When people talk about being in the 'seventh heaven' they mean they are as happy as they can possibly be. But where did the notion that there are seven heavens come from? What does the seventh heaven contain that should make us so happy and what are the other six like? Sadly there is no one definitive source book we can turn to to explain this but there are some ancient writings from the Jewish-Christian tradition that reveal that during the first century A.D. (if not earlier) some people believed that there were multiple levels of heaven. In the pseudepigraphal writing known as Slavonic Enoch (or 2 Enoch), the writer describes the ascension of Enoch to the throne of God in heaven but in his version, (unlike that of the Book of the Watchers discussed in the previous post), Enoch ascends through seven heavens to find God. Each heaven has its own distinct identity, purpose and occupants. Like the apostle Paul, the writer locates paradise, i.e the garden of Eden, in the third heaven. Alongside paradise, on the same level, there is a place of terrible punishment reserved for the wicked, and staffed by specially prepared 'torture angels'. On other levels Enoch sees the workings of the cosmos, the legions of weeping angels (long before Dr Who was ever thought of) and the gates and galleries where the weather is stored. His may not have been the first account of multiple heavens but the author(s) of Slavonic Enoch provides a fascinating insight into how some Jews and Christians imagined heaven in the first centuries of the Common Era. "At last Enoch arrives in the seventh heaven and sees God. God, of course, is seated on his throne and attended by a vast number of angelic beings, the divine council or court. It seems that their chief job is to come forward in designated ranks and orders to bow before God. This is an image of God as supreme potentate, the imperial ruler, receiving obeisance from the subject kings and potentates. The heavenly beings here represent the 'powers and principalities' who govern the affairs of the cosmos. These are the forces that shape human destiny. What Enoch sees is that they bow before the authority of the Almighty. Enoch reports that they do so 'in joy and merriment'. There is laughter in heaven!"
In the previous post I wrote about the ancient Jewish writing known as The Book of the Watchers, which tells the story of how certain angels (the 'Watchers') defiled the newly created earth by having sex with human women (what other kind are there??) and teaching them the secrets of heaven. According to this ancient legend, the monstrous offspring of their union, the Giants, subsequently brought terrible violence to the earth. The Book of the Watchers focuses especially on the role of Enoch, the man who according to Genesis 5.24 had not died but instead, had been 'taken' by God. According to some interpretations of that verse, this meant that Enoch had been 'taken' to be with God in heaven. The Book of the Watchers tells the story of why God 'took' him. We learn there that he became a sort of cosmic priest, acting as an intermediary between the fallen angels (or 'Watchers') and God. The book is usually dated at some time in the 2nd or 3rd centuries B.C. and is one of the earliest written forms of the Enoch legend. Enoch ascends to heaven, and the heaven he sees is an impossible place, a place made of fire and ice, a place of terrifying dynamic energy, movement and power. God sits on a throne equipped (as in all the best visions of God) with shiny wheels. God's throne room seems to lie at the heart of something like the Jerusalem Temple in the heavenly 'holy of holies'. God is surrounded by a myriad of angelic beings, the divine court or council, (even though, we are told, God doesn't need any of them!). God is there described as the 'Great Glory' and the appearance of God produces terror in Enoch. Yet he is led into the divine presence and commissioned for service as God's messenger/representative. Enoch, the undying human emissary between God and angels, was clearly going to 'go far' and his literary 'career' blossomed. The Book of Watchers is only one of (at least) five books with a connection to the figure of Enoch which make up what we now call the Book of Enoch, or 1 Enoch. They derive from different dates and writers but are all linked by their common usage of Enoch as the main protagonist and by a common theological outlook which is critical of the way the Jerusalem Temple was being run and which looks forward to a fundamental re-orienting of reality when God dynamically and dramatically establishes his kingdom on the earth. Through visions and dreams and journeys to the ends of the earth, Enoch becomes the channel of all the revelations that God wants to share with the faithful righteous community (i.e. those who wrote, used and copied the Enoch books). In other words, there seems to have been a strong tradition within the Judaism of that time, (often described by scholars