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

ect. Ti] Chapters XLVl S—XLVII. 8 01
And give thanlcs and bless the name of the Lord of Spirits]
On behalf of the blood of the righteous which has been shed^
And that the prayer of the righteous may not be in vain
before the Lord of Spirits,
That judgement may be done unto them,
And that they may not have to suffer for ever.
3. In those days I saw the Head of Days when He seated
himself upon the throne of His glory,
And the books of the living were opened before Him
ones who dwell above in tlie heavens
shall with one voice supplicate and
pray'. 3. Books of the living.
The idea underlying this phrase is to he
traced to the 0. T. (1) There the book
of life (or its equivalents Exod. 32'^ »
21" 22", and the idea in Luke 10
Heb.
12^'* ' written in heaven '. For
later instances of its use see Pastor
Hermae,T'is.i. 3,2 (see Harnack in loc.)\
Sim. ii. 9; Mand. viii. 6; 1 Clem, xlv. 8,
There is no idea of absolute predestination
involved in this conception. The
same thought, i. e. the inscription of the
name in the book of life, underlies the
words 'the memorial of the righteous
shall be before the face of the Great One
unto all the generations of the world ',
103*. Contrast Pss. Sol. IS'" 'the
memorial of the wicked shall no more be
found'. (2) Books of remembrance of
good and evil deeds. For those wherein
good deeds were recorded see Ps. 56*
Mai. 3I8 Book of Jubilees SO^"; wherein
evil deeds were recorded, Is. 65° 1 En.
^\i ggOl-64, 68, 70, 71, 76, 77 9017, 20 9g7, »
104' 2 Bar. 24' ; wherein good and evil
deeds were recorded, Dan. 7'° Eev. 20'^
Asc. Is. 922. (3) The heavenly tablets
= TTK6,Kes lov ovpavov in Test. XTI
Patriarchs. The conception underlying
this phrase is to be traced partly to
Ps. ISg'o Exod. 25'. *" 26"", where we
find the_ idea that there exist in heaven
divine archetypes of certain things on
earth ; partly to Divn. 10"', where n
book of God's plans is referred to, but
most of all to the growing determinism
of thought, for which this phrase stands
as a concrete expression. In Apo-
cryphal literature historical events are
not depicted according to the manifold
variety of life, but are methodically
arranged under artificial categories of
measure, number, weight. Wisdom 11'°
4 Ezra 4*". ''. The conception is not
a hard and fixed one ; in Enoch and
: