Tuesday, July 2, 2024

M. Jeff Brannon on 2 Enoch and the question of the text teaching seven or ten heavens

  

For several reasons, we follow here the shorter recension (A text) which contains seven heavens in contrast to the longer recension (J text) which contains ten heavens. First, a possible reason for the expansion from seven to ten heavens in the J text is a redactor’s attempt to harmonize the number of heavens with the ranks of the heavenly armies and their corresponding ten steps (see 2 Enoch 20). Andersen agrees and writes, ‘The tradition of ten ranks of angels in the seventh heaven with corresponding lists has a better claim to be authentic than the scheme of ten heavens’, OTP 1, p. 134, note a. Second, in 27.3, there is a reference to the seven stars, each one assigned to its own heaven. Third, Enoch’s proclamation that he ‘wrote down the height from the earth to the seventh heaven, and the depth to the lowermost hell, and the place of condemnation, and the supremely large hell, open and weeping’ in 2 En. 40.12 (J text) provides further confirmation for an original schema of seven heavens. Finally, the comparatively much shorter descriptions of the eighth and ninth heavens confined to 21.6, also lend support for an original cosmology of seven heavens. (M. Jeff Brannon, The Heavenlies in Ephesians: A Lexical, Exegetical, and Conceptual Analysis [Library of New Testament Studies 447; London: T&T Clark, 2011], 138 n. 64)