1 Enoch 86

1 Enoch 86

Chapter 86 continues the vision from the first population of the earth.

Verse 1

In the first verse, before the many stars fell to the earth, there was one star that lead (Samyaza).  The first star that fell; and leader of the fallen angels that made the pact to desecrate themselves.

Verse 2

The verse tells that this first star begin to live among the humans… that are represented in the vision by oxen.

Verse 3

After a while, many other stars followed that first star and became like and lived among the rest of the oxen.  Just as the rest of the angels made the pact to desecrate themselves lived among the humans.

Verse 4

This verse explicitly describes how the stars (angels) got the cows (humans) pregnant and bore elephants, camels and asses.  I tried to compare the types of animals being described.  Stars are cosmic objects, while elephants, camels, and asses have no cosmic nature.  Thus it makes me think that Nephilim had no divine properties but were just as “cosmic” as human beings (oxen), just like any other animals.  They were not more divine, though they were completely different from any rational being that had ever existed.  Monsters?  Of course, there is nothing to that tells us what property of the being is being represented by the object.

Verse 5

Nevertheless, the oxen feared them.  Maybe the elephants, camels and asses were not necessarily more powerful than the oxen.  But it was something that the oxen were not used to seeing and so they feared them.  As far as the elephants, camels, and asses, they were a new species themselves, and had no “change in the pattern of experience” to fear.

Verse 6

Here, the animals that represent the Nephilim turn against the oxen.

June 2, 2012

1 Enoch 85

1 Enoch 85

The beginning of Enoch’s second vision tells the story of some bulls

A white bull and a heifer… then a black bull and a red one.  The black one gores the red one until it is no longer found.  The black bull left with the heifer.  The cow laments and searches for the red one, but doesn’t find him.  Then the white bull begets another white bull that resembles him.

The story of these bulls seems to resemble the story of the first human beings.

I was confused about what these first bulls represented because in chapter 89 there are also four bulls that dwelled in the vessel that floated over the waters that covered the earth: a red one, a black one, and a white one… and another white one who became a man.  This white one that became a man is referred to as the same white bull from this chapter.  But the four bulls from the vessel seem to represent Noah and his sons while these first four bulls seem to represent Adam and his sons.

Verse 3

I came to this conclusion as I reread in verse 3, “… and behold a bull came forth from the earth, and that bull was white…” and wondered what it meant that it came forth “from the earth”.  I know that in prophetic visions, it is important to take note of where beasts comes from as this can represent different things.  But then I thought simpler and noticed that the first white bull came from the earth and was not born from another bull like all the other ones.  I concluded that this must be Adam, since Adam was also created from the earth.

Verse 5

I do not remember why, but I have always assumed that the necessary incest for the population of the earth right after creation happened between Eve and a son; and not, as many assume, between brothers and sisters.

Verse 5 says that the heifer that came right after the first white bull that rose from the earth (Adam), went with the black bull, after it had grown, and “many oxen proceeded from him which resembled him and followed him.”  If we assume that the heifer is Eve, then this text is saying that the generations of Cain came from Eve and not from a sister.  And thus Eve can rightfully reclaim her name as the “mother of all who live” (Genesis 3:20)

1 Enoch 85:3 Methuselah’s mother is named Edna.

June 2, 2012

1 Enoch 80

1 Enoch 80

The first verse restates that which Uriel had shown Enoch about the courses of the heavenly luminaries.  The second verse then begins to talk about what will happen to these:

“In the days of the sinners the years shall be shortened… And all things on the earth shall alter” (1 Enoch 80:2)

“And the moon shall alter her order, and not appear at her time.  And in those days the sun shall be seen and he shall journey in the evening on the extremity of the great chariot in the west and shall shine more brightly than accords with the order of light.  And many chiefs of the stars shall transgress the order prescribed; and these shall alter their orbits and tasks, and not appear at the seasons prescribed to them.”  (1 Enoch 80:4-6)

So the years are shortened, the moon alters its order and so does the sun and the stars.

A lot of prophetic visions deal with this kind of cosmic chaos, and people usually assume that this kind of stuff is impossible; first of all because the cosmos do not revolve around the earth (as was discovered by a certain modern astronomer), but in fact the earth rotates and gives the illusion that the sun goes around the earth.  The language that is used by Enoch in these verses makes it seem like he believes that the sun moves around the earth.

For this reason a lot of people discredit words of prophecy and decide to ignore these ancient messages.  But someone with an open and generous mind would see through  these seeming errors to understand the message… they could even say, what if Enoch DID know that the earth revolved around the sun, but for the sake of the understanding of the people in his time, he decided to use these words.

                The last chapters talked about the courses and phases of the cosmos, this chapter talks about their “perversion”.  The way that these perversions could happen is if the earth’s rotation and revolution was altered. The movement of the stars and the sun would relatively, but definitely, be altered.

                We know that this is not impossible because just a few years ago we had an earthquake that altered the earth’s axis; this alteration definitely affects the length of our equinoxes and solstices, thus affecting our weather patterns: “…  And their seed shall be tardy on their lands and fields and all things on the earth shall alter, and shall not appear in their time: And the rain shall be kept back, and the heaven shall withhold it.  And in those times fruits shall be backward, and shall not grow in their time, and the fruit of the trees shall be withheld in their time.” (1 Enoch 80:2-3)  Also, anyone who studies astronomy would know that the orbits of our planetary system are always changing and not perfectly constant.

We only have to wait until Enoch’s visions manifest themselves in the present.

June 2, 2012

1 Enoch 69

1 Enoch 69:8-11

“And the fourth was named Penemue: he taught the children of men the bitter and the sweet, and he taught them all the secrets of their wisdom.  And he instructed mankind in writing with ink and paper, and thereby many sinned from eternity to eternity and until this day. For men were not created for such a purpose, to give confirmation to their good faith with pen and ink.  For men were created like angels, to the intent that they should continue pure and righteous, and death, which destroys everything, could not have taken hold of them; but through this their knowledge they are perishing, and through this power it is consuming me.

According to etymology, the root "pen" means "inside" or something in relation to "enclosed", and the name Penemue can refer to the "inside secrets" that he taught mankind.

Penemue corrupted mankind by teaching them the art of pen and paper.  Just shows how unnatural it is to keep records of things; makes me wonder how human beings were meant to live and what many other things that may seem normal and harmless to us are actually sinful.

This even correlates with my own philosophy (which is the reason I am trying to give up this addiction of writing things down).  If anything, record keeping discourages the mind from keeping good memory, just like calculators discourages the mind from doing mental calculation.

Another fun fact, Arabs have good long term memory because their ancestors were used to not writing things down, it was only until recently the Qur’an was physically copied; back then it was only transferred verbally.

Moving on…

The verses say that the flaw with mankind was that they gave confirmation of their good faith with pen and ink, instead of continuing their good faith.  Sometimes we feel justified in resting from doing good because of the good that we have already done. 

It is even worse now, with videos and pictures.  Once we have an image of us doing something impressive, we feel satisfied with our efforts and do not strive any longer to be any better.  Instead of living in glory, we look nostalgically into the past, and depend on our memories of our deeds to make us feel some sort of satisfaction.   We do not even think it’s possible to be in glory continuously.

May 27, 2012