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The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) · 118 of 141 · tr. R.H. Charles

Chapter XC (part 2)

And I saw till that man, who wrote down the names of the shepherds [ and ] carried up into the presence of the Lord of the sheep [ came and helped it and showed it everything: he had come down for the help of that ram ] . 17. And I saw that man, who wrote the book according to the command of the Lord, till he opened that book concerning the destruction which those twelve last shepherds had wrought, and showed that they had destroyed much more than their predecessors, before the Lord of the sheep. 15. And I saw till the Lord of the sheep came unto them in wrath, and all who saw Him fled, and they all fell †into His shadow† from before His face. 18. And I saw till the Lord of the sheep came unto them and took in His hand the staff of His wrath, and smote the earth, and the earth clave asunder, and all the beasts and all the birds of the heaven fell from among those sheep, and were swallowed up in the earth and it covered them. XC. 20-27. Judgement of the Fallen Angels, the Shepherds, and the Apostates . 20. And I saw till a throne was erected in the pleasant land, and the Lord of the sheep sat Himself thereon, and the other took the sealed books and opened those books before the Lord of the sheep. 21. And the Lord called those men the seven first white ones, and commanded that they should bring before Him, beginning with the first star which led the way, all the stars whose privy members were like those of horses, and they brought them all before p. 127 [paragraph continues] Him. 22. And He said to that man who wrote before Him, being one of those seven white ones, and said unto him: "Take those seventy shepherds to whom I delivered the sheep, and who taking them on their own authority slew more than I commanded them." 23. And behold they were all bound, I saw, and they all stood before Him. 24. And the judgement was held first over the stars, and they were judged and found guilty, and went to the place of condemnation, and they were cast into an abyss, full of fire and flaming, and full of pillars of fire. 25. And those seventy shepherds were judged and found guilty, and they were cast into that fiery abyss. 26. And I saw at that time how a like abyss was opened in the midst of the earth, full of fire, and they brought those blinded sheep, and they were all judged and found guilty and cast into this fiery abyss, and they burned; now this abyss was to the right of that house. 27. And I saw those sheep burning †and their bones burning†. XC. 28-38. The New Jerusalem, the Conversion of the surviving Gentiles, the Resurrection of the Righteous, the Messiah . 28. And I stood up to see till they folded up that old house; and carried off all the pillars, and all the beams and ornaments of the house were at the same time folded up with it, and they carried it off and laid it in a place in the south of the land. 29. And I saw till the Lord of the sheep brought a new house greater and loftier than that first, and set it up in the place of the first which had beer folded up: all its pillars were new, and its ornaments were new and larger than those of the first, the old one which He had taken away, and all the sheep were within it. 30. And I saw all the sheep which had been left, and all the beasts on the earth, and all the birds of the heaven, falling down and doing homage to those sheep and making petition to and obeying them in every thing . 31. And thereafter those three who p.
Themes
Anthropomorphismtheology

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

The divine figure is described with human characteristics such as a hand holding a staff and a face from which beings flee.

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Archonscosmology

Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.

The shepherds and stars function as corrupt rulers who destroyed the sheep and are subsequently judged by the supreme Lord.

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Divine Providencetheology

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.

The passage illustrates the divine actively ordering the unfolding of judgment and the restoration of the new house.

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Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The Lord of the sheep is depicted as an active, dynamic agent who sits on a throne, speaks, and executes wrath.

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Numerical Mysticismtheology

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

Specific numbers like 'seven first white ones' and 'seventy shepherds' structure the groups of beings involved in the vision.

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Pneumatic Electsoteriology

A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.

A distinction is drawn between the righteous sheep left over and the blinded sheep cast into the fiery abyss.

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Eschatological Judgmentsoteriology

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.

[auto] The text describes a final, collective cosmic judgment where stars, shepherds, and sheep are sentenced to fire or salvation.

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Watchers Descentcosmology

The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.

[auto] The passage explicitly judges the 'stars' and 'shepherds' who transgressed divine command, referencing the core Enochian narrative of fallen angels.

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Related passages · 3 parallels
gnosticism|Gospel of Thomas|Logion 107
Jesus said, "The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, 'I…”
Both passages use the metaphor of a shepherd and sheep to convey spiritual or religious insights. Passage A describes a divine judgment and the establishment of a new order, while Passage B illustrates the value and care of the kingdom through the parable of a shepherd seeking a lost sheep. Both emphasize the importance of the shepherd's role and the fate of the sheep.
mandaean|Gnostic John the Baptizer — Some Typical Extracts|Section 9
When they heard this from the Fisher who has come hither, and understood, they spake to him: "Have compassion, forbearance and mercy on us and forgive us our sins and transgressions. We are thy slaves, show thyself indulgent towards us. We…”
Both passages use the metaphor of a shepherd and sheep to represent a divine figure and followers. They also depict a judgement scene where the divine figure passes sentence on those who have wronged the followers.
mandaean|Gnostic John the Baptizer — Some Typical Extracts|Section 10
When then * * * * * *, I entered the house, 4 I mounted up to the highest place [in it], and I call to my sheep. To the sheep in my care do I call. I pipe to them; I get them to hear, so that they come unto me. To them I pipe on my pipe, an…”
Both passages use the metaphor of shepherds and sheep to represent divine judgment and salvation. They share themes of divine intervention, judgment of the unrighteous, and the salvation of the faithful, though they come from different mystical traditions.