1 Enoch 23:1
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
From there I traveled to another place, to the west at the ends of the earth.
REF From thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth.
Translator's Introduction
What This Chapter Is About
Enoch sees a great fire in the west that burns without rest — the luminaries of heaven are driven through it. An angel explains this is the fire that pursues the luminaries as they set.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
The cosmic fire through which the luminaries pass reflects an ancient understanding of the sunset as a fiery process, integrated into the theological framework of divine order.
Translation Friction
The cosmography is pre-scientific but serves a theological purpose: even the mechanism of sunset operates under God's sovereign design.
Connections
Psalm 19:4-6 (the sun's circuit); Ecclesiastes 1:5 (the sun hastens to its place).
1 Enoch 23:2
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
I saw a burning fire that ran without resting and did not pause from its course day or night, but continued steadily.
REF And I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but (ran) regularly.
1 Enoch 23:3
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
I asked: 'What is this that never rests?'
REF And I asked saying: 'What is this which rests not?'
1 Enoch 23:4
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered: 'This course of fire that you have seen is the fire in the west that drives all the luminaries of heaven.'
REF Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said unto me: 'This course of fire which thou hast seen is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.'
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- Raguel, whose domain is the luminaries (cf. 20:4), is the appropriate guide for this cosmic phenomenon.