Cassian's Recap: Do Jewish texts and the book of Enoch explain Revelation?

The Purpose of Using Jewish Texts to Read Revelation

Hello everybody and welcome to Cassian's recap of can we use Jewish texts like Enoch to understand and decipher Revelation. I am I really enjoyed recording this episode with dr. James Sedlacek and it was such an in-depth episode that actually spanned two hours and We wanted to model the episode essentially organized with here's Revelation here's a Jewish text that would have been referenced or known at the time of revelation for the original readers.

And how can the language used in these other texts help us decipher? Revelation because I don't think I'm alone in the fact that the language of Revelation is really hard to understand. It uses a lot of imagery and words that cannot be easily understood without a reference point and I think the Holy Spirit does a good job of Bringing our attention to things that maybe we don't understand or bringing us to scripture that maybe resonates with us.

But I need it like it's not like I've read other Jewish texts. So I was such a blessing to have dr. James Sedlacek there who has read the other text who has taught the other text. He has now taught a course on Jewish texts and how they reveal meanings and References and codes used in Revelation.

He's now taught that eight times. So when he was invited to speak on this and this is why he's such a blessing to have when he was invited. He said I'll teach Revelation. But I honestly I'm not excited about it.

And then when he was looking at the curriculum the curriculum was using reference points in other Jewish texts. So he's like whoa, this isn't a question about Revelation. This is a discussion on Jewish texts.

So it was really exciting for him to say like listen the way that we understand Revelation has been so obscured because Jewish texts have yet to be brought into the conversation here. So Who are we to understand Revelation when we're not understanding Jewish texts in their entirety and the whole so today's recap is really to Answer the question.

Can we use Jewish texts like Enoch to understand Revelation? So I think one of the things that dr. James Sedlacek wants to start with and myself is that people add their own understanding to Revelation.

They read Revelation and they're like, oh, this is clearly talking about the Antichrist, which has to be the Pope. And oh, yeah when they mentioned the seven stars. This is the seven countries that had the United Nations or whatever it is.

And at the end of the day, that's all speculation. It's not confirmed. It doesn't make sense. Why would John be referencing the United Nations and it doesn't actually help. It just scares us. It just gets us to click on the bait.

It just gets us to buy the next book. And so it's very nice to have this rooted in Scripture that is supported with other scripture used at that time that John would have known when he wrote Revelation when Sedlacek when dr. James Sedlacek was planning out the curriculum to teach a course on Revelation.

He was referencing Jewish texts. I've never heard my pastor do that. So it's helping us understand that Revelation was written to a OG Jewish audience, but We don't understand that because there's a rise of Gentile leadership and This is where those Jewish codes Jewish context gets lost.

Because the Gentiles aren't referencing Jewish language. They're Gentiles. They're referencing Gentile language so there's no communication between the groups and this is from a purely historical timeline of Just there's a rise of people that no longer communicate with the original readers and writers.

Which are the Jewish text and we'll get into the timeline of these books and kind of where the separation lands but at the end of the day like if you're a Gentile you're not going to interpret it as a native Jew and the Original Revelation wasn't in Greek.

It was in Hebrew which differs from other books in the New Testament. So you kind of have this like wonky book that comes out of nowhere where it's like, okay Old Testament Torah Hebrew boom New Testament.

Now in Greek and then this random book at the very end that's using original Hebrew. Using original Hebrew language and references and text, of course, we struggle with it. But the people at the time were like, yeah I mean, I'm a Gentile.

I'm Greek, but like I'm kind of aware but like I don't really use it. But like the resources were within reach at the time like they're circulating Jewish texts again. We'll get into that. So the Jewish text the timeline of apocalyptic literature.

Which apocalypse I thought meant Armageddon I thought meant end of the world get ready for the fiery Asteroids and the and the wave of water the tsunami. That's not what apocalypse means it's a Greek word that means to reveal what is hidden kind of like when you come out at dinner and You have like a plate with that cover and you take off the top and you reveal what's under that's the apocalypse.

So this apocalypse and revelation is to reveal the hidden God to uncover the Son of God. So the Jewish text timeline is we get we get Daniel, which is the apocalyptic text we get Ezekiel Isaiah Zachariah and then.

