Cor Hendriks – Uit de As van Engelen (1) Inleiding

8 juni 2020Hendriks, Home, Locatie2

Andrew Collins – From the Ashes of Angels. The Forbidden Legacy of A Fallen Race (1)

Uit de As van Engelen (1) Inleiding

Een soort cultboek is ‘From the Ashes of Angels. The Forbidden Legacy of A Fallen Race’ uit 1996 van de Engelse journalist Andrew Collins, schrijver van diverse populaire boeken, die ik niet gelezen heb en waarover ik dus niet kan oordelen; wel over dit boek, dat zeer leesbaar is en veel interessante zaken bevat.

De achterflap deelt in vette letters mee, dat in mythologie engelen wezens van grote schoonheid en intelligentie zijn – boden van God, die uit de gratie vielen door lust en trots.

Dan vervolgt het met kleinere letters
Toch spreken oude religieuze teksten over hoe engelen, bekend als Wachters, belust waren op sterfelijke vrouwen, die reusachtige nakomelingen baarden, Nefilim genaamd. Ze doen er ook verslag van hoe deze fysieke wezens aan de mensheid verboden Kunsten en wetenschappen onthulden – transgressies, die leidden tot hun vernietiging in de Grote Vloed.

Wat moeten deze verhalen voorstellen? Wat of wie waren de engelen en Hemelwachters? Collins demonstreert hoe de legenden achter de val van de Wachters de vervaagde herinnering echoën van ware gebeurtenissen in een ver tijdvak, toen menselijke engelen openlijk verkeerden met de sterfelijke soort. In een persoonlijke zoektocht door het Midden Oosten speurt de schrijver naar het bestaan van een machtig verloren ras, genegeerd door de geschiedenisboeken.

Hij toont ook, dat deze menselijke engelen – beschreven als lang, met wit haar en slangachtige gezichten – ontstonden in Egypte en de Grote Sfinx en andere megalietenmonumenten langs de Nijl bouwden aan het eind van de laatste IJstijd.

Toegevoegd is een goedkeuring van de bekende schrijver Graham Hancock, schrijver onder andere van Fingerprints of the Gods. “Een opwindende en originele intellectuele zoektocht. Andrew Collins heeft belangrijke nieuwe feiten voor het publiek gebracht betreffende de mysterieuze origine van de menselijke beschaving.”

Het moge duidelijk zijn, dat ik niet achter de conclusies van Collins sta en een groot deel van het boek onzin vind, maar het gaat er niet om Collins af te kraken, maar te zien waar hij heen gaat en te verbeteren, waar hij een verkeerd pad inslaat met het doel een beter begrip te krijgen van die zaken, waarmee niet alleen hij, maar velen worstelen.

Het boek begint met een aankondiging, die begint met de vragen: Bestaan engelen en gevallen engelen buiten de gebieden van mythe? Wat was hun ware origine en welke impact kunnen ze gehad hebben op het opkomen van beschaving? Andrew Collins onthult verontrustend nieuw bewijs om te tonen dat

⋅ engelen, demonen en gevallen engelen mensenwezens waren van vlees en bloed, verantwoordelijk voor de fundamenten van Westerse beschaving
· Eden, Hemel en Paradijs eens Aardse gebieden waren gelegen te midden van de bergen van Koerdistan
· deze menselijke engelen, bekend in oude Joodse teksten als Wachters en Nefilim, origineel uit Egypte kwamen en verantwoordelijk waren voor de bouw van de Grote Sfinx en andere Cyclopische monumenten
· zowel de Egyptische hoge beschaving als de Wachters van Koerdistan als een nalatenschap aan de mensheid een beklemmende waarschuwing hebben nagelaten, die de Wereld negeert op eigen risico.

Het boek is opgedragen aan de Mensen van Koerdistan, Bewakers van de Wieg der Beschaving, voor wie Collins hoopt, dat ze uiteindelijk de vrede en onafhankelijkheid zullen vinden, die ze zo zeer verdienen. Het boek is uit 1996, toen je nog in het Midden Oosten kon reizen, zoals Collins deed. Nu ligt alles wat hij bezocht in puin, is veel wat hij zag verdwenen en is het lot van die mensen op vreselijke wijze verstoord.

