Narkissos,
Looking at the context of 1 Enoch 39 (again) I think you are probably right; it does seem to refer to the same "fall of the angels" earlier in the book.
Yet, there also appears to be something significant regarding "births" (and/or "two families") in both biblical and non-canonical literature.
Sorry if I got a bit side-tracked.
;)
New discovery of a lost gospel
by Leolaia 33 Replies latest watchtower bible
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rick_here
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Leolaia
rick_here....The concept of Christians as a "third race" is attested in the Ebionite Preaching of Peter and has echoes in other Petrine pseudepigrapha and in the Gospel of Philip:
"Learn then, holily and righteously what we deliver to you and keep it, worshipping God through Christ in a new (kainos) way....For what has reference to the Greeks and the Jews is old. But we are Christians, who as a third race (tritói genei) worship him in a new way. For clearly, as I think, he showed that the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a Gentile (Hellénón ethnikós) way, by the Jews Judaically, and in a new and spiritual way by us" (Preaching of Peter, cited in Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 6.5.41).
"He is not a Jew who is called a Jew among men, nor is he a Gentile that is called a Gentile, but he who, believing in God, fulfills his Law and does his will, though he be not circumcised, is the true worshipper of God" (Kerygmata Petrou, Pseudo-Clementines, Rec. 5.34).
"You are a chosen race (genos), a royal priesthood, a holy nation (ethnos), God's own people (laos), that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were no people (ou laos) but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:9-10).
"There was no Jew [] from the Greeks [] was. And [] from the Jews [] to Christians. Another race [came into being, and] these ble[ssed ones] were called the chosen spiritual race, the true man, the Son of Man, and the seed of the Son of Man. This true race is well known in the world" (Gospel of Philip 102b).
"I am the intellectual Spirit filled with radiant light. He whom you saw coming to me is our intellectual Pleroma, which unites the perfect light with my Holy Spirit. These things, then, which you [i.e. Peter] saw you shall present to those of another race who are not of this age. For there will be no honor in any man who is not immortal, but only (in) those who were chosen from an immortal substance, which has shown that it is able to contain him who gives his abundance" (Apocalypse of Peter, 83).
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Narkissos
Leolaia,
As a side remark, this interesting concept of a "third race" systematises a semantic development already apparent in the Pauline and post-Pauline epistles, where sometimes the Gentile Christians are distinguished from Gentiles (or "pagans") in the general sense.
E.g. 1 Corinthians 5:1:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among Gentiles (en tois ethnesin).
12:2:
You know that when you were Gentiles (ethnè), you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.
Ephesians 4:17:
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles (ta ethnè) live, in the futility of their minds.
The same meaning might be found in 1 Peter 2:12 (unless it is addressed to Jews, which I doubt):
Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles (en tois ethnesin), so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.
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rick_here
The texts cited regarding Christians as being of a "third (race)" seem to me as a kind of "dispensationalist view" of we, as a people. First, were the Jews, the Chosen People. This obviously separated them from all other peoples (the Gentiles).
In the Preaching of Peter the "third race" do come across as being a new generation of people. But this is from a (purely) human perspective, along dispensational (or "covenant" lines)....
As such, this doesn't address the "births from heaven" theme that the apocalyptic literature points to: the arrival of evil (spirits) into the world and of the "descent of Son of Man and his seed."
Two differing topics, here, imo.
\o/