as 'Second Temple Judaism' because it roughly co-coincided with the life of the re-built Jerusalem Temple) in which Enoch, the antediluvian patriarch was seen as the supreme messenger of God. Enoch was the man who never died but who, instead, was 'taken' up to heaven by God. Enoch could have imaginary adventures that no other human prophet or agent could have. His unusual fate meant that it became possible to imagine Enoch engaged in all sorts of heavenly activities that were normally denied to mere mortals. The story continues: Slavonic EnochBut the speculation about what Enoch may or not have seen or done didn't stop when those books were collected into the Book of Enoch. In the writing which is know today as 2 Enoch or sometimes Slavonic Enoch (because the only surviving complete text is found in the Old Slavonic language) someone imagined Enoch's ascension to heaven in a very different way. In this story, although clearly inspired by the Book of the Watchers, and other early, related Enoch literature Enoch is lifted up into heaven by angels but in this account, instead of passing through fiery walls and doors to enter the central sanctuary of the Almighty, he is lifted upwards through multiple heavens. There are seven in all, and each heaven is remarkable in its own way. Whereas in the Book of the Watchers heaven was clearly imagined as a sort of cosmic temple, here the conception of heaven is very different. The emphasis is on the 'workings' of heaven, of what exists or happens on each level and who belongs there, and the ultimate revelation of God in the seventh heaven, is a vision of a great king in glory, a sovereign Lord receiving the honour and submission of the multitudes of the heavenly hosts (representing all the powerful forces which shape human life).
In all likelihood Paul wrote about his experience of being taken up in a vision to paradise in the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12.2-4) before the book we know as 2 Enoch was written so it almost certainly didn't influence him, but that reference does suggest that there was a common tradition in the Judaism of that time that paradise could be found in the third heaven, and it also provides an insight into what he might have had in mind when he wrote about his own experiences. In the more ancient traditions about heaven there was no hint that people belonged in heaven, but it seems that as time went on traditions about paradise became linked with heavenly speculation. There are actually a number of different manuscript versions of 2 Enoch. There is no one single, definitive text. Here I quote from the shorter text from the translation of text 'A' by Francis I Anderson (You can read the longer version at Andrei Orlov's website here). I have adapted the text a bit so that it can be read more easily. In terms of faithfulness to the original text of 2 Enoch, it doesn't seem to me that scholars can say definitively which of the texts we now have is the most faithful to the original (assuming there was an original!). I don't think it matters. Each version took on a life of its own and has its own value and the aim of this post is to show how the original story of Enoch in the Book of Watchers was used as the springboard for a rich and long-lasting tradition of reflection on Enoch and his journey to heaven within Jewish and Christian circles. That influence is apparent in all the editions. The First HeavenThe account begins with a visit to Enoch's bedside one night, by some 'men' (who are of course angels - it's the wings and glowing appearance that give it away!). First they tell Enoch to say goodbye to his family. Then the journey begins. And it came about, when I had spoken to my sons, the men called me. And they took me up onto their wings, and carried me up to the first heaven. And they put me down there. They led before my face the elders, the rulers of the stellar orders. And they showed me their movements and their aberrations from year to year. And they showed me in the light the angels who govern the stars, the heavenly combinations. And they showed me there a vast ocean, much bigger than the earthly ocean. And the angels were flying with their wings. The first thing he is shown is the first heaven, where all the business of the sky is attended to. He meets the beings who govern the path of the heavenly bodies, the planets and stars. And he sees the great ocean, the waters above the firmament that will soon (from the point of view of the Enoch story) be used to cleanse the earth from the defilement of the fallen angels through means of The Flood. And they showed me there the treasuries of the snow and the cold, terrible angels are guarding the treasuries. And they showed me there the treasuries of the clouds, from which they .go in and come out. And they showed me the treasuries of the dew, like olive oil. Angels were guarding their treasuries; and their appearance was like every earthly flower. Also in that