2 Enoch 12
2 Enoch 12
Section: Heavenly Journey (Ten Heavens)
Translated by W.R. Morfill, ed. R.H. Charles (1896)
Of the wonderful Creatures of the Sun
XII. 1, *And I looked and saw other flying creatures, their names phoenixes and chalkadri wonderful and strange
1 Their dimensions, B. 2 And I saw their goings, B. § A om.
- His circls and his chariot, A; and around thsmisachariot, B. *° They go always, A. 6 Bom. 7 He has, A. 5 B adds always going
with the sun. go with the angels, A; Bom. unto him fire, Sok.; B om. verse §.
of the sun and moon: cf, Eth. En. Ixxii-lxxvili. 2. The sun has alight seven times, &c.: Eth. En. 1xxii. 37. Their chariot on which each goes liks a wind: Eth. En. lxxii. 5 ‘the chariots on which he (the sun) ascends are driven by the wind’; so also of the moon in Eth. En. lxxili. 2 and of hoth in lxxv. 3; Ixxxii. 8. Haves no rest day or night: Eth. En. xli. 7 ‘(ths sun and moon) rest not’: xxii. 37 ‘reste not … day and night.’ Sibyllines iii, 21 “HéAcdy 7 axapoyra, 3, 4. There is nothing corresponding to these verses in Eth. En. 5, Cf. Eth. En, Ixxv. 4.
® Fiftsen, A; Bom. 11 A adds in a fiery flames.
10 Six winged creatures 12 Minister
SIT. 1. Phosnixss and chalka- dri. This seems to be the only reference to such creatures in litera- ture. The phoenix, which according to all ancient writers was solitary and unique (‘ unus in terris,’ Tac. Ann. vi. 28; cf. Mart. v. 7; Ovid, Met. xv, 392) inits kind, is here represented as one ofa class. The phoenix is men- tioned in Job xxix. 18 according to Jewish authorities, where for ‘I shall multiply my days as the sand’ they render ‘as the phoenix’ bin, There are many references to it among the Greeks and Romans: Herod, ii. 733 Tac, Anu. vi. 28; Ovid, Met. xv.
in appearance, with the feet and tails of lions, and the heads of crocodiles! ; * their appearance was of a purple colour, like
XII. } And the flying creatures are in form like two birds, one like w phoenix and the other like a chalkedry. And in their shape they resemble a lion in their feet and tail and in the head 2 crocodile, Sok.;
Bom.
392; Mart. EHpigr. v. 7, 1; Stat. Sylv. ii. 4, 37; Plin. N. H. 2.2. The fable regarding it is recounted as soher fact by 1 Clem. ad Corinth. xxv; Tertullian, de Resurrect. Carn. xiii; Ambrose, Hexaem. v. 23; Epiphanius, Ancorat. Ixxxiv; and the Apostolic Constitutions v. 7. Origen, contra Celsum iv. 98, doubtsit: so also Greg. Naz. Orat. xxxi. Io, and among the later Greeks Maximus and Photius, and among the Latins Augustine de Anima iv. 33. To those who helieved the fable we should add Rufinus Comment. in Symb. Apost. xi.aud the Pseudo-Lactantius, from whose poem De Phoenice we draw the following references, which seem to bs derived either directly or indirectly from our text. The phoenix in that poem is an attendant of the sun, ‘satelles phoebi’ ver. 33, a8 in xii. 2 are the phoenixes ; when the sun appears it greets him with strains of sacred song (verses 43-50) and claps its wings (verses 51-54) exactly as the phoenixes in xv. 1. This poem helongs pro- hably to the fourth century. The voice of the phoenix was celebrated for its sweetness: cf. the Jewish poet Ezekiel v. 10 govt 68 mdvtwyv eye eimpeneorarny : Pseudo - Lactantius, de Phoenice 46 ‘miram vocem’: 56 ‘innarrahilibus sonis.” Its colour was purple—purpureus (Pliny); xva- veis éorw pdias épdepns (Achil. Wat.),/ el, xvi. 1 and oxi. 1. On the two different legends in the Talmud about the origin of the phoenix see Hamburger, &. 2£.
