Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets. Baring-Gould Sabine

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СКАЧАТЬ of the Messias, and the signs of His coming.

      The close of this portion contains prophecies of Noah’s Flood, and accounts of the fall of the Angels, their evil life and their punishment. The whole account of the Flood, which comes in without rhyme or reason, is also a manifest interpolation.

      The Third portion (caps. 72-82) also under its own heading, is on “The Revolution of the Lights of Heaven,” and describes the motions of the planets, the duration of the seasons, and the number of the days of the months, and the great winds of heaven. With this part the voyage of Enoch closes.

      The Fourth part (caps. 83-91), which has no superscription, but which is generally designated as “The Book of the Dream History,” contains the visions shown Enoch in his youth, which, in a series of pictures, gives the history of the world till the end of time. This part closes with some words of advice from Enoch to his sons.

      The Fifth and last part (caps. 92-105) is “The Book of Exhortation,” addressed by Enoch to his family against sin in all its forms, under all its disguises, and concludes with an account of certain presages which should announce the birth of Noah.

      The Talmudic writers taught that Enoch at his translation became a chief angel, and that his name became Metatron. In the Chaldee version of Jonathan on the words of Genesis v. 24, it is said, “And Enoch served before the Lord in truth, and was not among the inhabitants of the earth, for he was translated above into the firmament, through the word of the Lord; and He called him by the name of Metatron (the great writer).” And in Rabbi Menachem’s Commentary on the Five Books of Moses, it is written, “The Rabbi Ishmael relates that he spoke to the Metatron, and he asked him why he was named with the name of his Creator and with seventy names, and why he was greater than any prince, and higher than any angel, and dearer than any servant, and more honored than all the host and more excellent in greatness, in power, and dominion than all the mighty ones. Then he answered and said, ‘Because I was Enoch, son of Jared. This is what the holy, ever-blessed God wrought, – when the races of the Flood (i. e., the sinners who lived at the time when the Flood came) sinned, and did unrighteously in their works, and had said to God, “Depart from us,” – He took me from that untoward generation into the highest heaven, that I might be a witness against that generation. And after the ever-blessed God had removed me that I should stand before the throne of his Majesty, and before the wheels of His chariot, and accomplish the requirements of the Most High, then my flesh became flame, and my arteries fire, and my bones juniper ashes, and the light of my eyelids became the flashing of lightning, and my eyeballs torches of fire, and the hair of my head was a flame, and all my limbs were fiery, burning wings, and my body became burning fire; and by my right hand flames were cleft asunder; and from my left hand burnt fiery torches; but around me blew a wind, and storm, and tempest; and before and behind me was the voice of a mighty earthquake.’”

      The Rabbi Ishmael gives further particulars which are enshrined in the great Jalkut Rubeni.157

      The Rabbi Ishmael, according to this book, received in addition these particulars from the lips of Enoch. He was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire by horses of fire; and when he entered into the presence of God, the Sacred Beasts, the Seraphim, the Osannim, the Cherubim, the wheels of the chariot, and all the fiery ministers recoiled five thousand three hundred and eighty miles at the smell of him, and cried aloud, “What a stink is come among us from one born of a woman! Why is one who has eaten of white wheat admitted into heaven?”

      Then the Almighty answered and said, “My servants, Cherubim and Seraphim, do not be grieved, for all my sons have rejected my sovereignty and adore idols, this man alone excepted; and in reward I exalt him to principality over the angels in heaven.” When Enoch heard this he was glad, for he had been a simple shoemaker on earth; but this had he done, at every stitch he had said, “The name of God and His Majesty be praised.”

      The height of Enoch when a chief angel was very great. It would take a man five hundred years to walk from his heel to the crown of his head. And the ladder which Jacob saw in vision was the ladder of Metatron.158 The same authority, above quoted, the Rabbi Ishmael, is reported to have had the exact measure of Enoch from his own lips; it was seven hundred thousand times thousand miles in length and in breadth.159

      The account in the Targum of Palestine is simply this. “Enoch served in the truth before the Lord; and behold, he was not with the sojourners of the earth; for he was withdrawn, and he ascended to the firmament by the Word before the Lord, and his name was called Metatron, the Great Saphra.”160

      Whether the Annakos, or Nannakos of whom Suidas wrote, is to be identified with Enoch, I do not venture to decide. Suidas says that Nannak was an aged king before Deucalion (Noah), and that, foreseeing the Deluge, he called all his subjects together into the temple to pray the gods with many tears to remit the evil.161 And Stephanos, the Byzantine lexicographer, says that Annakos lived at Iconium in Phrygia, and that to weep for Annak, became a proverb.

      XI

      THE GIANTS

      The Giants, say the Cabbalists, arose thus.

      Aza and Azael, two angels of God, complained to the Most High at the creation of man, and said, “Why hast Thou made man who will anger Thee?”

      But God answered, “And you, O angels, if you were in the lower world, you too, would sin.” And He sent them on earth, and then they fell, as says the Book of Genesis, “And it came to pass that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.” After they had sinned, they were given bodies of flesh; for an angel who spends seven days on earth becomes opaque and substantial. And when they had been clothed with flesh and with a corrupt nature, then they spake the word “Shem hamphorasch,” and sought to regain their former place, but could not; and were cast out into mountains, there to dwell. From these angels descend the sons of the giants and the Anakim, and from their seed also spring the devils.162 The Rabbi Eliezer says that the giants sprang from the union of the angels with the daughters of Cain, who walked about in immodest clothing and cast their eyes around with bold glances. And the book Zeenaureena, in the Parascha Chykkath, says that Og sprang from this connection, and that Sammael, the angel, was the parent of Og, but that Sihon was the son of the same angel who deceived the wife of Ham when she was about to enter the ark.163

      The account in the Book of Enoch is as follows: —

      “Hear and fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man, and writer of righteousness, come hither and hear my words: Go speak unto the Watchers of Heaven, and say unto them, Ye shall pray for men and not men for you. Why have ye forsaken the high and holy and eternal heaven, and have joined yourselves to women, and polluted yourselves with the daughters of men, and have taken to you wives, and have become the fathers of a giant race? Ye who were spiritual, holy, and enjoying eternal life, have corrupted yourselves with women, and have become parents of children with flesh and blood; lusting after the blood of men, ye have brought forth flesh and blood, like those who are mortal and perishable. Because men die, therefore did I give unto them wives, that they might have sons, and perpetuate their generation. But ye are spiritual and in the enjoyment of eternal life. Therefore give I not to you wives, for heaven is the abode of the spirits. And now the giants, who are born of flesh and blood, shall become evil spirits, and their dwelling shall be on the earth. Bad beings shall proceed from them. Because they have been generated from above, from the holy Watchers have they received their origin, therefore shall they be evil spirits on the earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. And the spirits of the giants, СКАЧАТЬ