Andrew Collins – From the Ashes of Angels. The Forbidden Legacy of A Fallen Race (2)

Het boek begint met enige verzen uit het Boek van Noach, een deel van het Boek van Henoch, over de geboorte van Noach. Ik heb dezelfde tekst uit een andere vertaling inclusief het door Collins weggelaten vers 3.

106.1 And after those days my son Methuselah chose A wife for his son Lamech and she became pregnant by him and bore A son.
106.2 And his body was white like snow, and red like the flower of A rose, and the hair of his head was white like wool. And his eyes were beautiful and when he opened his eyes he made the whole house bright, like the Sun, so that the whole house was exceptionally bright.
106.3 And when he was taken from the hand of the midwife he opened his mouth and spoke to the Lord of Righteousness.
106.4 And his father Lamech was afraid of him, and fled, and went to his father Methuselah.
106.5 And he said to him: “I have begotten A strange son; he is not like A man but is like the children of the Angels of Heaven, of a different type and not like us. And his eyes are like the rays of the Sun and his face glorious.”
106.6 And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me but from the Angels and I am afraid that something extraordinary may be done on the Earth in his days.
http://Scriptural-Truth.com/images/BookOfEnoch.pdf, p. 46

Wat opvalt aan Noach is zijn samenstelling uit wit en rood, kleuren bekend uit mijn onderzoek naar sprookjes. In het bekende Grimm sprookje ‘Van den Machandelboom’ wenst de vrouw, die zich in de vinger sneed en haar bloed in de sneeuw ziet, een kind rood als bloed en wit als sneeuw (KHM 47).

Het licht, dat de baby uitstraalt is een gegeven, dat we een veel legenden tegenkomen. Bijvoorbeeld over Abrahams geboorte wordt gezegd: “Op hetzelfde ogenblik werd plotseling de hele grot verlicht en het gelaat van de jonggeborene glansde als de Zon.” (Staal, p. 51, Rappoport I, p. 229) Ook Jezus wordt met helder licht in verband gebracht in het zogenaamde Protevangelion (14:10 – 12):

“Toen overschaduwde een heldere wolk de grot en de vroedvrouw zei ‘(…)’. Maar plotseling werd de wolk een groot licht in de grot, zodat hun ogen het niet konden verdragen. Maar het licht werd geleidelijk minder totdat het kind verscheen en zoog aan de borst van zijn moeder Maria.”

Noach was dus een bijzonder kind, een engel in mensengedaante, en Collins was zeer geïntrigeerd, want hij had zoiets nog niet eerder gezien. Hij deed verder onderzoek naar Noach en kwam terecht bij de Genesis Apocryphon (zie https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Apocryphon), een van de teksten uit de zogenaamde Dode Zee rollen, ontdekt in 1947. Het verhaal begint, aldus Collins, vlak na de geboorte, als Lamech begint zijn argwaan te uiten ten aanzien van vermoede ontrouw van zijn vrouw, hier Bathenosh genaamd – en aan wie gerefereerd wordt ook als zijn zuster. De tekst wordt ook behandeld door Wikipedia.

This passage is very fragmentary, but seems to contain the story of the Watchers (Hebrew עירין) or Nephilim found in 1 Enoch 1 – 36, based on Genesis 6:1 – 4. Columns 2 – 5 tell the story of the birth of Noah, using both third person accounts, and first person language from the point of view of Lamech, Noah S father. The text details an exasperated Lamech, who questions whether the child being borne by his wife, Bath Enosh, is his own, or belongs to one of the Watchers. A portion of Columns 2 states

She said to me, “O my master and [brother, recall for yourself] my pregnancy. I swear to you by the Great Holy One, by the Ruler of Hea[ven] that this seed is yours, that this pregnancy is from you, that from you is the planting of [this] fruit [and that it is] not from any alien, or from any of the Watchers, or from any Heavenly being.
Translated by Reeves

