the-book-of-enoch-r-h-charles - Fallen Angels

cviii The Booh of Enoch
though the lot of the latter is thus one of contumely and
rebuke and shame, the righteous are not for a moment to
regret their high calling, but to be steadfast and hopeful; for
the day of their glorification is at hand. It is a noble work, yet
falls . . . short of what was noblest in the past. It never reminds
the faithful, as do some of the psalmists, that present life and
communion with God more than outweigh every temporal bless-
ing' (see my Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish, and Christian, p. 212).
On the teaching of 6-36 see pp. 3 sq., 222 ; and on that
of 37-71 see pp. 67 sq.
The Kingdom. On this subject the teaching of our book is most
revolutionary. In 6-36 it presents a picture of the kingdom of
the O.T. prophetic type of a very sensuous character. The Kingdom
of God was to be established on the earth, as it is, though
purified, with Jerusalem as its centre, the righteous were to live
patriarchal lives and have a thousand children each, and God was
to come down and dwell with men.
91-104. A great gulf divides as a whole the eschatology of
this section from 6-36 and that of the O.T. The hope of
an eternal Messianic kingdom on the present earth is now
absolutely and finally abandoned. The hopes of the faithful
were lifted bodily out of their old materialistic environment that
hampered every advance, and were established in a spiritual
region of illimitable horizons, and thus the possibility was
achieved of endless development in every direction. The way
was thus made possible for the rise of Christianity.^
1 The incident recorded in Matt. 2i'^^-^^ Marls 1218"" Luke 20""='* can hardly
be understood apart from Enoch. When the Sadducees said, ' Whose wife shall
she be of them 1 for the seven had her to wife,' they are arguing from the sensuous
conception of the Messianic kingdom—no doubt the popular one— given in 1 Enoch
1-36, according to which its members, including the risen righteous, were to enjoy
every good thing of earth and have each a thousand children. They thought
therefore to place Jesus on the horns of a dilemma, and oblige Him to confess
either that there was no resurrection or else that polygamy or polyandry would
be practised in the coming kingdom. But the dilemma proves invalid : and the
conception of the future life portrayed in our Lord's reply tallies almost exactly in
thought and partially in word with that described in 91-104, according to which
there is to be a resurrection indeed, but a resurrection of the spirit, and the risen