Divine secrets, the Seven Halls, and Metatron. These sound like the perfect element for a piece of science fiction blockbuster film. One with no knowledge on pseudepigraphical texts would make the connection between the three elements, and the 3 Enoch. First translated by Dr. Hugo Odeberg in 1928, 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch has rarely been touched by scholars because of the lack of background information. It is known that it was written by Ishmael ben Elisha who's work can be dated back to the second century and had a focus on the Talmud . There are certain inferences that can be made about this text. There are two other works of Enoch, The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), and the Secret of Enoch (2 Enoch) . A majority of the Book of Enoch was written during the Maccabean revolt, but some scholars state that the latter half of the Book can be dated as early as 1st century BC. 2 Enoch, like 3 Enoch is also tough to date, but it can be dated around the end of the 1st century BC, due to the language it is written in . From the knowledge available on these texts, we are able to date when this text was written, as well as which communities used this text. It is clear that 3 Enoch was written later than both the other works of Enoch but not much later. His character as Enoch has already been established, and it is seen as no shock when he reveals himself to Rabbi Ishmael. Therefore, it can be dated towards the end of the third century BC, and as late as the first century AD. Another way to date this text is by comparing it to other Pseudepigraphal text . The Pseudepigrapha contains texts that were falsely attributed to Biblical texts. The Jewish work in the Pseudepigrapha predates 200 A.D. so estimating that 3 Enoch was written in the second century is an apt assumption . Knowing that this is a Pseudepigraphal, we can further analyzes aspects of the text such as the
Like the Greek Theogony, the creation of the world in the Enuma elish begins with the universe in a formless state, from which emerge two primary gods, male and female:
Gandhi once said, “I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul”.
Mozgovaya , Natasha. "Some Chicago Jews say Obama is actually the 'first Jewish president' ." The Jewish World. Haaretz.com, 13/11/2010. Web. 26 Mar 2010. . (Mozgovaya )
We first learn of Enoch in Genesis 5 but it leaves us with questions. Hebrews 11 has the answers and Jude quotes Enoch! How did Jude come to know the words of Enoch? They are not in the Bible. The answer of course, is The Book of Enoch. A book which is actually quoted not only by Jude, but also James the natural brother of Jesus.
...Many did not want to bow before Enoch, acknowledging him as a man of God, and they are imprisoned until they oblige, the Enoch is sent back to earth. Through these events, we are able to see that Enoch, and angelic humans, in a form presented as a second Adam.
Also, Anderson illustrates how the stories of Israel’s ancestors may have been influenced by the surrounding Mesopotamian cultures and religions (example “God of my father”).
For over two thousand years many people thought the Pentateuch was founded by Moses. (book citation) Not until around the eighteenth century, however, researchers in biblical interpretation saw that the best method to interpret the documents in the books of the Pentateuch was to see the books as a redaction, which is an edited version of several different original sources. Exegetes used the tecniques of source criticism and redaction criticism to propose that four authors made the five books of the Pentateuch. The authors were the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly Writers. Using the abbreviations of the sources, the extegetes have called this theory the four-source theory or the JEPD theory, with the Yahwist being abbreviated J for the German word for Yahwist. (book citation) The theory states that each source is by a particular community and situation, not by just one writer. (book citation)
The second section can either be construed as prophecy, or history containing some prophecy, depending on the date one assumes that the book was written.
The Book of Genesis, the first book of The Five Books of Moses, focuses on the creation
The Book of Jasher is a tale of many people told on a grand scale it seems. We know that the Book of Jasher was in existence at some point, just what version is the correct version or has it ever been found? The book was mentioned in a few different scriptures in the Bible for example 2 Samuel 1:18 "he said it[a] should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar. [b] He said: (2 Samuel, 2016, para. 3)." The problem now is that what we have as the Book of Jasher no one can confirm if it is the actual true book.
Enoch 1 is divided into five books. This first book is named The Book of the Watchers . The Book of watchers fall between chapter 1 to 36. In the story Enoch receives heavenly visions from God. The story describes the judgement of humans and the rebellion of angels from the heavans. The Watchers are fallen angels and they have sex with humans and produce wicked giants. The giants rec havoc and eventually died. Once the angels lives ended their demon spirits are released from their bodies and cause havoc until judgement day till humans.
When studying the twelve books of the prophets, the information covers a significant span of time, the duration of several centuries (Wilcox, 2014). Whereas each book tells its own story from a varied perspective, the majority specifically connects to the three-main crisis the Jews faced. The books of Hosea, Joel, and Amos serves as an introduction to the narrative, while Obadiah through Nahum references the Assyrian crisis (Tullock, & McEntire, 2012). Meanwhile, Habakkuk and Zephaniah tells the story of the Babylonian crisis they Jews faced. Finally, the books Haggai through Malachi display Jerusalem and the Temples restoration. Moreover, the Book of the Twelve tends to mirror the narratives of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in
Centuryone.com says, “The scrolls contain previously unknown stories about biblical figures such as Enoch, Abraham, and Noah.” (25). The reason why these stories such as these are able to last up until the point of being written down is through verbal transmission. Verbal transmission is the concept that stories are passed down from generation to generation through simply telling them to one another. This activity has help provide these stories not only in the Jewish or Christian religions, but also to other religions as well as nations around the world. Verbal transmission has been a practice that has been lost, but only because of the new found art of written transmission which is the same as verbal transmission, simply in written form. The only problem that comes from verbal transmission is the story has a higher chance of changing or being mistranslated to later generations than in written form. Similar to the children’s game telephone which involves passing a message around a circle by whispering it one at a time in your neighbor’s ear, usually by the end of the circle the message is completely different from when it started. Unfortunately, that is the problem that can be seen with the concept of verbal transmission, the story happened one way, but over time the story is changed based on what people have heard from
The first few hundred years of Christianity are represented by the theo-political model depicted in the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation shows a violent battle between God and the Devil. This battle in heaven reflects the battle on earth between Christians and the Roman Empire. Rome is being represented as the devil and Christians are being represented as God. Early Christians felt the world being hostile because of their religion, even when cooperating with authorities, the roman authorities were still hostile. The Roman authorities often accused Christians of treason and disloyalty to the Roman empire when they refused to worship the Roman gods. Christians were often persecuted against and blamed for empire being so weak. The Book of Revelation shows the eventual defeat of the devil by the son of God. Revelations keeps Christians hopeful that they will always be on the winning side even in the face of death.
As cultures have grown and evolved throughout history, so too have opinions regarding the authorship of the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch encapsulates the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. As a text that is considered to be the most sacred document in history, it is within the nature of the Bible to attract strong presuppositions that have developed across centuries. Exegesis of the Bible, specifically the first five books, naturally leads to questions of its origin. Developing a definitive conclusion regarding authorship is not necessarily a prerequisite to interpret the meaning of the Pentateuch. The stance taken on authorship does, however, have the potential to skew the believability