The section closes with Lamech appealing to his father Methuselah to go and approach Enoch, who is Lamech’s grandfather, for guidance on this dispute. Enoch tells Methuselah about the coming Apocalypse, and tells him that the reason Noah is so beautiful is because he is righteous and is meant to father the new World. Enoch instructs Methuselah to assure Lamech that he is Noah S father. Columns 3 – 5 contain Enoch S speech, which overlaps well with the Aramaic text found in 1 Enoch 106 – 107 from 4QEn. It is this overlap that provides the strongest evidence that the Genesis Apocryphon was using the Book of Enoch as A source, rather than being dependent on common traditions.

Dus Lamech was bevreesd, dat het kind van de Wachters kan zijn. Collins verbindt deze Wachters met de Nefilim, die hun nakomelingen zouden zijn. Op Wikipedia wordt gezegd bij de Wachters (zie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watcher_(angel)#Book_of_Enoch).

In the Books of Enoch, the first Book of Enoch devotes much of its attention to the fall of the Watchers. The Second Book of Enoch addresses the Watchers (Greek egrḗgoroi) who are in fifth Heaven where the fall took place. The Third Book of Enoch gives attention to the unfallen Watchers.

The use of the term “Watchers“ is common in the Book of Enoch. The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 6 – 36) occurs in the Aramaic fragments with the phrase irin we qadishin, “Watchers and Holy Ones“, A reference to Aramaic Daniel. The Aramaic irin “Watchers“ is rendered as “angel” (Greek angelos, Coptic malah) in the Greek and Ethiopian translations, although the usual Aramaic term for angel malakha does not occur in Aramaic Enoch.

Some have attempted to date this section of 1 Enoch to around the 2nd – 1st century BC and they believe this book is based on one interpretation of the Sons of God passage in Genesis 6, according to which angels mated with human females, giving rise to A race of hybrids known as the Nephilim. The term irin is primarily applied to disobedient Watchers who numbered A total of 200, and of whom their leaders are named, but equally Aramaic iri (“Watcher“ singular) is also applied to the obedient archangels who chain them, such as Raphael (1 Enoch 22:6).

Lamech, bevreesd over zijn situatie, raadpleegt zijn vader, Methuselach, die, niet in staat de zaak op te klaren, op reis ging op zoek naar zijn eigen vader Henoch, die zich van de Wereld heeft teruggetrokken en nu leeft ‘tussen de engelen’. Nadat Methuselach hem heeft opgespoord in een ver weg gelegen land – waaraan wordt gerefereerd in de Genesis Apocryphon als “Parwain” of “Paradise” – en na de vrees van zijn zoon Lamech te hebben overgebracht, werpt de altijd rechtvaardige Henoch licht op de situatie door te stellen:

06.13 And I, Enoch, answered and said to him “The Lord will do new things on Earth, and this I have already seen in a vision, and made known to you. For in the generation of my father, Jared, some from the height of Heaven transgressed the word of The Lord.
106.14 And behold, they commit sin and transgress the law, and have been promiscuous with women, and commit sin with them, and have married some of them, and have begotten children by them.
106.15 And there will be great destruction over the whole Earth, and there will be A deluge, and there will be great destruction for one year.
106.16 But this child, who has been born to you, will be left on the Earth, and his three sons will be saved with him. When all the men who are on the Earth die he and his sons will be saved.
106.17 They will beget on the Earth giants, not of spirit, but of flesh, and there will be great wrath on Earth, and the Earth will be cleansed of all corruption.
106.18 And now make known to your son Lamech that the one who has been born is truly his son. And call his name Noah, for he will be A remnant for you and he and his sons will be saved from the destruction which is coming on the Earth because of all the sin and all the iniquity, which will be committed on the Earth in his days.”

Theologen zijn het er min of meer over eens, dat de wijdverbreide verslagen van gevallen engelen, die met sterfelijke vrouwen samenwonen, zoals opgenomen in het Boek van Henoch en de Genesis Apocryphon, niet meer zijn dan fantasievolle uitwerkingen van enige verzen uit het Boek Genesis.

