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

92 TU Booh of Enoch [Sect. IT
And all His host which is in heaven above and His counsellors
stood before Him,
4. And the hearts of the holy were filled with joy;
Because the number of the righteous had been offered.
And the prayer of the righteous had been heard,
And the blood of the righteous been required before the
Lord of Spirits.
Test. XII Patriarchs it wavers between
an absolute deterininisra and prediction
pure and simple : whereas in Jubilees
in addition to these significations, it im-
plies at times little more than a contem-
porary heavenly record of events. In
Enoch the idea is mainly predestinarian,
the ' heavenly tables ' record all the
deeds of men to the remotest genera-
tions, SI'" ^ ; and the entire history of
the earth, 93^"' ; and all the unright-
eousness that will arise, 106'^ 107^; as
well as all the blessings in store for the
righteous, lOS'^i '. They are likewise
called the Book of the Angels, 103^
for they are designed also for the
perusal of the angels, 108', that they
may know the future recompenses of
the righteous and the wicked. In Test.
XII Patriarchs Levi 5* Asher 7° (/3) the
idea is predictive ;
in Asher 2^" it con-
cerns a question of Levitical law. In
Jubilees the use of the phrase is very
loose, the heavenly tables are the
statute book of the Theocracy, or a
mere contemporary record, or else are
predictive or determinative. The
heavenly tables record (1) Laws Levi-
tical and criminal, in some instances
previously observed in heaven, in
others, established for the first time on
earth : Feast of weeks, 6"-i8 ; Taber-
nacles, leis-ss ; Passover, 49 ;
' the
Festival of the Lord,' IS's-iS; Cere-
monial cleanness, S*"^"" ; Circumcision,
m-'"'; the S.ahbath, SO"-"; tithes, 322.
8, 9, lo-is . marriage of elder daughter.
;
28°; destruction of hira who gives his
daughter to a Gentile, 30' ; of the
murderer, 4* ;
of the incestuous person,
33^" (ordained because of Reuben)
of the seed of Lot, 16»; of the Philis-
tines, 24^'. (2) Merely a contemporary
event : the slaughter of the Sheohem-
ites, SO""!''-; the institution of the
' Festival of the Lord ', 18""" ; the
showing of the Seven Tables to Jacob,
32^2 ; Isaac's blessing of Levi and
Judah, 31'2 ;
' ;
the naming of Abraham,
19^ ; and of Levi, SO^", as friends of
God. (3) Predictions: of the judge-
ment of all creation, 5"; of the Mes-
sianic kingdom, 23'''-'2. of the recording
of the faithful as friends of God
and the transgressors as haters, 30^1-22.
All His host. God as the Jehovah of
Hosts in His manifestations is generally
so accompanied ; of. 1*> ' 60'> * 7l»-is.
According to the Parables it is the
Messiah that judges. 4. The
number of the righteous (m sadir-q).
Other MSS. read ' righteousness
(sSdeq). Been offered. a reads
qarSba = fif^mt = aip, which in
Mishuaic and late Hebrew = ' had
been offered ' as well as ' had drawn
nigh '.
The latter meaning is inappro-
priate ; for the judgement is already
begun. The text means that the num-
ber of the righteous, i. e. the mart^ rs, is
complete. The martyrs were regarded
as offerings to God. Cf. Eev. 6'°. ",
and my note hi loc. For qarf-ba reads
baseha = ' has come '.