Book of Enoch 2: About the great secrets of God



24 |About the great secrets of God, which God revealed and related to Enoch; and he spoke with him face to face. Word “23.”|

 

And the Lord called me; and he said to me, “Enoch, sit to the left of me with Gabriel.” And I did obeisance to the LORD.

And the LORD spoke to me: “Enoch |Beloved|, whatever you see and whatever things are standing still or moving about were brought to perfection by me. And I myself will explain it to you.

 

Before anything existed at all, from the very beginning, whatever exists I created from the non-existent, and from the invisible the visible.

|Listen, Enoch, and pay attention to these words of mine!| For not even to my angels have I explained my secrets, nor related to them their origin, nor my endlessness and inconceivableness, as I devise the creatures,

as I am making them known to you today. •For, before any visible things had come into existence,

            I, the ONE, moved around in the invisible things, like the sun,

                                                from east to west and from west to east.

But the sun has rest in himself; yet I did not find rest, because everything was not yet created. And I thought up the idea of establishing a foundation, to create a visible creation.

 

25 |God explains to Enoch how the visible and the invisible come down from the very lowest darkness. Word “24.”|

 

“And I commanded the lowest things: ‘Let one of the invisible things descend visibly!’ And Adoil descended, extremely large. And I looked at him, and, behold, in his belly he had a great light. •And I said to him, ‘Disintegrate yourself, Adoil, and let what is born from you become visible.’ And he disintegrated himself, and there came out a very

great light. •And I was in the midst of the |great| light. And light out of light is carried thus. And the great age came out, and it revealed all the creation which I had thought up to create. And I saw how good it was.

And I placed for myself a throne, and I sat down on it. And then to the light I spoke: ‘You go up higher than the throne, and be solidified |much higher than the throne|, and become the foundation for the highest things.

And there is nothing higher than the light, except nothing itself. And again I bowed(?) myself, and I looked upward from my throne.

 

26 |God summons from the very lowest things a second time, so that Arkhas, both heavy and red, should come out. Word “25.”|

 

And I called out a second time into the very lowest things, and I said, ‘Let one of the (in)visible things come out visibly, solid.’

|And| Arkhas came out, solid and heavy and very red. •And I said, ‘Open yourself up, Arkhas, and let what is born from you become visible!’ And he disintegrated himself. There came out an age, dark, very large, carrying the creation of all lower things. And I saw how good it was.

And I said to him, ‘Come down low and become solid! And become the foundation of the lowest things!’ |And it came about.| And he came down and became solid. And he became the foundation of the lowest things. And there is nothing lower than the darkness, except nothing itself.

 

27. |About how God founded the water, and surrounded it with light, and established on it seven islands. Word “26.”|

 

“And I gave the command: ‘Let there be taken some of the light and

some of the darkness.’ •And I said, ‘Become thickened, and be wrapped around with light!’ And I spread it out, and it became water. And I

spread it out above the darkness, below the light. •And thus I made the solid waters, that is to say, the Bottomless. And I made a foundation of light around the water. And I created seven great circles inside it, and I gave them an appearance of crystal, wet and dry, that is to say glass and ice, and to be the circuit for water and the other elements. And I pointed out to each one |of them| his route, to the seven stars, each one of them in his own heaven, so that they might travel accordingly.

And I saw how good it was. •And I made a division between the light and between the darkness, that is to say, in the middle of the waters, this way and that way. And I said to the light that it should be day, and to the darkness I commanded that it should be night. And evening came, and again morning came, that is the first day.

 

28 |The week in which God showed Enoch all his wisdom and strength, throughout all of the seven days; how he created all the forces of heaven and earth, and every kind of thing that moves itself, even up to man.|

 

“And thus I made solid the heavenly circles. And I said, ‘Let the lower water, which is below heaven, collect itself |into| one collection, and let its waves become dry.’ And it happened like that.

And from the waves I created rocks, solid and big. And from the rocks I assembled the dry land; and I called the dry land Earth.

And what was in the middle of the earth I called chasm, that is to

Say, Bottomless. •The sea I gathered into one place, and I bound it with a yoke. And I said to the sea: ‘Behold, I give you an eternal boundary. And you will not break through from your own waters.’ And so I fixed the solid structure and established it above the waters.

This first-created day I named for myself. Then evening came and |again| morning, and it was the second day.

 

29 |Monday is the day. The fiery substance.|

 

“And for all my own heavens I shaped a shape from the fiery substance. My eye looked at the solid and very hard rock. And from the flash of my eye I took the |marvelous| substance of lightning, both fire

in water and water in fire; •neither does this one extinguish that one, nor does that one dry out this one. That is why lightning is sharper and brighter than the shining of the sun, and softer than water, more solid than the hardest rock.

And from the rock I cut off a great fire, and from the fire I created the ranks of the bodiless armies – the myriad angels – and their weapons are fiery and their clothes are burning flames. And I gave orders that each should stand in his own rank.

 

|Here Satanail was hurled from the hight, together with his angels.|

But one from the order of the archangels deviated, together with the division that was under his authority. He thought up the impossible idea, that he might place his throne higher than the clouds which are above the earth, and that he might become equal to my power.

And I hurled him out from the height, together with his angels. And he was flying around in the air, ceaselessly above the Bottomless.

