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AHST 222 / 322 Lecture 24:

Judaism, Hellenised and other.

Judaism: Josephus on Jewish "Schools of thought" Hellenistic Judaism

Extracts from Jewish Apocalyptic Literature: compare the "Potter's Oracle".

"1 Enoch" Chapters 14-15: An introductory vision.

And behold I saw the clouds: And they were calling me in a vision; and the fogs were calling me; and the course of the stars and the lightning were rushing me and causing me to desire; and in the vision, the winds were causing me to fly and rushing me high up into heaven And I kept coming (into heaven) until I approached a wall which was built of white marble and surrounded by tongues of fire; and it began to frighten me. And I came into the tongues of the fire and drew near to a great house which was built of white marble, and the inner wall(s) were like mosaics of white marble, the floor of crystal, the ceiling like the path of the stars and lightning between which (stood) fiery cherubim and their heaven of water; and flaming fire surrounded the wall(s), and its gates were burning with fire. And I entered into the house, which was hot like fire and cold like ice, and there was nothing inside it; (so) fear covered me and trembling seized me. And as I shook and trembled, I fell upon my face and saw a vision. And behold there was an opening before me (and) a second house which is greater than the former and everything was built with tongues of fire. And in every respect it excelled (the other) - in glory and great honor - to the extent that it is impossible for me to recount to you concerning its glory and greatness. As for its floor, it was of fire and above it was lightning and the path of the stars; and as for the ceiling, it was flaming fire. And I observed and saw inside it a lofty throne - its appearance was like crystal and its wheels like the shining sun; and (I heard?) the voice of the cherubim; And from beneath the throne were issuing streams of flaming fire. It was difficult to look at it. And the Great Glory was sitting upon it. As for his gown, which was shining more brightly than the sun, it was whiter than any snow. None of the angels was able to come in and see the face of the Excellent and the Glorious One; and no one of the flesh can see him - the flaming fire was round about him, and a great fire stood before him. No one could come near him from among those that surrounded the tens of millions (that stood) before him. He needed no council, but the most holy ones who are near to him neither go far away at night nor move away from him. Until then I was prostrate on my face covered and trembling. And the Lord called me with his own mouth and said to me, "Come near to me, Enoch, and to my holy Word. And he lifted me up and brought me near to the gate, but I (continued) to look down with my face.
(Ch. 15.) But he raised me up and said to me with his voice, "Enoch." I (then) heard, "Do not fear, Enoch, righteous man, scribe of righteousness; come near to me and hear my voice."

Chapter 21: a vision of the punishment of evil angels.

And I came to an empty place. And I saw (there) neither a heaven above nor an earth below, but a chaotic and terrible place. And there I saw seven stars of heaven bound together in it, like great mountains, and burning with fire. At that moment I said, "For which sin are they bound, and for what reason were they cast in here?" Then one of the holy angels, Uriel, who was with me, guiding me, spoke to me and said to me, "Enoch, for what reason are you asking and for what reason do you question and exhibit eagerness? These are among the stars of heaven which have transgressed the commandments of the Lord and are bound in this place until the completion of ten million years, (according) to the number of their sins." I then proceeded from that area to another place which is even more terrible and saw a terrible thing: a great fire that was burning and flaming; the place had a cleavage (that extended) to the last sea, pouring out great pillars of fire; neither its extent nor its magnitude could I see nor was I able to estimate. At that moment, what a terrible opening is this place and a pain to look at! Then Ura'el, (one) of the holy angels who was with me, responded and said to me "Enoch, why are you afraid like this?" (I answered and said),"I am frightened because of this terrible place and the spectacle of this painful thing." And he said to me, "This place is the prison house of the angels; they are detained here forever."

Chapter 41: the secrets of history and cosmology are revealed to Enoch.

