The Chains of Heaven by Philip Marsden

Author:Philip Marsden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Who was Enoch? He is described in Genesis as the great-grandfather of Noah and only six generations from Adam; he is reported as living for 365 years and walking with God and then being taken by Him. After that there is a lot of begetting and some even longer lives—but no more Enoch.

The Book of Enoch is an account of what happened on his walk with God, and when he was taken. It survives as one of the richest examples of ‘mission’ or ‘travel’ literature. It is also the earliest, not just of this form but any form. In the Judaic tradition, Enoch was the first man to see the wonders of the world, its horrors and its workings, and the first to record them. It is an astonishing piece of writing. Although dating from not long before Christ, its stories are clearly of huge antiquity. Its fantastic imagery is not even allegorical. Every line rings with the conviction: this is the shape of the wide world, these are its ways. The story begins with God selecting Enoch to convey to a group of fallen angels the full details of the torments that await them. In order to do so he has to travel to the furthest extremes of the earth. He goes to the far north, the far west, the far east and the far south. From a certain mountain he sees the place where thunder is kept, where lightning is stored as bows of fire, and arrows and swords of fire. He goes to regions where no living thing exists and nothing is completed. He encounters trees of judgement, trees of fabulous scent, almond trees and cinnamon trees and trees with no known name. He is shown the tree of knowledge. He sees the burning place in the west into which the sun drops, and a river where fire flows like water. He goes to the dark mountains of winter and the great abyss from which gushes all the waters of the world. He stands and watches as, one by one, the stars leave the gates of heaven to follow their given course and he writes down the times and the seasons of each one. In the storehouses of the winds, he understands how the Lord fashioned from them the entirety of Creation, and he sees the cornerstone of the earth. At last he reaches the ends of the earth, where the heavens stretch high above it, and there he turns to the south. He comes to six mountains. They are made of wonderful layers of precious stones—of pearl and jasper and a fiery reddish stone—and in the middle of these six mountains is a seventh, and this is made from alabaster and its summit of sparkling sapphire reaches up to heaven.

Then he is shown the prison of those stars which have failed to follow their true course. He sees a great chasm and columns of fire rising to heaven and in the fire rolls the errant stars.

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