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The Teachings of Enoch: Enoch as a Teacher

Book of Moses Essay #14

Moses 6:51–68

With contribution by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Matthew L. Bowen

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Enoch Teaches the Plan of Salvation

In reviewing ancient and modern threads that highlight Enoch’s roles as a missionary, prophet, and visionary, we must not overlook his effectiveness as a teacher. Among the most precious and significant insights he conveyed to the people is the sequence described in Moses 6:60, whereby all people may be “born again into the kingdom of heaven”1:

For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified.

Hugh Nibley described Moses 6:51–68 as an “excerpt from the Book of Adam.”2 Genesis 5:1 mentions “the book of the generations of Adam” as a source document for the material recorded in that chapter. Moses 6:8 characterizes the “book of the generations of Adam” as “a genealogy” that “was kept of the children of God”—i.e., a record of those who had been “born again into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (v. 59) or those who had received the ordinances set forth for that purpose.

Thus, Moses 6:51–68 may have formed part of the “book of remembrance” mentioned in Moses 6:46, a record similar in function to the “book of remembrance” written for those who would become the Lord’s sĕgullâ—his “jewels” or “special possession” (NRSV); or, rather, his specially marked or “sealed” possession—mentioned in Malachi 3:16. Its function as a record of genealogy and ordinances may have been like the “book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation” envisioned by Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 128:2,3 a verse which quotes Malachi 3:2–3. Note that the Holy Spirit of Promise is the “sealer” and the “record of heaven,”4 as further described below.

The setting for Moses 6:51–68 is a sermon by Enoch. A notation in the handwriting of John Whitmer on the OT1 manuscript above Moses 6:52b reads “The Plan of Salvation.”5 The verses that follow were sometimes cited by early leaders of the Church as evidence for the continuity of the plan of salvation from the time of Adam and Eve to our day.6

The Meaning of the Name Enoch

Significantly, Enoch (Henoch or Hanoch, Heb. ḥănôk) sounds identical to the Hebrew passive participle of the verbal root ḥnk, “train up” “dedicate.”7 Thus, for a Hebrew speaker, the name ḥănôk/Enoch would evoke “trained up” or “initiated” — bringing to mind not only the general role of a teacher, but also the idea of someone who was familiar with the temple and could train and initiate others as a hierophant. Before it became the name of the post-Mosaic Feast of Dedication, the Hebrew noun ḥănukkâ had reference to the “consecration” or “dedication” of the temple altar,8 including the sacred dedication of the altar for Solomon’s temple.9

Strengthening the connection of Enoch’s name to the temple, we note that in Egyptian, the ḥnk verbal root denotes to “present s[ome]one” with something, to “offer s[ome]thing” or, without a direct object, to “make an offering.”10 The Egyptian nouns ḥnk and ḥnkt denote “offerings.”11 In other words, it is a cultic term with reference to cultic offerings.

Thus, when we read Moses 6:21: “And Jared taught Enoch in all the ways of God,” we should not take this as merely a general statement that Enoch knew something about religious matters, but specifically that he was familiar with temple rites and what we would today call “the doctrine of Christ.”12 This theme is reiterated in Moses 6:57–58:

Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time. Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children …

This gospel “teaching” is a key theme of Moses 6–7.13

Going further, a form of the verb ḥnk (nearly homonymous with ḥănôk/Enoch) is the key term in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up [ḥănōk] a child in the way [i.e., the temple, the doctrine of Christ] he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Indeed, Lehi appears to recite this very proverb when he says to the children of Laman and Lemuel: “But behold, my sons and my daughters, I cannot go down to my grave save I should leave a blessing upon you; for behold, I know that if ye are brought up [i.e., ḥnk] in the way [i.e., the doctrine of Christ, the temple; cf. 2 Nephi 31–32] ye should go ye will not depart from it.”14

Enoch initially describes himself as an uninitiated “lad” lacking power of speech: “Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?”15 David, early in his career, is similarly described as an ʿelem (“young man,” “youth,” “lad,” pausal ʿālem) in 1 Samuel 17:56 and Jonathan’s servant is described synonymously as both a naʿar (“young man,” “lad”) and an ʿelem in 1 Samuel 20:22. One of the etymological associations suggested for ʿelem is that it “is related to the root of [ʿwlm], “unknowing, uninitiated.”16 In Arabic ʿlm is the primary verb for “to know.” Alma the Elder, whose name derives from ʿelem, is introduced into the Book of Mormon as a “young man” who “believed the words of Abinadi” (Mosiah 17:2)17 and then taught those words18 on his way to becoming the founder of what became the Nephite church and a religious movement. The aforementioned biographical description of Alma harks back to Nephi’s autobiography: “I, Nephi [nfr > nfi =good], having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father … yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God,”; “I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father.”19 Part of Enoch’s transformation into the powerful speaker and teacher par excellence involved moving beyond one who had been “taught in all the ways of God” to one who taught all the ways of God—the doctrine of Christ—and “walked with God,”20 including walking in His ways.

The theme of the doctrine of Christ brings us to the essential role of the saving ordinances, including not only baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost but also the essential ordinances of the temple.21 Hugh Nibley cited the Enoch scholar André Caquot as saying that Enoch is:22

“in the center of a study of matters dealing with initiation in the literature of Israel.”23 Enoch is the great initiate who becomes the great initiator.24 … The Hebrew book of Enoch bore the title of Hekhalot, referring to the various chambers or stages of initiation in the temple.25 Enoch, having reached the final stage, becomes the Metatron to initiate and guide others.26 “I will not say but what Enoch had Temples and officiated therein,” said Brigham Young, “but we have no account of it.”27 Today we do have such accounts.

The Structure of Moses 6:51–68

The scripture passage that summarizes Enoch’s teaching is elegantly laid out. Verses 51–68 form a beautiful formal structure of several parts that is outlined in provisional form in the Appendix. The passage epitomizes the saving ordinances, highlighting the symbolism of water, the Spirit, and the blood of Jesus Christ as the means of sanctification. After a summary description of God’s culminating promise to the sanctified, Adam obediently hearkens to all these commandments and receives the blessings associated with that promise, becoming a son of God.

In verse 51, the Father opens the passage by appealing to His role as the Creator, a theme that is characteristic of the record of Enoch’s ministry. Outside the chapters that describe Creation itself, there appears to be no more significant clustering of verses in scripture referring to the specific theme of God as the author of all things than we have in Moses 6.28 Naturally, the theme of Creation is foundational to the story of the Fall and the Atonement that will be summarized later in the passage. However, in addition, Benjamin McGuire observes that this verse serves “as a motive clause of the sort we might anticipate from an Old Testament text.”29 Since God “has called man and the universe into being, man owes Him obedience and is subject to His commandments,” including the commandments to hearken, to believe, to repent, and to be baptized that are outlined in verse 52.

The passage proper opens in verse 52. The verse is a firsthand statement from God wherein He, as the Maker of the world and of men (see verse 51), summarizes the commandments underlying the plan of salvation one by one — namely, to hearken (A), believe (B), repent (C), and be baptized (D). Then, in verses 53–60, He motivates the first three commandments one by one in reverse order (i.e., D’, C’, B’) within what seems to be a succession of ladder-like rhetorical cascades that culminate in a promise of sanctification through “the blood of [His] Only Begotten.”30

Verse 61 is an explanation of that culminating promise. It must be understood that the sure knowledge provided by the “record of heaven”31 that is promised to Adam and Eve and their posterity in verse 61 is more than the prefatory witness that comes to those who have “receive[d] the Holy Ghost.”32 Rather, as we describe in more detail in other Essays,33 this knowledge is associated with the sealing power.

Verses 62–63 also seem to constitute an explanation, reiterating the central role of Jesus Christ in the plan of salvation and testifying that all things bear record of Him.

Verses 64–65 recount how, in response to God’s explanation of the “plan of salvation,” Adam hearkened (A’) without hesitation to the voice of the Father by obeying the commandments he had just been given (i.e., B, C, D).34 Once having demonstrated his faithfulness in all things, Adam also received the promised “record of heaven”35 described in verse 66 more specifically as the “record of the Father, and the Son” that declared his election sure through “a voice out of heaven.”36 Having had “all things confirmed unto [him] by an holy ordinance,”37 Adam had been “born again into the kingdom of heaven of water, and of the Spirit, and … cleansed by blood,” thus having become a “son of God”38 in the full sense of the term.39

In subsequent Essays we will discuss the title “Son of Man” in the Bible and in 1 Enoch’s Book of Parables. Then we will explore the signification of the Father’s succinct description of the plan of salvation in Moses 6:60 as taught by Enoch, whose name, both in ancient and modern times, is invariably associated with the earthly and heavenly temple:

For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified.

This article is adapted from Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and Matthew L. Bowen. “Truth and Baauty in the Book of Moses.” In Proceedings of the Fourth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 10 November 2018, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. Temple on Mount Zion 5, in preparation. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books.

Further Reading

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 75-85.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and Matthew L. Bowen. “Truth and Beauty in the Book of Moses.” In Proceedings of the Fourth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 10 November 2018, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. Temple on Mount Zion 5, in preparation. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books.

Christofferson, D. Todd. “Born again.” Ensign 38, May 2008, 76-79.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005, pp. 101-106.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986, pp. 144-154.

Nibley, Hugh W. 1986. Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Brigham Young University, 2004, pp. 277-281.

Appendix: A Provisional Proposal for Structuring Moses 6:51–58

We suggest the following provisional proposal for structuring Moses 6:51–58:

1. Motive clause, appealing to God’s role as the Creator to justify His commandments

2. Résumé of the commandments to hearken (A), believe (B), repent (C), and be baptized (D) (vv. 51–52). Then, in reverse order of these commandments:

a. Why one must be baptized (D’, vv. 53–54)

b. Why one must repent in preparation for baptism (C’, vv. 55–57)

c. What one must believe and understand in order to awaken a desire for repentance (B’, vv. 58–60)

d. Explanation of the culminating promise made to the sanctified: They shall receive the “record of heaven,” being thus sealed up to eternal life (v. 61)

3. Explanation of the central role of the Only Begotten:

a. The “plan of salvation” comes through the blood of the Only Begotten (v. 62)

b. All things bear record of the Only Begotten (v. 63)

4. Adam hearkens (A’) to the voice of the Lord by obeying the commandments outlined above (i.e., B, C, D) (vv. 64–66)

5. Adam then receives the promised “record of the Father, and the Son” wherein the Father declares the sonship of Adam.40 The Father then adds: “Thus may all become my sons” (vv. 66–68). In other words, thus may all be made “kings and priests unto God.”41

The structure proposed above is applied to the verses in full below. The text below generally follows the OT1 manuscript as originally dictated, with spelling, grammar, and punctuation modernized. Exceptions and notable differences in subsequent editions are shown in square brackets and described in the endnotes. Italicized text within brackets indicates phrases added to clarify implicit parallels. Different colors indicate different speakers: blue for God, green for Enoch, and black for the narrator. We are grateful to Noel Reynolds for sharing his expertise in structuring scripture, though any resulting faults are ours.

References

Alexander, Philip S. “3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. 2 vols. Vol. 1, 223-315. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1983.

———. “From son of Adam to second God: Transformations of the biblical Enoch.” In Biblical Figures Outside the Bible, edited by Michael E. Stone and Theodore A. Bergren, 87-122. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998.

Andrus, Hyrum L. Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1970.

Bowen, Matthew L. “Alma — Young man, hidden prophet.” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (22 April 2016): 343-53. http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/alma-young-man-hidden-prophet/. (accessed 28 August 2016).

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014. www.templethemes.net.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M. “Faith, hope, and charity: The ‘three principal rounds’ of the ladder of heavenly ascent.” In “To Seek the Law of the Lord”: Essays in Honor of John W. Welch, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson and Daniel C. Peterson, 59-112. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, 2017. www.templethemes.net.

Caquot, André. “Pour une étude de l’initiation dans l’ancien Israel.” In Initiation, edited by C. Bleeker, 119-33. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1965.

Faulkner, Raymond O. 1962. A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. Oxford, England: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1991. https://community.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/Hieroglyphs/Faulkner-A-Concise-Dictionary-of-Middle-Egyptian-1991.pdf. (accessed March 18, 2020).

Faulring, Scott H., Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds. Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.

Faulring, Scott H., and Kent P. Jackson, eds. Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible Electronic Library (JSTEL) CD-ROM. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University. Religious Studies Center, Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2011.

Halivni, David Weis. Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara: The Jewish Predilection for Justified Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.

Jackson, Kent P. The Book of Moses and the Joseph Smith Translation Manuscripts. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 2005. https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/book-moses-and-joseph-smith-translation-manuscripts. (accessed August 26, 2016).

Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, Johann Jakob Stamm, M. E. J. Richardson, G. J. Jongeling-Vos, and L. J. de Regt. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. 4 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1994.

McGuire, Benjamin L. E-mail message to Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, May 15, 2013.

Mopsik, Charles, ed. Le Livre Hébreu d’Hénoch ou Livre des Palais. Les Dix Paroles, ed. Charles Mopsik. Lagrasse, France: Éditions Verdier, 1989.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986.

———. 1986. Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Brigham Young University, 2004.

Pratt, Orson. 1873. “The ancient gospel; Adam’s transgression, and man’s redemption from its penalty, etc. (A sermon by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, September 11, 1859).” In Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Vol. 7, 251-66. Liverpool and London, England: Latter-day Saints Book Depot, 1853-1886. Reprint, Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1966.

