1 Enoch / Chapter 93

1 Enoch 93

14 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Enoch recounts what he has learned from the heavenly tablets and visions, then delivers the first half of the Apocalypse of Weeks — a schematic history of the world divided into ten 'weeks' (periods). Weeks one through seven are narrated here: from Enoch's own birth in the first week, through the flood, Abraham, Sinai, the temple, the prophets, and the apostasy that marks the seventh week. The passage ends with the election of 'the chosen righteous' who receive sevenfold instruction.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The Apocalypse of Weeks (93:1-10 + 91:12-17) is one of the oldest apocalyptic texts, likely predating Daniel. The Aramaic fragments (4QEn^g = 4Q212) preserve the original order. Each 'week' encapsulates centuries of history in a single sentence. The seventh week — the author's own time — is described as an age of total apostasy, placing the writer within a community that saw mainstream Judaism as corrupt, much like the Qumran sectarians.

Translation Friction

The chapter as transmitted in Ge'ez contains only verses 1-10 (weeks one through seven), with weeks eight through ten displaced to 91:12-17. The Aramaic evidence from Qumran confirms the original sequence was continuous. Some scholars also detect a later addition in verses 11-14, which may be an independent wisdom fragment appended to the Apocalypse.

Connections

Daniel 9:24-27 — seventy weeks of years. Genesis 5 — the antediluvian genealogy that provides the chronological framework. Exodus 19-20 — the Sinai revelation (week four). 1 Kings 6 — Solomon's temple (week five). Galatians 4:4 — 'when the fullness of time had come.' The periodization of history influenced the Dead Sea Scrolls community's self-understanding as living in the final age.

1 Enoch 93:1

Ge'ez: wa-'emze Hēnōk yetnabbay — 'and then Enoch began to recount'

Then Enoch began to speak from the books and said: I was born the seventh in the first week, while judgment and righteousness still endured.

REF And Enoch began to recount from the books and said: 'I was born the seventh in the first week, while judgement and righteousness still endured.'

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Enoch is the 'seventh from Adam' (compare Jude 14). The first week covers the antediluvian period. That 'judgment and righteousness still endured' implies a golden age before the corruption introduced by the Watchers.
1 Enoch 93:2

Ge'ez: wa-'emze'a — 'and after me'

After me, in the second week, great wickedness will arise and deceit will spring up. In it there will be the first end. In it a man will be saved, and after it ends, unrighteousness will grow, and a law will be made for sinners.

REF And after me there shall arise in the second week great wickedness, and deceit shall have sprung up; and in it there shall be the first end. And in it a man shall be saved; and after it is ended unrighteousness shall grow up, and a law shall be made for the sinners.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The 'first end' is the flood. The 'man who shall be saved' is Noah. The 'law made for sinners' likely refers to the Noahic covenant (Genesis 9:1-17) — the first formal divine legislation governing human behavior after the deluge.
1 Enoch 93:3

Ge'ez: wa-'emze ba-teflāṣamu — 'and after that at the end'

After that, in the third week at its close, a man will be chosen as the plant of righteous judgment, and his descendants will become the plant of righteousness forever.

REF And after that in the third week at its close a man shall be elected as the plant of righteous judgement, and his posterity shall become the plant of righteousness for evermore.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The 'man elected as the plant of righteous judgment' is Abraham. The 'plant of righteousness' metaphor recurs throughout 1 Enoch (10:16, 84:6) for the covenant community — the faithful lineage through which God's purposes continue.
1 Enoch 93:4

Ge'ez: wa-'emze ba-rābe'it sāmenu — 'and after that in the fourth week'

After that, in the fourth week at its close, visions of the holy and righteous will be seen, and a law for all generations and an enclosure will be made for them.

REF And after that in the fourth week, at its close, visions of the holy and righteous shall be seen, and a law for all generations and an enclosure shall be made for them.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The fourth week covers the Sinai revelation. The 'visions of the holy and righteous' refer to Moses's encounters with God. The 'law for all generations' is the Torah, and the 'enclosure' is the tabernacle — the first portable sanctuary.
1 Enoch 93:5

Ge'ez: wa-'emze ba-ḫāmesit sāmenu — 'and after that in the fifth week'

After that, in the fifth week at its close, the house of glory and dominion will be built forever.

REF And after that in the fifth week, at its close, the house of glory and dominion shall be built for ever.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The 'house of glory and dominion' is Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6-8). The claim that it was 'built forever' reflects the Deuteronomic theology of the temple as God's permanent dwelling, though the Apocalypse of Weeks knows it will be destroyed.
1 Enoch 93:6

Ge'ez: wa-'emze ba-sādesit sāmenu — 'and after that in the sixth week'

After that, in the sixth week, all who live in it will be blinded, and the hearts of all of them will abandon wisdom in godlessness. In it a man will ascend, and at its close the house of dominion will be burned with fire, and the whole race of the chosen root will be scattered.

