Now,
let us return our attention to the passage in Jude that we mentioned earlier.
This is one of the few stronger passages that show an even clearer dependence
on the Enochian texts.
It was also about
these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the
Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and
to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have
committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly
sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14-15 ESV)
This
is a direct quoting of 1 Enoch 1:9, but one thing worth noting is that Jude
states here that what Enoch is doing in this verse is prophesying. Referring to
a verse from Enoch as being a prophecy sure feels like he is adding much more
weight to it than if he was just quoting it as a secular type source like we
see occasionally in Scripture. The other thing that is notable in studying both
books further, is that Jude does not simply quote a verse and move on, but in
fact continues to follow the content patterns of 1 Enoch along with allusions
and echoes of its phrases and language throughout his letter.
Both
books share the primary apocalyptic theme of the punishment of the ungodly. And
they both do so by pointing to an evil in their day and stating it is a fulfillment
of a past prophetic proclamation. Not only do both books appeal to ancient
judgment examples as a connection to the promised judgment coming to the
present ungodly company, but they both look back to the same ancient corruption
of the angelic watchers who corrupted humanity.
1 Enoch chapters 1-36 of course deal in great detail with those Watchers that Jude touches upon. And in Jude 13, he condemns “wandering stars,” which is a common Hebrew idiom in both the Hebrew Scriptures and Pseudepigrapha that is referring to divine beings. They are also referred to as the “host of heaven,” a term which also denotes deity. We also find the stars of heaven referred to as “heavenly host” which are likened to pagan deities (Deut 4:19) as well as those angelic Sons of God that surround his throne (Psa. 89:5-7, Job 38:7). So it is of no surprise that Enoch discusses those fallen angelic Watchers using the imagery of imprisoned stars.
The angel said
(to me), “This place is the (ultimate) end of heaven and earth; it is the
prison house for the stars and the powers of heaven… they are the ones which
have transgressed the commandments of God.” (1 Enoch 18:14-15)
So
Jude pulls that similar theme in when he condemns those wandering stars by
saying it is for them that “the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved
forever” (v 13). And Jude speaks of these ungodly villains as those who
“pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord,
Yeshua the Christ” (v. 4). This aligns with the declaration against the angels
found in 1 Enoch 67:10, where it says:
So the judgment
shall come upon them, because they believe in the debauchery of their bodies
and deny the spirit of Yahweh. (1 Enoch 67:10)
This
theme of fleshly defilement and of the rejection of authority that Jude
mentions in verse 8 are likewise the traits of those angels in verse 6 that “did not stay within their own position of
authority, but left their proper dwelling.” Who are the angels
mentioned in Jude? It is plainly
evident, as some scholars point out, that Jude is obviously pulling directly
from 1 Enoch chapters 6-19, being the earliest existing manuscript that holds
an account of the fall of the angelic Watchers. Enoch plainly states, in
talking to the fallen Watchers:
Wherefore have ye
left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled
yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done
like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? And though ye
were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with
the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and,
as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who
die and perish. (1 Enoch 15:3-5)
Of
those Watchers who sinned, Jude says they were “kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the
great day” - which is closely connected with 1 Enoch 10:12:
Bind them fast
for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their
judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and
ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire:
and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. (1
Enoch 10:13-14)
A
quick note while looking at this verse, and this was touched upon earlier when
mentioning that forum post. We note here that the angels were held for 70
generations, at the end of which time would be the day of judgment. In the
Gospel of Luke, he counts 70 generations leading up to their present time and
the time of Christ. Christ said the judgment would occur within his generation
- being the 70th generation, thus correlating to Enoch’s prediction time frame.
And the book of Revelation, which discusses the tossing of the devil and his
angels into the lake of fire likewise lines up with what Enoch tells us about
events surrounding the judgment and timing of the first century.
All
of this combined just shows us an additional confirmation for the timing of an
event that was to take place in that first century time frame, and not
thousands of years later or in our future as many teach today. Now when it
comes to Jude 6 and 7, there are a couple ways you can look at that connection.
Some modern commentators go through the motions to disconnect any idea of the
two verses being comparisons to each other. They’ll say these two verses are
just two examples of judgment, and are not being compared to each other.
They
will contend that verse 6 speaks of these angels, which they sometimes attempt
to make out as mere men and not heavenly beings; and then say that verse 7 is
speaking of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah being compared to those cities that
surrounded them. So when it says that they “in like manner indulged…” it is
referring to those surrounding cities indulging in like manner to what Sodom
and Gomorrah had done.
Sadly,
such an interpretations does not hold up when examined strictly by the original
text, but also even more so it fails when considered in light of other Second
Temple texts that Jude is obviously pulling from. What we have here is a
condemnation of heavenly angelic beings who left their heavenly abode and
sinned and held for judgment. Then we have a comparison of sin to those angels
in verse 7. Let’s see these together:
And the angels
who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper
dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the
judgment of the great day-- (Jude 6 ESV)
…just as Sodom
and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural
desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7
ESV)
So
we have angels sinning, and then, just like them, we have a single group being
discussed, the collective group of Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding cities.
And what about them? They - Sodom, Gomorrah and their surrounding cities -
“likewise” or as some translations have it “in like manner” - they “indulged in
sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire.” In like manner to whom? The
angels in the previous verse.
So
what we have here is a telling of how the angels as well as Sodom, Gomorrah and
their cities were all guilty of indulging in sexual immorality. We see this connection clearly displayed in
other Second Temple writings, such as:
Do not become
like Sodom, which departed from the order of nature. Likewise the Watchers
departed from nature’s order; the Lord pronounced a curse upon them at the
Flood. (Testament of Naphtali 3:4-5)
Thou didst
destroy those who aforetime did iniquity, among whom were giants, trusting in
their strength and boldness, bringing upon them a boundless flood of water.
Thou didst burn up with fire and brimstone the men of Sodom, workers of
arrogance, who had become known of all for their crimes, and didst make them an
example to those who should come after. (3 Maccabees 2:4-5)
Let them not take
to themselves wives from the daughters of Canaan; for the seed of Caanan will
be rooted out of the land. And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and
the judgment of the Sodomites, how they had been judged on account of their wickedness,
and had died on account of their fornication, and uncleanness, and mutual
corruption through fornication. (Jubilees 20:4-5)
So
hopefully, you can now see that a connecting of the angelic judgment with the
judgment upon Sodom and surround cities, is not unique to Jude, but is indeed
just something Jude has actually borrowed from other non-canonical writings.
And that in all places, both groups are mentioned together and are labeled as
being guilty of similar acts.
This
should also help solidify the argument that these two verses in Jude are indeed
being used in comparison to one another, and that indeed the “likewise” in Jude
7 is calling back to compare to verse 6 and the sin of the angels for indulging
likewise in sexual immorality. To sum up, I appreciate the way Brian Godawa put
it:
Jude’s linking of Sodom with the days of Noah and
the sexual sin of the Watchers is a literary doublet that reinforces the
Enochian Watcher paradigm. Combined with the other Enochian allusions, echoes,
and linguistic memes in Jude this certainly provides a preponderance of
evidence of the extensive dependency of Jude upon 1 Enoch far beyond the single
quotation in verses 14-15. (Brian Godawa - When Giants Were Upon the Earth, pg. 30)
View the other parts of the topic
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Think out loud with me, and voice your position in a clean, charitable and well mannered way. Abusive posts will be deleted.