Parallel Paths to Heaven

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At the end of the Gospel of Mark, we read: “So then the Lord Jesus … was taken up into heaven, and he sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).¹

It is a remarkable fate—to be taken up bodily into heaven—yet, in the Bible, it is not unique.

In the Book of Genesis, we find the first figure to be taken up by God: Enoch.² Enoch’s story is told briefly in Genesis, as part of the genealogical list of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah. The genealogy begins:

When Adam had lived 130 years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived 800 years; and he begot sons and daughters. All the days that Adam lived came to 930 years; then he died.

(Genesis 5:3–5)³

The formula is repeated for the subsequent generations. In each case, we are told only the patriarch’s name, his son’s name, whether he had sons and daughters, his age when his son was born and his age at death—until we get to Adam’s great-great-great-great-grandson Enoch:

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he begot Methuselah. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years; and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch came to 365 026years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him.”

(Genesis 5:21–24)

Enoch, it seems, does not die—at least, his death is not recorded. Rather, he is taken by God. The Bible does not tell us what this means. Enoch is first mentioned in this enigmatic paragraph, and then never again. But outside the Bible, Enoch and his mysterious journey to heaven inspired an outpouring of literature, especially from the fourth century B.C.E. to the first century C.E. (called the Second Temple period).

Strangely enough, the life of Enoch as described in these extrabiblical texts parallels Jesus’ own path to heaven. Both men, as we shall see, are born of a woman but take their place in heaven as divine beings bearing the name of God.⁴ The similarities between Enoch and Jesus shed light on the Jewish roots of the New Testament account of Jesus’ life. They also allow us to trace the emergence of rabbinic Judaism and Christianity from their common source in Second Temple Judaism.

Enoch’s tale is recorded in three books, called today 1–3 Enoch.⁵ These noncanonical books are included among what scholars refer to as the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (literally “false writing”) because they are falsely attributed to biblical figures like Enoch, Jacob, Adam, etc.⁶ That enigmatic passage in Genesis about Enoch supplied later interpreters with considerable grist for speculations as to its meaning, and provided the occasion for expanding on the patriarch’s story.

First Enoch (comprising five main parts or “books”) is clearly the most important of the Enoch writings, and the most influential in early Jewish and Christian circles. Eleven fragmentary manuscripts of portions of its Aramaic original were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Greek translations were made early on. First Enoch was considered authoritative in some circles, including early Christian groups, and the New Testament Epistle of Jude quotes from it (v. 14). It eventually became a part of the Old Testament of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The oldest of the three Enoch books treated here, First Enoch is described in more detail in the accompanying review (see “Enoch’s Vision of the Next World”) of George Nickelsburg’s new translation and commentary on the text.⁷ But generally, First Enoch contains revelations that Enoch is supposed to have received in ancient times when he “walked with God” and that he then transmitted to his long-living son Methuselah for the benefit of people living in the end-times. These revelations deal with the nature of the cosmos, the origins of evil and the final judgment upon it, and the ultimate salvation of the elect. First Enoch is a compilation of material dating from the fourth century B.C.E. to the first century C.E.⁸ Originally written in Aramaic, it survives in full only in the ancient Ethiopic language Ge’ez (a precursor to modern Amharic).

Second Enoch, which borrows heavily from 1 Enoch, also describes the life and revelations of Enoch and the events that followed his being taken into heaven. It was most likely written in Greek in the Jewish community of Alexandria, Egypt, sometime in the first century B.C.E. or the first century C.E.⁹ Among Christian writers, Origen is the first to have used it.¹⁰

Third Enoch is an apocalypse (revelation) attributed to an early-second-century C.E. Palestinian rabbi and scholar named Ishmael. Ishmael ascends to heaven, where he is met by Enoch (in the guise of an angel named Metatron), who provides the rabbi with detailed descriptions of the heavenly world. Written and preserved in Hebrew, the version of Third Enoch that has come down to us probably dates to the fifth or sixth century C.E., but it contains much older traditions.¹¹

In comparing Enoch’s story to Jesus’, we will rely on all three Books of Enoch.

When reading Jesus’ and Enoch’s stories side-by-side, we must remember that Jesus was a person who belongs to ancient history, one whose birth and death are part of that history, even if some parts of his story are not “history” in the usual sense. Enoch is a figure from Israel’s mythic past, more legend than history. But both are sacred stories, and I will treat them as such here.