 And after that, I saw all the secrets in heaven, and how a kingdom breaks up and how the actions of the people are weighed in the balance. And there I saw the dwelling place of the sinners and the company of the holy ones; and my eyes saw the sinners - those who deny the name of the Lord of the Spirits - being expelled from there and being dragged off; and they could not stand still because of the plague which proceeds forth from the Lord of the Spirits.
 And there my eyes saw the secrets of lightning and thunder, and the mysteries of the winds, how they are distributed in order to blow upon the earth, and the secrets of the clouds and the dew. I saw there from where they proceed in that place and (how) from there they satiate the dust of the earth. At that place, I (also) saw sealed storerooms from which the winds of the storerooms of hail and the winds of the storerooms of mist are distributed; and these clouds hover over the earth from the beginning of the world. And I saw the storerooms of the sun and the moon, from what place they come out and to which place they return, and their glorious return - how in their travel one festival is celebrated more than the other. They do not depart from their orbit, neither increase nor decrease it; but they keep faith one with another: in accordance with an oath they set and they rise.

Chapters 46 & 48: a vision of a future glorious ruler of Israel.

 At that place, I saw the One to whom belongs the time before time. And his head was white like wool, and there was with him another individual, whose face was like that of a human being. His countenance was full of grace like that of one among the holy angels. And I asked the one - from among the angels - who was going with me, and who had revealed to me all the secrets regarding the One who was born of human beings, "Who is this, and from whence is he who is going as the prototype of the Before-Time? And he answered me and said to me, "This is the Son of Man, to whom belongs righteousness, and with whom righteousness dwells. And he will open all the hidden storerooms; for the Lord of the Spirits has chosen him, and he is destined to be victorious before the Lord of the Spirits in eternal uprightness. This Son of Man whom you I have seen is the One who would remove the kings and the mighty ones from their comfortable seats and the strong ones from their thrones. He shall loosen the reins of the strong and crush the teeth of the sinners. He shall depose the kings from their thrones and kingdoms. For they do not extol and glorify him, and neither do they obey him, the source of their kingship. The faces of the strong will be slapped and be filled with shame and gloom. Their dwelling places and their beds will be worms. They shall have no hope to rise from their beds, for they do not extol the name of the Lord of the Spirits.

Chapter 90: an allegory of the Maccabean revolt, and a prophecy of its ultimate success.

