. . . we read in I En. 81:1f. (2nd century BCE-1st century CE) that Enoch was commanded to
look at the stone tablets of heaven; read what is written upon them and understand (each element of them) one by one. So I looked at the tablet(s) of heaven, read all the writing (on them), and came to understand everything. I read that book and all the deeds of humanity and all the children of the flesh upon the earth for all the generations of the world.
Moreover, in 1 En. 103:2-4 that the future blessings intended for the righteous are inscribed on the same “tablets of heaven” is once again given as an indication of their surety and permanence, and can thus be pointed to as a source of encouragement for the faithful (cf. 108:7-10).
A third important witness to this positive nature of the tablets of the law is found in the Testament of Levi 5:4 and 7:5 (2nd century BCE), where according to the better textual tradition, the law itself is referred to as the “tablets of heaven.” Here the implicit connection found in Jubilees and 1 Enoch is now made explicit.
But the esteem accorded to the tablets of the law is reflected in the tradition in a variety of other ways as well. For example, in II Baruch 6:7-9 (early 2nd century CE) the other two tablets are one of the precious things hidden in the earth by an angel at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE only to be revealed again in the consummation of the age. This point is also made in The Lives of the Prophets, Jeremiah 14 (1st century CE), where we are told that the glory of God abides over the buried tablets since the glory of God will never cease from his law (cf. 9, 11, 12). (Scott J. Hafemann, Suffering and Ministry in the Spirit: Paul’s Defense of His Ministry in II Corinthians 2:14-3:3 [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990], 216-17)
