1 Enoch 89

1 Enoch 89

Verse 1

The first 9 verse tell the story of Noah and the flood, the bulls to represent them are again, two white bulls, a red one and a black one, just like Adam and his sons.  Except the first white bull (Noah) became a man.   Because of this, Noah is not represented as a human being by a bull anymore, but is an actual human being.  This could either mean that he was more reasonable than the typical human (as reasonable as a human is to an ox), or it could be a symbol of God’s choosing and identifying him from the crowd.

Verse 6

So now that the stars were bound and cast into the abyss, the fate of the rest of the beings was as so:

“… while all the oxen and elephants and camels and asses sank to the bottom with all the animals, so that I could no longer see them, and they were not able to escape, but perished and sank into the depths”

Verse 7

And interesting note:

In the R.H. Charles version of the book of Enoch this verse is mistakenly labeled as verse 6; the preceding verse being verse 6 and the next verse being verse 8. 

The verse says that the water torrents were finally removed from the high roof.  So it wasn’t just rain that caused the flood, it was torrents of water.

“… and other abysses were opened…”

Verse 8

“Then the water began to run down into these, till the earth became visible;”

Again one must have an open mind and be familiar with concepts of relativity to understand that maybe the water didn’t only run down into the abysses, but the definition implies just as well that the earth may have floated to the surface through the water.  Just another possibility and perspective.

Verse 10

The verse seems to talk about the repopulation of the earth after the flood.

It interesting how the animals used to represent the generations after the flood are mostly carnivores, while before the flood, even the Nephilim were herbivores. 

Verse 11

This happens until the white bull begets the wild asses, since the asses were also use to represent the Nephilim.

 

The white bull here seems to represent Abraham.  The white bull that Abraham begets seems to represent Isaac, while the wild asses,

[at first, I thought represented Ishmael.  Since there is always a distinction between Isaac and Ishmael and in verse 13 it talks about one (Joseph) of the 12 sheep (sons of Israel) being given up to the asses (Ishmaelites).  But then in verse 16, it talks of a sheep (Moses) who escapes to the wild asses.  Moses had actually escaped to Midian, and although I could not find if the people of Midian were Ishmaelites or not, I actually found out in Genesis 25 that Abraham had a second wife named Keturah (Genesis 25:1) and had 6 sons: “Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.” (Genesis 25:2)  I think it is reasonable to assume that Midianites lived in Midian (where Moses fled to); and that Midianites descended from Midian (Abraham’s son).  

With this assumption we can conclude that the white bull that Abraham (the white bull) begat can represent Isaac, while the wild ass can represent “the rest of Abraham’s children”, whether they were by Hagar or Keturah.

Verse 12

In this verse, the white bull (Isaac) that came from the white bull (Abraham) begets a black wild boar, and a white sheep.   The black wild boar seems to represent Esau, or Edom; while the white sheep seems to represent Jacob, or Israel.  I assume this because the sheep then begets 12 sheep (which seems to represent Israel’s 12 sons).

Verse 13

This verse tells the story of Joseph, sold into Egypt, in animal form.

That is if we assume the sheep to be Israel’s sons, the asses to be the Ishmaelites (or as we explained in verse 11 reflection, descendants from the non-Isaac sons of Abraham), and the wolves to represent the Egyptians.

Verse 14

This verse then explains how the rest of Israel’s sons eventually joined the sheep (Joseph) with the wolves and lived among them and multiplied.

Here is the end of Genesis represented and breaking into the beginning of the book of Exodus in the Bible.

Verse 15

Tells the story of how the pharaoh began to fear the number of Israelites and began to get rid of them, in animal form.  The Egyptians are represented by wolves, while the Israelites are represented by sheep.

Verse 16

In this verse the sheep escaped from the wolves to the wild asses.  This is a representation of how Moses escaped from the Egyptians to the Midianites (which I explained in verse 11 I assumed them to be descendants of Midian… a non-Isaac son of Abraham).

Verse 41

This verse comes after the sheep that represent the people of Israel, reach the promise land.

As we know, after Israel reaches the promise land, God raises judges among them; then king Saul comes after the judges.

This verse sums up the time of judges by saying that “sometimes their eyes were opened, and sometimes blinded, till another sheep arose and led them and brought them back, and their eyes were opened.”

Verse 42

In this verse the Lord of the sheep doesn’t just raise another sheep to lead them back, but a ram from the sheep.  These rams now represent the kings.  With the first ram being Saul.

Verse 44

In this verse the first ram (king Saul) begins to behave “unseemly”.

Verse 47

This verse tells how Saul pursued David.

Verse 52

This verse seems to be talking about one of the sheep that God sent (or the prophets) it managed to escape and not get slain by the other sheep.

The interesting thing is that, Enoch sees in his vision that God brought that sheep up with him (Enoch), and they hung out together.

This makes me realize that Enoch had been an interactive part of the vision all this time.

Enoch’s part of the vision where he gets taken up to heaven (1 Enoch 87:4) represents just that; the time in his life that he gets taken up to heaven.  And then, everything he sees since then.

Verse 58

After Enoch cries to God about Israel being “devoured”, God “remained Unmoved, though He saw it, and rejoiced that they were devoured and swallowed and robbed and left them to be devoured in the hand of all the beasts.” (1 Enoch 89:58)

Just another example of God’s funny side, it reminds me of that verse in Job 9:23.

June 2, 2012