Jir Talmud 908-9. On the ques- tion generally see Lightfoot, and Gebhardt and Harnack on 1 Clem. xxv. 1; Eckermann in Evsch und Grueber sect. iii. xxiv. 310-16 ; Creuzer, Symbol. und Mythol. ii. 163 (third ed.) ; Piper, Mythol. und Symbol. der Christl. Kunst i. 446, 471; Ehert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litera- tur des Mittelalters i. 93-98 ; Seyf- farth, Z. D. M. G. 1849, 63-89; Gundert, Z. f. luth Theol. 1854, 451-34. Chalkadri. This may he a transliteration of XaAxvépar, brazen hydras, or serpents. They are classed with the Cherubim in Eth. En. xx. 7 ‘Gabriel . . - who is over Paradise and the Serpents (ray SpaxdéyTwy in the Greek) and the Cherubim.’ Hence they seem to have been a class of heavenly creatures, i.e. the Seraphim D’HIW. The idea of flying serpents was a familiar one from the O.T. Is. xiv. 29; xxx. 6 JDO FW. It was not unfamiliar to the rest of the ancient world: cf. Herod. ii. 75; Lucan ix. 729-30; Ovid, Met. v. 642-4; Fast. iv. 562; also Claudian, Valerius Flaceus, Ammianusg, Aelian, Apollonius. In the O.T. these flying serpents are venomous in such passages as Num. xxi. 6; Deut. viii. 15; Is. xiv. 29; xxx. 6. What relation these seraphim bear to those in Is. vi. z, 6 it is hard to determine. That these latter were winged dragons we must assume according to Delitzsch (Das Buch Jesaia, pp. 124, 5). The analogy of the animal-like forms of the Cherubim in Ezek. i, 5-11 is
aT
lhe Book of the Secrets of Enoch.
the rainbow ; their size nine hundred measures ?. 2. * Their wings were like those of angels, each with twelve, and they attend the chariot of the sun, and go with him”, bringing heat and dew as they are ordered by God °. 3. * So the sun makes his revolutions, and goes *under the heavens,
14
7B om. 2 So A and Sok., but that the former omits chariot of the. Twelve flying spirits and twelve wings to each angel who accom-
panies the chariot, B. om.; A adds and proceeds.
certainly in favour of this view. The serpent was anciently a symbol of wisdom and healing among the Greeks, the Egyptians (Brugsch, Fel. und Myth. pp. 103, 4, and the He- brews, Num. xxi. 8, 9; 2 Kings xviii. 4; Matt. x.16; John iii.14. Heze- kiah’s destruction of the ‘brazen serpent’ as associated with idolatry may have caused the symbol to bear ahnost without exception an evil significance in later times, so that at last it became a designation of Satan : ef, Rev. xii. 9. We are therefore inclined to identify these Chalkadri with the Seraphim or heavenly crea- tures of Isaiah vi. These Chalkadri, we should add, sing in xv. 1 as do the Seraphim in Is. vi. 3, thongh their functions in the main are different. The idea liere appears in a developed form and is no doubt in- debted for its enlargement to Egyptian mythology. The Seraphim first appear in conjunction with other orders of angels in Eth. En, Ixi, 10. Here their original character seems already to have bcen forgotten almost as wholly as in modern days, and they are regarded merely as a special class of angels ; whereas in Eth. En. xx. 7 their true nature is still borne in mind. Inthe N.T. neither Chernbim nor Seraphim appear, but the character-
3 And ag he is ordered by God, Sok.
*B
istics of both reappear, fused together in the ‘four living creatures’ of Rev. iv. 6-8. However, thongh the N. T. takes no notice of the Seraphim save the indirect one of Rev. iv. 6-8, the conception obtained in later times the recognition of the Church through Dionysius the Areopagite’s scheme of the nine heavenly orders. SeeCheyne’s Prophecies of Isaiah, i. 36, 42; ij. 283-6. Feet and tails of lions. The feet of the Cherubim in Ezek. i.7 are like calves’ feet. Their size nine hundred measures. In Bochart’s Hierozoicon iii, 225-227 we find by citations from Strabo, Aelian, Valerius, Philostorgius, Dio- dorus, &c., that the ancients were ready to believe in monstrous dragons or serpents. Aelian, for instance, speaks of one 210 feet long, while an Arahian writer describes one of 8,000 paces in length. In the Talmud there is frequent mention of angels and creatures of a like monstrous size. 2. Hach with twelve. As the ordinary angels in x1. 4 havesix wings each, these creatures are assigned twelve each. It would seem more natural to read this verse immediately after xi. 5; xii. 1 however must in some form and in some place appear in the text, as we see from xv. I. Bringing heat and dew. Contrast
and goes under’ the earth with the light *of his beams unceasingly %,
[Zhe Angels tok Enoch, and placed him on the East at the