Reeves, John C. “Some explorations of the intertwining of Bible and Qur’an.” In Bible and Qur’an: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality, edited by John C. Reeves. Symposium Series 24, 43-60. Leiden, The Netherlands: Society of Biblical LIterature and Brill, 2004. https://books.google.com/books?id=WNId86Eu4TEC. (accessed May 12, 2020).

Smith, Joseph, Jr. 1938. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1969.

Young, Brigham. 1877. “The great privilege of having a temple completed; past efforts for this purpose; remarks on conduct; earth, heaven, and hell, looking at the Latter-day Saints; running after holes in the ground; arrangements for the future (Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered at the temple, St. George, January 1, 1877).” In Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Vol. 18, 303-05. Liverpool and London, England: Latter-day Saints Book Depot, 1853-1884. Reprint, Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1966.

Further Reading

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 75-85.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and Matthew L. Bowen. “Beauty and Truth in the Book of Moses: Enoch Unfolds the Plan of Salvation.” In Proceedings of the Fourth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 10 November 2018, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. Temple on Mount Zion 5, in preparation. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books.

Christofferson, D. Todd. “Born again.” Ensign 38, May 2008, 76-79.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005, pp. 101-106.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986, pp. 144-154.

Nibley, Hugh W. 1986. Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Brigham Young University, 2004, pp. 277-281.

Notes for Figures

Figure 1. Image from S. H. Faulring et al., JST Electronic Library.

Footnotes

 

1 Moses 6:59.

2 H. W. Nibley, Teachings of the PGP, p. 277.

3 Joseph Smith also quoted Revelation 20:12 which describes the judgment of the dead out of “books” that were written “according to their works” (see D&C 128:6–7).

4 Moses 6:61.

5 S. H. Faulring et al., Original Manuscripts, OT1 (p. 14 [Moses 6:52–64]), p. 101. See J. M. Bradshaw et al., God’s Image 2, Commentary Moses 6:51-a, p. 75. See also Moses 6:62.

6 See, for example, O. Pratt, 11 September 1859, pp. 251–253.

7 L. Koehler et al., Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 1:334.

8 Numbers 7:10–11, 84, 88.

9 See 2 Chronicles 7:9.

10 R. O. Faulkner, Concise Dictionary, p. 173.

11 Ibid., p. 173.

12 Hebrews 6:1; 2 John 1:9; 2 Nephi 31:2; 32:6; Jacob 7:2, 6; 3 Nephi 2:2. For a discussion of the temple-related ideas implicit in scriptural usages of this term, see J. M. Bradshaw, Faith, Hope, and Charity, pp. 78–111.

13 In Islam, Enoch is called Idrīs. The ninth-century Muslim scholar Ibn Qutayba attributed this name to Enoch “on account of the quantity of knowledge and religious practices which he learned [darasa] from the scripture of God” (J. C. Reeves, Some Explorations, p. 48). Thus (ibid., p. 49):

the name Idrīs reflects a wordplay on the verbal root darasa, which is in turn connected with the acquisition and promulgation of knowledge. Enoch becomes Idrīs to mark that character’s distinction in academic pursuits. Unsurprisingly, this is precisely the type of curriculum vita exhibited by the character Enoch within Jewish and Christian pseudepigraphal sources: he is the first to write, he becomes proficient in astronomical and calendrical lore, and he admonishes his contemporaries — the infamous dōr ha-mabbūl — to practice righteousness and true piety. These same collections of traditions often supply a series of reasons why Enoch deserved this boon, most of which revolve around his scholastic attainments and exemplary piety. Given his scholastic and moral attenments, and the well-attested intercultural popularity of the figure of Enoch as celestial voyager and purveyor of supernatural secrets, it should occasion little surprise that the Qur’ān and its early exegetes likewise signal a familiarity with these influential literary traditions.

14 2 Nephi 4:5.

15 Moses 6:31.

16 L. Koehler et al., Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 1:835. Citing Gerleman ZAW 91 (1979): 338–349.

17 M. L. Bowen, Alma.

18 Mosiah 18:1, 3.

19 1 Nephi 2:16.

20 Moses 6:34, 39; 7:69.

21 See J. M. Bradshaw, Faith, Hope, and Charity, pp. 78–111.

22 H. W. Nibley, Enoch, pp. 19–20.

23 A. Caquot, Pour une Étude, p. 121: “au centre d’une étude des thèmes initiatiques dans la littérature israélite : son nom se rattache à la racine … qui signifie en hébreu, ‘inaugurer’ ou ‘consacrer.’”

24 See ibid., p. 121.

25 See P. S. Alexander, 3 Enoch; C. Mopsik, Hénoch.

26 According to Philip Alexander (P. S. Alexander, From Son of Adam, p. 107 n. 31):

One very plausible etymology derives [the title Metatron] from the Latin metator [Greek mitator]. … The metator was the officer in the Roman army who went ahead of the column on the march to mark out the campsite where the troops would bivouac for the night. Hence, figuratively, ‘forerunner’” (see P. S. Alexander, 3 Enoch, p. 228).

Alexander further concludes that Metatron was “first incarnate in Adam and then reincarnate in Enoch” (P. S. Alexander, From Son of Adam, p. 111).

27 B. Young, 1 January 1877, p. 303.

28 Moses 6:33, 44, 51, 59, 63; 7:32–33, 36, 59, 64.

29 Benjamin McGuire comments (B. L. McGuire, May 15 2013):

This whole concept of “God … made you” (Moses 6:33) is one of the two general sorts of motive clauses used to justify commandments in the Old Testament (the other is, “I brought you out of Egypt”). In other words, consistently in the Old Testament, one of the reasons given for the people needing to obey the commandments is that God created them (and the world in general). For example, Havlini writes (D. W. Halivni, Midrash, pp. 11, 12–13):

But along with the individual motives there are also expressly general motives, serving as an overall justification for God to issue commandments. That right is granted Him by virtue of His being the creator of the universe, with a special claim on, the Israelites because He led them out of Egypt.

God as creator makes an even stronger claim: since He has called man and the universe into being, man owes Him obedience and is subject to His commandments. In His capacity as the creator, God could have imposed laws on any nation; but He chose to exercise His sovereignty over Abraham’s children because of the covenant He entered into with them. He singled them out by miraculously taking them out of slavery, freeing them from bondage.

Thus the two principal general motives, God as the creator (the beginning of the world) and God as the redeemer (the beginning of the national Jewish history), act as one.

Within this context, “God … made you” is clearly a motive clause of the sort we might anticipate from an Old Testament text in, e.g., Deuteronomy 32:6 or Isaiah 44:2: “Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb.”

30 Moses 6:62.

31 Moses 6:61.

32 Acts 8:15, 19; 2 Nephi 31:13; 32:5; 3 Nephi 28:18; 4 Nephi 1:1; D&C 25:8; 84:74; Moses 8:24.

33 See Book of Moses Essays #21 and #22, forthcoming.

34 Moses 6:64–65.

35 Moses 6:61.

36 Moses 6:66.

37 Moses 5:59.

38 Moses 6:68.

39 See Book of Moses Essay #21, forthcoming.

40 Cf., e.g., 3 Nephi 31:20: “thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”

41 Revelation 1:6.

42 “in the flesh” did not appear in OT1, but was added in OT2 (K. P. Jackson, Book of Moses, s.v. OT2 Page 17 [Moses 6:40–53]).

43 OT1 reads “their transgressions.” A change to “thy transgressions” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 17 [Moses 6:40–53]).

44 OT1 reads “by water.” A change to “in water” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 17 [Moses 6:40–53]).

45 OT1 reads “which is full.” A change to “who is full” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 17 [Moses 6:40–53]).

46 See John 1:14; Alma 5:48; D&C 84:102; 93:11.

47 See Acts 4:12; 2 Nephi 25:20; 31:21; Mosiah 3:17; 5:8; D&C 18:23.

48 See Matthew 21:22; John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23; 1 John 5:13–15; Enos 1:15; Mosiah 4:21; 3 Nephi 18:20; 27:28; Moroni 7:26; D&C 29:6; D&C 50:29; 88:64. OT1 reads “& ye shall ask all things in his name & what ye shall ask it shall be giv[en]” A change to “and ye shall ask all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask it shall be given ” was made in OT2 (K. P. Jackson, Book of Moses, s.v. OT2 Page 17 (Moses 6:40–53)). Though the OT2 addition correctly anticipates the gift of the Holy Ghost given after baptism, it seems to interrupt the flow of the overall passage, whose subject is Jesus Christ.

49 OT1 reads “by water.” A change to “in water” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 17 [Moses 6:40–53]).

50 OT1 reads “transgressions.” A change to “transgression” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 18 [Moses 6:53–63]).

51 OT1 reads “Christ.” A change to “the son of God” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 18 [Moses 6:53–63]).

52 H. L. Andrus, Doctrinal, pp. 247–248 comments on this phrase as follows:

Children are conceived on earth in sin. Thus all the effects of the fall were not abolished by the power of the atonement. The purpose of Adam’s transgression was to institute a fallen, probationary state in which man could be tested and proven in the new physical endowments of life he would receive on earth, and where he could learn to walk by faith in reliance upon God. To this end, certain corrupt elements became associated with the flesh as a result of the fall and the subsequent transgressions of man. “Because of the fall,” the brother of Jared therefore said in apology to the Lord, “our natures have become evil continually.” The corruption, or evil, in the flesh gives “the spirit of the devil power to captivate” and to bring man down to hell, if he yields to the desires of the flesh and the enticements of the Adversary. These elements of corruption and forces of sin are implanted in the flesh at conception, and for this reason the scripture states that man is conceived in sin. Man’s mortal body is organized in weakness as a corrupt body, whereas his resurrected body is organized in power as a spiritual body. Of the purpose of mortal weaknesses, the Lord said to Moroni (Ether 12:27):

if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

53 “another law and commandment.” We take this to mean that, in addition to D, the previously given law and commandment to be baptized, the Lord is now giving C, the law and commandment to repent.

54 OT1 reads “which shall com[e come.” A change to “which shall come ” was made in OT2 (K. P. Jackson, Book of Moses, s.v. OT2 Page 18 [Moses 6:53–63]). We have included the phrase “in the meridian of time,” which is attested in OT1 in verse 62.

55 “I give unto you a commandment,” which we take to be referring back (implicitly) to B, the commandment to believe. “Therefore” was added in OT2 (K. P. Jackson, Book of Moses, s.v. OT2 Page 18 [Moses 6:53–63]).

56 The italicized words were included in OT1 but were moved, modified, and truncated (e.g., leaving out “the mysteries of”) in OT2. OT2 reads: “ I give unto you a commandment to teach these things freely unto your Children Saying that in as much as they were born into the World by the fall which bringeth death by water and blood and the Spirit which I have made and so became of dust a living soul even so ye must be born again of water and the spirit and cleansed by blood even the blood of mine only begotten into the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven <Therefore, I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying, that by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, And in as much as they were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul; even so ye must be born again, into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine only begotten.>” (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 18 (Moses 6:53–63)). The OT2 version rather than the OT1 version is used in the 2013 edition of Moses 5:59.

57 OT1 reads “that in you is given the record of Heaven.” The change to “that in you is given the record of Heaven” was made in OT2 (ibid., s.v. OT2 Page 18 (Moses 6:53–63)).

58 Cf. Moses 6:66.

59 A change was made in OT2 in the handwriting of Sidney Rigdon as a replacement for OT1’s “the Peac[i]ble things of immortal grory” [glory] (S. H. Faulring et al., Original Manuscripts, OT1 (p. 14), p. 102. Cf. D&C 36:2; 39:6; 42:61). Significantly, OT2 reads: “the peaceable things of immortal glory “ (K. P. Jackson, Book of Moses, s.v. OT2 Page 18 (Moses 6:53–63)). Note that D&C 42:61 links the “peaceable things” with “the mysteries” as the results of revelation:

If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.

Following a decision by the RLDS publication committee in the preparation of their 1867 publication of the “Inspired Version,” Moses 6:61 uses the OT1 version rather than the OT2 version.

60 “through” was added in OT2 (K. P. Jackson, Book of Moses, s.v. OT2 Page 18 [Moses 6:53–63], p. 614).

61 OT1 and OT2 read “which.” This was changed to “who” in the preparation of the manuscript of the RLDS “Inspired Version” for publication.

62 H. L. Andrus, Doctrinal, pp. 257–258:

There are several symbolic elements in this statement by Paul. In baptism, man is buried with Christ into death, the “old man” being crucified with Christ. When the body is beneath the water, it is symbolic of Christ’s body in the tomb. As Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father, filled with a fulness of the Father’s divine nature, so should man come forth from the liquid tomb to a “newness of life,” being filled with the divine powers that are given in the new birth to abide in him. Finally, in baptism man is like a seed that must be planted in order to spring forth into a new life. God’s promise is that those who are planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death will be also in the likeness of His resurrection. The new life they will come forth to possess in the resurrection is eternal life, or the kind of glorified life that Christ possesses. Joseph Smith explained (J. Smith, Jr., Teachings, 20 March 1842, pp. 197–198. Original source: JS, Discourse, Nauvoo, IL, 20 March 1842, Wilford Woodruff, Diary, pp. 134-138 [p. 136]; handwriting of Wilford Woodruff; CHL, posted as interim content on The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/discourse-20-march-1842-as-reported-by-wilford-woodruff/3 [accessed January 23, 2020]):

God has set many signs on the earth, as well as in the heavens; for instance, the oak of the forest, the fruit of the tree, the herb of the field, all bear a sign that seed hath been planted there; for it is a decree of the Lord that every tree, plant, and herb bearing seed should bring forth of its kind, and cannot come forth after any other law or principle. Upon the same principle do I contend that baptism is a sign ordained of God, for the believer in Christ to take upon himself in order to enter into the kingdom of God, “for except ye are born of water and of the Spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God,” said the Savior. It is a sign and a commandment which God has set for man to enter into His kingdom. Those who seek to enter in any other way will seek in vain; for God will not receive them, neither will the angels acknowledge their works as accepted, for they have not obeyed the ordinances, nor attended to the signs which God ordained for the salvation of man, to prepare him for, and give him a title to, a celestial glory.

