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

1 Enoch 88

1 Enoch 88

Verse 1

The star that first fell to the earth was bound and thrown into an abyss.

Verse 2

The angels gave a sword to the (Nephilim) so that they would destroy each other. The earth quaked.

Verse 3

The angels stoned and gathered the rest of the stars and bound them and threw them into the abyss.

June 2, 2012

1 Enoch 87

1 Enoch 87

Verse 1

The verse describes a full out war and turmoil between human beings and the Nephilim, so that “the earth began to cry aloud.”

Verse 2

The verse describes beings that come from heaven who seem to be the seven Archangels.  The verse makes a distinction between four of them and three with them. 

Verse 3

The 3 archangels grasped Enoch and took him to a high place.

Verse 4

So that he would see the rest of the vision.

These last two verses describe an interaction between Enoch and his “vision”, it is hard to say what this part of the vision would represent.  What do the angels represent?  What does the viewer being taken to a high place represent?

For this reason this makes me think that this is the stage in the vision is Enoch’s present moment in which the vision switches from revelation of the past, into revelation of the future.

It would not be too foolish to assume that everything that Enoch has seen in the vision so far is what has happened before him, since Enoch was alive around this time after the population of the earth towards the beginning of the flood.  And as the angel tells him “’Remain here till thou seest everything that befalls those elephants, camels, and asses, and stars and the oxen, and all of them.’”

I then found out in 89:52 that Enoch sees Elijah join him in heaven.  Thus I conclude that this part of the vision actually represents the time he gets taken up to heaven. Since in 1 Enoch 89:52, Elijah actually joins him in heaven like if Enoch had been an interactive part of the vision all along.

It is interesting how Enoch saw all of this (the whole story of the world), and everything he was going to live through (the story of the world), in a vision before he lived through it.

June 2, 2012

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 84

1 Enoch 84

After he had the vision in chapter 83, Enoch prays for there to be a remnant among human beings, and for God to save the righteous. 

June 2, 2012 

1 Enoch 83

1 Enoch 83

In this chapter Enoch begins to tells the story of his dream visions to Methuselah, his son.  He had his first vision when he was learning how to write; he says he was sleeping at his grandpa’s house.  As he was dreaming, he yelled out loud saying, “The earth is destroyed!” to which his grandpa comes, and Enoch explains everything.

June 2, 2012