 Then I saw after that how thirty-seven shepherds were pasturing (the sheep); all of them completed (their duties) in their own respective periods, like the former ones; and aliens took (the sheep) into their hands in order to pasture them in their own respective periods - each shepherd in his own period. After that I saw with my own eyes all the birds of heaven - eagles, vultures, kites, and ravens - coming; the eagles were the ones who were leading all the birds; and they began to eat those sheep, to dig out their eyes, and to eat their flesh. Then the sheep cried aloud, for their flesh was being eaten by the birds. I, too, cried aloud and lamented in my sleep on account of that shepherd who was grazing the sheep. I kept seeing till those sheep were eaten by the dogs, the eagles, and the kites; and they left neither flesh, nor skin, nor sinew on them absolutely, until their bones stood there bare; then their bones fell to the ground, and the sheep became few. I kept seeing till twenty-three shepherds pastured (the sheep), and all of them completed fifty-eight seasons in their own respective periods.
 Then, behold, lambs were born from those snow-white sheep, and they began to open their eyes and see, and cried aloud to the sheep. But as for the sheep, they (the lambs) cried aloud to them yet they (the sheep) did not listen to what they (the lambs) were telling them but became exceedingly deafened, and their eyes became exceedingly dim-sighted. Then I saw in a vision ravens flying above those lambs, and they seized one of those lambs; and then smashing the sheep, they ate them. I kept seeing till those lambs grew horns; but the ravens crushed their horns. Then I kept seeing till one great horn sprouted on one of those sheep, and he opened their eyes; and they had vision in them, and their eyes were opened. He cried aloud to the sheep, and all the rams saw him and ran to him. In spite of this, all those eagles, vultures, ravens, and kites until now continue to rip the sheep, swooping down upon them and eating them. As for the sheep, they remain silent; but the rams are lamenting and crying aloud. Those ravens gather and battle with him (the horned ram) and seek to remove his horn, but without any success.
 I saw thereafter the shepherds coming; and those vultures and kites cried aloud to the ravens so that they should smash the horn of that ram. But he battled with them and they fought each other; and he cried aloud, while battling with them, so that (God's) help should come. I kept seeing till that man, who writes down the names of the shepherds and elevates them before the Lord of the sheep, came; it is he who helped him and revealed (to him) everything; thus help came down for that ram. And I kept seeing till the Lord of the sheep came upon them in wrath, and all who saw him fled and fell all into darkness from before his face. All the eagles, vultures, ravens, and kites gathered, with all the sheep of the field lining up with them; and having thus come together in unity, all of them cooperated in order to smash the horn of the ram. I saw that man who was writing a book by the commands of the Lord, for he opened that book (of) the destruction which those twelve last shepherds caused; and he revealed before the Lord of the sheep that they had much greater destruction than their predecessors. I kept seeing till the Lord of the sheep came to them and took in his hand the rod of his wrath and smote the earth; and all the beasts and all the birds of the heaven fell down from the midst of those sheep and were swallowed up in the earth, and it was covered upon them. Then I saw that a great sword was given to the sheep; and the sheep proceeded against all the beasts of the field in order to kill them; and all the beasts and birds of heaven fled from before their face.
 Then I kept seeing till a throne was erected in a pleasant land; and he sat upon it for the Lord of the sheep; and he took all the sealed books and opened those very books in the presence of the Lord of the sheep. Then the Lord called those people, the seven first snow-white ones, and ordered them to bring before him (some) from among the first star(s) that arose, and from among those stars whose sexual organs were like those of the horses, as well as (that) first star which had fallen down earlier. And they brought them all before him. He spoke to the man who was writing in his presence - that (man) being one of those seven snow-white ones - saying, "Take those seven shepherds to whom I had handed over the sheep, but who decided to kill many more than they were ordered." Behold, I saw all of them bound; and they all stood before him. Then his judgment took place. First among the stars, they received their judgment and were found guilty, and they went to the place of condemnation; and they were thrown into an abyss, full of fire and flame and full of the pillar of fire. Then those seventy shepherds were judged and found guilty; and they were cast into that fiery abyss. In the meantime I saw how another abyss like it, full of fire, was opened wide in the middle of the ground; and they brought those blinded sheep, all of which were judged, found guilty, and cast into this fiery abyss, and they were burned - the abyss is to the right of that house; thus I saw those sheep while they were burning - their bones also were burning.
  Then I stood still, looking at that ancient house being transformed: All the pillars and all the columns were pulled out; and the ornaments of that house were packed and taken out together with them and abandoned in a certain place in the South of the land. I went on seeing until the Lord of the sheep brought about a new house, greater and loftier than the first one, and set it up in the first location which had been covered up - all its pillars were new, the columns new; and the ornaments new as well as greater than those of the first, (that is) the old (house) which was gone. All the sheep were within it.
 Then I saw all the sheep that had survived as well as all the animals upon the earth and the birds of heaven, falling down and worshiping those sheep, making petition to them and obeying them in every respect. Thereafter, those three who were wearing snow-white (clothes), the former ones who had caused me to go up, grabbed me by my hand - also the hand of that ram holding me and I ascended; they set me down in the midst of those sheep prior to the occurrence of this judgment. Those sheep were all snow-white, and their wool considerable and clean. All those which have been destroyed and dispersed, and all the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky were gathered together in that house; and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced with great joy because they had all become gentle and returned to his house. I went on seeing until they had laid down that sword which was given to the sheep; they returned it to the house and sealed it in the presence of the Lord. All the sheep were invited to that house but it could not contain them (all). The eyes of all of them were opened, and they saw the beautiful things; not a single one existed among them that could not see. Also I noticed that the house was large, wide, and very full.
 Then I saw that a snow-white cow was born, with huge horns; all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the sky feared him and made petition to him all the time. I went on seeing until all their kindred were transformed, and became snow-white cows; and the first among them became something, and that something became a great beast with huge black horns on its head. The Lord of the sheep rejoiced over it and over all the cows. I myself became satiated in their midst. Then I woke up and saw everything.