63 We take Adam’s full-hearted response, epitomized in his cry unto the Lord, as an indicator of his desire to obediently “hearken” (A) to the Lord’s commandments. Admittedly, since the term “hearken” or its equivalent does not explicitly appear in this passage, it is the weakest of the parallelisms to the list of commandments given in Moses 6:52.

64 We take this to be an interpolation of the narrator, explaining that Moses 6:67 refers to the “record of heaven” that was mentioned in Moses 6:61.

65 I.e., after the order of Jesus Christ, who was “made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 6:20. Cf. Psalm 110:4). Adam is thus made a priest “unto God” (see Revelation 1:6).

66 Cf. Psalm 2:7. Adam is thus made a king “unto God” (see Revelation 1:6).

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Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Imprisonment of the Gibborim

Book of Moses Essay #13

Moses 7:38

With Contribution by Jefferey M. Bradshaw

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1 Enoch on the Eternal Doom of the Wicked

The conclusion of the story of the rebellion of the Watchers in 1 Enoch is their terrible binding and eternal imprisonment:1

Go, Michael, bind Shemihazah and the others with him, … bind them … in the valleys of the earth, until the day of their judgment. … Then they will be led away to the fiery abyss, and to the torture, and to the prison where they will be confined forever.

Blake’s drawing above illustrates Canto 31 of Dante’s Divine Comedy. After seeing what he mistakenly thinks is a ring of towers surrounding a central deep, Dante is told by Virgil about the Giants who are sunk to their waists in a well whose massive drop leads to Cocytus, a great frozen lake of the lowest region of hell. Their defiant rebellion, born of the same envy and pride that ruled the fallen angels who “rained down from heaven” in the beginning,2 was the more terrible and destructive because of the coupling of their evil will with the brute force of their mighty stature. Now reduced to pale mountainous shapes amidst the chaos, they stand eternally unmoved by the sharp fires of lightning above and the rude blasts of icy storm winds swirling upward from below.

Repentance and Salvation for the Wicked

Both the Book of Moses and the Book of Giants contain a “prediction of utter destruction and the confining in prison that is to follow”3 which is similar in some ways to 1 Enoch. From the Book of Moses we read:4

But behold, these … shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them.

Likewise, in the Book of Giants we read:5 “he has imprisoned us and overpowered yo[u.”

Although these three accounts are similar in a general way, there is an important difference between the outlook of 1 Enoch and that found in the Book of Moses and the Book of Giants—namely the possibility of repentance and salvation for those who have sinned.6 Jed Woodworth summarizes:7

What is the fate of those who perish in the flood? In [1 Enoch], there is one fate only: everlasting punishment. Those who are destroyed in the flood are beyond redemption. For God to be reconciled, sinners must suffer forever. Enoch has nothing to say because God has no merciful side to appeal to. In [the Book of Moses account], however, punishment has an end. The merciful side of God allows Enoch to speak and be heard. God and Enoch speak a common language: mercy. “Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look,” God says to Enoch after the flood.8 There is hope for the wicked yet:9

I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them. And that which I have chosen hath pled before my face. Wherefore, he suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my Chosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be in torment.

The Messiah figure in [1 Enoch 45–47] and in [the Book of Moses] function in different ways. In [the Book of Moses], the Chosen One will come to earth at the meridian of time to rescue the sinners of Enoch’s day. After the Messiah’s death and resurrection, “as many of the spirits as were in prison came forth, and stood on the right hand of God.”10 The Messiah figure in [1 Enoch] does not come down to earth and is peripheral to the text; he presides over the “elect” around God’s throne11 but does not rescue the sinners of Enoch’s day. “In the day of trouble evil shall [still] be heaped upon sinners,”12 he tells Enoch [in that account].

Figure 2: Demons kneeling and repenting (?) on pitch dark clouds with their hands clutched. Manichaean Cosmology Painting detail, private collection, Japan, fourteenth-fifteenth century.

Though the Book of Giants similarly does not hold out the possibility of salvation for the gibborim once they have died in their sins (in contrast to the Book of Moses), it does record Enoch’s hope for them if they repent in this life:13 “Now, then, unfasten your chains [of sin]… and pray.”14 Images of repentant sinners pleading for forgiveness may be precisely what we see in the Manichaean Cosmology Painting shown above.15

Likewise, in Moses 6:52, Enoch preaches that it is not too late for the wicked if they heed the commandment of the Lord “that all men, everywhere, must repent.”16 In this respect, the outlook of the Book of Moses and the Book of Giants toward Enoch’s adversaries are similar to each other and different from 1 Enoch.

Is there evidence in the Book of Giants that any of the gibborim repented? Though we find no evidence in currently known Book of Giants fragments from Qumran, hints that some of the gibborim responded to Enoch’s call to repentance can be found in one manuscript of a Manichaean version of the Book of Giants. As summarized by Matthew Goff:17

According to Text G, one half of the giants are moved westward and the other eastward. The westward group is relocated in cities specifically built for them—thirty-two cities in an area near Mount Sumeru, the omphalos mundi [i.e., “navel of the world,” the center of the sacred—cf. the gathering of the righteous to the city of Enoch?] of Indian tradition.18 No reason is given as to why the giants are placed in cities. The division of the giants along an east-west axis suggests two opposed fates for them—one half was killed and the other survived. This could be explained by positing that some of the giants repented and changed their ways while others did not.

Additionally, Goff reports:19

In text E [of the Manichaean Book of Giants] the [gibborim] are divided into two camps, one of which rejoices in seeing the “apostle”20 [i.e., Enoch] and the other, described as “tyrants and criminals,” becomes afraid when they see him.21 . . . The Manichaean Book of Giants and the Kephalaia preserve two traditions that are significant for the interpretation of the Qumran Book of Giants. One, some giants became remorseful for their crimes and confessed and, two, that a substantial number of giants were not killed but rather lived in cities built for them.

What about the fate of Mahaway, the go-between of the prophet and the gibborim and the seeming dual of the Book of Moses Mahijah/Mahujah? Jens Wilkens reminds the reader that in one Book of Giants text Enoch called out Mahaway’s name “very lovingly”22 as they met. Wilkens continues by observing: “One is tempted to postulate an emotional relationship between this particular [gibbor] and Enoch. The former obviously is not as corrupted as his fellows.”23 To answer the question about Mahaway’s fate, we turn to Wilkens’ summary of the contents of a Middle Persian fragment that deals with the violent death of the gibborim:24

In lines 8–10 of the verso we find the following statement: “the great angel has slain that messenger whom they had.” As Mahaway is the messenger par excellence of the [gibborim] both in the Enochic tradition from Qumran and in Manichaeism, the text apparently refers to him.

Whether Mahaway was repentant or recalcitrant when he died we are not told directly, but the fact that the account relates his being slain by “the great angel” evinces the belief that he remained too long in the “tents of [the] wicked”25 and for that reason, if for no other, he ultimately shared in their sad demise.

Enoch’s Mission as a Foreshadowing of Postmortem Evangelization

In this short article, we cannot do justice to the details of the sharp disagreements among modern Christians on the fate of those who have died without having the opportunity to hear and understand the Gospel or whether those who have so heard may be afforded the possibility of repentance. But in a popular book entitled What About Those Who Have Never Heard? Three Views on the Destiny of the Unevangelized, John Sanders has assembled the views of proponents (Sanders himself included) of three important positions, of which he gives the following thumbnail sketches:26

Ronald Nash presents a view that he calls restrictivism. According to this view, God provides salvation only in Jesus Christ, and it is necessary to know about the work of Christ and exercise faith in Jesus before one dies if one is to be saved. …

John Sanders advocates a position known as inclusivism.27 In this model God saves people only because of the work of Christ, but people may be saved even if they do not know about Christ. God grants them salvation if they exercise faith in God as revealed to them through creation and providence. …

Gabriel Fackre propounds the view he calls divine perseverance (sometimes called postmortem evangelization). According to this view, those who die unevangelized receive an opportunity for salvation after death. God condemns no one without first seeing what his or her response to Christ is.

Obviously, the third position is closest to that of the Latter-day Saints. Though this view “has been the dominant interpretation [from at least AD 150] until recently, [it] has been strongly criticized by several writers” as being inconsistent with New Testament teachings.28

Those who accept the possibility of postmortem evangelization, including not only Latter-day Saints29 but also early Christians30 and selected scholars from outside the Church,31 frequently cite 1 Peter 3:18–20 and 4:5–6. But it is not common knowledge among Latter-day Saints that Peter is making allusion to Enoch in these verses.

In the most radical version of this interpretation, 1 Peter 3:19–22 has sometimes been translated to include a parenthetical statement that describes Enoch’s preaching mission to the rebellious sinners of Noah’s time. For example, in James Moffatt’s New Testament translation, we read:32

19 It was in the Spirit that Enoch also went and preached to the imprisoned spirits 20 who had disobeyed at the time when God’s patience held out during the construction of the ark in the days of Noah, the ark by which only a few souls, eight in all, were brought safely through the water. 21 Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you today (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is at God’s right hand—22 for he went to heaven after angels, authorities, and powers celestial had been made subject to him.

As an argument for substituting this translation for the awkward King James Bible phrase of v. 19 (“in which also he went”), advocates note that adding the letter chi to the Greek text changes “in which also” to “Enoch also” (i.e., ΕΝΩΚΑΙ thus becomes ΕΝΩΧΚΑΙ). A textual error of this sort, it is argued, could have been produced by an accidental or deliberate omission by a scribe. Though the hypothesis is intriguing, most contemporary scholars consider it very unlikely.33

Notwithstanding the improbability of the translation above, George Nickelsburg34 does not doubt that Peter is “alluding to the tradition about the Watchers” of 1 Enoch,” and in 1 Peter 3:19–20 “attributes to Jesus a journey to the underworld that parallels Enoch’s interaction with the rebel watchers,” while comparing “baptism with the purifying effects of the Flood.”35 If Nickelsburg is correct, then Peter’s writings imply the hope that God’s mercy will be extended even to the wicked who rejected Enoch while they lived on earth, such that, through eventual repentance and the power of the Atonement, they might eventually “live according to God in the spirit.”36 Arguing on the basis of 1 Peter and Moses 7:37–38, Hugh Nibley gives hope of eventual deliverance for these souls:37

Those in prison, chains, and darkness are only being kept there until the Judgment, which will liberate many, not only because of their repentance, but through the power of the Atonement. … It was specifically the spirits who were disobedient in Enoch’s day who were to enjoy the preaching of the Lord and the promise of deliverance in the meridian of times.

This article was adapted and expanded from Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 49, 149.

Further Reading

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 49, 149.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005, pp. 131–132.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986, pp. 192–193.

References

Achtemeier, Paul J. 1 Peter. Hermeneia, ed. Helmut Koester, Harold W. Attridge, Adela Yarbro Collins, Eldon Jay Epp and James M. Robinson. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996.

Anderson, Gary A. The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.

Bautch, Kelley Coblentz. “Peter and the patriarchs: A confluence of traditions?” In With Letters of Light: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism, edited by Daphna V. Arbel and Andrei A. Orlov. Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, ed. John R. Levison, 13-27. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 2011.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M. Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Book of Moses. In God’s Image and Likeness 1. Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Publishing, 2010.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014. www.templethemes.net.

Charlesworth, James H. “Odes of Solomon.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. 2 vols. Vol. 2, 725-71. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1983.

Davids, Peter H. The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude. The Pillar New Testament Commentary, ed. Donald A. Carson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006.

———. II Peter and Jude: A Handbook on the Greek Text. Waco, TX: Baylor University, 2011.

Davidson, Paul. 2014. The Book of Enoch as the Background to 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude (20 August 2014). In Is That in the Bible? https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/the-book-of-enoch-as-the-background-to-1-peter-2-peter-and-jude/. (accessed March 1, 2020).

Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Esplin, Scott C. “Wondering at his words: Peter’s influence on the knowledge of salvation for the dead.” In The Ministry of Peter, the Chief Apostle. The 43rd Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, edited by Frank F. Judd, Jr., Eric D. Huntsman and Shon D. Hopkin, 297-315. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2014.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A. , ed. The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran Cave 1 (1Q20): A Commentary Third ed. Biblica et Orientalia 18/B. Rome, Italy: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2004.

Gardner, Iain, ed. The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 37, ed. James M. Robinson and H. J. Klimkeit. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1995.

Goff, Matthew. “The sons of the Watchers in the Book of Watchers and the Qumran Book of Giants.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 115-27. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Hennecke, Edgar, and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, eds. New Testament Apocrypha. 2 vols. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1965.

