The Book of Enoch and the Bible

Here are some words/phrases that are similar in both the Book of Enoch and the Bible. See here for more.

Enoch 5:7
But for the elect there shall be light and joy and peace, And they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Enoch 14:3
As He has created and given to man the power of understanding the word of wisdom, so hath He created me also and given me the power of reprimanding the Watchers, the children of heaven.

1 Corinthians 12:8
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

Enoch 14:9
And I went in till I drew nigh to a wall which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire: and it began to affright me. And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals: and the walls of the house were like a tesselated floor (made) of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal.

Acts 2:3
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Enoch 14:15
And as I quaked and trembled, I fell upon my face. 15. And I beheld a vision, And lo! there was a second house, greater than the former,

Haggai 2:9
The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."

Enoch 15:4
And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish.

Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Enoch 17:3
And I saw the places of the luminaries and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder and in the uttermost depths, where were a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightnings.

Ephesians 6:16
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Enoch 41:2
And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy, and mine eyes saw there all the sinners being driven from thence which deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, and being dragged off: and they could not abide because of the punishment which proceeds from the Lord of Spirits.

John 14:2
In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

Multi-Dimensional Scripture Part 2

I previously wrote a post on Multi-Dimensional Scripture and thought I would update my thoughts with a part 2.

Scripture is Multi-Dimensional. It may have more than one meaning. It may be literal AND symbolic. It may have predicted past events AND future events. It may have applied to Israel AND the Church. I was pleased to find the Bill Johnson agrees with this in his book “Dreaming with God”.

“The Word of God is living and active. It contains divine energy, always moving and accomplishing His purposes. It is the surgeon's knife that cuts in order to heal. It is balm that brings comfort and healing. But the point I wish to stress is that it is multidimensional and unfolding in nature. For example, when Isaiah spoke a word, it applied to the people he spoke to - his contemporaries. Yet because it is alive, much of what he said then has its ultimate fulfillment in another day and time. Living words do that.”

We must take this multi-dimensionality into account when interpreting Scripture. I believe there are three main methods of interpretation which I refer to as: Prophetic, Personal and Contextual.

Prophetic Interpretation

There are actually two levels of prophetic interpretation: Basic and Hidden. For example:

Isaiah 7:14-16
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.

When this was written, two kings were plotting to destroy Jerusalem during the days of the prophet Isaiah but God said that by the time a virgin becomes married, has a son, and that son knows right and wrong, those two kings would be destroyed. That is the Basic Level. The Hidden Level is a reference to the Virgin Mary and the birth of Christ.

Again:

Hosea 11:1
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

At the Basic Level, "out of Egypt" refers to Israel's exodus out of Egypt, but at the hidden level it refers to when Jesus returned from Egypt to Galilee.

And again:

Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

To this day Jewish Rabbis argue that the “servant” in Isaiah 53 refers to the nation of Israel and not Jesus. I happen to agree with the Jewish Rabbis that it does refer to the nation of Israel – at the Basic Level. But at the Hidden Level, it is a reference to Jesus Christ.

As you can see, the Hidden Level may seem obvious when dealing with many Old Testament Scriptures but it was not that way when originally written. Furthermore, there may be meanings still undiscovered, especially in the New Testament. Biblical scholars tend to shy away from this type of interpretation because there is no real way to verify it if there are no other Scriptures that confirm it. However, the Hidden Level is a prominent characteristic of prophetic writings and is a feature of sacred texts. It is important to note that not just Scripture of the prophetic genre (such as Daniel and Revelation) can have hidden meanings but that all of Scripture has the potential to have a Hidden Level.

Personal Interpretation

Let’s say you’re a woman and you are having a hard time deciding whether to get your hair cut or let it grow out long (a common dilemma with my wife). And let’s say you take it to the Lord in prayer. Then, in your daily Scripture reading, you come to this verse:

1 Corinthians 11:15
“But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.”

And when you read this, the Holy Spirit speaks through it and applies it to your situation and you have assurance to grow your hair long. Now, obviously, you would not be taking into account the cultural or historic context of this verse but are using it out of context for your specific situation. It would not mean it is morally wrong to cut your hair but that it was simply used to encourage you to grow it longer. It does not apply to anyone else but only to you personally. The Holy Spirit could have spoken to you the same way through a billboard or a television commercial but He instead chose that verse. I would not advise making major life decisions using such Biblical interpretation, at least, not without further confirmation from the Lord.