After all these books come out. There's a bunch of Jewish persecution just in the history of the world and then we get revelation which comes out after that. So revelation comes out after all of that and now disconnected audience and revelation is the spicy new book with all this new Language and a completely different flavor from all of the other New Testament books, so What we need to understand is that revelation? interacts with those apocalyptic texts that were referenced before Revelation is cross referencing events and language from Daniel Ezekiel Isaiah and Zachariah.

It's not referencing the Gospels. So when you go from the Gospels to Revelation, of course, you're confused. So and when I say reference other messages, it's I'm sorry. It's referencing other texts not just Daniel Ezekiel Isaiah Zachariah.

It's also referencing other books not in the biblical canon like Baruch Enoch Jubilee Ezra those were important Jewish texts at that time that just didn't make it into the biblical canon so if you're going to understand revelation you need to understand it as a whole and what was used in the Jewish community at that time and These were used in the Jewish community to help understand the prophets more.

So, you know, why was it not included in the biblical canon? Of course, I'm like any other 2024 Millennial where it's like well because they're hiding things right because they have secrets that they did not want us to know.

Right. No, that's not really that case. Actually upon further discussion, it's um, I mean Enoch was included in other biblical canons and People decided in their own right when and where it should be included, you know.

Should it be in the Hebrew or the Christian Bible? That's going to be debated by different groups like the Pharisees the Sadducees Orthodox Jews all of them had different takes on it because again, you've got the Old Testament Apocrypha and then the New Testament.

So.

Like Ezra is now in the Hebrew canon and some Christians kept Enoch. Like the Egyptians and Armenian Bibles within that Apocrypha. So sometimes it was included but at the end of the day it was as needed.

It wasn't excluded because it was forbidden. One of the examples that we discussed in this call that I think is very helpful to put this in context is like Elvis had a He had a lot of songs. But we only know like the top five like jailhouse rock blue suede shoes.

That's like literally the only ones I can name off the top of my head and like I love Elvis. I'm not like that disconnected. Does that mean his other songs were forbidden? No, like they heard tons of Jewish books.

The most relevant ones came to the surface like Daniel Ezekiel.

Isaiah Zachariah.

Revelation it's not that Enoch was forbidden. It's not that his older older songs I can't even like his gospel songs go with that are forbidden. No, it's just what rises to the top. What's what's needed for today?

What's needed in the grand scheme of growing your faith or listening to quality Elvis music?

I.

Hope that that resonates better for the question of is Enoch forbidden because there's secrets and yes There are some crazy visions in there. There's also crazy visions in Revelation. So, how are we going to interpret that through other Jewish texts?

Enoch, Revelation, and the Role of Apocalyptic Revelation

Okay, so coming back to Enoch going a little bit deeper on who this person is. Where did it come from? Is it even a person remember that apocalypse means revelation? It means to reveal. So what is the revelation in?

Revelation 1 God the King Is wanting Jesus as a revelation the heir apparent To be shown to his bond servants, which would be John and how is it shown to his bond servants? Through a revelation carried by angels.

Okay.

So the witness John is now seeing this revelation of Jesus through a message carried by a messenger which is an angel angel messenger same word so Enoch having the same revelation as John uses the same language that we see in Enoch 1.

Enoch is saying his eyes are open. But he's seeing something in a heavenly place and this is shown to him by the angel the messenger. So this is the same thing happening to Enoch as it's happening to John.

They're seeing the same vision in the same way from God as a revelation. And I and it's using the same language. That's pretty hard to kind of wrap our heads around like Enoch. If you didn't know is a person who lived seven generations after Adam.

Okay, this is before Moses. This is before the flood. This is I mean it depends on old earth young earth, it doesn't matter it's before Jesus, okay. Definitely before John that's for sure. So how is John in the New Testament seeing the same thing as Enoch seven generations after Adam?

That's hmm. And the way that explains this is he's like like you and me we're on zoom, right? We're both seeing the same thing and we're in different places. Enoch is at a different place in time than John and yet they're seeing the same vision kind of like Facilitated by an angel of a heavenly realm kind of like how you and I are not in the same place.