first heaven Enoch is shown where the weather is stored. He is shown the storehouses of the snow, where the clouds are kept and the (presumably) vast baths or pools where the dew is stored. All these are guarded by 'terrible angels'. Again, it is worth noting that in the ancient cosmology, 'heaven' referred both to the habitation of God and 'the sky'. The Second HeavenNext, Enoch is taken up to the second heaven. Here he finds a place of punishment, not of people, but of rebellious angels (the Watchers). The angels ask Enoch to intercede for them before God, just as the fallen Watchers asked Enoch to do in the Book of the Watchers (although there they were on earth and not being punished). And those men took me up to the second heaven. And they set me down on the second heaven. And they showed me prisoners under guard, in measureless judgment. And there I saw the condemned angels weeping. And I said to the men who were with me, "Why are they tormented?" The men answered me, 'They are evil rebels against the LORD, who did not listen to the voice of the LORD, but they consulted their own will." And I felt sorry for them.
The Third HeavenAnd the men took me from there. They brought me up to the third heaven. And they placed me in the midst of Paradise. And that place has an appearance of pleasantness that has never been seen. Every tree was in full flower. Every fruit was ripe, every food was in yield profusely; every fragrance was pleasant. And the four rivers were flowing past with gentle movement, with every kind of garden producing every kind of good food. And the tree of life is in that place, under which the LORD takes a rest when the LORD takes a walk in Paradise. And that tree is indescribable for pleasantness of fragrance. In the third heaven Enoch finds paradise. Christian readers will immediately think of Paul's statement in Corinthians that he too saw paradise in the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12.1-4). It is not certain (because he doesn't tell us) how many heavens Paul saw but it is interesting (to me) that both here and in Paul's vision paradise is located in the third heaven. Paradise is indescribably beautiful. Such beauty had 'never been seen'. All the flowers are in bloom, the fruit trees have abundant harvests, and everything smells glorious. The four rivers of the biblical garden are there (why? what are they watering in the third heaven?!) but in keeping with the peace and serenity of paradise they are not rushing - they move with a gentle movement. Enoch sees the Tree of Life and he (or the narrator) informs us that this is the tree under which God rests when he visits and walks in the garden. God (spoiler alert!) lives in the seventh heaven. So, presumably he descends four levels from time to time (often, by the sound of it) to walk in his garden. That tree is the most splendid and fragrant of all. And another tree is near it, an olive, flowing with oil continually. And every tree is well fruited. There is no tree there without fruit, and every place is blessed. This is paradise from after the fall. Adam and Eve are gone (obviously - Enoch is their great grandson!) and there are angels guarding paradise. Here we discover that they spend their time praising God. Added to the beauty of the place, the angelic singing thrills Enoch. Enoch is told by the angels that this place, paradise, is ready, waiting for the righteous, i.e. those who act in the ways described. They are faithful to the Law, and they treat others with compassion and kindness. The words could almost be a direct quotation from Matthew 25. Paradise is their eternal destination. But it is not only paradise that lies in the third heaven. There is also a terrible place of punishment And the men carried me away from there, and they made me go up to the northern heaven; and they showed me there a very frightful place; every kind of torture and torment is in that place, and darkness and gloom. And there is no light there, but a black fire blazes up perpetually, and a river of fire is coming out over the whole place, with cold ice; and places of detention and cruel angels and carriers of torture implements, tormenting without pity. So, Enoch is shown a place of punishment, prepared for the unrighteous. It is a place of darkness and gloom where its victims will endure torments and torture. As in the case of Paradise, it is interesting to examine the 'qualifications' for this place. The main emphasis is again on the mistreatment of others, they are guilty of fraud, and unwilling to feed the hungry or clothe the naked. Of course there are other considerations - they engage in witchcraft and magic and 'steal souls', and they do not honour God. In a rather prescient move the staff ((cruel angels) have already been employed and put in place long before the residents arrive! Talk about long-term planning! There are lots of exciting (if you are writing a blog about heaven and hell!) aspects of this vision. In