2 Enoch

2 Enoch / Book of the Secrets of Enoch — Morfill & Charles — Section 97

καὶ ἡ τοῦ σκότους. ζωῆς καὶ μία τοῦ θανάτου: cf. Test. Asher I en 3 , υἱοῖς ἀνθρώπων .. δύο ὁδοὺς ἔδωκεν ὃ θεὸς τοῖς . ὁδοὶ δύο, καλοῦ καὶ κακοῦ: Sibyll. Or. viii. 399, 400 αὐτὸς ὁδοὶς προέθηκα δύο, ζωῆς θανάτου τε Καὶ γνώμην προέθηκ᾽ ἀγαθὴν ζωὴν προελέσθαι: οἵ, also Pastor Hermae Mand. vi. 1, 2; Clem. Alex. Strom. v. 5; Apost. Church Order, iv; Apost. Constitutions, vii. 1; Clem. Homilies v. 7. I said unto him: ‘ This is good and this is evil,’ ἄς. This does not harmonize with the account in Gen., where the knowledge of good and evil follows on eating the forbidden fruit. That I should know whether he has love for Me or hate. Deut. xiii. 3 ‘ Your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God.’ 16. Igno- rance is a woe to him that he should sin. This ignorance, as we see from the preceding verse, is not first and directly an ignorance of moral distinctions, but of his nature with its good and evil impulses (31H WS) and YA ἜΝ. rance is thus regarded here as an evil in itself. This is probably the result of Platonic thought, which had gained great influence over Hellenistic Juda- Igno- ism, and the idea of the text seems related, however distantly, to that ethical system which may be summed up in the words πᾶς δ᾽ ἄδικος οὐχ ἑκὼν ἄδικος (Plato, Legg. 731 Cc): οὐδένα ἀνθρώπων ἑκόντα ἐξαμαρτάνειν (Prot. 345D): κακὸς μὲν γὰρ ἑκὼν οὐδείς (Tim. 86D). See also Legg. 7348; Rep. ix. 589c¢; Hipp. Maj. 296 ¢. Herein it is taught that no man wil- fully chooses evil in preference to good; but in every act of moral judgement the determining motive is to be found in the real or seeming preponderance of good in the course adopted: and that, should this course Chapter XXX. 16, 17. I appointed death on account of his βίη. I caused him to sleep, and he slumbered. 43 17. And? And I took from 1 Worse than sinning, and for sin there is nothing else but death, Sok.