Contextual Interpretation

The final method of interpretation is contextual interpretation and it will be the main method of interpretation used in this book. It takes a look at the context of when, where, and why it was written. It looks at historical context as well as cultural context. It looks at how it fits in with the surrounding text within the book of the Bible it was written as well as the Bible in its entirety. The theologian F.F. Bruce once said that reading the letters of Paul is like hearing one side of a telephone conversation. We need to reconstruct “the other side.” It’s important to realize that the words used in the New Testament are not abstract or flowery rhetoric but every sentence is tied into the “story”.

The Tower of Babel: How Tall Was It?

And was it about going up to God or bringing God down?

The Bible doesn't tell us how tall the tower was but two other ancient writings mention it.  In the Book of Jubilees, it says it was 5433 cubits and 2 palms. There are different types of cubits that vary slightly but if we assume the Babylonian long cubit (19.8 in), that would put the tower at about 8,964 feet (if I did my math right). That's over a mile and a half high! For comparison, the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) is 1,729 feet. 3 Baruch(c 2nd century) puts is at a much smaller 463 cubits (roughly 763 feet).

Most assume the purpose of the tower was to go up to God but ancient history suggests a different answer. John H. Walton writes:

At the top of the ziggurat was the gate of the gods, the entrance into their heavenly abode. At the bottom was the temple, where hopefully the god would descend to receive the gifts and worship of his people. A similar mentality can be seen among the people of the American West, who picked up their towns and moved them into proximity with the newly laid railroad tracks, then erected a train station so that the train would stop there and bring economic benefits.

In summary, the project is a temple complex featuring a ziggurat, which was designed to make it convenient for the god to come down to his temple, receive their worship, and bless his people. The key for this passage is to realize that the tower was not built so that people could ascend to heaven, but so that deity could descend to earth.

and again:

Such background information may help give us alternatives for understanding the offense of the tower, for the building of it assumes certain concepts of God—that he wants to be provided a means for coming down into a temple to be worshiped. Likely the worship would also have had certain pagan elements to it (e.g., worship by providing for the deity’s needs—a common ancient concept). More than anything else, it is an attempt by the people to procure God’s presence in their midst—a benefit that had been lost when Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Ephesians and Ages

A New Post on My Ephesians Revealed Blog

An "age" is a long period of time. It can be of varying lengths of time and there are various ages referred to in Biblical and ancient near east writings. However, the context of the New Testament suggests that New Testament writers are concerned primarily with two ages: The present age and the age to come.

Read the rest here.

Supernatural Childbirth

Last time I wrote about the curse that was directed at Eve in Genesis. This time, I just wanted to briefly mention this book that I read. It's called "Supernatural Childbirth" by Jackie Mize. The premise of the book is that Jesus revoked any curse when He died on the cross - that includes childbirth pains - and we need to put our faith in action to experience deliverance from the curse.

It's an interesting read and I personally know two women who experienced quick and painless deliveries after reading this book - although it hasn't worked for everyone that I know that has read the book.

Did God Cause Labor Pains When He Cursed Eve in Genesis?

John H. Walton offers an interesting explanation

Last time, I posted about God's curse directed at Adam. This time, we'll look at the one directed towards Eve.

Here is the Scripture in question:

Genesis 3:16a
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children."

In "Pain in Childbearing", John H. Walton writes about the noun translated “pains” [in childbearing] used in that verse:

What is important to note about this profile is that the root is not typically used to target physical pain, but mental or psychological anguish (though physical pain may accompany or be the root cause of the anguish). This is actually quite helpful, because despite NIV’s translation, “childbearing”, the Hebrew word in this first line is specifically concerned with conception, not with giving birth. Interpreters have understandably had trouble working out how conception is painful.