Enoch’s story begins with his birth, recorded in Genesis: “When Jared had lived 162 years, he begot Enoch” (Genesis 5:18). Later literature underscores Enoch’s mortal origins: We read in 3 Enoch 6:2 that he was “one born of a woman.”¹²

The very same phrase—“born of a woman”—was used by the apostle Paul to describe Jesus’ birth (in Galatians 4:4).¹³ This phrase is used in the Bible (for example, Job 14:1) to underscore the mortality of human beings. Paul, whose epistles predate the Gospels, never mentions the virgin birth of Jesus; apparently, he did not know of the tradition. For Paul, Jesus becomes Messiah or “Son of God” only at his 027resurrection: “[Jesus was] descended from David according to the flesh and [was] designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:3–4).

Both Enoch’s and Jesus’ careers begin with a vision of heaven. This vision gives them the divine authority needed for their work and teaching.

For Jesus this happens at his baptism:

When [Jesus] came up out of the water, immediately, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

(Mark 1:10–11)

Enoch sees God enthroned:

And I saw a lofty throne; and its appearance was like ice; and its wheels were like the shining sun; and its guardians were cherubim; and from beneath the throne issued streams of flaming fire. And I was unable to see. And the Great Glory sat upon it; his raiment was like the appearance of the sun and whiter than much snow.

(1 Enoch 14:18–20)

As Enoch states at the beginning of 1 Enoch (1:2), this holy vision helps him to understand “everything.”

A special feature of Enoch’s adventures as related in 1 Enoch is his close relationship with the angels. This special relationship is underscored in the various journeys that Enoch makes throughout the cosmos in the company of angels (1 Enoch 17–36, 52–57), as far as “the ends of the earth” (1 Enoch 33:1). Indeed, this motif may have been developed out of an interpretation of the Genesis reference to Enoch’s “walking with God [‘Elohim],” for ‘Elohim is a plural form that could be taken as a reference to divine beings or angels.¹⁴

Jesus, too, is depicted as having a close relationship with angels. Following his commissioning as Messiah, Jesus undergoes a 40-day ordeal in the desert, “tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:13). It is also reported that “the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:13). In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Nathaniel that he “will see heaven opened, 028and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:51). But at the time of his arrest, Jesus renounces angelic ministrations: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 16:53).

Once Enoch and Jesus receive their divine commissions, they preach remarkably similar messages. Like the prophets of old, they warn their audiences of the dangers of sin. Jesus exhorts his hearers to enter the narrow gate of righteousness that leads to life, rather than the wide gate of evil that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13–14). He blesses the poor, the hungry and those who mourn, and he pronounces woes upon the rich, the satiated and “those who laugh now” (Luke 6:20–25). “Be prepared,” he urges his listeners as he prophesies the events that will lead up to the final judgment, and predicts the fates of the righteous and the sinners (Matthew 24:39–44, 25:31–46).

Enoch tells his “children” to choose the way of righteousness and life, and to avoid the way of evil and death: “And now I say to you, my children: Love righteousness and walk in it; for the paths of righteousness are worthy of acceptance, but the paths of iniquity will quickly be destroyed and vanish … Walk not in the paths of evil, nor in the paths of death; approach them not, lest you be destroyed” (1 Enoch 94:1–3). He pronounces woes upon the rich, the powerful, the sinful and the foolish: “Woe unto you, fools, for you shall perish through your folly!” (1 Enoch 98:9). He blesses the righteous; and he prophesies the events that will lead to the eternal judgment (1 Enoch 93:3–10, 91:11–17).

Both men offer “testaments” to their followers: In a lengthy speech before Jesus’ arrest in the Gospel of John (John 14–16), Jesus tells his disciples that he is 029going to prepare a place for them (John 14:1–3) and encourages them to abide in his love by loving one another. Before Enoch is taken up to heaven for the last time, he passes on his entire message to his son, Methuselah (1 Enoch 81:5–82:3, 91:1–19).^a

Both Enoch and Jesus are presented as wise men, or sages. Enoch knows the mysteries of the heavenly world, the cosmos and the stars. And he knows the origins of evil and violence on earth. According to Enoch, evil arrived with the descent of the rebel angels, called the Watchers. Jesus, too, knows the “secret of the kingdom of God,” as he reveals to his disciples (Mark 4:11). He also knows the source of evil. He reports to his followers, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Jesus knows the workings of Satan’s minions on earth—the demons—and he sees exorcising them as an attack on Satan’s kingdom (Mark 3:22–27).