And thus I created the entire heavens. And the third day came.

 

30 |Tuesday|

 

“And on the third day I commanded the earth to make trees grow, large and fruit-bearing; and the mountains – all kinds of sweet grass and all kinds of sown seed. And I laid out paradise as a garden, and I enclosed it; and I placed armed guards, angels aflame with fire. And thus I created the renewal of the earth.

And then evening came and morning came – the fourth day.

 

            |Wednesday|

 

And on the fourth day I commanded: ‘Let there be great lamps on the heavenly circles.’

 

On the first, the highest circle, I placed the star Kronos;

on the 2ndlower down,   I placed          Afridit;

on the 3rd                                                   Arris;

on the 4th                                                   the sun;

on the fifth                                                            Zeous;

on the 6th                                                   Ermis;

and on the 7th, the lowest,                                the moon.

 

And with the lowest stars I beautified the air below.

And I appointed the sun over the illumination of the day, but the

moon and stars over the illumination of the night. •And the sun goes in accordance with each animal, and the twelve animals are the succession of the months. And I assigned their names and the animals of their seasons, and their connection with the newborn, and their horoscopes, and how they revolve. •Then evening came and morning came – the fifth day.

 

            |Thursday|

 

And on the 5th day I commanded the sea to engender fishes and feathered birds of many different kinds, and every kind of reptile that creeps on the earth and that walks on the earth of four legs and that flies through the air – male sex and female – and every kind of soul that breathes

the breath of all living things. •And evening came and morning came – the sixth day.

 

 

|Friday|

 

And on the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man out of the seven components:

 

|1|                     his flesh from earth;

|second|           his blood from and from the sun;

|third|               his eyes from the bottomless sea;

|fourth|             his bones from stone;

|fifth|               his reason from the mobility of angels and from clouds;

|sixth|               his veins and hair from grass of the earth;

|seventh|          his spirit from my spirit and from wind.

 

And I gave him 7 properties:

 

hearing                        to the flesh;

sight                to the eyes;

smell                to the spirit;

touch               to the veins;

taste                 to the blood;

to the bones–   endurance ;

to the reason– sweetness.

 

Behold, I have thought up an ingenious poem to recite:

 

From invisible and visible substances I created man.

From both his natures come both death and life.

And (as my) image he knows the word like (no) other creature.

But even at his greatest he is small,

and again at his smallest he is great.

 

And on the earth I assigned him to be a second angel, honored and

great and glorious. •And I assigned him to be a king, to reign |on| the earth, |and| to have my wisdom. And there was nothing comparable to

him on earth, even among my creatures that exist. •And I assigned to him a name fromm the four components:

 

            from East        – (A)

            from West       – (D)

            from North      – (A)                |South| – (M)

            from South      – (M)               |North| – (A).

 

And I assigned to him four special stars, and called his name Adam.

And I gave him his free will; and I pointed out to him the two ways – light and darkness. And I said to him, ‘This is good for you, but that is bad’; so that I might come to know whether he has love toward me or abhorrence, and so that it might become plain who among his race loves me.

Whereas I have come to know his nature, he does not know his own nature. That is why ignorance is more lamentable than the sin such as it is in him to sin. And I said, ‘After sin there is nothing for it but death.’

And I assigned a shade for him; and I imposed sleep upon him, and he fell asleep. And while he was sleeping, I took from him a rib. And I created for him a wife, so that death might come |to him| by his wife.

And I took his last word, and I called her name Mother, that is to say, Euva.

 

31 |God hands over paradise to Adam, and gives him a command to look upon the heavens, open, and that he might look upon the angels, singing the triumphal song. Word “27.”|

 

“Adam – Mother; earthly and life. And I created a garden in Edem, in the east, so that he might keep the agreement and preserve the commandment.

And I created for him an open heaven, so that he might look upon the angels, singing the triumphal song. And the light which is never darkened was perpetually in paradise. •And the devil understood how I wished to create another world, so that everything could be subjected to Adam on the earth, to rule and reign over it. •The devil is of the lowest places. And he will become a demon, because he fled from heaven; Sotona, because his name was Satanail. •In this way he became different from the angels. His nature did not change, but his thought did, since his consciousness of righteous and sinful things changed. •And he became aware of his condemnation and of the sin which he sinned previously. And that is why he thought up the scheme against Adam. In such a form he entered paradise, and corrupted Eve. But Adam he did not contact.

But on account of her nescience I cursed him. But those whom I had blessed previously, them I did not curse; and those whom I had not blessed previously, even them I did not curse – neither mankind I cursed, nor the earth, nor any other creature, but only mankind’s evil fruit-bearing.

This is why the fruit of doing good is sweat and exertion.

 

32 |After Adam’s transgression, God expels him into the earth from which he had been taken. But he does not wish to destroy him in the age to come. Word “28.”|

 

“And I said |to him|, ‘You are earth, and into the earth once again you will go, out of which I took you. And I will not destroy you, but I will send you away to what I took you from. Then I can take you once again at my second coming.’ And I blessed all my creatures, visible and invisible. And Adam was in paradise for 5 hours and a half.

And I blessed the 7th day |which is the sabbath| in which I rested from all my doings.

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