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

1 68 The Book of Enoch. [Sect. II.
respite wherein to confess our faith that our Lord is true in
all His works and in His judgments and His righteousness,
and His judgments have no respect of persons. 9. And we
shall pass away from before His face on account of our
works, and all our sins are reckoned up in righteousness/
10. Now they will say to them :
' Our souls are satisfied with
the mammon of unrighteousness, but this does not prevent
us from descending into the flame of the pain of Sheol/
works.' 8. In His judgments. So GM. Din. 'in all His
judgments.' 10. Into the flame. So all MSS. but G, which
ance when the final judgment has
come. 10. Riches avail not to
their salvation : cf. lii. 7 ; liii • Ps.
xlix. 7-12. Mammon of unright-
eousness : cf. Luke xvi. 9, 11; Ecclus.
v. 8. Sheol. This word has borne
different meanings at different periods
and also different meanings during
the same period, owing to the co-
existence of different stages in the
development of thought. As these
different meanings are to be found
in Enoch, a short history of the con-
ception will be the best means of
explanation. (1) Sheol in the O.T.
is the place appointed for all living,
Job xxx. 23: from its grasp there is
never any possibility of escape, Job
vii. 9. It is situated beneath the
earth, Num. xvi. 30 : it is the land of
darkness and confusion, Job x. 21,
22 : of destruction, forgetfulness, and
silence, Pss. lxxxviii. 12; xciv. 17;
cxv. 17. Nevertheless the identity
of the individual is in some measure
preserved, Is. xiv. 10; Ezek. xxxii.
21; 1 Sam. xxviii. 15 sqq. : but the
existence is joyless and has no point
of contact with God or human in-
terests, Pss. vi. 5 ; xxx. 9 ; Is. xxxviii.
11, 18. In the conception of Sheol
there is no moral or religious element
involved: no moral distinctions are
observed in it: good and bad fare
alike. But the family, national and
social distinctions of the world above
are still reproduced, and men are
gathered to their fathers or people,
Gen. xxv. 8, ; 9 xxxv. 29 ; Ezek. xxxii.
17-32 : kings are seated on their
thrones even there, Is. xiv. 9, 10;
Ezek. xxxii. 21, 24. Thus the O.T.
Sheol does not differ essentially from
the Homeric Hades, Odyss. xi. 488,
9.
This view of Sheol was the ortho-
dox and prevailing one till the second
century b. c. : cf. Ecclus. xiv. 16 ; xvii.
22, 23; xxx. 17; Bar. iii. 11; Tob.iii.
1 o ; xvii. 2 ; Enoch cii. 1 1 (i. e. where
Sadducees are introduced as speak-
ing). Individual voices indeed had
been raised against it in favour of
a religious conception of Sheol, and
finally through their advocacy this
higher conception gradually won its
way into acceptance. (2) This second
and higher conception of Sheol was the
product of the same religious thought
that gave birth to the doctrine of the
Resurrection—the thought that found
the answer to its difficulties by carry-
ing the idea of retribution into the
life beyond the grave. The old con-
ception thus underwent a double
change. Firstly, it became essentially
a place where men were treated ac-