The book of Enoch : translated from Professor Dillmann's Ethiopic ...

132 The Book of Enoch. [Sect. 11.
before Him, and His whole host which is in heaven above
one's name written in the book of life
implied the privilege of participating
in the temporal blessings of the Theo-
cracy, Is. iv. 3, while to be blotted
out of this book, Exod. xxxii. 32 ;
Ps.
lxix. 28, meant exclusion therefrom.
In the 0. T. this expression was
originally confined to temporal bless-
ings only, but in Dan. xii. 1 it is
transformed through the influence of
the new conception of the kingdom,
and distinctly refers to an immortality
of blessedness. It has the same mean-
ing in our text. A further reference
to it is to be found in civ. 1. The
phrase again appears in the Book of
Jubilees xxx in contrast with
' the
book of those that shall be destroyed,'
but in the O.T. sense. The 'Books
of the Saints' in cviii. 3 (ciii. 2 ?) has
practically the same meaning. In the
N.T. the phrase is of frequent occur-
rence, Phil. iv. 3 ; Rev. iii. 5 ; xiii. 8 ;
xvii. 8 ; xx. 12, 15 ; xxi. 27 ; xxii. 19,
and the idea in Luke x. 20 ; Heb. xii.
23 'written in heaven.' For later
instances of its use see Pastor Her-
mae, Vis. i. 3, 2 (see Harnack in loc.)
Sim. ii. 9 ; Mand. viii. 6 ; 1 Clem. xlv.
8. There is no idea of absolute pre-
destination involved in this conception.
The same thought, i. e. the inscription
of the name in the book of life, under-
lies the words 'the memorial of the
righteous will be before the face of
the Great One unto all generations,'
ciii. 4. Contrast Pss. Sol. xiii. 10,
' the memorial of the wicked shall no
more be found.' (2) Books of remem-
brance of good and evil deeds. For
those wherein good deeds were re-
corded, see Ps. lvi. 8 ; Mai. iii. 16
Book of Jubilees xxx ;
wherein evil
deeds were recorded, Is. lxv. 6 ; En.
lxxxi. ; 4 lxxxix. 61-64, 68, 70, 71,
76, 77; xc.17, 20; xcviii. 7, 8; civ. 7;
Apoc. Bar. xxiv. 1 ; wherein good and
evil deeds were recorded, Dan. vii. 10
Rev. xx. 12 ; Asc. Is. ix. 20. (3) The
heavenly tables = irKa/ccs rod ovpavov
in Test. xii. Patriarch. The concep-
tion underlying this phrase is to be
traced partly to Ps. cxxxix. 16 ;
Exod.
xxv. 9, 40 ; xxvi. 30, where we find
the idea that there exist in heaven
divine archetypes of certain things on
earth : partly to Dan. x. 21, where a
book of God's plans is referred to:
but most of all to the growing deter-
minism of thought, for which this
phrase stands as a concrete expression.
In Apocryphal 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 xi. 20 ; iv Ezra iv. 36, 37. The
conception is not a hard and fixed one
in Enoch and Test. xii. Patriarch, it
wavers between an absolute determin-
ism and prediction pure and simple
whereas in Jubilees, in addition to
these significations it implies at times
little more than a contemporary
heavenly record of events. In Enoch
the idea is mainly predestinarian, the
' heavenly tables ' record all the deeds
of men to the remotest generations,
lxxxi. 1,2; and the entire history of
the earth, xciii. 1-3; and all the
unrighteousness that will arise, cvi.
19; cvii. 1 ; as well as all the bless-
ings in store for the righteous, ciii. 2,
3. They are likewise called the Book
of the Angels, ciii. 2 ; for they are
designed also for the perusal of the
angels, cviii. 7, that they may know
the future recompenses of the righteous
and the wicked. In Test. xii. Patriarch.
Levi 5 ;
Aser 7, the idea is predictive;
in Aser 2 it concerns a question of
Levitical law. In Jubilees the use