But we can see each other facilitated by zoom or Riverside. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy when we think about God exists outside of time? This is where we kind of see what that looks like what that what that means.

It's very interstellar ask. Okay, so Enoch person born seven generations after Adam but this is where people and probably why Enoch was not included in the biblical canon is because when you read Enoch Enoch is a collection of visions from different people and it rises 300 years before Jesus it would like emerges 300 a BC.

So the book itself has language that is not about Enoch. It's a bunch of visions and then they just slap the name Enoch on it. So the authorship is unverified. You know, it's not verified that it's written by Enoch.

It doesn't even make sense that it be written by Enoch if it came 300 years before Jesus. From a man that lived thousands of years before closer to Adam. Like how would it have survived the Alexandria Library the flood like it doesn't make sense how it would work.

So that's why they're like listen, we can't justify this. So we're just gonna not include in the biblical canon, which kind of makes sense. I mean again, nothing is verified. So even what the example I just gave Might not even be the real answer.

We don't know but we just know there's too much confusion on its origin and its author. So to me that makes sense why it wouldn't be included again, like I Wasn't part of the Council of Nicaea, but I think that that I can I can land with that type of confusion and why they chose.

Anyways moving on so it's unlikely to be written by Enoch. There it's a collection of visions by different authors using different writing styles. It would have had to survive. So many years had it been actually written by Enoch and it's not really cited in other common books.

So why use a resource or an Elvis song? That's not really needed or referenced as much. However, the topic of Revelation and apocalypse and apocalyptic literature and Jewish texts very relevant, which is why we're just discussing it today.

Cross-Referencing Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, and Other Jewish Texts

So kind of going back to what I talked about before with the timeline of Jewish text. You know, we talked about Daniel Ezekiel Isaiah Zechariah a bunch of Jewish persecution and then the book of Revelation.

That's just what we know in the biblical canon. There's also others Jewish texts like Baruch and Enoch, you know something that we discussed in the text. So this is all text of a different vision, you know Baruch is seeing the same vision.

Enoch is seeing the same vision. John is seeing the same vision. However, this is going to be different people in different timelines timelines in their life. So we need to cross-reference to understand the language.

If you skip over the text that came before Revelation like Daniel like Enoch like Baruch and you just take Revelation. You're gonna be confused hence why we're having the conversation and the example that said Lissette gives on.

What would be like a modern-day equivalent is like if you only read book 7 of Harry Potter and you skipped out on books 1 through 6 how much character development and plot holes and Characters and relationships and events and tragedies and successes.

Do you miss out on that when it's mentioned in the last book you're like was that important? What do you mean? What do you mean? I actually haven't read Harry Potter so I can't even speak on this but That's why it's important to look at these other texts.

You can't just look at Revelation and draw conclusions when you're missing so many other books that would have set you up to understand Revelation. So moving on we actually jump into the text. We don't spend the entire episode just talking about Enoch and why it was excluded and the purpose of it we actually do a side-by-side comparison of the text and some of the things that I Needed someone to spell out to me because how the heck would I know?

It feels like you must have to Google every word in the Bible to understand its original meaning. Is that said Lissac points out that in Hebrew angels are also referred to as spirits? Okay, and an angel is a messenger.

We talked about this before and what the revelation was and a messenger can be human, you know. Don't kill don't shoot the messenger or it could be a spirit. This is a very generic term. It's like oh, he's my worker.

What does that mean is he your slave or is he your employee is your colleague like what does that mean with worker? Angel is the same. It's a very very generic term. That's kind of used interchangeably in these texts.

So it's not so when we see messenger or angel. It doesn't always reference a human so in Hebrews it clarifies with the other text side-by-side that oh, we're talking about a messenger. Oh, we're talking about a spirit now.

So that use of messenger in one text and spirit and another shows that this messenger is not human it is an angel. It is of the spirit realm not the human realm. So the use of Hebrews in these verses helps us understand.

Oh, they're not just like getting the mailman to stop by and talk about a revelation of Jesus. They're getting a non human form messenger. Moving on. So this is why this is important. I mean, we're kind of getting in it but Baruch Jubilee Hebrews John they depend on you know Jude quotes from it.