Henning, W. B. “The Book of the Giants.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 11, no. 1 (1943): 52-74. http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/giants/giants.htm. (accessed January 25, 2018).

Kósa, Gåbor. “The Book of Giants tradition in the Chinese Manichaica.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 145-86. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Laurence, Richard, ed. 1821. The Book of Enoch, the Prophet: Translated from an Ethiopic Manuscript in the Bodleian Library, the Text Now Corrected from His Latest Notes with an Introduction by the [Anonymous] Author of ‘The Evolution of Christianity’. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1883. http://archive.org/details/bookofenochproph00laur. (accessed January 15, 2013).

Martinez, Florentino Garcia. “The Book of Giants (4Q203).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 260-61. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

———. “Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen ar).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 230-37. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

Milik, Józef Tadeusz, and Matthew Black, eds. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments from Qumran Cave 4. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1976.

Moffatt, James. The General Epistles: James, Peter, and Judas. 17 vols. The Moffatt New Testament Commentary (Christian Classics Ethereal Library). New York City, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/m/moffat/jampetjud/cache/jampetjud.pdf. (accessed March 2, 2020).

Newington, Samantha. “Greek titans and biblical giants.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 33-40. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Neyrey, Jerome H. 2 Peter, Jude: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Bible 37 C, ed. William F. Albright and David Noel Freedman. New York City, NY: Doubleday, 1993.

Nibley, Hugh W. “Churches in the wilderness.” In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, edited by Truman G. Madsen, 155-212. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1978.

———. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986.

Nickelsburg, George W. E., ed. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108. Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001.

Parry, Donald W., and Emanuel Tov, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. 6 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.

———, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader Second ed. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013.

Parry, Robin A., and Christopher H. Partridge, eds. Universal Salvation? The Current Debate. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2004.

Paulsen, David L. “The redemption of the dead: A Latter-day Saint perspective on the fate of the unevangelized.” In Salvation in Christ: Comparative Christian Views, edited by Roger R. Keller and Robert L. Millet, 263-97. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2005.

Paulsen, David L., Roger D. Cook, and Kendel J. Christensen. “The Harrowing of Hell: Salvation for the dead on early Christianity.” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 1 (2010): 56-77. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol19/iss1/7. (accessed July 8, 2020).

Reed, Annette Yoshiko. Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Reeves, John C. Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 14. Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992.

Robinson, Ebenezer, Don Carlos Smith, Robert B. Thompson, Gustavus Hills, Joseph Smith, Jr., John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff, eds. Times and Seasons. Nauvoo, IL, 1839-1846. Reprint, 6 vols.

Rowland, Christopher, and Christopher R. A. Morray-Jones. The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament. Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum 12, ed. Pieter Willem van der Horst and Peter J. Tomson. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.

Sanders, John, ed. What About Those Who Have Never Heard? Three Views on the Destiny of the Unevangelized. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995.

———. “Those who have never heard: A survey of major positions.” In Salvation in Christ: Comparative Christian Views, edited by Roger R. Keller and Robert L. Millet, 299-325. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2005.

Smith, Joseph, Jr. 1938. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1969.

Stanton, Graham N. “1 Peter.” In Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, edited by James D. G. Dunn and John W. Rogerson, 1493-503. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003.

Stuckenbruck, Loren T. The Book of Giants from Qumran: Texts, Translation, and Commentary. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1997.

VanderKam, James C. Enoch: A Man for All Generations. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995.

Wilkens, Jens. “Remarks on the Manichaean Book of Giants: Once again on Mahaway’s mission to Enoch.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 213-29. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Wise, Michael, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. New York City, NY: Harper-Collins, 1996.

Woodworth, Jed L. “Extra-biblical Enoch texts in early American culture.” In Archive of Restoration Culture: Summer Fellows’ Papers 1997-1999, edited by Richard Lyman Bushman, 185-93. Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, 2000.

Notes for Figures

Figure 1. Tate Gallery Picture Library, with the assistance of Cressida Kocienski.

Figure 2. Copyright Japanese private collection. Reproduced in G. Kósa, Book of Giants Tradition as Figure 2c, p. 185. See discussion of the painting in ibid., pp. 173–174. Kósa’s chapter details arguments for the presence of several Book of Giants motifs in the Cosmology Painting.

Footnotes

 

1 G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 10:11–13, p. 215. See also Job 22:11, 15–16; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6. See S. Newington, Greek Titans for a comparison of the biblical giants to the Greek Titans.

2 D. Alighieri, Commedia, Canto 8.

3 H. W. Nibley, Churches, p. 161.

4 Moses 7:38.

5 D. W. Parry et al., DSSR (2013), 4Q203, Fragment 7b, column I, line 5, p. 945. Compare J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, p. 313: “he has imprisoned us and you he has subdued”; L. T. Stuckenbruck, Book of Giants, 4Q203, 7 B1:4, p. 83: “he has imprisoned us and defeated yo[u” and F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 7:5-7, p. 260: “he has seized us and has captured you.” See also the parallel references to the fate of the Watchers in the Genesis Apocryphon (J. A. Fitzmyer, Genesis Apocryphon, 0:8, p. 65): “And now, look, we are prisoners” (cf. M. Wise et al., DSS, Tales of the Patriarchs (1QapGen), 0:8, p. 91: “we are bound” and F. G. Martinez, Genesis Apocryphon, 1:1:4, p. 230: “I have oppressed the prisoners,” following Milik—see J. A. Fitzmyer, Genesis Apocryphon, p. 118 n. 0:8). See also G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 14:5, p. 251: “it has been decreed to bind you in bonds in the earth for all the days of eternity”; ibid., 10:11-13, p. 215: “Go, Michael, bind Shemihazah and the others with him, … bind them … in the valleys of the earth, until the day of their judgment … Then they will be led away to the fiery abyss (cf. Ibid., pp. 221-222 n. 4-6, p. 225 n. 11-13), and to the torture, and to the prison where they will be confined forever.”
Compare from the Manichaean Kephalia (I. Gardner, Kephalaia, Chapter 45 (Codex 117), p. 123): “Again, before the watchers rebelled and came down from heaven, a prison was fashioned and constructed for them in the depths of the earth, below the mountains.”
For discussions of the theme of the imprisonment of the wicked at the time of Noah as it appears in the Bible, see J. M. Bradshaw, God’s Image 1, Caption to Figure E24-1, p. 588; P. H. Davids, II Peter, pp. 9-11, 69-70; J. H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, p. 202; P. H. Davids, Letters, pp. 48-51, 225-226; C. Rowland et al., Mystery of God, pp. 58-59; G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, p. 560; J. C. VanderKam, Enoch, p. 172; A. Y. Reed, Fallen, pp. 104-107; P. J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, pp. 239-274.

6 One reviewer asks this relevant and intriguing question:

What are the chances that there is some mixing or cross borrowing between the stories of people who lived on earth in Enoch’s time and what may have been taught about the war in heaven in the pre-mortal existence? This might account for the differences in the eternal fate of the wicked in that those who lost their first estate have lost it forever but those who opposed Enoch in their second estate still have the potential to receive the gospel and inherit a kingdom of glory.

7 J. L. Woodworth, Enoch, pp. 191–192, cited in J. M. Bradshaw et al., God’s Image 2, p. 114.

8 Moses 7:44.

9 Moses 7:37–38.

10 Moses 7:57. Compare 1 Peter 3:20.

11 R. Laurence, Book of Enoch, 45:3–5, pp. 49–50, 56:3, p. 64.

12 Ibid., 49:2, pp. 55–56. In 49:3–4, p. 54 he does, however, speak of “mercy” that will be shown to “others” who repent, but he is speaking of the living who choose to repent in the last day, not of the unrepentant who have already sealed their doom in death in the days of Enoch and Noah.

13 F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 8:14-15, p. 261.

14 Cf. J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, pp. 315, 316 n. L. 12: “And now, loosen your bonds which tie [you] up […] and begin to pray.” Ibid., p. 316 n. L. 14 explains the text as follows: “The Watchers seem to be already chained up by the angels; in order to be able to pray, to lift their arms in the gesture of suppliants, they have to have their bonds loosened.” See also M. Wise et al., DSS, The Book of the Giants, 4Q203, 8:14-15: “But now, loosen the bonds [ … ] and pray.” J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 65 translates this as: “free your prisoners and pray!” He adduces conjectural evidence for this interpretation from the Manichaean fragments of the Book of Giants that “retain some isolated references to ‘prisoners’ or ‘slaves.’” Stuckenbruck similarly reads: “set loose what you hold captive … and pray” (L. T. Stuckenbruck, Book of Giants, 4Q203, 8:14-15, p. 90; D. W. Parry et al., Reader, 4!203, 8:14–15, p. 481).

15 G. Kósa, Book of Giants Tradition, p. 175 notes that “given the extreme ontological dualism of Manichaeism, the motif of repenting demons, be they watchers or giants, is complete nonsense. … Thus, seen in this perspective, the motif of kneeling and apparently repenting demons in the [Cosmology Painting] shows the influence of the [Book of Giants] tradition, since it is only the latter one where repenting demons might, and emphatically do, occur.” For discussions of hints of repentance for these figures in Mani’s Book of Giants, see M. Goff, Sons of the Watchers, pp. 124–127; G. Kósa, Book of Giants Tradition, pp. 173–175.

16 Emphasis added.

17 M. Goff, Sons of the Watchers, p. 125.

18 See W. B. Henning, Book of the Giants, p. 69. For more on this account, see Essay #24.

19 As cited in G. Kósa, Book of Giants Tradition, p. 172.

20 See I. Gardner, Kephalaia, 12:9–14, p. 18.

21 See W. B. Henning, Book of the Giants, p. 66: “[when] they saw the apostle, … before the apostle … those demons that were [timid], were very, very glad at seeing the apostle. All of them assembled before him. Also, of those that were tyrants and criminals, they were [worried] and much afraid.”

22 Manichaean Uygur fragment quoted in L. T. Stuckenbruck, Book of Giants, p. 127 n. 140. See also Henning, cited in J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, p. 307.

23 J. Wilkens, Remarks, pp. 226–227.

24 Ibid., p. 227, citing the Middle Persian fragment M5900 edited by Sundermann and relating it to some new fragments described by Morano.

25 Numbers 16:26.

26 J. Sanders, Never Heard, pp. 12–13.

27 For a thorough statement of and debate about the inclusivism position, see R. A. Parry et al., Universal.

28 G. N. Stanton, 1 Peter, p. 1501. Stanton gives what are seen by critics as the “two implications which are foreign to the [New Testament] as a whole” as follows: “‘the dead’ are disembodied souls in Hades; they have the possibility of responding positively to Christ’s proclamation of the gospel after death.” Cf. P. J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, p. 289.

John Sanders (as cited by Gabriel Fackre in J. Sanders, Never Heard, pp. 86–87) writes the following with regard to the history of the concept of postmortem evangelization:

From at least the second century there was no more well-known and popular belief, including the Descent to Hades, the overcoming of Death and Hades, the Preaching to the Dead, and the Release of Souls, and its popularity steadily increased.” That the doctrine was taken for granted by AD 150 is evident from the fact that the heretics Marcion and the Valentinians, who were criticized on most of their beliefs by the early Church Fathers, were not challenged at all on this point. Both the early Fathers and the heretics agreed that Christ descended into hell. … It can be concluded from this that the doctrine of Christ’s descent into hell and the release of souls therefrom was established by the end of the first century. The only question this time involved who was released.

On early Christian apocrypha relating to the “harrowing of hell,” see J. K. Elliott, Apocryphal, The Gospel of Nicodemus or Acts of Pilate, pp. 185–204; G. A. Anderson, Perfection, pp. 155–176; E. Hennecke et al., NT Apocrypha, 1:470–481.

29 See J. Sanders, Major Positions, pp. 312–316 for a discussion of postmortem evangelization, including a discussion of Latter-day Saint beliefs on p. 315. S. C. Esplin, Wondering, and D. L. Paulsen, Redemption give excellent summaries of Latter-day Saint doctrine and teachings relating to salvation for the unevangelized.

30 See, e.g., D. L. Paulsen et al., The Harrowing of Hell: Salvation for the dead on early Christianity.

31 See, e.g., Gabriel Fackre in J. Sanders, Never Heard, pp. 81–85.

32 J. Moffatt, General Epistles, 1 Peter 3:19–22, p. 141, spelling and punctuation modernized, emphasis added.

33 For a readable summary of this and related issues, see P. Davidson, Book of Enoch as the Background.

34 G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, p. 86. K. C. Bautch, Peter, pp. 20–21 further explores this connection:

There are many reasons for suspecting that 1 Peter is familiar with Enochic traditions. … Also of interest is the reference in 1 Peter to Christ making a proclamation to spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18–20). Many understand the imprisoned spirits to be the angels who are familiar from the Book of the Watchers; these mated with mortals, shared forbidden knowledge (G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, chapters 6-8, pp. 174-201), and were imprisoned in an abyss or pit prior to the final conflagration (ibid., chapters 9–18; 21, pp. 202–289, 297–299). Comparable to the setting in the Enochic narrative in the Book of the Watchers (see ibid., 10:1-3, p. 215), the Petrine author links the captive spirits at the time of the flood (1 Peter 3:20). Jesus’ encounter with the imprisoned beings in 1 Peter 3:19–20 is likened to Enoch’s viewing of places of punishment and intercession for the rebellious watchers.

