The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) · 112 of 141 · tr. R.H. Charles
Chapter LXXXIX (part 1)
LXXXIX.
1-9.
The Deluge and the Deliverance of Noah .
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
1.
And one of those four went to that white bull and instructed him in a secret, without his being terrified: he was born a bull and became a man, and built for himself a great vessel and dwelt thereon; and three bulls dwelt with him in that vessel and they were covered in.
2.
And again I raised mine eyes towards heaven and saw a lofty roof, with seven water torrents thereon, and those torrents flowed with much water into an enclosure.
3.
And I saw again, and behold fountains were opened on the surface of that great enclosure, and that water began to swell and rise upon the surface, and I saw that enclosure till all its surface was covered with water.
4.
And the water, the darkness, and mist increased upon it; and as I looked at the height of that water, that water had risen above the height of that enclosure, and was streaming over that enclosure, and it stood upon the earth.
5.
And all the cattle of that enclosure were gathered together until I saw how they sank and were swallowed up and perished in that water.
6.
But that vessel floated on the water, while all the oxen and elephants and camels and asses sank to the bottom with all the animals, so that I could no longer see them, and they were not able to escape, (but) perished and sank into the depths.
7.
And again I saw in the vision till those water torrents were removed from that high roof, and the chasms of the earth were p.
117 levelled up and other abysses were opened.
8.
Then the water began to run down into these, till the earth became visible; but that vessel settled on the earth, and the darkness retired and light appeared.
9.
But that white bull which had become a man came out of that vessel, and the three bulls with him, and one of those three was white like that bull, and one of them was red as blood, and one black: and that white bull departed from them.
LXXXIX.
10-27.
From the Death of Noah to the Exodus .
10.
And they began to bring forth beasts of the field and birds, so that there arose different genera: lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, hyenas, wild boars, foxes, squirrels, swine, falcons, vultures, kites, eagles, and ravens; and among them was born a white bull.
11.
And they began to bite one another; but that white bull which was born amongst them begat a wild ass and a white bull with it, and the wild asses multiplied.
12.
But that bull which was born from him begat a black wild boar and a white sheep; and the former begat many boars, but that sheep begat twelve sheep.
13.
And when those twelve sheep had grown, they gave up one of them to the asses, and those asses again gave up that sheep to the wolves, and that sheep grew up among the wolves.
14.
And the Lord brought the eleven sheep to live with it and to pasture with it among the wolves: and they multiplied and became many flocks of sheep.
15.
And the wolves began to fear them, and they oppressed them until they destroyed their little ones, and they cast their young into a river of much water: but those sheep began to cry aloud on account of their little ones, and to complain unto their Lord.
16.
Themes
◆Active Contemplationpraxis
A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.
The narrator describes raising his eyes and seeing visions of heaven and earth as a form of visionary experience.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
Animal figures symbolically represent human historical groups, mapping the animal realm to human history.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The flood narrative depicts a collective judgment where the wicked animals perish in the water while the righteous are preserved.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
[auto] The Lord actively orders the unfolding of history, preserving the vessel and guiding the sheep through oppression.