Enoch and Jesus not only have similar visions of heaven; they also descend to the underworld. Enoch is taken to a “deep valley with burning fire” prepared for fallen angels (1 Enoch 54:1–6). In 3 Enoch, Enoch (here called Metatron) shows Rabbi Ishmael the place of punishment for the souls of erring angels (3 Enoch 3:47). In the New Testament letter 1 Peter, Jesus is said to make a post-Resurrection visit to the “spirits in prison”—an enigmatic passage that is traditionally interpreted as a descent to Hades (an event commonly referred to as the Harrowing of Hell).¹⁵ Some scholars believe that 1 Peter may be referring specifically to the fallen angels doomed by Enoch (1 Enoch 14:1–7).

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Both Enoch and Jesus undergo a transfiguration, which makes them as radiant as heavenly beings. Enoch reports on his experience:

And the Lord said to [the archangel] Michael, “Go and extract Enoch from his earthly clothing. And anoint him with my delightful oil, and put him into the clothes of my glory.” And so Michael did, just as the Lord had said to him. He anointed me and he clothed me. And the appearance of that oil is greater than the greatest light, and its ointment is like sweet dew, and its fragrance myrrh; and it is like the rays of the glittering sun. And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of his glorious ones, and there was no observable difference.

(2 Enoch 22:6–10, J recension [OTP 1:138])

Jesus’ transfiguration, related in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, takes place on a high mountain in the company of Peter, James and John:

He was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking to Jesus … Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

(Mark 9:2–7; cf. Matthew 17:1–5; Luke 9:28–35)

Enoch’s transfiguration takes place in heaven; Jesus’ on earth. But at the end of the Gospel of Mark we read of Jesus being taken to heaven (Mark 16:19, quoted above) and in the Book of Acts, we find a second brief description of Jesus’ bodily ascent to heaven. Jesus commissions his disciples to be his “witnesses,” and “as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9–10).

Both Enoch and Jesus are called the “Son of Man,” in terminology borrowed from the Book of Daniel. Daniel sees in a vision a human-like figure (literally, “one like a son of man”):

As I looked on, in the night vision,
One like a son of man [human being]
Came with the clouds of heaven;
He reached the Ancient of Days
And was presented to Him.
Dominion, glory and kingship were given to him;
All the peoples and nations of every language
must serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion that
shall not pass away,
And his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed.

(Daniel 7:13–14)

This “son of man,” or human being, appears with God in heaven and rules over an eternal kingdom.

In Enoch, the son of man appears enthroned beside God in a vision like that of Daniel (1 Enoch 46:1). To 031him is assigned the judgment of sinners: “[The son of man] sat on the throne of his glory, and the whole judgment was given to the son of man; and he will make sinners vanish and be destroyed from the face of earth” (1 Enoch 69:27). Later, Enoch is told that he is the son of man: “You are that son of man who was born for righteousness, and righteousness dwells upon you, and the righteousness of the Head of Days will not forsake you” (1 Enoch 71:14).

In Enoch, the son of man is also called “the Chosen One” or “the Messiah” (literally, “the Anointed One” [1 Enoch 48:10]): Thus, Enoch is presented as the expected Messiah! This has no precedent in Jewish tradition.

In the Gospels, Jesus routinely uses the phrase “the Son of Man” to refer to himself.¹⁶ As Son of Man, Jesus, like Enoch, will preside as judge at the Last Judgment: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31–32).

Those on the Son of Man’s left hand “will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

Finally, both Enoch and Jesus become divine rulers of heaven. In 3 Enoch, Rabbi Ishmael asks the angel Metatron (Enoch) who he is. Metatron responds that he is “Enoch, son of Jared,” but that at the time of the Flood, “the Holy One, blessed be he, appointed me in the height as a prince and a ruler among the ministering angels” (3 Enoch 4:5). Enoch-Metatron reports that God had dressed him in a majestic robe and had set a “glorious crown” on his head. “And he called me [Enoch] ‘the Lesser YHWH’” (3 Enoch 12:4–5).

