CHAPTER 83
And now, my son Methuselah, I will show thee all the visions that I have seen, relating them before thee.
2. Two visions I saw before I took a wife, and the one of them was not similar to the other; the first time, when I was learning to write, the second time, before I took thy mother I saw an awful vision; and on their account I petitioned to the Lord.
3. As I was reposing in the house of Malâlêl, my grandfather, I saw there in a vision that the heavens were lowered and disappeared and fell on the earth.
4. And as it fell on the earth I saw the earth that it was devoured in a great abyss, and mountains descended on mountains, and hills sank upon hills, and high trees were torn from the trunks, and fell down and sank into the abyss.
5. And on account of this a speech fell into my mouth, and I began to cry and to say: “The earth is destroyed!”
6. And Malâlêl, my grandfather, aroused me, as I was reposing near him, and said to me: “Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou lament so?”
7. And I related to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said to me: “A terrible thing thou hast seen, my son, and the power of the vision of thy dream is concerning the secrets of all the sins of the earth; it will be about to descend into the abyss and be destroyed terribly.
8. And now, my son, arise and petition the Lord of glory—since thou art a believer—that a remnant may remain on the earth and all the earth be not destroyed.
9. My son, from heaven all this will come on the earth, and over the earth there will be a great destruction.”
10. After that I arose and prayed and petitioned, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, and I will show thee everything, my son, Methuselah.
11. And as I went out below, and looked at the heavens and the sun rising in the east, and the moon descending in the west, and some few stars, and everything as he had known it from the first, I blessed the Lord of the judgment, and to him I gave greatness, because he led forth the sun from the windows of the east, and he ascends and rises on the surface of the heavens, and elevates himself, and goes the path which is shown to him.
CHAPTER 83
And I raised my hands in justice, and blessed the Holy and the Great One, and I spoke with the breath of my mouth and with the tongue of flesh, which God has made for the children of men, that they should speak with it, and gave them breath and the tongue and the mouth, that they might speak therewith:
2. “Blessed art thou, O Lord, King both great and powerful in thy greatness, the Lord of all the creation of heaven, King of kings, and God of all the world, thy Godship and thy kingdom and thy greatness will remain in eternity, and to all eternity, and to all the generations thy power, and all the heavens are thy throne in eternity, and all the earth thy footstool in eternity and to all eternity.
3. For thou hast made and dost govern all things, and nothing is too difficult for thee, and no wisdom escapes thee; she does not turn away from her throne, thy throne, and not from thy face, and thou dost know and see and hear all things, and there is nothing that is hidden before thee, for thou dost see all things.
4. And now the angels of thy heavens do sin, and thy wrath is over the flesh of men to the day of the great judgment.
5. And now, God and Lord and great King, I petition and ask that thou wouldst establish my prayer for me, that there remain to me a posterity on earth, and that thou wouldst not annihilate all the flesh of men, and not make empty the whole earth, and there be an everlasting destruction.
8. And now, my Lord, annihilate from the earth the flesh which has angered thee, but the flesh of justice and of rectitude establish as a plant of the seed to eternity, and do not hide thy face from the prayer of thy servant, O Lord!”
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CHAP. 83. Tideman, following the example of Seiffert, has declared chapters 83-91 a production of a new Essenic writer, but without good reason. There is no interruption of the connection here, for the fact that he does not deal minutely with the contents of the tablets of heaven until 92, after having mentioned them in 81, has its parallels throughout the book, where certain subjects are mentioned, and then treated in extenso in later chapters. In fact, these dream visions-form a necessary part of the book.
The author had announced the coming judgment, but had given no answer to the all-important when. To determine this is the object of 83-91. And as he always associates the two judgments, the first of the deluge and the final, it is but natural that he should mention both here. That the revelation is given to Enoch through a dream is no argument whatever for attributing these chapters to a different author, for, then, 13:8 would fall under the same condemnation. In fact, it was necessary to state that these revelations were received through dreams, and not through immediate association with the angels and a trip through the upper regions, in which manner the other revelations were usually received, not only on account of the nature of the contents, but mainly because they were received in his younger days, before the privilege of moving in super-terrestrial worlds was accorded him. And as the contents fully harmonize with the rest of the book, it is difficult to see why we should here claim a different author. 1. states expressly that the following revelations had been received in visions, and not in the manner usually observed in the preceding chapter.—2.
Learning to write, easily understood from 12:3. Before I took, i.e. before he was sixty-five years old; cf. Gen v. 21. Mother; according to 85:3, her name was Edna; according to the Book of the Jubilees, chap. 4, p. 18, Edna or Adna. The second vision was awful, because more important for the contemporaries of the true author.—3. The heavens were lowered shows that the first vision refers to the deluge.—5. Fell, to designate the sudden and spontaneous character of the speech.—7. The experienced Mahalaleel immediately explains this dream as portending the coming destruction of the earth on account of its sins. This destruction is, however, yet a secret.—8. Lord of glory, cf. note on 22:14. Being one of the few that are still faithful he could expect God to hear his petition.—9. From heaven, i.e. from God.—11. Ewald, on the basis of Joseph. Bel. Jud. ii. 5, 8, and 9, finds here a trace of Essenism. But why an ordinary Jew could not utter this prayer without being an Essene is certainly a mystery. Enoch had just heard, vs. 9, that this destruction should come from heaven, and thus it is natural that he should address his prayer for deliverance to heaven. This God, who is his greatness could lead forth the mighty sun, could grant his petition. Interpreting this prayer to the God of judgment, 22:14; 90:40, in any other manner robs it of all sense in this connection.
CHAP. 84. Holy and Great, cf. note on 1:3. Tongue of flesh, cf. note on 14:2.—2. Cf. 9:4 sqq.; Isa. lxvi. 1.—3. God’s throne is also wisdom’s throne; the latter is here personified; cf. on 42, 1.—4. The author refers to his own statements, chap. 6 sqq. Were these words from a new author he would undoubtedly have said more concerning the fall of the angels. Flesh of man, cf. Job xii. 10.—5. _Empty, denudes;_ cf. 9:2.—6. Plant, cf. 10:16.
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