In ancient cultures, the ability to get pregnant was a major status issue. The anxiety about conception fits thematically well with the rest of Genesis. The stories of Sarah and Rachel deal with their inability to get pregnant. As I explained in my post on Adam, this all has to do with countering the idea that God was not a god of fertility. The author of Genesis shows that God can open wombs even at Sarah's age.

Looking at the larger picture of Genesis 3, we see that Adam and Eve violated God's law in the Garden of Eden - a place of great fertility. He then curses in a way that effects Adam and Eve regarding fertility: The land for Adam and the womb or Eve.

John H. Walton suggests a different translation of the verse:

The resulting paraphrase would be “I will greatly increase the anguish you will experience in the birth process, from the anxiety surrounding conception to the strenuous work of giving birth.” This cannot be viewed as an imposition of labor pains.

Regardless, the existence of labor pains still effects women today... but does it have to? I'll briefly write about that in my next post.

Did God Make Man's Work More Difficult When He Cursed Adam in Genesis?

Kind of, but that curse is later revoked in Genesis

Here is the Scripture in question:

Genesis 3:17-19
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

I was thinking about this after reading Creation Groans; But Why? (RJS) over at Jesus Creed. That post assumes (as do most Christians I think) that the curse leveled against Adam is a curse against all work for all men. So when men encounter a difficult job, they point to Genesis and say "You see, my work is cursed".

However, there are a few things to consider. God curses the ground, not the work specifically. The context of Genesis suggests that God does this by not providing water for the ground. There may even be a clever word play in Genesis 3. When God says, "By the sweat of your brow", He may be saying that the sweat will be the only water supply that the ground will get. In other words, when God curses the ground, it's referring to a drought.

Old Testament writer's often wrote to counter the idea that God was a great God of war but that the Israelites needed another god for fertility (Read about one instance here). Genesis may be countering that same idea. By creating the flood that occurs in Genesis, the author shows that God has full control over the water supply and that no other gods of fertility should be worshiped.

Lastly, in Genesis 8, we see God revoke the curse he spoke in Genesis 3. After the flood occurs, we read this:

Genesis 8:21
The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

So, the Genesis 3 curse is a temporary curse that only applied to the land and should not be taken as a curse on all of the jobs or vocations of men.

In my next post, I'll take a look at the curse directed at Eve in Genesis.

LOST Meets Love Wins

The controversial author Rob Bell is teaming up with LOST writer Carlton Cuse

The two great communicators will be working together on, not one, but two projects. One is a TV show called "Stronger" and the other is some kind of live event that I'm having a hard time finding details on.

Although I'm not a fan of Bell's work, I am a fan of LOST and think it was one of the greatest shows to hit TV in a long time. Regardless of how I feel about Bell, I will admit that he is creative and does know how to connect with people. I think the television show they are working on will most likely be successful.

Read the christianpost.com article

Get Baptized in Style!

"You could actually have it at a church..."

Ummm...I'm not really sure what to say about this:

Missionary Meets Cannibals 50 Years After Telling Them About Jesus

Watch this powerful video!

In 1962, missionary Don Richardson and his family came into contact with a remote tribe in West New Guinea known as the Sawi people. This short 15-minute film from Pioneers documents their return 50 years later.


I find it ironic that we are the ones that seem to be perpetually at war now.

Visit Pioneers.org for more information and check out the film's page on Facebook.

New Testament Allusions to the Book of Enoch

Connected?

I found some similarities between some passages in the Book of Enoch and New Testament Scriptures.  I don't know if any connection is justified (I haven't hand time to look closely at them yet) regarding the passages below but I do believe that the New Testament writers were countering false teachers who were misinterpreting, not only Old Testament Scriptures but non-canonical books as well - such as the Book of Enoch.

Enoch 95:7
Woe to you, sinners, for ye persecute the righteous; For ye shall be delivered up and persecuted because of injustice, And heavy shall its yoke be upon you.

