|
Here is a good start on a topical
lecture. Follow the references for details.
The Origin of Evil
A. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
1. Gen 3:1-13
a. The serpent tempts Eve with the promise of wisdom
("your eyes will be opened")
b. But Eve disobediently ate because
i. the fruit was good for food
ii. it was pleasant to the eyes
iii. it would make one wise
c. Eve, thus enlightened, gives some fruit to Adam,
who becomes wise
d. Adam blames Eve for giving him the fruit
e. Eve blames the serpent.
2. This story is not referred to in the Hebrew Bible
except in Genesis
3. But Paul (or Pseudo-Paul) refers to it as a
reason to subjugate women 1 Tim 2:12-15
B. The allusion to another origin of evil (Gen
6:1-8)
1. the "sons of God...took wives..of all they
chose"
2. "then" Yahweh limits the spirit and age
3. the Nephilim are the monstrous offspring of
angels and humans
4. In these days, humankind was entirely wicked -
thus God sends a flood against all of creation
C. The Enochan origin of evil
1. The watchers' breaking of the covenant
a. 200 angelic beings covenant to descend to earth
and take wives - they "bind" themselves with a curse (1 Enoch
6:4)
b. the angels taught the people "magical
medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots" (7:1), making weapons,
jewelry and cosmetics (for the purpose of seduction), alchemy, astrology
c. the women bore monsters, who were taught all the
angel's "secrets" (10:8), and who eventually ate each other and
their human slaves, and sinned against all of creation (7:5)
2. The victims complain
a. creation - "The earth brought an accusation
against the oppressors" (7:6)
b. the exploited - "the people cried and their
voice reached unto heaven" (8:4)
c. the dead - "Their groaning has ascended into
heaven, but they could not get out from before the face of the oppression
that is being wrought on earth" (9:10)
D. And its promise of redemption and judgment
1. because of their exploitation of humankind
(10:15), watchers and offspring made factious and contentious against each
other, warring and dying (10:11-12), afterward, they are held in a
subterranean pit for "70 generations" (10:12), until the
judgment of fire (10:13)
2. the earth and creation destroyed and restored
(10:7), cleansed of injustice, defilement, oppression, sin, pollution,
plague, suffering (10:20-22), newly planted with olive trees and grape
vines (10:19)
3. the innocent will be saved and multiply (10:17),
storerooms of blessing will be opened: peace and truth "partners
together in all the days of the world, and in all the generations of the
world" (11:2).
4. "Then wisdom shall be given to the
elect" (5:8)
E. Old Testament allusions - all based in pride and
the grasping of wisdom - wicked princes as wicked angels
1. King of Babylon - Isa 14: {12} How you are fallen
from heaven, O Day Star, Son of Dawn! ... {13} You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of
God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon; {14} I
will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most
High." {15} But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the
Pit.
2. The Prince of Tyre - Ezek 28:16 {12} ...You were
the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. {13} You
were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your
covering...On the day that you were created they were prepared. ...{15}
You were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created, until
iniquity was found in you. {16} In the abundance of your trade you were
filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing
from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from among
the stones of fire. {17}... you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your
splendor.
3. The Prince of Persia - Daniel 10:18-21 {18} Again
one in human form touched me and strengthened me. {19} He said, "Do
not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe. ...{20} Then he said, "Do
you know why I have come to you? Now I must return to fight against the
prince of Persia, and when I am through with him, the prince of Greece
will come. {21} ...There is no one with me who contends against these
princes except Michael, your prince.
F. The Qumran sect, which greatly influenced first
century Christianity, understood this origin of evil. Many manuscripts of
1 Enoch were found there.
The expectation was that the cosmic covenant must be
re-established through actual armed conflict against the forces of evil
angel princes, personified by the "Kittim," who were political
enemies (such as the Greeks and Romans). The War Rule (1QM, 4QM) is a
manual of the war of the "sons of light" against the "sons
of darkness" that includes weaponry and tactics to be used in the
immanent battle (even the names of the "good" angels were to be
painted on the shields of the sons of light.
G. And in the New Testament
1. Jesus casts out legions of demons, the illegitimate
offspring of fallen angels - Mark 5. Jesus sees Satan fall from heaven.
The Olivet discourse speaks of the powers being shaken. The sheep and the
goats may be a direct reference to the Enochan judgment of fire. Jesus
never refers to Adam and Eve. But he did come "to destroy the works
of the devil."
2. Jude quotes Enoch, thus signifying an Enochan
frame of reference concerning sin and the "ungodly"
3. Paul frequently refers to elect humans as
"sons of God" (i. e. angels), and informs the reader in Rom 8
that creation is awaiting the revelation of the sons of God to restore the
earth, as is promised in Enoch
4. The writer of Hebrews attests to the elect of
humanity having become like angels, with Jesus as the "mediator"
of a new cosmic covenant, one in which no vestige of former evil can be
involved in. Heb 12:{22} But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in
festal gathering, {23} and to the assembly of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the
righteous made perfect, {24} and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of
Abel.
5. As mediator of the new cosmic covenant, Jesus is
contrasted to the watchers as one who, though in the heavenly realm,
"did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped"
Phil 2:7.
6. Revelation is completely at home in the cosmos of
Enoch - the pit that contained the Watchers is opened up, and not 200, but
200,000,000 swarm out on the earth like locusts with the sting of
scorpions. The lake of fire has been reserved for the devil and his
angels, just like in Enoch.
7. Jesus, along with "angels, authorities, and
powers" are now in heaven (1 Peter 3:22) awaiting the "day of
the Lord" (2 Peter 3:10), when this celestial army led by the
"Faithful and True" will descend to earth and destroy all evil,
becoming agents in the restoration of the new covenant (Rev 11:11-21)
G. Summary of the Enochan Origin of Evil
Top
|
|