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

200 The Book of Enoch [Sect. IV
sheplierds; and cast those sheep to them that they might pasture
them, and He spake to the shepherds and their companions :
" Let each individual of you pasture the sheep henceforward, and
Beventy shepherds. This is the most
vexed question in Enoch. The earliest
interpreters toolc the first thirty-seven
shepherds to mean the native kings
of Israel and Judah. It was Ewald's
merit to point out that this was it
conception impossible for a Jew, and
that the seventy shepherds must
represent so many heathen oppressors
of Israel. This interpretation has
undergone many forms, but all alike
have proved unsatisfactory ; cf. Geb-
hardt's 'Die 70 Hirten des Buches
Henoch u. ihre Deutungen ' in Merx's
ArcMv f. Wissenschaftl. Erforschunff,
1871, pp. 163-246. To Hoffmann,
Schrifibeweis, i. 422, is due the credit
of giving the only possible and satis-
factory explanation. This explanation,
which has been accepted by Schiirer,
Drummoud, Wieseler, Schodde, Thom-
son, and Deane, interprets the shep-
herds as angels and not as men ; and
that his interpretation is the true one
there is no further room for doubt.
For (1) the seventy shepherds exist
contemporaneously, and are summoned
together before the Lord of the sheep
to receive their commission, 89"°. This
could not be said of either native or
Gentile rulers. (2) The shepherds are
appointed to protect the sheep, 89'^,
and to allow only a limited portion of
them to be destroyed by the Gentiles.
This could not be said of heathen
rulers. (3) Jews and Gentiles and
their kings also are alike symbolized
by animals. Hence the .shepherds
cannot symbolize men. If not men,
they are angels. (4) In the earlier
history God was the true shepherd
of Israel, but on its apostasy He
withdrew from it and committed its
pasturing to seventy of His angels.
With the growing transcendence of
God, His place was naturally taken by
angels. (5) The angel who records
the doings of the seventy shepherds
is simply named 'another', 89'^, in
connexion with them, and so naturally
belongs to the same category. (6) In
the last judgement they are classed
with the fallen angels, QO^^-^B. (7) God
speaks directly to the shepherds and
not through the medium of angels as
elsewhere in the book. The idea of
the seventy shepherds is used by the
author to explain some pressing diffi-
culties in Israel's history. So long
as God was the immediate shepherd
of Israel, it was not possible for such
cidamities to befall it as it experienced
from the Captivity onwards. Israel,
therefore, during the latter period was
not shepherded by God but by angels
commissioned by Him. But again,
though God rightly forsook Israel and
committed it to the care of angels,
though, further, Israel was rightly
punished for its sins, jet the author
and the Jews generally believed that
they were punished with undue severity,
indeed, twofold more grievously than
they deserved (Is. 40^^). How was
this to be accounted for !
The answer
was not far to seek. It was owing to
the faithlessness with which the angels
discharged their trust. Had they only
fulfilled their commission, the Gentiles
could not have made havoc of Israel
and apostate Jews only could have
been cut off. There may be some
distant connexion between the seventy
angels here and the seventy guardian
angels of the Gentile nations ; cf.
Weber, 170 sq. The theory of the