Matthew 11:30
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Enoch 93:13
And who is there of all men that could know what is the breadth and the length of the earth, and to whom has been shown the measure of all of them?

Ephesians 3:18
may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Enoch 101:4
And see ye not the sailors of the ships, how their ships are tossed to and fro by the waves, and are shaken by the winds, and are in sore trouble?

Ephesians 4:14
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Enoch 108:7
For some of them are written and inscribed above in the heaven, in order that the angels may read them and know that which shall befall the sinners, and the spirits of the humble, and of those who have afflicted their bodies, and been recompensed by God; and of those who have been put to shame by wicked men:

1 Peter 1:12
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Enoch 108:11-12
And now I will summon the spirits of the good who belong to the generation of light, and I will transform those who were born in darkness, who in the flesh were not recompensed with such honour as their faithfulness deserved. And I will bring forth in shining light those who have loved My holy name, and I will seat each on the throne of his honour.

1 Thessalonians 5:5
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

There are more but I will post them at a later date.

Finding No Rest in the Arid Places - Part 2

Ravens in the Book of Jubilees

One of the most popular (surprisingly) posts that I've written that brings people to my site, is my first post on "Finding No Rest in the Arid Places". So I thought I'd follow it up with this post that highlights the use of ravens in the extra-Biblical "Book of Jubilees".

I'm not sure if it gives much further insight into Genesis 8:8-10 or Matthew 12:43-45, but it is interesting that it involves ravens that don't find rest and return to where they came from.

Book of Jubilees 11:10-20

And the prince Mastêmâ sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of their labours. Before they could plough in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface of the ground.

And for this reason he called his name Terah because the ravens and the birds reduced them to destitution and devoured their seed.

And the years began to be barren, owing to the birds, and they devoured all the fruit of the trees from the trees: it was only with great effort that they could save a little of all the fruit of the earth in their days.

And in this thirty-ninth jubilee, in the second week in the first year, [1870 A.M.] Terah took to himself a wife, and her name was 'Edna, the daughter of 'Abram, the daughter of his father's sister. And in the seventh year of this week [1876 A.M.] she bare him a son, and he called his name Abram, by the name of the father of his mother; for he had died before his daughter had conceived a son.

And the child began to understand the errors of the earth that all went astray after graven images and after uncleanness, and his father taught him writing, and he was two weeks of years old, [1890 A.M.] and he separated himself from his father, that he might not worship idols with him.

And he began to pray to the Creator of all things that He might save him from the errors of the children of men, and that his portion should not fall into error after uncleanness and vileness.

And the seed time came for the sowing of seed upon the land, and they all went forth together to protect their seed against the ravens, and Abram went forth with those that went, and the child was a lad of fourteen years.

And a cloud of ravens came to devour the seed, and Abram ran to meet them before they settled on the ground, and cried to them before they settled on the ground to devour the seed, and said, ' Descend not: return to the place whence ye came,' and they proceeded to turn back.

And he caused the clouds of ravens to turn back that day seventy times, and of all the ravens throughout all the land where Abram was there settled there not so much as one.

And all who were with him throughout all the land saw him cry out, and all the ravens turn back, and his name became great in all the land of the Chaldees.

Who is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)?

Satan or God?

I came across this paper by Donald E. Hartley, Ph.D. entitled "2 Corinthians 4:4: A Case for Yahweh as the ‘God of this Age.'" I think it's very interesting:

The phrase “the god of this age/world” (2 Cor 4:4), according to most scholars, designates Satan or the devil.1 Appreciation of this near consensus begins with an awareness of the historical development and considering additional evidence marshaled to support it. This paper will address the meaning of the passage as it relates to its context, point out its sapiential background, and link it with Isa 6:9-10. The goal will be to show that Yahweh is the “god of this age” and that “hardening,” mentioned in 2 Cor 3:14, is a non-transformational withholding of salvific wisdom (in regeneration) designed to perpetuate the spiritual blindness mentioned in 2 Cor 4:4.2

You can read the PDF here

The Apostle Paul and Spongebob

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What really was Paul's thorn in the flesh?
 Find out here