2 Enoch 24
2 Enoch 24
Section: Heavenly Journey (Ten Heavens)
Translated by W.R. Morfill, ed. R.H. Charles (1896)
Of the great Secrets of God, which God revealed and told to Enoch, and spoke with him Face to Face
XXIV. x. And the Lord called me *and said to me: ‘Enoch, sit thou on My? left hand with Gabriel.’ And I made obeisance to the Lord. 2. And the Lord spake to me: ‘ Enoch ?, * the things which thou seest at rest and in motion were completed by me® I will tell thee * now, even * from the first, what things I created from the non- existent, and what visible things from the invisible®. 3. Not even to My angels have I told My secrets, nor have I in- formed them of * their origin, nor have they understood My infinite creation® which I tell thee of to-day. 4. * For before anything which is visible existed’, * I alone held my course among the invisible things®, like the snn from the east to the west, * and from the west to the east. 5. But even the sun has rest in himself, but I did not find rest,
XXIV. 1 And placed me on His, B. ? Beloved Enoch, A. seest the things which are now completed, A. ‘* All,Sok. 5° A adds Listen Enoch and pay attention to these words, for. $§ Their origin nor of My infinite empire, nor have they understood the creation made by Me, A. My mysteries nor their explanations nor My
§’ Thou
boundless and inexplicable plans in creation, B.
7 Bom. 8 T re-
vealed the ight: I went about in the light as one of the invisible.
XXIV. 2. From the non-exist- ent. Here creation ex nihilo seems to be taught. In Philo, on the other hand, the world was not created, but only formed from pre-existent chaotic elements. In one passage, however, where the absolute creation of the world is taught, we have an actual and almost verbal agreement with our text—ds fAsos dvareihas Ta Ke- Kpuppéva Tay cwparwy émbdeixvurat, otrw Kai 6 eds ra nara yevyjoas ob povoy eis 70 éuavis Hyayev, GAAA Kat & mpdérepoy ovK AY Enoingey, ob Eqpuovp- vos pévoy, dAAA Kal KTiorns abrés ay (De Somn. i. 13). Probably, how- ever, from the non-existent ig a
rendering of é« ray ph dvTwyv. This will harmonize with xxv. 1. Visible things from the invisible: cf. pas- sage just quoted from Philo; also Heb. xi. 3 ‘The worlds have been formed hy the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made ont of things which do appear.’ These words from Hebrews do not necessarily: imply creation, but can naturally he interpreted after Philo’s conceptions. In Gen. i, 2 LXX we find the idea of invisible elements introduced, as it gives 7 5e “ij jv ddparos as a rendering of what we translate with ‘the earth was waste.’ 3. Not even to My angels: cf. xl. 3; 1 Pet. i. 12.
32 The Book of the Secrets of Enoch.
because I was creating every thing+. And I planned to lay the foundations and to make the visible creation. | God tells Enoch how out of the lowest Darkness, there comes Jorth the visible and the invisible. |
XXV. 1. ‘* And I commanded .in the depths that visible things should come out of invisible. And out came Adoil very great”, *and I gazed upon him. And lo! his colour was red, of great brightness °. 2. And I said unto him: “ Burst asunder, Adoil 4, and let that which comes from thee be visible.” 3. And he burst asunder, and there came forth a great light, and *I was in the midst of a great light, and as the light came forth from the light *, there came forth the great world, * revealing all the creation *, which I had pur- posed to make, and I saw that it was good. 4. And I made for Myself a throne, and sat upon it, and I said to the light:
1 Bom.
XXV. *?I summoned from the regions below the great Idoil to come forth who had in his belly a great stone, B. 3 Bom. * A om.
Stone, B. 6 T was in the midst of light, and the light thus appear-
ing out of it, Sok.; Bom.
XXV. 1. Here the formation of the world from pre-existing elements is taught, as in the Book of Wisdom xi. 17 & dudppou dans. Cf. also Philo, De Justitia 7 Myviea eh Tov Kéopou yéeveots .. . Ta ap ph dvra exddrcoev eis 76 elvat. This is in the main the teaching of the Talmud. See Weber, 193-196. Adoil. Is this from DX ‘TY, the hand of God? The word does not occur elsewhere that Iam aware of. In this and the two subsequent verses we have an adaptation of an Egyptian myth. 2. We have here a modifi- cation of the egg theory of the uni- verse. See Clem. Recog. x. 17, 30. In Brugsch, Rel. u. Myth. d. alien Aegypter, p. 101, we find a very close parallel. According to the monn- ments; ‘der ersteSchépfungsact began
mit der Bildung eines Eies aus dem Urgewisser, aus dem das Tageslicht, die unmittelbare Ursache des Lebens in dem Bereiche der irdischen Welt heraushrach. 93, There came forth a great light. This exactly agrees with the ancient Egyptian myth as described in preceding note. Cf also Brugsch, Rel. u. Myth. pp. 160, 161 on Die Geburt des Lichtes, There came forth the great world. This should refer to the world of the hea- vens, as the earth is dealt with in the next chapter. 4, I made for Myself a throne. This throne was created hefore the world according to Bereshith rabba c. 1 «as here, This idea may have found support in the LXX of Prov. viii. 27, where wisdom declares that she was with
“ Go forth * on high! and be established above My throne 2, and be the foundation for things on high.’ 5. And there was nothing higher than the light, and as I reclined, I saw it from My throne.
[God again calls from the Depths and there came forth