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

46 Tlie Book of Enoch [Sect. I
SJieol or the Underworld.
XXII. 1. And thence I went to another place, and he showed
me in the west ''another'' great and high mountain [and] of
hard rock.
E G8
2. And there was in it t four f 2. And there were ffourf
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XXII. This chapter contains a very
detailed description of Sheol or Hades.
According to this writer Sheol is
situated in the far webt according to
Babylonian {K.A.T? 636), Greek, and
Egyptian ideas, and in this respect the
writer runs counter to the views of the
Hebrews who placed Sheol in the under-
world. In all the other sections of the
book the Hebrew conception prevails.
This is the most ancient account of the
doctrine of Sheol from the Pharisaic
or Chasid standpoint, but clearly this
doctrine cannot have leaped into life
fuUgrown as it appears here, but must
already have passed through several
stages of development. Hades is no
longer here, as in the 0. T., a place
mainly of a semi-conscious state of exis-
tence where the only distinctions that
prevailed were social and not moral
but has already become essentially a
place of conscious existence, where
everything is determined by moral dis-
tinctions and moral distinctions alone.
See 63^° for the history of this doctrine,
and my Eschatology, pp. 426-7, for an
enumeration of the various stages of
development through which this conception
passed. So far as we may
infer from 1-36, the doctrine of this
chapter must be limited to Israelites
and their progenitors from Adam, just
as only Israelites are taken account of
in Dan. 12. 1. [And.] Bracketed
as an intrusion in E. Not in G^.
2. fFourf . There are four divisions,
according to the text of tliis verse, in
;
Hades ;
two for the righteous, vv. 5-9,
and two for the wicked, vv. 10-13.
But I cannot help regarding the text
as here corrupt. In 22'"' in G^ Enoch
asks the angel about all the hollow
places, and the angel replies ;
' These
three,' &c. In E, however, owing to
the mention of four places in 22", the
scribe was conscious of a contradiction
in the text, and accordingly added
' regarding it and ' before the words
' regarding all the hollow places '. This
addition referred presumably to the
fourth place of which there is no descrip-
tion in the text. If we examine the chap-
ter further, our conviction as to the
corruption of the numbers of the places
grows in strength. In 22'"^ Enoch
asks and is told the object of Sheol.
In 22'-'" he asks and is told the
object of the separation of the three
chambers in Sheol. What follows
is a detailed account of these chambers
the first for the righteous, 22"^, the
second for sinners who have not met
with retribution in this life, 22^"-'', and
the third for those who have, 22^""^'.
All this is clear and consecutive. But
the writer wished to introduce into this
passage the idea, which is in some form
common to all the sections of the book,
that the souls of the righteous, who
had fallen at the hands of sinners,
claimed retribution in the spirit-world.
Hence, after asking the object of Sheol,
he turns aside for a moment to deal
with the martyred righteous, and with
a graphic touch draws tlie attention of
the angel to a spirit that was demand-
ing the vengeance of heaven on him
: