Sunday, October 2, 2022

Our Accountability for Animals and Animals in the Kingdom of God in 2 Enoch (late first century AD)

  

Animals in the Kingdom of God:

 

“Listen, |to me| |my| children |today|! In the days of our father Adam, the LORD came down onto the earth |on account of Adam|. And he inspected all his creatures which he himself had created in the beginning of the thousand ages and when after all those he had created Adam.  And the LORD summoned all the animals of the earth and all the reptiles of the earth and all the birds that fly in the air, and he brought them all before the face of our father Adam, so that he might pronounce names for all the quadrupeds; and |Adam| named everything that lives on the earth. And the LORD appointed him over everything ‹|as king|›, and he subjected everything to him in subservience under his hand, both the dumb and the deaf, to be commanded and for submission and for every servitude. So also to every human being. The LORD created mankind to be the lord of all his possessions. And the LORD will not judge a single animal soul for the sake of man; but human souls he will judge for the sake of the souls of their animals. In the great age there is a special place for human beings. 6 And just as every human soul is according to number, so also it is with animal souls. And not a single soul which the LORD has created will perish until the great judgment. And every kind of animal soul will accuse the human beings who have fed them badly. (2 Enoch 58:1-6 [OTP 1:184])

 

Accountability for Animals:

 

“He who acts lawlessly with the soul of an animal acts lawlessly with his own soul. For a person brings one of the clean animals to make a sacrifice on account of sin, so that he may have healing for his soul. If he brings it to the sacrifice from clean animals and birds ‹and cereals›, then there is healing for that person, and he will heal his soul. Everything that has been given to you for food, bind by four legs, so as to perform the healing properly. And there is healing and he will heal his soul. |And| he who puts to death any kind of animal without bonds, ‹|puts his own soul to death|› and acts lawlessly with his own flesh. |And| he who does any kind of harm whatsoever to any kind of animal in secret, it is an evil custom, and he acts lawlessly with his own soul. (2 Enoch 59:1-5 [OTP 1:184]; the translator, F. I. Andersen notes that "It is not clear whether this slaughter is dietary, cultic, or magical. The rule for tying the beast, and the idea of “healing” (rather than say “forgiveness”—an idea not found in 2En) suggests magic")