Jesus makes points from it. So we need to understand it in its entirety. That's why I'm honing on Enoch so hard. I'm not saying that it needs to be part of your devotions. I'm just saying like to really get to this deeper level of faith.

It's going to require us to understand the role it plays. So it really it focuses us to relook at the earlier followers and Understand Enoch without applying it out of context which all of us fail to do we've all seen the clickbaity things of like Enoch has the Anukai and the watchers that are here to kill us and there are I Don't even know I honestly.

It's not used for sermons, but we have to understand it. You can't take text out of Enoch and apply it to the same degree of other scriptures from the Bible. You should understand it. You should research it.

You should not use your own interpretation for it though. Maybe like Psalms or Proverbs. That's a much better scripture to take one verse out of context without reading anything before after and being like, yeah.

Okay, this is safe Enoch. Don't do that. So some other things about the text and this is like my favorite thing to do. Which is where we'll end is like what is the text saying? So revelation? What is the revelation?

What is going on in revelation now that we can understand the purpose and how it's used and where we're getting this from. Language that says end of times and language that says end of days. The same same thing there.

Okay, this is language that's used in the New Testament. So if we're over here in 2024 2025 like oh, it's the end of days. People in the New Testament have been saying it's the end of days for the last 2 ,000 years.

Which is crazy that is so crazy that like they thought they were in the end times and here we are with like Microchips and Bluetooth and AI and we're like, yeah, we're so near it's like it's gonna happen tomorrow.

It's like they felt the same way. So getting into the text, what is John saying? Because you and I we know revelation. We don't we don't read Jubilee. We don't read Enoch, but we read Revelation. So what does it mean John is describing a man in the middle of a menorah?

The way that John is describing this man is using the same language that Enoch Uses to describe the ancient of days, which is another term meaning God. So John is describing a man using the same language Enoch used to describe God.

Remember Enoch does not know about Jesus. Okay, he lives way before that. So Enoch is like, oh, yeah God, you know the God the God of the Hebrews. We know John's like there's a guy there, but he's a godly guy.

So.

John is talking about a human. He's not talking about God the way Enoch is so some of the crazy imagery that they use is like his hand was holding seven stars or A sharp two-edged sword is coming out of his mouth.

That's God imagery only. God would be holding seven stars seven messengers seven hosts little armies his stars in the sky his angels and that is. So that star colludes many things but that's an adaptation of the depiction of Greek and Roman emperors on coins.

They would be holding messenger gods and in Jesus's hand. Whoops. I spelled it. I spoiled it. Okay, the human is Jesus. Jesus this human God is holding seven angels. So again, if you're living at this Jewish time that revelation come out like you're very familiar with Greco-Roman culture.

You know their coins they're holding a star because they're the Emperor they're the gods. This is saying this human is doing what gods do and holds seven stars. And then the two-edged sword mouth also only the mouth of a God a human wouldn't have a two-edged sword coming out his mouth.

So what we really have to take home here is that John in Revelation is connecting God attributes to a human. He's talking about Jesus. Okay, clearly it's Jesus at the end of time, which you knew which you knew.

But you knock didn't and yet this text is using the same language.

So.

All in all can we use Jewish texts like Enoch to understand Revelation? Yes hard. Yes, because the use of these Jewish codes. Like in Enoch in Baruch in Hebrews in Jubilee. They communicate the coming of Jesus in terms that they would understand and now you understand it.

Thank you so much for listening to this recap. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you want to connect outside of just listening follow me on Instagram. This is biblically speaking.

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We're here to understand God's Word clearly and simply through the oversight of these scholars who have studied it for years and Through the gift and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Are we discerned to conversations that are to lead us closer to him to make him bigger and us smaller and to align with this truth?

Anyways, thank you so much for listening to biblically speaking and I'll see you next week and happy holidays. We're all chilly. Let me just throw this in. We're actually taking a break for Christmas week and New Year's week.

So no episodes will be released then but we have so much lined up for 2025. Happy New Year's and Merry Christmas.