Status Updates From 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Tran...

There are three eras. The first is from creation to the flood. The humans are cattle. A demon falls from heaven and becomes a bull. Zeus!!! He mates with heifers. Other demons do the same. Larger animals like camels and elephants are born. They are giants. God judges, and the era ends in Noah's Flood. The second era goes from a new beginning after the flood up until the time of the Macabbeans.

It never mentions the sabbath nor Jewish festivals. The focus on geography and calendar may connect to heavenly signs and omens. The Book of Visions has two visions. The first is about Noah's flood, judgment, and angelic prayer (and perhaps an expansion of previous material). The second is an allegory of the history of the world: humans are animals, fallen angels are stars, and the seven archangels are human.

There are four quarters, seven mountains, and seven isles. Enoch tells his son Merhusaleh that the book of stars is complete and he is to stay with his son a year before being removed to heaven. The end of this book speaks of four leaders who divide the four seasons, narrates two, and abruptly stops. In a time of sinners, nature will be disordered. Years shorten, moon and stars are out of place, crops fail.

The gates shift gradually during the year. A day is divided into 18 units. There are 364 days per year, 12 months, with 30 days each. The 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th months have an extra day. The moon progresses through gates, but a lunar year has only 354 days. Each wind comes out of three gates.

It describes the four luminaries (angels of light?). I was written in 200 to 150 BC. Only a few fragments of the Greek translation from Aramaic exist. The best copy is the Ethiopian. This explains why it is apocryphal. God did not carefully protect it like Scripture. I am curious about the imagery. Uriel first tells the law of the sun, which rises through six eastern gates and sets through six western gates.

The Book of Luminaries is about traditions concerning Enoch, who was taken up at the age of 365 years. The angel Uriel was supposed to have given these revelations. His name means "God is my light." Four copies were found at Qumran. The Ethiopian translation is longer than the Aramaic. After the introduction is a description of the movement of the sun and moon, winds and gates, geography, and Enoch's journey.

The Chosen One is exalted. The kings and the mighty beg for mercy and are judged and cast put for punishment. The righteous enjoy fellowship. After a confession like one in Isaiah, there is more flood and judgment imagery. An account of Enoch's removal from Earth and ascent into paradise is given. I have wondered about that for years! A reference to Parthinians dates the parables to 40 BC.

It hints at judgment in the future events connected with the judgment and marks Earth as the locus of salvation and eternal life. It narrates journey and visions related to the myth of angels and to journeys in the book of watchers. The third parable focuses on the great judgment.

The first parable introduces the characters and the theme imitating the structure of the beginning of the first book. There is a parody of Baruch or Sirach in which the people of Israel are so wicked that they run off Wisdom back to Heaven. The second develops the idea of the Chosen One, drawing from the son of man referenced in Daniel and Isaiah. Davidic Messianic wording from Psalms is used.