K. C. Bautch, Peter, p. 23 also describes connections in other apocryphal texts attributed to Peter:

Brief allusion is made to Jesus’ preaching to the dead in the Gospel of Peter (J. K. Elliott, Apocryphal, 39–42, pp. 156–157), but visits to the realm of the dead, a paradise, and places of post-mortem punishment are arguably the focus of the Apocalypse of Peter (ibid., pp. 593–612). … Similarly many of the early Enochic texts, especially chapters 17–36 of the Book of the Watchers, concern the patriarch’s visit to the realm of the dead and places associated with post-mortem punishment or eschatological blessing.

35 See G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 10:20, pp. 216, 227–228:

Cleanse the earth from all impurity and from all wrong
And from all lawlessness and from all sin;
And godlessness and all impurities that have come upon the earth, remove.

Other allusions to 1 Enoch might also be cited, e.g., ibid., 108:6, p. 551:

And he said to me, “The place that you see — here are thrown the spirits of the sinners and blasphemers and those who do evil and those who alter everything that the Lord has said by the mouth of the prophets [about] the things that will be done.

Ibid., 16:1, p. 267:

The day of the consummation of the great judgment [i.e., the day when the spirits of the wicked giants will have no more power over humankind]

Ibid., 21:10, p. 297 (see also 21:6):

And he said, This place is a prison for the angels. Here they will be confined forever.

Additional allusions are found in the pseudepigraphal Odes of Solomon, probably a Jewish-Christian text from about AD 100. For example, J. H. Charlesworth, Odes, 17:9, p. 750:

And from there he gave me the way of his paths,
And I opened the doors which were closed.

Ibid., 34:5, p. 757:

And the chasms were opened and closed;
And they were seeking the Lord as those who are about to give birth.

Ibid., 42:10–20, p. 771:

11. Sheol saw me and was shattered,
And Death ejected me and many with me. …
14. And I made a congregation of living among his dead;
And I spoke with them by living lips;
I order that my word may not fail.
15. And those who had died ran toward me;
And they cried out and said, “Son of God, have pity on us.
16. And deal with us according to your kindness,
And bring us out from the chains of darkness.
17. And open for us the door
By which we may go forth to you,
For we perceive that our death does not approach you.
18. May we also be saved with you,
Because you are our Savior.”
19. Then I heard their voice,
And placed their faith in my heart.
20. And I placed my name upon their head,
Because they are free and they are mine.

36 1 Peter 4:6.

37 H. W. Nibley, Enoch, p. 192. The Prophet Joseph Smith gave a magnificent sermon on this topic, which we quote only in part here (E. Robinson et al., Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842, 3:12, pp. 759–760. Cf. J. Smith, Jr., Teachings, pp. 219–220):

[W]hile one portion of the human race are judging and condemning the other without mercy, the great parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care, and paternal regard; he views them as his offspring; and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes “his sun to rise on the evil and the good; and sends his rain on the just and unjust” [see Matthew 5:45]. He holds the reins of judgment in his hands [see Psalm 11:7; D&C 39:16, 18]; he is a wise lawgiver [see Isaiah 33:22; James 4:12; D&C 38:22; 64:13], and will judge all men [D&C 137:9], -[not according to the narrow contracted notions of men, but]- “according to the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil” [see 2 Corinthians 5:10; Alma 5:15]; or whether these deeds were done in England, America, Spain, Turkey India: he will judge them “not according to what they have not, but according to what they have;” those who have lived without law, will be judged without law [see Romans 2:12; 2 Nephi 9:25–27; Alma 29:5; D&C 29:49–50], and those who have a law, will be judged by that law [Alma 42:21–23]; we need not doubt the wisdom and intelligence of the great Jehovah [see Moroni 10:34; D&C 128:9], he will award judgment [see 2 Nephi 2:10] or mercy [see Zechariah 7:9; Matthew 23:23; Alma 41:14; D&C 43:25; 88:40; Moses 6:61] to all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining intelligence, the laws by which they are governed; the facilities afforded them of obtaining correct information; and his inscrutable designs [see D&C 3:1] in relation to the human family: and when the designs of God shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we shall all of us eventually have to confess, that the Judge of all the earth has done right [see Genesis 18:25; Psalm 94:2].
The situation of the Christian nations after death is a subject that has called forth all the wisdom, and talent of the philosopher, and the divine; and it is an opinion which is generally received, that the destiny of man is irretrievably fixed at his death; and that he is made either eternally happy, or eternally miserable’ [see Alma 41:3-6] that if a man dies without a knowledge of God [see Hosea 4:1; 1 Corinthians 15:34; Words of Mormon 1:8; D&C 137:7], he must be eternally damned [see Mark 3:29; D&C 19:7; 29:44]; without any mitigation of his punishment, alleviation of his pain or the most latent hope of a deliverance while endless ages shall roll along. However orthodox this principle may be, we shall find that it is at variance with the testimony of holy writ; for our Saviour says that all manner of sin, and blasphemy shall be forgiven men wherewith they shall blaspheme; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven [see Mark 3:28-29], neither in this world, nor in the world to come [see Matthew 12:31-32]; evidently showing that there are sins which may be forgiven in the world to come; although the sin of blasphemy cannot be forgiven.
Peter also in speaking concerning our Saviour says, that “he went and preached unto [p. 759] spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” 1 Pet. iii, 19, 20. Here then we have an account of our Saviour preaching in prison [see D&C 138:18]; to spirits that had been imprisoned from the days of Noah [see Alma 10:22; D&C 138:9, 28; Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:41]; and what did he preach to them? that they were to stay there? certainly not; let his own declaration testify; “he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”—Luke iv, 18, Isaiah has it;—“To bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness from the prison house.” Is. xlii, 7 It is very evident from this that he not only went to preach to them, but to deliver, or bring them out of the prison house. Isaiah in testifying concerning the calamities that will overtake the inhabitants of the earth says, “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgressions thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day; that the Lord shall punish the hosts of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in prison, and after many days shall they be visited” [see Isaiah 24:20-22; D&C 88:87]. Thus we find that God will deal with all the human family equally; and that as the antediluvians had their day of visitation [see Isaiah 10:3; 1 Peter 2:12; Mormon 9:2; D&C 56:1, 16; 124:8, 10]; so will those characters referred to by Isaiah, have their time of visitation, and deliverance, after having been many days in prison.

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Enoch’s Teaching Mission: The Defeat of the Gibborim and the Roar of the Wild Beasts

Book of Moses Essay #12

Moses 7:13

With Contribution by Jefferey M. Bradshaw

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The Defeat of the Gibborim

A previous Essay1 described how the gibborim sorrowed and trembled after Enoch read their wicked deeds out of the book of remembrance and tendered the possibility of repentance. Drawing jointly on the Manichaean and Qumran accounts, Matthew Goff conjectures that the Book of Giants follows a set of Jewish traditions where at least some of the nephilim and gibborim “are not killed in a flood but rather have long lives.”2  However, any conjectured move of at least some of the gibborim toward repentance was short-lived. Eventually, when Enoch’s enemies began to attack, they were roundly defeated, as we read in the Book of Moses:3

And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him.

As shown in the following translation by Edward Cook, significant details of the victory of Enoch and the people of God are echoed in the Book of Giants, including the mention of “the wild man”4  and “the wild beast(s)”:5

    1. [ … I am] mighty, and by the mighty strength of my arm and my own great strength

    2. [and I went up against a]ll flesh, and I made war against them; but I did not

    3. [prevail, and I am not] able to stand firm against them, for my opponents

    4. [are angels who] reside in [heav]en, and they dwell in the holy places [ … ] And they were not

    5. [defeated, for they] are stronger than I. [ … ]

    6. [ ] of the wild beast has come, and the wild man they call [me.]

The Roar of the Wild Beasts

The puzzling phrase “[ ] of the wild beast has come” immediately follows the description of the battle. The first portion of the phrase, indicated by brackets in Cook’s translation above, has proven difficult for other translators to reconstruct as well. Thus, for example, Loren Stuckenbruck renders it simply as two untranslated letters: “rh” (i.e., “rh of the beasts of the field is coming”6). However Martinez and Milik, less conservative in their willingness to make a conjecture, respectively understand the phrase as “the roar of the wild beasts has come”7 and “the roaring of the wild beasts came.”8 Lending credence to their reading, the Enoch account in the Book of Moses has a remarkably similar phrase: “the roar of the lions was heard.”9 This phrase, placed in a nearly identical context that follows the description of the battle, is one of the most striking and unexpected affinities between Joseph Smith’s Enoch story and the ancient Book of Giants.

Stuckenbruck TranslationMartinez TranslationMilik TranslationMoses 7:13
the roar of the beasts of the field is comingthe roar of the wild beasts has comethe roaring of the wild beasts camethe roar of the lions was heard

Brian R. Doak’s sociolinguistic analysis reveals a convincing rationale for the author of the Book of Giants having placed these references together, giving an Old Testament example where victory against an elite adversary (in this case, a giant) and an prestige animal (lion) were also deliberately juxtaposed.10 Yet, while there was indeed a close connection in ancient times between a military victory and “the roar of wild beasts,” that association would likely have been just as unfamiliar to Joseph Smith as it is to non-specialist readers today.

Figure 2. Fragmentary lion hunting scene from Uruk, Iraq, Iraq Museum, Baghdad, Iraq, ca. 3200 BCE. The scene shows “a bearded figure wearing a diadem that appears twice; one at the top killing a lion with a spear and once below killing lions with bow and arrow.”

Nimrod as an Exemplar of a “wild man” Who Hunted “wild beasts”

To better interpret the “wild beast” motif, the importance of royal lion hunts in the ancient Near East must be understood. Note first that the evidence for these practices goes back to the primeval times in which Enoch lived, as in the scene from Uruk above. About the significance of lion hunting in this milieu, Doak observes:11

Ancient Mesopotamian kings routinely bragged of their hunting exploits, the prey being exotic animals in faraway lands; the Assyrian royal lion hunt represents the apex of this tradition insofar as it has been passed down to us visually.

Nimrod is one of the clearest biblical exemplars of this tradition. Described in the King James Bible, like Enoch’s opponents, as a “mighty one”12 (Hebrew gibbor) and as a “mighty hunter”13 (Hebrew gibbor tsayid), his prowess in pursuing and subduing his prey was legendary. According to Robert Kawashima:14

Nimrod’s exploits call to mind the famous monumental reliefs of the royal hunt scenes—discovered at Nineveh and housed in the British Museum—and the epic hero Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who is immortalized in epic for slaying Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven15 and for constructing the monumental walls of Uruk.

In his biblical role, Nimrod is presented to us as a proud archetype of Mesopotamian civilization that will be satirized in the story of the Tower of Babel,16 and is even sometimes described as a “giant”:

It should be noted that postbiblical lore [invested] Nimrod with giant status and associated him with the building of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1–5 (probably due to Nimrod’s association with Shinar). Furthermore, the Greek translation of gibbor as “Giant” in Genesis 10:8–9 attests to what may have been a popular, and not altogether illogical, interpretation that Nimrod’s stock as a giant somehow was passed through Noah, thus manifesting the hubris with which giants are often associated in his act of founding several cities17 and inciting the Tower of Babel project.18

Of course, the brother of Jared, who may have been a contemporary of Nimrod, is also described as “a large and mighty man,”19 as were, apparently, many of the Jaredite people.20 However, notwithstanding the apparent “might” of men such as Nimrod and the brother of Jared, consistent with arguments made in a previous Essay,21 it is probably a mistake to equate the gibborim (mighty warriors) with the nephilim (giants). Relative to Nimrod, Doak emphasizes:22

The reference to Nimrod as the first gibbor23 immediately brings to mind the earlier invocation of the “gibborim of old” in Genesis 6:4, and it is noteworthy that the Bible provides here a prototype of all gibborim in the figure of Nimrod. Though it is not clear that Nimrod is a “giant,” [some] lines of interpretation suggest that Nimrod was thought to be something greater than an ordinary human.

In brief, Nimrod’s status as both a “mighty one”24 (gibbor) and a “mighty hunter”25 (gibbor tsayid) seem to depict him as a personification of the same “wild man” and “wild beast” hero ideals that Enoch’s proud opponents strove to emulate. Moreover, the resemblance of Nimrod to the gibborim of Enoch’s day extends to their similar refusal to accept God as their master. Nimrod, like the opponents of Enoch and Noah, is presented as the spiritual progenitor of those who sought to make a name for themselves26 by building the Tower of Babel. In the gibborim culture, as in the culture of heroes throughout history:27

flesh is elevated above spirit, and the “name” of humanity is elevated above the “name” of God. In contrast to these heroes [stand Noah and Enoch], who [are] unique because [they have] found favor in the eyes of God.28 [They do] not achieve a “name” through strength and power, but through [their] relationship with God.

Converging Parallels in Ancient Sources and the Book of Moses

Bringing together the various threads running through ancient sources and the Book of Moses, Joseph Angel provides an additional piece of evidence by pointing out the association between the wild man, the lion, and the tree stump in the Book of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s twin inscriptions at Wadi Brisa in northern Lebanon. “These two texts sit across from one another on the facing slopes of a river bed and are accompanied by partially preserved images of the king.”29

Figure 3. Bas-relief depicting Nebuchadnezzar battling a lion, west side of Wadi Brisa

The bas-relief on the west side shows Nebuchadnezzar battling a lion.