“Toen de mensen zich op de Aarde begonnen te vermenigvuldigen en hen dochters geboren werden, zagen de Zonen Gods, dat de dochters van de mensen schoon waren, en zij namen zich daaruit vrouwen, wie zij maar verkozen. […] De reuzen waren in die dagen op de Aarde, en ook daarna, toen de Zonen Gods tot de dochters van de mensen kwamen en zij hen (kinderen) baarden; dit zijn de geweldigen uit de voortijd, mannen van naam.” (Genesis, 6:1 – 4)

Met de ‘Zonen van God’ (https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_God) bedoelt de tekst Hemelse engelen, maar bij Wikipedia lezen we, dat dit niet de Joodse interpretatie van het vers is, waar deze Zonen Gods als de zonen van Set worden beschouwd. Rönsch, 1874, p. 304f naar Georgius Cedrenus, Griekse monnik uit de 11e eeuw.
“De uit het geslacht van Seth stammende Wachters daalden in het jaar van de Wereld 1200, toen Jared 40 was en Seth zelf 770 jaar oud, met verwarde zinnen neer en namen zich vrouwen uit de dochters van de mensenkinderen, namelijk van Kain, en verwekten de beroemde reuzen. Deze waren wegens de rechtvaardige Seth sterk, zeer groot en van hoogrijzende gestalte, monstrueus en afschuwwekkend, (…) vanwege de onreine Kain echter gevechtslustig, gewelddadig en hard van beenderen, van karakter moorddadig, goddeloos en afvallig, (…) verwilderd in zinnen en geen goede gedachten koesterend (…) Van hen wierp niet weinige de Hoogste door vuurkogels of bliksems uit de Hemel neer en vernietigde hen; daar echter de overigen geheel gevoelloos en onverbeterlijk bleven, bracht God ze daarop allemaal in de Vloed om (…)”
ID, p. 342f: In het zogeheten ‘Christelijke Adamboek van het Morgenland’ daalden de kinderen van Seth, die God de naam Engel had gegeven, in Jareds tijd voor het grootste deel af naar de Kainieten aan de voet van de heilige berg en vermengden zich met hen in onreinheid. (…) Vroegere geleerden hebben geschreven, dat Engelen van de Hemel af zijn gedaald en zich met de Kainsdochters verbonden en deze van hen reuzen gebaard hebben. Maar ze dwalen in deze mening van hen (…) Veel meer waren het werkelijke Adamskinderen, die vroeger op de berg vaste woonplaats hadden en (…) engel van God werden genoemd.
ID, 376 Barhebraeus in zijn Syrische Kroniek: Ten tijde van Seth, toen zijn kinderen zich het zalige leven in het Paradijs herinnerden, beklommen zij de berg Hermon en leefden in zuivere en heilige wandel, zich van de echt onthoudend, en daarom werden zij Wachters en Zonen van God genoemd.

Rappoport deelt mee, dat van Seth ook wordt gezegd, dat hij 40 dagen in de Hemel verbleef, waar hij werd geïnstrueerd in de ethische wet door de engelen. Hij was het, die de Kunst van het schrijven uitvond, namen gaf aan de vijf planeten en de tijd verdeelde in maanden, weken en jaren. De legenden wat betreft Seth en de Sethieten en Kain en de Kainieten spelen een belangrijke rol niet alleen bij de Joden, maar ook bij de Moslims, Samaritanen en Gnostische Christenen. Zo lezen we bij Abulfaraj (https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Jawzi), dat Seth letters ontdekte en ging wonen op de berg Hermon, waar hij en zijn nakomelingen God dienden en nooit associeerden met de mensen van het land en niet met hen trouwden. Om deze reden werden de Sethieten of nakomelingen van Seth Zonen van God genoemd. Dit idee is te vinden in The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles_of_Jerahmeel) en in Suidas bij het lemma Seth, welke laatste schrijft: “De Zonen van God gingen naar de dochters van de mensen, dat wil zeggen, de zonen van Seth trouwden met de dochters van Kain. Seth werd God genoemd in die dagen, omdat hij Hebreeuwse letters had ontdekt en ook de namen van de sterren. Hij werd speciaal zo genoemd vanwege zijn grote vroomheid, zodat hij de eerste was om de naam God te dragen.” (Rappoport, I, p. 201)