the first or second century A.D., Jewish thinkers were talking about punishment and reward in the place of punishment (note - this place is not named) and paradise respectively. Paradise is the garden of Eden, a place of plenty and abundance and peace, The place of punishment is a place of torture, darkness and fire. So far so 'medieval'. But the differences are fascinating. Firstly these are waiting for their residents. The judgment happens at the end of time, not after death. Both are prepared, but empty. Secondly, torment and torture are provided not by demons but by angels (albeit specially trained 'torture class' angels). Apart from the obvious implication that angels can be 'terrible' it is worth noting that these angels are under the administration of heaven i.e. God. Punishment in this vision is something which is ordained and organised by God. Thirdly and most obviously the place of punishment is in the heavens! The heavens represent the other world, the world of divine reality. They contain everything that we can't see or feel or touch but which nevertheless govern and shape our lives. The mechanism that governs the movement of heavenly bodies, the clouds and snow and ice, paradise and (for want of a better term) 'hell', all belong to 'heaven'. This is not heaven as the home of God (that is coming but it is four floors up!). Notice that Satan has nothing to do with this place of punishment. There is no domain which belongs to Satan and his demons. The Fourth HeavenAnd (the men) lifted me up from there (and they carried me up) to the 4th heaven. And they showed me there all the movements and displacements and all the rays of light of the sun and the moon. I measured their movements. I compared their light. And I saw that the sun has a light seven times greater than the sun. Their circle and their chariots on which each of them rides, passing like the wind. And there is no rest for them by day and by night, as they go off and come back. And four great stars, holding onto the right-hand side of the sun's chariot, on the left-hand side, (going) with the sun perpetually, and going in front of the sun's chariot, Here Enoch is shown how the sun and moon 'work'. The sun and moon sit on chariots which are pulled across the sky by angels (stars). They are (obviously) continuously in motion - there is no rest for them. Enoch sees that the sun is seven times brighter than the moon although in size they are the same. And the men carried me away to the east of heaven. And they showed me the gates through which the sun goes out according to the appointed seasons and according to the cycle of the months, for the entire year, and according to the shortening of the duration of the days and of the nights gates, one (of which was) open, about thirty stadia. Carefully I measured their size. And could not comprehend their size - those by which the sun goes in and goes off to the west. Enoch is shown how and where the sun and moon exit heaven and pass across the sky. They go out through 6 great gates situated along the eastern horizon, too huge to measure, Enoch counts the duration of each 'pass' of the sun, and then of the moon as they pass out through their gates and return through 6 equivalent gates aligned along the western horizon. Each gate is situated so that each time the sun (or moon) goes out through one the height of the sun and moon in the sky (as humans will see it) is altered. This is the way the writer of 2 Enoch (but he didn't invent this cosmology) accounts for the changes in the movements of the sun and moon through the year. This is a lengthy section and I have abridged the passage. Calendars, the way the year was to be divided and the ways in which the dates of festivals were to be worked out were very important to the writers of these pseudepigraphical documents but they are not the main focus of this blog! The interesting thing is that 2 Enoch locates the sun and moon and their gates in the fourth heaven, above paradise and the place of punishment. This of course makes sense if you think that paradise is bathed in sunlight! The Fifth HeavenAnd the men picked me up from there and carried me away to the fifth heaven. And I saw there many armies and Watchers. And their appearance was like the appearance of a human being, and their size was larger than that of large giants. And their faces were dejected, and the silence of their mouths . . . And there was no liturgy (taking place in the fifth heaven). And I said to the men who were with me, "For what reason are they so dejected, and their faces miserable, and their mouths silent? And why is there no liturgy in this heaven?" And the men answered me, 'These are the Watchers, 200 princes of whom turned aside, 200 walking in their train, and they descended to the earth, and they broke the promise on the shoulder of Mount Hermon, to defile themselves with human wives. In the fifth heaven Enoch sees the Watchers who had not rebelled. This is the