(3) Chapter 47:
47:1. In those
days, the prayer of the righteous, and the blood of the Righteous One, will
have ascended from the earth into the presence of the Lord of Spirits. 2. In
those days, all the holy ones who dwell above in the heavens will supplicate
and pray with one voice—glorifying, giving thanks, and praising the name of the
Lord of Spirits—on behalf of the blood of the righteous which has been shed,
and that the prayer of the righteous may not come to nothing before the Lord of
Spirits, and that there might be judgment on their behalf, and that their
long-suffering may not be endless.
3. In those days
I saw the Antecedent of Days as he sat down on the throne of his glory, and the
Books of the Living were opened before him. All of his powers, which are in
heaven above, and his council stood before him. 4. Then were the hearts of the
holy ones filled with joy; for the sum total of righteousness had approached
completion, the prayer of the righteous had been heard, and the blood of the
Righteous One had been found fully acceptable before the Lord of Spirits.
This short chapter is a midrash on Deut 32:43, a verse which in turn can
be interpreted as referring to an ultimate Yom Kippur ritual performed by the
Lord himself:
Praise, O heavens, his people;
worship him, all you gods!
For he will avenge the blood of his children,
and take vengeance on his adversaries;
he will repay those who hate him,
and cleanse the land for his people.
(So the NRSV; but the first line can as easily be rendered, “Rejoice, O
heavens, with him,” while the last line is more literally, “and he will make
atonement [wekipper] for the land of
his people”). The PE author’s motivation in providing a midrash on Deut 32:43
becomes clear only a few chapters later when we are told that the Chosen One
will sit in judgment on Azazel (55:4; cf. comments on “Asael” in 10:4–8 above).
Since the climax of the Day of Atonement is precisely the Azazel goat ritual
(Lev 16:8–26), it would be natural for an Enochic author to see the final
judgment of Azazel/Asael in the eschatological Yom Kippur of Deut 32:43.
Enoch 47 seems to
envision the “the blood of the Righteous One” as the instrument of this
ultimate atonement. Such an interpretation, if acceptable, would have obvious
relevance for NT studies, although the imprecise dating of the PE casts its
usual shadow here. Most Enoch
scholars insist, however, that although the PE draws heavily on Isaiah’s
Servant Songs, it does not portray a suffering Messiah. The phrase “the blood
of the righteous one,” appearing twice in this passage (47:1 and 4), is taken
as a collective singular (i.e., “every righteous one”) in view of the explicit
plurals in v. 2 (and, we may add, in Deut 32:43). But this does not explain why
an author would oscillate confusingly between explicit plurals and collective
singulars, nor does it do justice to the fact that “the Righteous One” is
originally taken from the Isaianic Servant’s grimmest song (Isa 53:11).
Besides, if it is a question of possible influence on NT messianology, it is
irrelevant whether the author of the PE intended an individual or a group in
“the blood of the Righteous One”; early Christian authors interpreted Scripture
with no more concern for authorial intent—in the modern sense—than the Qumran
commentators or the later rabbis.
As Matthew Black notes, it seems most natural to read in ch. 47 a
deliberate inclusion of the Righteous
One in the sufferings of every
righteous one (Black 1985: 209). “The blood of the Righteous One” would then
refer only to a vicarious suffering with the righteous martyrs, just as the
stricken Righteous One of Isaiah 52–53 can be interpreted as a cipher for the
suffering Remnant of Israel. In that case, Enoch
47 is like Enoch 62 in the third
parable (see below), and both passages anticipate the point made by the parable
of the sheep and goats in Matt 25:31–46. It happens that this is the one Gospel
passage widely conceded by even the more cautious Enoch scholars to be dependent on the PE. Furthermore, if we allow
that the first Evangelist knew the PE, it may be relevant to our discussion of
ch. 47 that some good NT manuscripts have Pilate washing his hands of “the
blood of this righteous one” at Jesus’ crucifixion (Matt 27:24). (Daniel C. Olson, "1 Enoch," in
Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, ed. James D. G. Dunn and John W.
Rogerson [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003], 918-19)