Figure 4. Bas-relief showing Nebuchadnezzar standing in front of a tall tree with no leaves, east side of Wadi Brisa

The facing bas-relief on the east “shows him standing in front of a tall tree with no leaves, perhaps a dead cedar. In the accompanying inscription, the Babylonian monarch speaks of the ‘strong cedars that I cut with my pure hands in the Lebanon.’”30

Convergence of motifs in ancient sources and Moses 6-7.

Despite differences in the details of these stories,32 Doak argues for the possibility of a deliberate convergence of patterns between the Nebuchadnezzar reliefs, Daniel 4, and the “fusion of the image of the humbling of the giants through dream-visions with the wild man and tree stump motifs in the Book of Giants.”33 Going further, we add the story of Daniel in the lion’s den and the Book of Moses Enoch account to fill out the table above.

Besides the ironic reversal of the roles of Enoch and his wicked opponent as “wild men” (as discussed in a previous Essay34), a similar turning of the tables is now apparent in the subjugation of the wild beasts/lions to the God of the righteous Daniel and Enoch, rather than to their wicked adversaries. The same God who “shut the lions’ mouths”35 to save Daniel from harm opened the mouth of Enoch to destroy his enemies through the “power of [his] language.”36

As demonstrated in the remarkable evidences described in this article, Joseph Smith’s account of Enoch stretches ancient threads beyond Second Temple Judaism and into Mesopotamia.37 For those who see an authentic historic core in the story of Enoch found in the Book of Moses, such findings are not altogether surprising.

This article was adapted and expanded from Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 48–49, 346, 348.

Further Reading

Angel, Joseph L. “The humbling of the arrogant and the ‘wild man’ and ‘tree stump’ traditions in the Book of Giants and Daniel 4.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 61-80. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016, pp. 72–77.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 48–49, 346, 348, 386, 388–390, 393–397, 414–415.

Doak, Brian R. “The giant in a thousand years: Tracing narratives of gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and beyond.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 13–32. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016, pp. 24–25.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005, p. 119.

Nibley, Hugh W. “Churches in the wilderness.” In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, edited by Truman G. Madsen, 155–212. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1978, pp. 160–161.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986, p. 280.

Nibley, Hugh W. 1986. Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Brigham Young University, 2004, p. 282.

Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 2018. “The Assyrian Royal Hunt.” In I am Ashurbanipal: King of the World, King of Assyria (The BP Exhibition at The British Museum), edited by Gareth Brereton. London, England: Thames and Hudson and The British Museum, 2019.

References

Abegg, Martin, Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. New York City, NY: Harper, 1999.

Angel, Joseph L. “The humbling of the arrogant and the “wild man” and “tree stump” traditions in the Book of Giants and Daniel 4.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 61-80. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Bradley, Don. The Lost 116 Pages: Reconsructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories. Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2019.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014. www.templethemes.net.

Collins, John J. Daniel. Hermeneia — A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible, ed. Frank Moore Cross. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993.

Doak, Brian R. “The giant in a thousand years: Tracing narratives of gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and beyond.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 13-32. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

George, Andrew, ed. 1999. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London, England: The Penguin Group, 2003.

Goff, Matthew. “The sons of the Watchers in the Book of Watchers and the Qumran Book of Giants.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 115-27. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Grossman, Jonathan. “Who are the sons of God? A new suggestion.” Biblica 99, no. 1 (January 2018): 1-18. https://www.academia.edu/40515229/_Who_are_the_Sons_of_God_A_New_Suggestion_. (accessed February 16, 2020).

Hallo, William W., and K. Lawson Younger, eds. The Context of Scripture. 3 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 1996-2002.

Hartman, Louis F., and Alexander A. Di Lella. 1978. The Book of Daniel. The Anchor Yale Bible, ed. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.

Henze, Matthias. “Additions to Daniel: Bel and the dragon.” In Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, edited by Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel and Lawrence H. Schiffman. 3 vols. Vol. 2, 135-39. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2013.

Lambert, Wilfred G. Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1960. Reprint, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996. http://books.google.com/books?id=vYuRDcieF2EC&dq. (accessed September 29).

Martinez, Florentino Garcia. “The Book of Giants (4Q531).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 262. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

Milik, Józef Tadeusz, and Matthew Black, eds. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments from Qumran Cave 4. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1976.

Naqvi, Asif. n.d. British Museum: Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs and Much More.  In Asif Naqvi Photoworks. https://www.aksgar.me/british-museum. (accessed February 15, 2020).

Parry, Donald W., and Emanuel Tov, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. 6 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.

Pietersma, Albert, and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included Under That Title. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 2018. “The Assyrian Royal Hunt.” In I am Ashurbanipal: King of the World, King of Assyria (The BP Exhibition at The British Museum), edited by Gareth Brereton. London, England: Thames and Hudson and The British Museum, 2019.

Stuckenbruck, Loren T. The Book of Giants from Qumran: Texts, Translation, and Commentary. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1997.

Tvedtnes, John A., Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee, eds. Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham. Studies in the Book of Abraham 1, ed. John Gee. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2001.

Notes for Figures

Figure 1. http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/128/flashcards/2014128/png/ashurbanipal_hunting_lions1349142126836.png (accessed February 15, 2020). The bas-relief is currently housed in The British Museum. Asif Naqvi’s description of the work as displayed at an exhibition of Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs at The British Museum is as follows (A. Naqvi, British Museum: Assyrian Lion Hunt):

This is one of the very vivid moments which speaks clearly on its behalf without any narration. The king, on foot, wearing his elegant costume and accessories, grips the lion’s neck firmly with his left hand while the right hand stabs a sword rapidly and deeply into the lion’s belly. The king, rigid-faced, and the lion, roaring in fear and agony, look at each other. The king’s attendant holds a bow and arrows but does not seem to do anything to protect his master; it is not credible that the king exposed himself to mauling from a slightly wounded but still vigorous and aggressive lion in the way that this sculpture, viewed in isolation, implies. The lion is in a very close proximity, almost touching the king with his sharp paws.

For an in-depth discussion of the Assyrian Royal Hunt, with an emphasis on the exploits of Ashurbanipal, see J. E. Reade, Assyrian Royal Hunt.

A similar scene appears on the Assyrian imperial seal (see J. E. Reade, Assyrian Royal Hunt, p. 75 and p. 89 Figure 92). Brian R. Doak has described the connection “between elite military victory against a prestige animal (lion) and the defeat of [a] giant” (B. R. Doak, Giant in a Thousand Years, p. 24.) — which may help explain why “wild man” and “wild beast” appear in the same breath in the Book of Giants.

Figure 2. Published in J. M. Bradshaw, et al., God’s Image 2, Figure G10-7, p. 346. Quote in the caption is from J. E. Reade, Assyrian Royal Hunt, p. 54.

Figure 3. From J. L. Angel, Humbling, p. 74.

Figure 4. From J. L. Angel, Humbling, p. 75.

Footnotes

 

1 Pearl of Great Price Central, “Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Enoch Reads from a Book of Remembrance,” Book of Moses Essay#10 (July 3, 2020).

2 M. Goff, Sons of the Watchers, p. 126.

3 Moses 7:13 (emphasis added). For more on the perturbation of the elements and the defeat of the gibborim, see Essay #24.

4 See Pearl of Great Price Central, “Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Enoch and the Other ‘Wild Man’,” Book of Moses Essay #6 (June 5, 2020).

5 Edward Cook, 4Q531 (4QEnGiants(c) ar), 22:3–8 in D. W. Parry et al., Reader, 3:495.

6 L. T. Stuckenbruck, Book of Giants, 4Q531, 17:8, p. 164.

7 F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q531), 22:8, p. 262, emphasis added.

8 J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, p. 308, emphasis added.

9 Moses 7:13, emphasis added.

10 After describing how the category of “wildness” applied equally well to the “wild man” and “wild animal” in the mind of the ancient military man or hunter, B. R. Doak, Giant in a Thousand Years, p. 24 writes: “I conflate these potentially distinct categories of the ‘elite adversary’ and the ‘elite animal’ in order to highlight the correspondence between elite military victory against a prestige animal (lion) and the defeat of an Egyptian giant in 1 Chronicles 11:22–23.” On p. 25, he goes on to argue from another example by comparing 2 Samuel 23:20–23, 1 Chronicles 11:22–23, and 2 Chronicles 20:6. Julian Reade similarly writes (J. E. Reade, Assyrian Royal Hunt, p. 56):

The close relationship of the two royal activities—killing animals which were dangerous like lions or merely wild, and killing people who were dangerous enemies or merely foreign—is implicit in several inscriptions of Assyrian kings, between the eleventh and ninth centuries.

Reade provides several examples of these activities being closely associated in art and inscriptions. One inscription from Tiglath-pileser I (1115–1076 BCE) (ibid., p. 56):

after giving extensive details of forty-two lands and rulers that the king has conquered, immediately proceeds to describe four extraordinarily strong, wild, virile bulls he has shot in the desert … in just the same way as he has brought enemy booty home; there were also ten elephants killed and four captured, and 120 lions killed on foot and 800 lions killed from his chariot.

11 B. R. Doak, Giant in a Thousand Years, p. 24.

12 Genesis 10:8.

13 Genesis 10:9: “a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Cf. Ether 2:1. Note that the JST of Genesis 10:9 modifies the KJV to read “a mighty hunter in the land,” thus eliminating any intimation of divine sanction for Nimrod’s hunting.

14 R. S. Kawashima, Sources and Redaction, p. 59 n. 33.

15 A. George, Gilgamesh, 5–6, pp. 39–54.

16 Genesis 11:1–9.

17 Cf. Genesis 4:17.

18 Genesis 11:1–9. See, e.g., J. A. Tvedtnes et al., Traditions, pp. 147, 224, 245, 274.

19 Ether 1:34.

20 See the reports in Ether 7:8 (Shule was “mighty as to the strength of a man”), 11:17 (“there arose another mighty man; and he was a descendant of the brother of Jared”), 13:15 (“mighty men”), 15:2 (“two millions of mighty men”), 15:26 (“large and mighty men”), and Mosiah 8:10 (“they have brought breastplates, which are large”). Less plausibly, see Ether 12:15 (“there arose a mighty man among them in iniquity”). See also D. Bradley, Lost 116 Pages, pp. 173–174.

21 See Pearl of Great Price Central, “Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Were ancient Enoch manuscripts the inspiration for Moses 6–7?” Book of Moses Essay #5 (May 29, 2020).

22 B. R. Doak, Last, pp. 67–68.

23 Genesis 10:8. For more on the Hebrew term gibbor and its use in the accounts of Enoch and Noah, see J. M. Bradshaw et al., God’s Image 2, OVERVIEW Moses 6, p. 41 and OVERVIEW Moses 8, p. 203.

24 Genesis 10:8.

25 Genesis 10:9: “a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Cf. Ether 2:1. Note that the JST of Genesis 10:9 modifies the KJV to read “a mighty hunter in the land,” thus eliminating any intimation of divine sanction for Nimrod’s hunting.

26 Genesis 11:4. For more on the motif of making a name, see J. M. Bradshaw et al., God’s Image 2, pp. 386, 388–390, 393–397, 414–415.

27 J. Grossman, Who Are the Sons of God?, p. 16.

28 See Moses 6:31, 8:27.

29 J. L. Angel, Humbling, p. 73.

30 J. L. Angel, Humbling, p. 74. See also the characterization of giants “as unruly or overgrown vegetation” that is described with examples in B. R. Doak, Giant in a Thousand Years, pp. 25–27.

31 As given in the Martinez translation.

32 Some of these differences are highlighted in J. L. Angel, Humbling, p. 76.

33 Ibid., p. 76.

34 See Pearl of Great Price Central, “Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Enoch and the Other ‘Wild Man’,” Book of Moses Essay #6 (June 5, 2020).

35 Daniel 6:22, mouth = Aramaic pum. Cf. M. Henze, Additions to Daniel: Bel, 31–40, pp. 138–139; M. Abegg, Jr. et al., Scrolls Bible, p. 494; A. Pietersma et al., Septuagint, p. 1011 (Greek stoma [OG, Theodotion]). Note the parallel in Daniel 6:17 (emphasis added), where the king shut and sealed “the mouth (Aramaic pum) of the den” with a stone and his signet. John Collins (J. J. Collins, Daniel, pp. 267, 271) finds metaphorical parallels in Psalms 57:5 (“I lie in the midst of lions”); 22:14–29; 91:13; 1QH 5:5–7 and in a Babylonian poem: “It was Marduk who put a muzzle on the mouth of the lion that was devouring me” (W. W. Hallo et al., Context, The poem of the righteous sufferer (1.153), 1:491. Cf. W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom, p. 56). According to W. G. Lambert, “the first attestation the [Babylonian] poem receives is in the library of Ashurbanipal” (ibid., p. 26). Louis Hartman and Alexander Di Lella caution as follows regarding the historical setting of this story (L. F. Hartman et al., Book of Daniel, p. 199):

Whereas the keeping of lions in ancient Mesopotamia is well attested in the inscriptions and stone reliefs of the Assyrian kings, who used to let the lions out of their cage to hunt them down, there is no ancient evidence for the keeping of lions in underground pits, apart from the present story and perhaps its variant [Bel and the Dragon]. Perhaps one might compare, for a later period, the hypogeum of the Roman Colosseum, where animals were kept before being brought up to the arena.