In this way, Enoch, son of Jared, became a second God. Jesus too is invested with the divine name, as the apostle Paul records in his letter to the Philippians:

God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:6–11)

Prophets, wise men, end-time judges, men, gods: Both Enoch and Jesus are born of a woman but take their place in heaven as divine beings bearing the name of God: one “the Lesser YHWH,” the other “Christ” (=Messiah) or Lord (=YHWH).¹⁷

What is the significance of these similarities between Enoch and Jesus? How did early Christian traditions about Jesus come to look so much like early Jewish interpretations of Enoch?

One possibility is that the early Christian authors knew and borrowed from the Enoch books, at least 1 Enoch. The New Testament Epistle of Jude quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 in verse 14; Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, mentioned by 1 Peter, is sometimes identified as reflecting influence from 1 Enoch. Furthermore, the scene of Jesus sitting in judgment in Matthew 25, with the righteous at his right hand and the wicked at his left, may well have been influenced by Enoch’s account of the son of man sitting in judgment.

But a more productive way of looking at the similarities is to see them as reflecting the common culture that produced them both: Jesus’ and Enoch’s stories alike reflect a development in Jewish thinking in the Second Temple period. In this period we find numerous Jewish accounts of divine agents and 050other intermediary figures who share in God’s governance of the world and who assist in the redemption of the elect. Larry Hurtado, a scholar in Christian origins at the University of Edinburgh, has classified examples of divine agency speculation under three categories: personified divine attributes such as Sophia (“Wisdom”) and the Logos (“Word”); exalted patriarchs such as Enoch and others; and principal angels such as Michael, Yahoel and others.¹⁸ Such speculations occur not only in Jewish writings composed in Greek but also in Hebrew and Aramaic. This trend in Second Temple Judaism can be referred to as “binitarianism” (compared with later Christian “trinitarianism”).

In early Christianity, several agents of Jewish binitarianism came to be associated with Jesus: He is the Logos (Word) (John 1:1); like Lady Wisdom, he was present at the Creation (Colossians 1:15). The New Testament writers considered themselves fully Jewish and they were immersed in the Jewish world of thought. It is anachronistic to speak of the religion of first-century New Testament writers as “Christianity.” The adjective “Christian” was first applied by outsiders to early Jewish believers in Jesus (see Acts 11:26). The noun “Christianity” was coined by Bishop Ignatius of Antioch in the second century.¹⁹ So there was no such thing as “Christianity” until several decades after the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E.^b

By the second century, however, we begin to see the split that would result in Christianity, on the one hand, and rabbinic Judaism, on the other. Among second-century Christians, binitarianism expanded to trinitarianism: The Holy Spirit came to be recognized as divine along with God the Father and God the Son. By the fifth century, the trinitarian dogma of God as “one essence, three persons” had become standard among Christians.²⁰

At the same time, in rabbinic Judaism, we see a move away from binitarianism toward strict monotheism. This is reflected in what happened to Enoch. In rabbinic texts from this period, Enoch’s reputation begins to suffer. In the fifth-century commentary on Genesis known as Midrash Genesis Rabbah, the biblical phrase “and he [Enoch] was not” is interpreted not as something good, but as evidence that Enoch’s name had been inscribed in the scroll of the wicked. Furthermore, God’s taking of Enoch is dismissed as a simple euphemism for Enoch’s death.²¹

More tellingly, in the Babylonian Talmud, Enoch (here called Metatron) is severely punished for posing as a second power in heaven. When a visitor to heaven (Elisha ben Abuya) sees Metatron on his throne, he cries out, “There are indeed two powers in heaven!” But God condemns the visitor as an apostate, and orders 60 lashes of fire for poor Metatron-Enoch.²² As the biblical canon of the Hebrew Bible was finally established, Enoch was left out. His story was preserved only in Christian circles. The Lesser Yahweh was just a man after all.

Out of a single matrix—Second Temple Judaism—had emerged two new religions: rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. The paths of Enoch and Jesus—once parallel—now diverged.

At the end of the Gospel of Mark, we read: “So then the Lord Jesus … was taken up into heaven, and he sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).1 It is a remarkable fate—to be taken up bodily into heaven—yet, in the Bible, it is not unique. In the Book of Genesis, we find the first figure to be taken up by God: Enoch.2 Enoch’s story is told briefly in Genesis, as part of the genealogical list of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah. The genealogy begins: When Adam had lived 130 years, he begot […]