Een van de nakomelingen van Set[h] is Jared (Nederlands Jered, Genesis, 5:15 – 20), de vader van Henoch. Collins maakt melding van de Sons of Jared als een moderne organisatie. Zie https://Answers.Yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080412151350AAtTia1&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD2bk2FLYgxvt63FHi7rcgGf0p2-BAJvoRqR62v9jo8-k-f11YLXjBUO3ab944tT_DfOSg6-uEbLnxOvwD3_pncpbHd5FevGHtNSqq5oAqmjJVPg-CtOyAOIkpUBrrAppZ0DwF57G_Yh5eWbygj2OTgMhYILcRHYWnIgwyByJ4ux, waar de vraag wordt behandeld Is de Sons of Jared een echte organisatie of is David Icke gek?

Voor meer over deze schimmige organisatie, zie http://www.AboveTopSecret.com/forum/thread28204/pg1.

Het betreft een onderdeel van de Mormonen, zie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaredites en https://www.ChurchofJesusChrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/jaredites?lang=eng.

The Book of Enoch says that those born of the Nefilim blood are, because of their ancestral spirit, destined to “afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle and work destruction on the Earth”, in other words, those bodies can be possessed by their ‘ancestral spirit’ – the reptilians of the lower fourth dimension. In the United States there is an organization called the Sons of Jared, named after the father of Enoch. They pledge an ‘implacable War’ against the descendants of the Watchers who “as notorious pharaohs, Kings and dictators, have throughout history dominated mankind”. In their publication, the Jaredite Advocate, they condemn the Watchers as “like super gangsters, A celestial Maffia ruling the World”. How today S Brotherhood Elite can cause such death, destruction and suffering, without showing any emotion. At least some of the reptile genetic streams do not appear to feel emotion like humans and they seem to be far more ruthless, too. (https://books.Google.nl/books?id=OyioAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT520&lpg=PT520&dq=the+jaredite+advocate&source=bl&ots=vpVqw3ApvE&sig=ACfU3U2eipdk4QgPKwsj-1jNV90xePfNCQ&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-5Nn7idHpAhXN-KQKHUjPDHkQ6AEwBHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20jaredite%20advocate&f=false).

Illustration from the Select Master Degree (foto midnightfreemasons)

Collins maakt melding van een legende rond Henoch, die rondgaat in kringen van de Vrijmetselarij.

The Legend of Enoch – False but Fascinating. Grand Lodge of British Columbia Bulletin, January 1974 By Brother Harry M Furniss, Prince of Wales Lodge N° 1