A temporary holding area for lions is also attested in an 1800 BCE letter from a senior official to a king of Mari in Old Babylon (J. E. Reade, Assyrian Royal Hunt, pp. 54–55).

36 For the “power of language,” see Moses 7:13. For the “opening of the mouth,” see Essay #2.

37 See, e.g., the arguments of J. L. Angel, Humbling, pp. 76–79, who, it should be noted, not only sees in the Book of Giants and other Enoch texts a “hostility” to Mesopotamian “culture or rule” but also tentatively conjectures the presence of a similar attitude toward the rulers of the Hellenistic age.

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Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Enoch’s Call Raises the Possibility of Repentance

Book of Moses Essay #11

Moses 6:47, 50-68

With contribution by Jefferey M. Bradshaw

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In the Book of Moses, Enoch’s reading of the book of remembrance put the people in great fear:1

And as Enoch spake forth the words of God, the people trembled, and could not stand in his presence.

Likewise, in the Book of Giants,2 we read that the leaders of the mighty warriors “bowed down and wept in front of [Enoch].” 1 Enoch describes a similar reaction after Enoch finished his preaching:3

Then I [i.e., Enoch] went and spoke to all of them together. And they were all afraid and trembling and fear seized them. And they asked that I write a memorandum of petition4 for them, that they might have forgiveness, and that I recite the memorandum of petition for them in the presence of the Lord of heaven. For they were no longer able to speak or to lift their eyes to heaven out of shame for the deeds through which they had sinned and for which they had been condemned.… and they were sitting and weeping at Abel-Main,5 … covering their faces.

Conceived in Sin

Among the declarations that Joseph Smith’s Enoch makes to his hearers from the book of remembrance is that their children “are conceived in sin.”6  Richard Draper, Kent Brown, and Michael Rhodes explain the appearance of this surprising phrase, seemingly inconsistent with the preceding verse, as follows:7

This statement appears to be troublesome in light of an earlier passage declaring that “children are whole from the foundation of the world.”8 The act of conceiving between married parents is not itself sinful. Rather, it seems that because of the Fall, children come into a world saturated with sin. There is no escape. Therefore, “when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts.”

When verses 64 and 65 are put together, however, it becomes apparent that the tragic state of the children of Enoch’s hearers is not due simply to their fallen nature, but rather to the depth of their parents’ willfully chosen corruption. As Nibley expressed it:9 “[T]he wicked people of Enoch’s day … did indeed conceive their children in sin, since they were illegitimate offspring of a totally amoral society.” The relevant passage in the Book of Giants reads:10 “Let it be known to you th[at  ] … your activity and (that) of [your] wive[s  ] those (giants) [and their] son[s and] the [w]ives o[f  ] through your fornication on the earth.”11

In al-Kisa’i’s version of the Islamic Tales of the Prophets, we are given further detail on the people’s wickedness:12

When [Enoch] was forty years old, God made him a messenger to the sons of Cain, who were giants on the earth and so preoccupied with frivolity, singing and playing musical instruments that none of them was on guard. They would gather about a woman and fornicate with her, and the devils would make their action seem good to them. They fornicated with others, daughters, and sisters, and mingled together.

A Note of Hope

Despite the rampant immorality described among their societies, both the Qumran and the Book of Moses sermons of Enoch “end on a note of hope”13 —a feature unique to these two Enoch accounts. In the Book of Moses account, Enoch draws attention to God’s invitation of repentance that he gave to Father Adam:14

If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions … ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost … and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you.

In the Book of Giants, Enoch also gives hope to the wicked through repentance:15 “set loose what you hold captive … and pray.”16

Reeves17  conjectures that another difficult-to-reconstruct phrase in the Book of Giants might also be understood as an “allusion to a probationary period for the repentance of the [gibborim].”18 The description of a period of repentance seems to echo a specific Jewish tradition that continues to modern times. In this regard, we note Geo Widengren’s description of the Jewish tradition that “on New Year’s Day, … the judgment is carried out when three kinds of tablets are presented, one for the righteous, one for sinners, and one for those occupying an intermediate position.”19 Widengren explains that “people of an intermediate position are granted ten days of repentance between New Year’s Day and Yom Kippurim.”20

Unfortunately, as we see later in the story, the initial sorrowing of the gibborim brought about only short-lived repentance for some of them. However, Matthew Goff speculates, drawing on both the Qumran and Manichaean versions of the Book of Giants that others may have repented more sincerely. He asks:21

Why would God give the [gibborim] a vision about the Flood in the first place? Why give them the opportunity to know about the Flood before it happens? If God’s plan is to kill them, why bother? The dreams disclosed to Ohyah and Hahyah may signify that God, by making clear to the [gibborim] what the punishment for their crimes would be, gives them the opportunity to repent. This may be a variation of the tradition often associated with the 120 years of Genesis 6:3. And, even though there is no explicit evidence for this proposal in the Qumran Book of Giants, the Manichaean Book of Giants suggests that this narrative element could have been present in the Qumran text and that the prayers of the [gibborim], in striking contrast to those of the angels in [the 1 Enoch Book of] Watchers, could have been successful.

The real hope of repentance preached by Enoch in the Book of Moses22 and in the Book of Giants is yet another resemblance between these two texts, and a significant difference between their outlook and that of 1 Enoch.

This article was adapted and expanded from Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 47–48.

Further Reading

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 47–48.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005, pp. 97–98, 101, 103.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986, p. 216.

References

al-Kisa’i, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah. ca. 1000-1100. Tales of the Prophets (Qisas al-anbiya). Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston, Jr. Great Books of the Islamic World, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Chicago, IL: KAZI Publications, 1997.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005.

Etheridge, J. W., ed. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch, with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum from the Chaldee. 2 vols. London, England: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862, 1865. Reprint, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005. http://www.targum.info/pj/psjon.htm. (accessed August 10, 2007).

Goff, Matthew. “The sons of the Watchers in the Book of Watchers and the Qumran Book of Giants.” In Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Enrico Morano. Wissenschlaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 360, ed. Jörg Frey, 115-27. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.

Kee, Howard C. “Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. Vol. 1, 775-828. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1983.

Martinez, Florentino Garcia. “The Book of Giants (4Q203).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 260-61. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

———. “The Book of Giants (4Q530).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 261-62. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

Milik, Józef Tadeusz, and Matthew Black, eds. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments from Qumran Cave 4. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1976.

Milstein, Rachel. “The stories and their illustrations.” In Stories of the Prophets: Illustrated Manuscripts of Qisas al-Anbiya, edited by Rachel Milstein, Karin Rührdanz and Barbara Schmitz. Islamic Art and Architecture Series 8, eds. Abbas Daneshvari, Robert Hillenbrand and Bernard O’Kane, 105-83. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999.

Milstein, Rachel, Karin Rührdanz, and Barbara Schmitz. Stories of the Prophets: Illustrated Manuscripts of Qisas al-Anbiya. Islamic Art and Architecture Series 8, ed. Abbas Daneshvari, Robert Hillenbrand and Bernard O’Kane. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999.

Nibley, Hugh W. “Churches in the wilderness.” In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, edited by Truman G. Madsen, 155-212. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1978.

———. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986.

Nickelsburg, George W. E., ed. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108. Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001.

Parry, Donald W., and Emanuel Tov, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader Second ed. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013.

Reeves, John C. Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 14. Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992.

Reeves, John C., and Annette Yoshiko Reed. Sources from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 2 vols. Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Rich, Tracy R. Days of Awe. In Judaism 101. http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday3.htm. (accessed March 31, 2020.

Stuckenbruck, Loren T. The Book of Giants from Qumran: Texts, Translation, and Commentary. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1997.

Touger, Eliyahu. The Rambam’s Misheneh Torah. In Chabad.org. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/682956/jewish/Mishneh-Torah.htm. (accessed March 31, 2020).

Widengren, Geo. The Ascension of the Apostle and the Heavenly Book. King and Saviour III, ed. Geo Widengren. Uppsala, Sweden: A. B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1950.

Wise, Michael, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. New York City, NY: Harper-Collins, 1996.

Notes on Figures

Figure 1. Istanbul, Turkey, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, B. 249, fol. 16b. From R. Milstein et al., Stories, plate 25. For details on the scene, see R. Milstein, Stories and Illustrations, pp. 111–113.

Footnotes

 

1 Moses 6:47.

2 F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 4:6, p. 260. Cf. D. W. Parry et al., DSSR (2013), 4Q403, 4:6, p. 943: “they prostrated and wept bef[ore.”

3 G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 13:3–5, 8–9, pp. 234, 237. See H. W. Nibley, Enoch, p. 214.

4 H. W. Nibley, Enoch, p. 216: “a Hypomnemata, or memorial.”

5 G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, p. 250 n. 9–10:
Abel-Main is the Aramaic form of Abel-Maim … (cf. 1 Kings 15:20 and its parallel in 2 Chronicles 16:4). It is modern Tel Abil, situated approximately seven kilometers west-northwest of “the waters of Dan,” at the mouth of the valley between the Lebanon range to the west and Mount Hermon, here called Senir, one of its biblical names (Deuteronomy 3:8-9; cf. Song of Solomon 4:8; Ezekiel 27:5).
For more on the history of the sacred geography of this region, see ibid., pp. 238–247.

6 Moses 6:55.

7 R. D. Draper et al., Commentary, p. 103.

8 Moses 6:54.

9 H. W. Nibley, Churches, p. 160.

10 L. T. Stuckenbruck, Book of Giants, 4Q203, 8:6-9, p. 90. Cf. Cf. J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, p. 315: “Let it be known to you that [you] n[ot … ] and your works and those of your wives […] themselves [and their] children and the wives of [their children … ] by your prostitution on the earth”; F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 8:6–9, p. 260: “Know that […] not your deeds and those of your wives […] they and their sons and the wives of [their sons…] for your prostitution in the land.” Cf. G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 10:9, p. 215).

11 See D. W. Parry et al., DSSR (2013), 4Q403, 8:6–9, p. 945. Cf. J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 114 n. 9. Compare H. C. Kee, Testaments, Dan 5:6, p. 809: “I read in the Book of Enoch the Righteous… that all the spirits of sexual promiscuity … cause [the sons of Levi] to commit sin before the Lord”; ibid., Simeon 5:4, p. 786: “For I have seen in a copy of the book of Enoch that your sons will be ruined by promiscuity”; ibid., Naphtali 4:1, p. 812: “I have read in the writing of holy Enoch that you will stray from the Lord, living in accord with every wickedness of the gentiles and committing every lawlessness of Sodom”; ibid., Benjamin 9:1, p. 827: “From the words of Enoch the Righteous I tell you that you will be sexually promiscuous like the promiscuity of the Sodomites.”

12 M. i. A. A. al-Kisa’i, Tales, p. 88. Cf. J. C. Reeves et al., Enoch from Antiquity 1, pp. 137–138.

13 H. W. Nibley, Churches, p. 159.

14 Moses 6:52.

15 L. T. Stuckenbruck, Book of Giants, 4Q203, 8:14–15, p. 90; D. W. Parry et al., DSSR (2013), 4203, 8:14–15, p. 947. J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 65 similarly translates this as: “free your prisoners and pray!” He adduces conjectural evidence for this interpretation from the Manichaean fragments of the Book of Giants that “retain some isolated references to ‘prisoners’ or ‘slaves.’”

16 Martinez reads this as: “Now, then, unfasten your chains [of sin]… and pray” (F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 8:14–15, p. 261).Cf. J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, pp. 315, 316 n. L. 12: “And now, loosen your bonds which tie [you] up […] and begin to pray.” Ibid., p. 316 n. L. 14 explains the text as follows: “The Watchers seem to be already chained up by the angels; in order to be able to pray, to lift their arms in the gesture of suppliants, they have to have their bonds loosened.” See also M. Wise et al., DSS, The Book of the Giants, 4Q203, 8:14–15: “But now, loosen the bonds [ … ] and pray.”

17 J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 103. Cf. J. W. Etheridge, Onkelos, Genesis 6:3, p. 47.

18 Alternatively, this phrase is translated by F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q530), 3:3, p. 261 as “the evidence of the Giants.”

19 G. Widengren, Ascension, p. 38 n. 2.

20 Ibid., p. 38 n. 2. The idea continues today in what has come to be called the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) or Aseret Yemei Teshuvah (Ten Days of Repentance/Return). The tradition draws on Isaiah 55:6. Which says: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon his name while he is near.” Maimonides formulated the most cited passages associated with this period. He wrote (E. Touger, Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, Laws of Teshuvah, 2:6):

Even though repentance and crying out to God are always timely, during the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur it is exceedingly appropriate, and accepted immediately [on high].

