs xal (épous memAn- pwpévov, There is no light there: quoted by Apoc. Pauli (p. 57) ote qv éxel p&s. Fiery river. This idea appears first in Eth. En. xiv, 19 ; Dan. vii. 10, but not there as an instrument of punishment. It seems however to have heen applied early to that purpose, as here, and in the form of a lake of fire in Rev. xix. 20; EX 10/14. 16 XSL. oe Oly olay, ii, 196-200, 252-253, 286; iii. 84; vill. 411: ef. Apoc. Petri 8 Aiuyy ris Ry peyddn werdnpwyévyn BopBdpav prcyo- pévov. Apoc. Pauli (ed. Tischend. p. 57) &vOa éwéppeey morapos rupivos.
In Clem. Alex. Exc. Theod. 38 the
two ideas are combined: orapds éxmopeverat mupds troxdtw Tod Opdvov Tov Témov, wai pet eis TO KEevdv TOD éxtigpévov, & éaTiv % yéevva (quoted by James, Test. Abraham, p. 160). Fire on all sides, and on all sides cold and ice. This seems to be drawn from Eth. En. xiv. 13, where God’s dwelling in heaven is said to be ‘hot as fire and cold as ice.” 3. Angels terrible and without pity, carrying savage weapons. Angels of destruction are
And the men said to me: ‘This place,
2 B. om.
- So 5 What a
mentioned in the QO. T. 2 Sam, xxiv. 16; 2 Kings xix. 35; I Chron. xxi. 15. A class of destroying angeis may he referred to in Hcclus, xxxix. 28 aveupata, & eis éxbixnow éxtiorat. In Eth, En. liii.3,43 Ivi.t; bxii.zr ; Lxiii. I, a class of evil angels whose sole func- tion is to punish is mentioned and the couception is evidently a familiar one, though here found for the first time in Jewish literature. This idea appears in the N. T. Rev. ix. 11, 15; xvi. Of these the angel mentioned in ix, Ir is “AwoAAvov. In Matt. xiii. 49 good angels cast the wicked into the furnace of fire. These angels of destruction or punishment are fre- quently referred to in Latin literature. Test. Levi 3 af Suvdpeis… of rayOévres eis Huépay xpicews, worjoar exdinnaiv éy Tois myevuact THs twAGYAs. These angels of punishment are placed in the third heaven as in our text. Cf, Apoc. Petri 6 of xoAd(orres dyyedor: 8 dyyedo: Bacavicrai, The words angels terrible and without pity, carrying savage weapons seem to have heen before the writer of Test. Abraham A, xii dyyeAo… dyndecis TH yrupn Kal dmdropo Te
Enoch, is prepared for * those who do not honour God; who commit evil deeds on earth, vitium sodomiticum, witcheraft ’, enchantments, devilish * magic; and who boast of their evil 2 deeds, * stealing, lying, calumnies, envy, evil thoughts, forni- 5. Who steal? the souls of wretched ” men *, oppressing° *the poor and spoiling them of their posses- sions”, and themselves grow rich * by the taking of other men’s possessions®, * injuring them’. Who when they might feed the hungry, allow them to die of famine; who when they might clothe them, stip them naked. 6. Who do not know their Creator and have worshipped * gods without life ; who can neither see nor hear, being” vain gods, * and have fashioned the forms of idols, and bow down to a contemptible thing, made with hands?; for all these this place is prepared
cation, and murder”.
for an eternal inheritance.
[* Here they took Enoch to the fourth Heaven, where is the