heavenly police force, whose job is to "watch". This is the army of heaven. These gigantic beings standing in their regiments are imposing and terrifying. But they are also heartbroken. The shame of their rebellious comrades has silenced them. These 'Watchers' are in misery. Enoch encourages them to praise God nevertheless. They should be singing the heavenly liturgy. God will be angry with them if he realises they have stopped singing! Behind this is the idea that the worship of God on earth was nothing other than an echo, a reflection, of the eternal, heavenly worship, the worship that never ceased. The Sixth HeavenAnd the men took me away from there, and they brought me up to the 6th heaven. And I saw there angels, grouped together, brilliant and very glorious. And their radiance was like the radiance of the sun when it shines. There was no difference between their faces or in their dimensions or in the mode of their being. These ones regulate, they study the peaceful order of the stars, the birth of the sun and the moon. And they are the leaders of the angels and of celestial speech. And they make all celestial life peaceful; and they preserve the commandments and instructions, and sweet voices and singing, every kind of praise and glory. And there are angels over seasons and years, and there are also angels over rivers and oceans, angels over fruit and grass, and of everything that breeds; and angels of all people, and all their life they organize and write it down before the face of the LORD. Every religious structure needs a committee to run things, and here in the sixth heaven Enoch discovers the heavenly 'management committee'. These are the 'top' angels, each of whom, it seems, has specific responsibility for different aspects of the creation. Being angels and being gloriously happy all the time they sing while they work and their singing is sweet and tuneful. No Thrash Metal or Punk here! The Seventh HeavenAnd the men lifted me up from there, and they carried me up to the seventh heaven. And I saw a great light, and all the fiery armies of the incorporeal ones, archangels, angels, and the shining stations. And I was terrified, and I trembled. And the men picked me up with their ... And they said to me, "Be brave, Enoch! Don't be frightened!" And they showed me from a distance the LORD, sitting on his throne. And all the heavenly armies assembled, according to rank, advancing and doing obeisance to the LORD. And then they withdrew and went to their places in joy and merriment, in immeasurable light, but gloriously serving him . . .
The heavenly beings here represent the 'powers and principalities' who govern the affairs of the cosmos. These are the forces that shape human destiny. What Enoch sees is that they bow before the authority of the Almighty. Enoch reports that they do so 'in joy and merriment'. There is laughter in heaven! . . . by night, nor departing by day, standing in front of the face of the LORD, carrying out his will—with all the army of cherubim around his throne, never departing, and the six-winged ones covering his throne, singing in front of the face of the LORD. And when I had seen all these things, the men went away from me, and from then on I did not see them anymore. They placed me at the edge of heaven, alone. And I became terrified; I fell on my face. Around the throne is the 'Imperial bodyguard', the cherubim. These are the special winged beings who drive the throne when it goes on its journeys and on whose wings God's throne rests ( (Ezekiel 1 and 10). Here they stand around the throne serving as the elite bodyguard unit - God's 'heavies'. Rather distressingly (for Enoch) he is now left alone at the edge of this scene of the heavenly throne room. And the LORD sent one of his glorious ones to me, Gabril. And he said to me, "Be brave, Enoch! Don't be frightened! Stand up, and come with me and stand in front of the face of the LORD forever." And I answered him and said, "(Woe) to me, LORD! My soul has departed from me from fear. And call to me the two men who brought me to this place, because I have spoken to them, and with them I will go before the face of the LORD." And Gabril carried me up, like a leaf carried up by the wind. He moved me along and put me down in front of the face of the LORD. But it's OK, Gabriel is sent to reassure and guide Enoch. He takes Enoch and lifts him up to God, just as the leaf is carried upwards by the wind. About the appearance of the LORD. I saw the LORD. His face was strong and very glorious and terrible. Who is to give an account of the dimensions of the being of the face of the LORD, strong and very terrible? Or his many-eyed ones and many-voiced ones, and the supremely great throne of the LORD, not made by hands, or those who are in attendance all around him, the cherubim and the seraphim armies, or how unvarying and indescribable and never-silent and glorious is his service. And I fell down flat and did obeisance to the LORD. And