The Place of Punishment in the Heavens
In apocalyptic literature, perhaps the most common description of
evil spiritual powers in the heavens is the depiction of hell, or the place of punishment,
as located in one of the heavens. In 2 Enoch 7 the second heaven is the
place of punishment for angels who turned away from the Lord. Similarly, 2
Enoch 18 locates the Grigori, or the Watchers who turned away from the
Lord, in the fifth heaven. Though the text of 2 Enoch 10 is somewhat
ambiguous, it is possible that the third heaven, in addition to being the
location of Paradise, is also the location of rebellious angels who practise
sin on the earth. In Questions of Ezra, we discover that the four lower
heavens are characterized by evil and that the location of hell is in the third
heaven or sphere (Ques. Ezra 1.19-21). Similar to 2 Enoch, the
Greek version of 3 Baruch describes the lower heavens as the prison or
place of punishment for sinners and evil angels. While the first heaven is
reserved for those who built the tower against God (3 Baruch 2), the
second heaven is the location of those who plotted to build the tower and who
forced others to build it (3 Baruch 3). Finally, the location of Satan
and Hades is in the third heaven (3 Baruch 4).
There are also some ambiguous examples from 1 Enoch. First
Enoch 18.11-14 speaks of ‘a place without the heavenly firmament above it
or earthly foundation under it or water … prison house for the stars and powers
of heaven’ (Isaac). Similarly, 1 Enoch 21 locates the stars of heaven
and the prison of angels in a place that seems to be neither heaven nor earth.
Though these descriptions do not clearly communicate that the place of
imprisonment is in heaven, they nevertheless do describe the stars of heaven
and the powers of heaven as evil spiritual forces. It is consistent with both
biblical and ancient thought to speak of stars as in or as part of ‘the
heavens’ (e.g. Gen. 1.16-17; 15.5; 22.17; 26.4; Mt. 24.29; Mk 13.25; 1 Cor.
15.40-41).
We find no precise analogy in Ephesians with the apocalyptic notion
that the place of punishment for evil angelic powers is in the heavens. Indeed,
there is nothing in either the New Testament or the Old Testament which would
directly attest to this apocalyptic view. Second Peter 2.4 and Jude 6 both
speak of angels who sinned and are now imprisoned but these texts do not make
any claim as to the location of their imprisonment. Thus, for our purposes,
perhaps what is most significant from this analysis is that it was not uncommon
in Jewish thought for evil to be associated with heaven in some way. From these
texts, we have observed that the lower heavens were often associated with evil
and were also routinely identified as the place of punishment for sinners or
angels who turned away from the Lord. (M. Jeff Brannon, The Heavenlies in
Ephesians: A Lexical, Exegetical, and Conceptual Analysis [Library of New
Testament Studies 447; London: T&T Clark, 2011], 192-94)