REF And after that in the sixth week all who live in it shall be blinded, and the hearts of all of them shall godlessly forsake wisdom. And in it a man shall ascend; and at its close the house of dominion shall be burnt with fire, and the whole race of the chosen root shall be dispersed.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The sixth week covers the divided monarchy through the exile. The 'man who shall ascend' is likely Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). The burning of 'the house of dominion' is the destruction of Solomon's temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE. The scattering of the 'chosen root' is the Babylonian exile.
1 Enoch 93:7

Ge'ez: wa-'emze ba-sābe'it sāmenu — 'and after that in the seventh week'

After that, in the seventh week, an apostate generation will arise. Many will be its deeds, and all its deeds will be apostate.

REF And after that in the seventh week shall an apostate generation arise, and many shall be its deeds, and all its deeds shall be apostate.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The seventh week — the author's own time — is described entirely in terms of apostasy. This reflects the perspective of a sectarian community that viewed the Second Temple establishment (perhaps the Hellenizing priests) as fundamentally corrupt. The intensity of the critique parallels the Qumran community's view of the Jerusalem priesthood.
1 Enoch 93:8

Ge'ez: wa-ba-teflāṣamu — 'and at its close'

At its close, the chosen righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness will be selected to receive sevenfold instruction concerning all his creation.

REF And at its close shall be elected the elect righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness, to receive sevenfold instruction concerning all His creation.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The 'chosen righteous' elected at the end of the seventh week are the author's own community — those who have received special revelation. 'Sevenfold instruction' suggests complete, perfect knowledge. This is the turning point: from the depths of apostasy, a remnant is chosen to carry divine wisdom forward.
1 Enoch 93:9

Ge'ez: wa-'efo-nu weluda sab' — 'for is there any child of man'

For is there any person who can hear the voice of the Holy One and not be shaken? Who can direct their own thoughts? Who can behold all the works of heaven?

REF For is there any man that can hear the voice of the Holy One and not be disturbed? And who is there that can direct his thoughts? And who is there that can behold all the works of heaven?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. This verse shifts to a wisdom reflection on human limitation before the divine. The rhetorical questions echo Job 38-41 — 'Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?' The implied answer: no one, apart from special revelation, can comprehend God's works.
1 Enoch 93:10

Ge'ez: wa-'efo-nu — 'and who is there'

How could anyone behold heaven? Who could understand the things of heaven, or see a soul or a spirit and tell of it, or ascend and see all their ends, or think about them, or do as they do?

REF And how should there be one who could behold the heaven, and who is there that could understand the things of heaven and see a soul or a spirit and could tell thereof, or ascend and see all their ends and think them or do like them?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The impossibility questions continue. The specific mention of seeing 'a soul or a spirit' touches on the limits of human knowledge about the afterlife — a concern central to the Epistle's audience, who suffered and wondered about divine justice.
1 Enoch 93:11

Ge'ez: wa-'efo-nu be'si — 'and who is there of all men'

Who among all people could gaze on heaven and understand its ways? Who could perceive a soul or a spirit and describe it, or ascend to see their ultimate purpose?

REF And who is there of all men that could behold the heaven, and who is there that could understand the things of heaven and see a soul or a spirit and could tell thereof, or ascend and see their ends?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. This verse closely parallels verse 10, leading some scholars to suggest textual duplication. However, the repetition may be intentional — a rhetorical hammering of the point that only divinely granted revelation can penetrate heavenly mysteries.
1 Enoch 93:12

Ge'ez: wa-'albō be'si — 'and there is no man'

There is no one among all people who could see how the wind moves, how it blows, what it is, what drives it, where it stops, or what it does.

REF And there is none of all men that could behold how the wind goes, or how it blows, or what it is, or where is the thing which moves it, or where it stops, or what it does.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The wind as an emblem of divine mystery recalls Ecclesiastes 11:5 — 'you do not know the way the spirit comes' — and Jesus's words in John 3:8 — 'The wind blows where it wishes... so it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'
1 Enoch 93:13

Ge'ez: wa-'albō be'si — 'and there is no man'

There is no one who could truly observe the clouds — no one can see where they come from or where the dust of the earth settles.

REF And there is none who could behold the clouds, and he is not able to observe them, and he is not able to see from whence they come, and he is not able to see the dust of the earth.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The inability to track clouds and dust continues the theme of human limitation regarding natural phenomena. Compare Job 37:16 — 'Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?'
1 Enoch 93:14

Ge'ez: wa-kwellu zentu — 'and all these things'

All these things Enoch has seen. Let none of you think in your spirit or argue in your heart that you can understand all these things from beginning to end.

REF All these things Enoch hath seen. Let none of you think in his spirit or contend in his heart that he may understand all these things from beginning to end.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The concluding verse reasserts Enoch's unique authority: he alone has seen what no ordinary person can perceive. This epistemological claim grounds the Epistle — what follows is revealed knowledge, not human speculation.
Chapter 92 Report an error 1 Enoch index Chapter 94