the LORD, with his own mouth, called to me, "Be brave, Enoch! Don't be frightened! Stand up, and stand in front of my face forever." And Michael, the LORD'S greatest archangel, lifted me up and brought me in front of the face of the LORD. And the LORD sounded out his servants. The LORD said, "Let Enoch come up and stand in front of my face forever!" And the glorious ones did obeisance and said, "Let him come up!" And so Enoch at last sees the Almighty. And yet, sadly, he offers little in the way of description. All he says is that the face of Lord is very strong and terrible. It's not quite clear what the writer means by 'strong' but the overall impression is clear. The face of God induces awe and fear. The face of God is also very big! "Who is to give an account of the dimensions of the being of the face of the LORD, strong and very terrible?" Here we see a hint of things to come. Reflection on the size of God in such visions became an important aspect of the Jewish mystical tradition that (it is thought) grew out of these pseudepigraphal writings about ascents to heaven. Somehow it seems the ability to grasp and talk about the size of God enabled the visionary to grasp something of the nature and quality of God. It mattered that God's face was big! It's probably worth sharing the version of the appearance of God from the longer edition of the text from the J manuscript. I saw the view of the face of the LORD, like iron made burning hot in a fire and it emits sparks and is incandescent. Thus even I saw the face of the Lord. But the face of the LORD is not to be talked about, it is so very marvelous and supremely awesome and supremely frightening. And who am I to give an account of the incomprehensible being of the LORD, and of his face, so extremely strange and indescribable? So, the words are very similar but this longer text adds that God's face is like burning, glowing iron as it would appear in the furnace when being heated. Apparently it emits sparks. To say that for this editor of the text God is 'on fire' would be merely stating the obvious. Just like molten metal, the appearance is glorious, compelling and thrilling, but of course incredibly dangerous. The message is clear - God is too hot to touch! From Enoch's point of view however, something very special is about to take place. The scene is described as if all the heavenly actors had been waiting for this moment. Whereas in The Book of the Watchers it seems as if Enoch is somehow intruding on a scene never intended for mortal eyes, here it appears as if everything has been waiting for Enoch's arrival. Everything is incomplete without him. He is the missing piece. So, God calls Enoch to come and stand before him. *The LORD said to Michael, "Take Enoch, and extract him from the earthly clothing. And anoint him with the delightful oil, and put him into the clothes of glory." And Michael extracted me from my clothes. He anointed me with the delightful oil; and the appearance of that oil is greater than the greatest light, its ointment is like sweet dew, and its fragrance like myrrh; and its' shining is like the sun. And I gazed at all of myself, and I had become like one of the glorious ones, and there was no observable difference. And here we learn why there was such expectation in heaven. Enoch was to become an angel. His earthly clothing refers to his human nature. These 'clothes' are taken away and replaced with his 'clothes of glory'. As soon as this happens looking at himself, Enoch realises that "I had become like one of the glorious ones", i.e. the angels. He says "There was no observable difference", in other words, there was no way to tell Enoch apart from the angels who surrounded him. But Enoch isn't a 'stand-around-and-wonder' kind of an angel. He has a job to do. He is to become the transmitter of the mysteries of heaven, of God. He will be the divinely inspired scribe of heaven. The LORD summoned Vereveil, one of his archangels, who was wise, who records all the LORD'S deeds. And the LORD said to Vereveil, "Bring out the books from the storehouses, and give a pen to Enoch and read him the books." And Vereveil hurried and brought me the books mottled with myrrh. And he gave me the pen from his hand. And he was telling me all the deeds of the LORD, the earth and the sea, and all the elements and the courses and the life, and the changes of the years and the movements of the days, and the earthly commands and instructions, and the sweet-voiced singing and the coming of the clouds and the blowing of the winds, and the Hebrew language, every kind of language of the new song of the armed troops, and everything that it is appropriate to learn. And Vereveil instructed me for 30 days and 30 nights, and his mouth never stopped speaking. And, as for me, I did not rest for 30 days and 30 nights, writing all the symbols. And when I had finished, Vereveil said to me, "You sit down; write everything that I have explained to you." And I sat