There are just things that the New Testament writers are accused of just fabricating.
Sorry, it just doesn't work. So if the atheist online or in your Facebook group
or whatever, you know, has given you this argument,
you need to throw a few of these passages at him and say,
"well, lo and behold, guess who else fabricated that 200 years earlier?
On this particular section is called the parables of Enoch.
I think for a lot of our listeners and viewers, their only context for parables
comes out of the New Testament. So how does this relate? How is it different?
Like, why do we refer to this as parables?
Yeah, if we look at Enoch, let's just say that the first two volumes of the commentary,
the first 36 chapters are known as the Book of the Watchers.
And it basically does two things: It introduces the impending apocalypse.
1 Enoch is an apocalyptic book. So it's kind of like the book of Revelation,
but three times as long, you know, that sort of thing.
So it's like, judgment's coming, the wicked are doomed, and here's why.
Okay, so the first 36 chapters trace a lot of the proliferation of human depravity
back to the Genesis 6:1-4, "the sons of God, daughters of men" episode,
and some related things as well. And so it's, you know, again, the end is coming,
the judgment is going to come, humanity deserves what we're going to get,
you know, we're depraved. And here's a big contributing factor.
And then the next section, the parables; 37, through 71.
Enoch, the book goes into three parables, it basically illustrates
who the wicked are, who the righteous are. The Messiah figure is a big deal,
because the Messiah is going to play the role of Judge, you know, who he is.
His relationship to God.
And again, this is how the judgment of humanity is going to unfold.
So it tells three extended stories, parables, that try to get that point across,
in different ways. Try to answer those questions.
So that's really the guts of the second section.
And the central figure is obviously the messianic figure.
It uses all the terminology we're used to; mashiach (Anointed One), that's in Enoch.
Chosen One, Servant, Son of Man, the Son of Man, which is actually a really important one.
So it gives you this sort of Jewish consciousness of what's the Messiah going to be like,
what is he going to do? One of the things he's going to do is judge the wicked,
and that's a big theme in the book.
Later on you're going to have these glimpses of positivity
for the righteous, but it has that feel of those latter chapters of Revelation
that we're used to, and some of the same images and all that sort of stuff in a book like that.
And in terms of, are there any specific people, kind of characters or themes
that are gonna feel a little bit familiar
as they're working through this section of Enoch?
Yeah, that the heavenly books thing will be familiar, you know, the Book of Life,
there's going to be some Edenic imagery.
Again, the Messianic titles are kind of obvious in this.
I think one of the more important ones like in 1 Enoch 46, there's this notion
that God named the Messiah, named the Son of Man, before creation.
So it's a very clear allusion to the Messiah's preexistence,
which makes him more than a man.
So it taps into Daniel 7 a lot, which is a very familiar passage to Christian readers.
And of course, Revelation repurposes Daniel 7, really Daniel 7-8, really Daniel 7-12,
all over the place. So a lot of that language is going to be familiar too.
But apologetically in terms of a defense of what's going on the New Testament,
there are just things again, that the New Testament writers are accused of just fabricating.
Sorry, it just doesn't work. So if the atheist online or in your Facebook group,
or whatever, you know, has given you this argument,
you need to throw a few of these passages at him and say,
"well, lo and behold guess who else fabricated that 200 years earlier?"
You know, it just doesn't make much sense. But all that stuff's going to be familiar.
Now there's a big difference too. There's no sense in the parables of Enoch
that the wicked are going to go to the lake of fire because they've rejected the Messiah.
See, there is no Jesus yet.
So the wicked are there because they're just generally unjust.
You know, they don't keep the Torah. They don't keep the law.
It's very Jewish in what you would expect.
So the contrast is interesting too, because when you get to the New Testament it's like,
well, there's a different reason why this is going to happen
to some people, and it focuses on the sacrificial ministry
of the Messiah on the cross. They don't see that yet.
They see the judgment. They see even the Gentile redemption.
They they see all that kind of stuff, the mercy for the Gentiles, but there's no
atoning work after the Messiah here. But the rest of the profile, you'll see there.
So it's very interesting for somebody who wants to try to look at the New Testament,
and understand some of the things that are in it, but also to discern by some of the ways
it's different, why that's so important, how it actually plays out in the person of Jesus.