Some of the more fascinating “historical facts” about Freemasonry concern events which modern scholars believe are pure figments of imagination. The Legend of Enoch, for instance, makes great reading although there is not A shred of evidence to substantiate it. In his huge “History of Freemasonry“ – Mackey included such stories for the record, and for the opportunity to demolish their premises. He viewed these legends as allegorical attempts to symbolize certain ethical or religious ideas and wrote: “Their symbolic interpretation cannot be rejected unless we reject the whole fabric of Freemasonry into which they have been closely interwoven.” The Legend of Enoch, seventh of the Biblical patriarchs, is one which appears in many forms and in many lands. Inspired by A vision from the Most High, Enoch is said to have built A system of nine brick vaults in the bossom of Mount Moriah. The vaults were beneath each other and entered through holes in the arches. Inside the nineth and innermost vault, Enoch placed A cubical block of marble in which was set A triangular plate of gold, encrusted with precious stones and engraved with the ineffable name of God. The entrance to the vaults was sealed with A stone door and covered with Earth. While Enoch lived, he entered the vaults once a year, but told no one of their whereabouts. Consequently, after his death, the vaults were not located until workmen began digging the foundations for the temple of King Solomon. The legend says that after Enoch finished building the vaults, he had another vision, of the great flood yet to come. To preserve the knowledge he had cultivated, he erected A marble pillar to resist fire and A brass pillar to resist corrosion. On the brass pillar, Enoch engraved the history of creation, principles of the Arts and sciences, and the doctrines of Speculative Masonry. On the marble pillar he inscribed, in hieroglyphics, the information that A precious treasure was hidden nearby in A subterranean vault. This legend, of course, has not the slightest historical support but possesses value as A symbolic idea, the germ of which, Mackey said, is the preservation of the Ineffable Name through the efforts of an Antediluvian Patriarch. There is no hint of this story in the Legend of the Craft. Nor does the name Enoch appear in the old manuscript Constitutions which indicates the legend was probably fabricated some years after the first Grand Lodge of Speculative Masons was formed in 1717. But outside Masonry there are references to caves in Mount Moriah. A Talmudist tradition holds that King Solomon, when building the temple, constructed underground vaults in which the ark was later hidden, placed on A cubical stone. The Arabians (Mohammedans) have A tradition which tells how Abraham found A sacred stone which he used in the temple which Jehovah ordered him to erect. Nicephorus Callistus, A fourteenth century Greek writer, recounted quite an elaborate tale. Workmen rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem found the opening to A cave and lowered A man on A rope to investigate. Water covered the floor of the cubical cave, but safe and dry atop A pillar was found A book – the Gospel. Enoch was first introduced to Freemasonry as one of the founders of geometry and masonry by the historian Anderson in his 1723 Constitutions. Subsequent writers did not add to the bare facts, leading Mackey to believe the legend was of continental origin, possibly from the fertile brain of Chevalier Ramsay who fabricated so many of the earliest “high degrees.” In 1749 Ramsay wrote of A tradition of all nations – A great man or legislator, before the floor who was the first author of sacred symbols and hieroglyphics, and who taught the people sacred mysteries and religious rites. This man, held Ramsay, was called Thaut by the Phoenicians; Hermes by the Greeks; Edris by the Arabians; all of which names are synonymous with Enoch. And just to give the legend A final touch of mystery, the Bible records that Enoch lived 365 years, A sacred number in early history. (http://www.MasterMason.com/3rdNorthern/MasonicHistoryFiles/the%20legend%20of%20enoch.htm).

Discovery of the Enoch S lost knowledge in the underground vault (foto Thomas R Horn)

G: O: Companions: this is the history and legend of this degree. Enoch, the son of Jared, was the sixth in descent from Adam. Filled with the love and fear of God, he strove to lead men in the way of honour and duty. In A vision the Deity appeared to him in the visible shape of A pure golden triangle, and said to him, “Enoch, thou hast longed to know my true name: arise and follow me, and thou shalt know it.”

Enoch, accepting his vision as an inspiration, journeyed in search of the mountain he had seen in his dream, until, weary of the search, he stopped in the land of Canaan, then already populous with the descendants of Adam, and there employed workmen; and with the help of his son Methuselah, he excavated nine apartments, one above the other, and each roofed with an arch, as he had seen in his dream, the lowest being hewn out of the solid rock. In the Crown of each arch he left A narrow aperture, closed with A square stone, and over the upper one he built A modest temple, roofless and of huge unhewn stones, to the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Upon A triangular plate of gold, inlaid with many precious gems, he engraved the ineffable name of God, and sank the plate into one face of a cube of agate.

None knew of the deposit of the precious treasure; and, that it might remain undiscovered, and survive the Flood, which it was known to Enoch would soon overwhelm the World in one vast sea of mire, he covered the aperture, and the stone that closed it and the great ring of iron used to raise the stone, with the granite pavement of his primitive temple.

Then, fearing that all knowledge of the Arts and sciences would be lost in the universal flood, he built two great columns upon A high hill, one of brass, to resist water, and one of granite, to resist fire. On the granite column was written in hieroglyphics A description of the subterranean apartments; on the one of brass, the rudiments of the Arts and sciences.