down for a second period of 30 days and 30 nights, and I wrote accurately. And I expounded 300 and 60 books. So this is the reason Enoch is elevated to the ranks of the angels - he is to be the heavenly scribe, the one who records all the deeds of God. So, for 30 days the angel Vereveil instructs Enoch in all the mysteries of heaven, after which Enoch writes down everything he has learned. TransformationSo, in the Book of the Watchers, Enoch ends up as a priest in the heavenly temple. In 2 Enoch, Enoch ends up becoming an angel, indeed the 'top angel' seated at the right hand of God. At first sight it might see that the two books are offering very different 'outcomes' for Enoch, but I think there is more agreement than it appears. The angels in both books are the true priesthood, the intermediaries between God and creation. For Enoch to become 'top angel' in 2 Enoch is only really another way of saying that he is installed as the true High Priest, which is exactly the same point made by the Book of Watchers. The main difference is that in the Book of Watchers the implication is that Enoch remains a human being whereas in 2 Enoch he clearly becomes something different. It is his human nature, not just his clothes, that is stripped away, and replaced by something more glorious. Since angels were regarded as semi-divine, so too we must imagine that Enoch now shares in the divine glory. Finally, Enoch is called to sit beside the Almighty. Enoch takes pride of place at 'God's right hand', sitting closer even than the 'top' angel, Gabriel. And the Lord called me; and he placed me to the left of himself closer than Gabriel. And I did obeisance to the LORD. And the LORD spoke to me: "Whatever you see, Enoch, things standing still and moving about and which were brought to perfection by me, I myself will explain it to you. Now, things get even better. God himself will explain to Enoch everything He has done! Putting it all in contextSo, what does all this speculation on heaven (or the heavens), the workings of the universe and the appearance of God actually mean? Well the first thing to say is that I am in absolutely no doubt that these are primarily literary creations originating in groups which distanced themselves from the mainstream of Jewish religious life. These are not visions of heaven that actually took place (although we can never know to what extent such visions were informed by ecstatic mystical experiences). Clearly there was a great deal of speculation about heaven, about God's throne, about the appearance and size of God, about heavenly mysteries, and about those who were special enough to be designated as the receivers of such wisdom and wonder. So, I write about them not because I think that they can actually tell us what heaven is like (anymore than can the visions of heaven in the bible) but because they help us to understand how religious people of the period of the Jerusalem Temple were imagining God's home to be. For me, what comes out of this picture most strongly is the 'taming' of heaven. In the Book of the Watchers, heaven is wholly 'other'. It is a place of fire and ice (simultaneously). It is an impossible place. It belongs to another realm completely. Heaven is not fit for human habitation. The home of God can never be the home of people. But here in 2 Enoch heaven is safer. Some of the levels of heaven are merely functional, the places where the sun and the moon depart and arrive through their gates, the places where the planetary bodies make their progression, the space where the remaining Watchers stand silently and weep for their lost brethren, and of course the 'committee room' near the top. This place does not seem alien, this heaven does seem somehow familiar. It is not really a surprise then to find paradise located here and to imagine human beings living here, close to God, in a place where God will meet them when he comes to 'walk in his garden'. In other words while The Book of the Watchers describes (or attempts to describe) heaven in terms which correspond to the biblical pictures, as a place inaccessible to mankind, 2 Enoch makes heaven into something else, something more domestic. The vision of God is still dramatic, but God seems less daunting, less overwhelming. And here I think we can see an indication of how, increasingly, people were imagining heaven as a place to which they could ascend, either in mystical experience or through the hope of a heavenly destiny in the future. 2 Enoch is a book which shows that people were beginning to imagine heaven not as the exclusive habitation of God and the source of divine and natural blessings, but rather as their eventual 'home'. Works like 2 Enoch were to have a dramatic influence on the shape of 'heavenly' speculation. You might also be interested in . . .
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April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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