According to T. R. Rich, Days of Awe:

One of the ongoing themes of the Days of Awe is the concept that God has “books” that he writes our names in, writing down who will live and who will die, who will have a good life and who will have a bad life, for the next year. These books are written in on Rosh Hashana, but our actions during the Days or Awe can alter God’s decree. The actions that change the decree are “teshuvah, tefilah, and tzedakah,” repentance, prayer, good deeds (usually, charity). These “books” are sealed on Yom Kippur. This concept of writing in books is the source of the common greeting during this time: “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

21 M. Goff, Sons of the Watchers, pp. 126–127.

22 Moses 6:50ff.

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Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Enoch Reads from a Book of Remembrance

Book of Moses Essay #10

Moses 6:46-47

With contribution by Jeffery M. Bradshaw

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All Men Were Offended Because of Enoch (Moses 6:37)

As was described in a previous Essay,1 Moses 6–7 depicts scenes of wars, bloodshed, and slaughter among the people to which Enoch was commanded to preach.2 The Qumran Book of Giants account likewise begins with references to “slaughter, destruction, and moral corruption”3 that filled the earth.4 In view of the depth of the wickedness of the people, it was impossible for Enoch to “prophesy nice” so as to please the people. Hugh Nibley describes the situation as follows:5

[Enoch] goes out and preaches, and all men are offended because he doesn’t bring good news. Remember what the people say to Samuel the Lamanite, “Tell us what’s right with Zarahemla; don’t tell us what’s wrong with Zarahemla.” Samuel the Lamanite said, “When a person comes and tells you how wonderful you are, you clothe him in fine apparel; you carry him on your shoulders and say he is a true prophet. If he tells you your sins, you immediately cry out, kill him; he’s a false prophet.”6 This is the situation here. Nobody likes [Enoch] at all. Notice: “… standing upon the hills and the high places, and cried with a loud voice, testifying against their works; and all men were offended because of him.”7 Nobody liked his very negative record. Why? Because he testified against their works. … And so they tried to pass him off as a nut.8

As with Alma and Amulek, who the Lord did not suffer to “stretch forth [their] hands, and exercise the power of God which [was] in [them],”9 Enoch was initially constrained from physical action, relying solely on the “power of the language which God had given him.”10 But then, as now, their deeds were recorded both on earth and in heaven “that the judgments which [God] shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.”11

Heavenly Books in Ancient Tradition

Consistent with the Book of Moses account that describes the book of Adam as being handed down to Enoch, the Zohar teaches that Enoch had a copy of the “book of the generations of Adam” from the same heavenly source that revealed it to Adam.12 Hugh Nibley gives a more specific description of how the pattern of sacred books functions in the stories and teachings of Latter-day Saint scripture:13

It all begins on earth with the “book of the Generations of Adam,”14 a complete record of names and events and of God’s dealing with his children on earth. He requires the Saints in every age to keep such a book, or rather to continue the original, adding their own names and histories to it, as they “arrange by lot the inheritances of the saints whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God,”15 which is the same as the “book of remembrance,”16 which goes back to Adam17 and is also “the genealogy of the sons of Adam.”18 Enoch reads from the books to remind his people of “the commandments, which I [God] gave unto their father, Adam”19 when he “called upon our father Adam by his own voice,”20 and ordered them to pass it on: “Teach these things freely unto your children,”21 and in time they are to reach us!22 The rule is that “many books … of every kind” are “handed down from one generation to another … even until they [the people] have fallen into transgression,”23 at which time they disappear until another prophet brings them forth.

In Jewish tradition, several types of “heavenly books” are distinguished:24

  • The Book of Life, in which the names of the righteous are written. In some accounts, there is a corresponding Book of Death in which the names of the wicked are recorded. This book is “by far the most common” type of heavenly book mentioned and references to it are found both in the Old and New Testaments.

  • The Book of Fate “records what will happen in advance, either to an individual or to a larger community.” It appears “only rarely in the Hebrew scriptures but much more frequently in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Second Temple literature, and especially in Jubilees.”

  • The Book of Deeds, a “heavenly accounting of people’s works, good or evil,” which “regulates entrance into eternal happiness.” Like the Book of Fate, this type of heavenly book predominates in Isaiah, Daniel, and in the pseudepigrapha.

Enoch’s Book of Remembrance as a “Book of Deeds”

The heavenly book referred to in the Book of Moses, as in related Jewish pseudepigrapha, resembles most closely a Book of Deeds. In Moses 6, we read of Enoch’s preaching to the people out of this “book of remembrance,”25 in which both the words of God and the deeds of the people were recorded. Correspondingly, in the Book of Giants, a book in the form of “two stone tablets”26 is given by Enoch to Mahujah to stand as a witness of “their fallen state and betrayal of their ancient covenants.”27 In Pseudo-Jubilees, another fragmentary book found at Qumran, it is written that:28

    1. [ … E]noch after we taught him …

    2. [ … the ea]rth among the sons of mankind. And he testified against all of them.

    3. [ … ] and also against the Watchers …

In the Book of Moses, Enoch says the heavenly book was written “according to the pattern given by the finger of God.”29 This may allude to the idea that a similar record of the wickedness of the people was being kept in heaven,30 as attested in 1 Enoch:31

Do not suppose to yourself nor say in your heart that they do not know nor are your unrighteous deeds seen in heaven, nor are they written down before the Most High. Henceforth know that all your unrighteous deeds are written down day by day, until the day of your judgment.

As Enoch is depicted as an author of the book of remembrance in Moses 6, so he is described in the Testament of Abraham as the heavenly being who is responsible for recording the deeds of mankind so that they can be brought into remembrance.32 Likewise, in Jubilees 10:17 we read:33 “Enoch had been created as a witness to the generations of the world so that he might report every deed of each generation in the day of judgment.” Thus, Enoch as a scribe and witness of the heavenly book of remembrance, as described in the Book of Moses, fits squarely into ancient Jewish teachings about Enoch.

This article was adapted and expanded from Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 46–47.

Further Reading

Baynes, Leslie. The Heavenly Book Motif in Judeo-Christian Apocalypses 200 BCE–200 CE. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 152, ed. Benjamin G. Wright, III. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012, pp. 85–105.

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014, pp. 46–47.

Draper, Richard D., S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005, p. 97.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986, pp. 133, 214–217.

———. 1986. Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Brigham Young University, 2004, pp. 269, 275.

References

Allison, Dale C., ed. Testament of Abraham. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 2003.

Baynes, Leslie. The Heavenly Book Motif in Judeo-Christian Apocalypses 200 BCE-200 CE. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 152, ed. Benjamin G. Wright, III. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.

Kee, Howard C. “Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. Vol. 1, 775-828. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1983.

Martinez, Florentino Garcia. “The Book of Giants (1Q23).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 260. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

———. “The Book of Giants (4Q203).” In The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, edited by Florentino Garcia Martinez. 2nd ed. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson, 260-61. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

Matt, Daniel C., ed. The Zohar, Pritzker Edition. Vol. 1. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.

Milik, Józef Tadeusz, and Matthew Black, eds. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments from Qumran Cave 4. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1976.

Mitton, George L. “The Book of Mormon as a resurrected book and a type of Christ.” In Remembrance and Return: Essays in Honor of Louis C. Midgley, edited by Ted Vaggalis and Daniel C. Peterson, 121-46. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2020.

Nibley, Hugh W. Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986.

———. 1986. Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Brigham Young University, 2004.

Nickelsburg, George W. E., ed. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108. Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001.

Parry, Donald W., and Emanuel Tov, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. 6 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.

———, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader Second ed. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013.

Reeves, John C. Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 14. Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992.

Reeves, John C., and Annette Yoshiko Reed. Sources from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 2 vols. Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Snell, David. 2020. New Find in Dead Sea Scrolls Reveals Joseph Smith Scored Another Lucky Guess’ (16 June 2020).  In Third Hour. thirdhour.org/blog/faith/scripture/dead-sea-scrolls-joseph-smith-book-of-remembrance/. (accessed June 16, 2020).

Widengren, Geo. The Ascension of the Apostle and the Heavenly Book. King and Saviour III, ed. Geo Widengren. Uppsala, Sweden: A. B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1950.

Wintermute, O. S. “Jubilees.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. Vol. 2, 35-142. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1983.

Wise, Michael, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. New York City, NY: Harper-Collins, 1996.

Notes on Figures

Figure 1. Found at https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-11613/ (accessed February 14, 2020).

Footnotes

 

1 See Pearl of Great Price Central, “Enoch’s Teaching Mission: Secret Works, Oaths, and Murders,” Book of Moses Essay# 9 (June 26, 2020).

2 See Moses 6:15; 7:7, 16.

3 J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 67.

4 M. Wise et al., DSS, Book of Giants (1Q23), 9+14+15:2-4, p. 291; F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (1Q23), 9+14+15:2-4.

5 H. W. Nibley, Teachings of the PGP, p. 275.

6 See Helaman 13:26–28.

7 Moses 6:37.

8 See Moses 6:38: “a strange thing in the land; a wild man hath come among us.” For more on this theme, see Essay #6.

9 Alma 14:10.

10 Moses 7:13.

11 Alma 14:11.

12 Zohar 1:37b (ed. Vilna) as cited in J. C. Reeves et al., Enoch from Antiquity 1, p. 87: “They brought down to Adam the protoplast (from heaven) an actual book. … Enoch also had a book and that book was from the (same) place as the ‘book of the generations of Adam’ (Genesis 5:1).” Cf. D. C. Matt, Zohar 1, Be-Reshit 1:37b, pp. 237–238.
The book of remembrance mentioned in the Book of Moses seems to have been passed down to the righteous descendants of Adam. For example, Moses 6:3–5 prefaces its description of the keeping of “a book of remembrance … in the language of Adam” with a mention of the births of Seth and Enos, who called “upon the name of the Lord” and “it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration.” This passage recalls a fragmentary text from Qumran that has been given the title “The Secret of the Way Things Are” (4Q415-418, 1Q26, 4Q423). It likewise preserves a tradition that a “book of remembrance” was successively bequeathed to Seth and Enos “with a spiritual people” (M. Wise et al., DSS, 4Q417 Fragment 1, column 1, lines 13–17, p. 484). Though Jewish pseudepigrapha, Josephus, and Christian gnostic writings all mention Seth in connection with this tradition, it is rarer to find it associated with both Seth and Enosh. Thanks to David Snell for pointing out this reference (D. Snell, New Find).

13 H. W. Nibley, Enoch, p. 133.

14 Moses 6:8.

15 D&C 85:7.

16 D&C 85:9.

17 Moses 6:45–46.

18 Moses 6:22.

19 Moses 6:28.

20 Moses 6:51.

21 Moses 6:58.

22 D&C 107:56.

23 Helaman 3:15–16.

24 L. Baynes, Heavenly Book, pp. 7–8.

25 Moses 6:46. Cf. Moses 6:5.

26 Sundermann Fragment L I Recto 1-9, in J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 109. See also p. 110 n. 6 and p. 154 n. 306. Cf. 4Q203 Fragments 7b 1-3, column ii and 8 1-12, in D. W. Parry et al., DSSR (2013), p. 945. J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, p. 335 cites a fragment of the Middle Persian Kawân and a small fragment from Qumran (2Q26) for more detail about the tablets. The first tablet, made of wood, is washed by the wicked in order to efface its writing. It “symbolizes the generation of the Flood” who will be “submerged by the waters of the Flood … The tablet of line 3 seems to be a second or third one, since it is the ‘board’ of salvation, the ark of Noah and his three sons.”

27 H. W. Nibley, Enoch, p. 214. See F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 8:1-11, p. 260-261

28 4Q227 (4QpsJubc?), Fragment 2, 1, 3–4, trans. J. VanderKam and J. T. Milik, in D. W. Parry et al., Reader, p. 117. Cf. J. C. Reeves et al., Enoch from Antiquity 1, pp. 58–59; J. T. Milik et al., Enoch, p. 12.

29 Moses 6:46.

30 Noting that the Book of Giants refers to the second tablet given to Mahujah by Enoch as being a “copy” (F. G. Martinez, Book of Giants (4Q203), 8:3, p. 260), Reeves (J. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore, p. 111 n. 3) conjectures: “Perhaps Enoch employed the ‘heavenly tablets’ in the formulation of his interpretation.” For summaries of the literature on heavenly books in 1 Enoch, Jewish, and Christian traditions, see G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, pp. Ibid.478–480; G. Widengren, Ascension; L. Baynes, Heavenly Book; G. L. Mitton, Book of Mormon As a Resurrected Book

31 G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 98:7-8, p. 468. Cf. 81–82, pp. 333–334, 93:2, p. 434, 97:6, p. 467, 104:7, p. 513.

32 D. C. Allison, Testament, 10:1, 6-7, 11, p. 254. See also Pseudo-Titus, De dispositione sanctimonii (ed. De Bruyne): “From among the earliest people Enoch the righteous was appointed to write down the deeds of the first humans”; Ms. Monacensi 287 fol. 59 (ed. Boll): “Enoch—the seventh after Adam—recorded the coming wrathful judgment of God … on stone tablets”—both sources as cited in J. C. Reeves et al., Enoch from Antiquity 1, pp. 92, 93. Likewise, in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Dan, the son of Jacob-Israel, finds the record of the wickedness of the sons of Levi in the book of Enoch (H. C. Kee, Testaments, Dan 5:6, p. 809): “I read in the Book of Enoch the Righteous that your prince is Satan and that all the spirits of sexual promiscuity and of arrogance … cause them to commit sin before the Lord.” See also ibid., Simeon 5:4, p. 786: “For I have seen in a copy of the book of Enoch that your sons will be ruined by promiscuity”; ibid., Naphtali 4:1, p. 812: “I have read in the writing of holy Enoch that you will stray from the Lord, living in accord with every wickedness of the gentiles and committing every lawlessness of Sodom”; ibid., Benjamin 9:1, p. 827: “From the words of Enoch the Righteous I tell you that you will be sexually promiscuous like the promiscuity of the Sodomites.” For a general overview of the heavenly book of deeds in second temple literature, see L. Baynes, Heavenly Book, pp. 85–105.

33 O. S. Wintermute, Jubilees, 10:17, p. 76.