The granite column was overturned and swept away, and worn to A shapeless mass by the Deluge, but that of brass stood firm, and was found by Noah. Thenceforward the true name of God remained unknown until he said unto Moses in Egypt, when he ordered him to go to Pharaoh, and cause him to send forth the children of Israel out of Egypt ” I am that which I was and shall be I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, HE who is hath sent me unto you. I am the Lord, that appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by my name AL SHEDI but my name – I did not show them“ (https://www.Brad.ac.UK/WebofHiram/?section=ancient_accepted&page=ArchofEnoch.html).

Ramsay was too learned A man to be ignorant of the numerous Oriental traditions, Arabic, Egyptian, and Rabbinical, concerning Enoch, that had been long in existence. Of this we have evidence in A very learned work on The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion, published by him in 1749 (https://books.Google .nl/books?id=6zYeBe0W2B0C&printsec=frontcover&hl=nl&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false).

In this work he refers to the tradition extant in all nations, of A great man or legislator who was the first author of sacred symbols and hieroglyphics, and who taught the people their sacred mysteries and religious rites. This man, he says, was, among the Phoenicians, Thaut; the Greeks, Hermes; the Arabians, Edris. But he must have known that Thaut, Hermes, and Edris were all synonymous of Enoch, for he admits that ” all these lived some time before the universal deluge, and they were all the same man, and consequently some Antediluvian patriarch.”

And, finally, he adds that “some think that this Antediluvian patriarch was Enoch himself.” And then he presents, in the following language, those views which most probably supplied the suggestions that were afterward developed by himself, or some of his followers, in the full form of the Masonic legend of Enoch.

“Whatever be in these conjectures,” says Ramsay, “it is certain, from the principles laid down, that the Antediluvian or Noevian patriarchs ought to have taken some surer measures for transmitting the knowledge of divine truths to their posterity, than by oral tradition, and, consequently, that they either invented or made use of hieroglyphics or symbols to preserve the memory of these sacred truths.” And these he calls the Enochian symbols.

He does not, indeed, make any allusion to A secret depository of these symbols of Enoch, and supposes that they must have been communicated to the sons of Noah and their descendants, though in time they lost their true meaning. But the change made in the Masonic Legend was necessary to adapt it to a peculiar system of ritualism.

It is singular how Enoch ever became among the ancients A type of the mysteries of religion. The Book of Genesis devotes only three short verses to an account of him, and nothing is there said of him, his deeds, or his character, except an allusion to his piety.

The Oriental writers, however, abound in traditional tales of the learning of the Patriarch. One tradition states that God bestowed upon him the gift of knowledge, and that he received thirty volumes from Heaven, filled with all the secrets of the most mysterious sciences. The Babylonians supposed him to have been intimately acquainted with the nature of the stars, and they attribute to him the invention of astrology.

The Jewish Rabbis maintained that he was taught by Adam how to sacrifice and to worship the Deity aright. The Cabalistic Book of Raziel says that he received the divine mysteries through the direct line of the preceding Patriarchs.

Bar Hebraeus (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar-Hebraeus), A Jewish writer, asserts that Enoch was the first who invented books and writing; that he taught men the art of building cities – thus evidently confounding him with another Enoch, the son of Cain, that he discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac and the course of the stars; and that he inculcated the worship of God by religious rites.

There is A coincidence in the sacred character thus bestowed upon Enoch with his name and the age at which he died, and this may have had something to do with the mystical attributes bestowed upon him by the Orientalists.

The word Enoch signifies, in the Hebrew, initiated or consecrated, and would seem, as all Hebrew names are significant, to have authorized, or, perhaps, rather suggested the idea of his connection with A system of initiation into sacred rites.

He lived, the Scriptures say, three hundred and sixty-five years. This, too, would readily be received as having A mystical meaning, for 365 is the number of the days in A Solar year and was, therefore, deemed A sacred number. Thus we have seen that the letters of the mystical word Abraxas, which was the Gnostic name of the Supreme Deity, amounted, according to their numerical value in the Greek alphabet, to 365, which was also the case with Mithras, the God to whom the Mithraic mysteries were dedicated. And this may account for the statement of Bar Hebraeus that Enoch appointed festivals and sacrifices to the Sun at the periods when that luminary entered each of the Zodiacal signs (https://www.MyFreemasonry.com/threads/The-legend-of-Enoch.10384/)

De negen gewelven van Henoch (foto Traveling Templar)

Zie ook http://www.TravelingTemplar.com/2019/06/enoch.html.

An important narrative is told from Masonic Legend based partly on Talmudist and other traditions including Josephus (indirectly in the first book of Antiquities) wherein Enoch, here considered A father of Freemasonry and before he is translated into Metatron, is visited by his female counterpart – the Shekinah of God – and is given A vision of the End of the World. Because of his devotion to God, Enoch constructs nine hidden vaults underground at Mount Moriah. The vaults are perpendicular; one atop the other, in which he deposits the most important ancient knowledge. In the deepest vault (nineth), he places A triangular plate of gold, measuring A cubit long on each side, bearing the secret and ineffable name of God. When the vaults of knowledge are complete, Enoch covers them over with soil and erects two pillars on the site – one on which he inscribes the history, Arts and Sciences, and “doctrines of Speculative Masonry” according to Masonic historian MacKey, and one on which he places hieroglyphic information pointing to the precious treasure in the vaults nearby. The pillars are nearly destroyed in the Great Flood and the vaults lost until the building of Solomon S Temple. […] Consequently in Masonic mysticism, Enoch or Metatron is not only controller of “divine wind” but key to the secrets of illumination. Rituals within Freemasonry related to this legend of Enoch on Moriah, his preservation of the Arts and Sciences in the underground repositories, and the rediscovery of such during the building of the Temple of Solomon are two fold – those based on Enoch S hidden vaults including the two pillars representing secret knowledge from antiquity, and those based on the pillars in the Temple of Solomon representing the passageway that initiates must move through en route to the guarded knowledge. The rituals based on these legends are separated for the primitive and higher degrees, with those related to the Enochian Pillars being “preserved exclusively to the higher and more modern degrees” of the Craft, while the “only pillars that are alluded to in the primitive degrees are those of Solomon S temple” according to MacKey and Singleton. In Morals and Dogma, the late Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, Albert Pike adds that Enoch S name in Hebrew signifies “initiate” or “initiator” and hence the columns of knowledge erected by him and those of the Temple of Solomon parodied in the Craft and rituals (including the Royal Arch Degree) is symbolic of the Mason S procession from uninitiated to illumined. When A person joins the Order, he passes between the twin columns during initiation, beyond which awaits the mysteries “of which Masonry is the (…) custodian and depository of the great philosophical and religious truths, unknown to the World at large, and handed down from age to age by an unbroken current of tradition, embodied in symbols, emblems, and allegories.” Worshipful Master Mason Keith Sheriff in A lecture available on the Inhabitants Lodge N° 153 website acknowledges that the two pillars erected at the Great Temple of Jerusalem are mirrored in the Masonic Lodges as sentinels to the entrance “of the inner sanctum, where the Ark and the Divine Shekina resided.” He adds that the pillars in the Masonic Lodge represent A “portal through which the initiate passes on his admission to Freemasonry” toward the esoteric knowledge represented by and beyond the pillars, available only to those who “traverse the threshold and participate in the mysteries of the Order” (from http://mail.NewswithViews.com/Horn/thomas104.htm).

Zie ook http://www.MidnightFreemasons.org/2013/01/in-search-of-lost-word-part-ii.html.

Referenties

Collins, Andrew, From the Ashes of Angels, The Forbidden Legacy of A Fallen Race, Penguin (Signet), London, et cetera, 1997.
Rappoport, Angelo S, Ancient Israel, Myths & Legends, London, 1995 (3 Volumes).
Rönsch, Hermann, Das Buch der Jubiläen oder Die kleine Genesis, Amsterdam, 1970 (= Leipzig, 1874).
Staal, LD, Verhalen en Legenden van Israël, Zutphen, 1925.