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The Forgotten Books of Eden · 134 of 293

Secrets of Enoch: Chapter XXIX

Then it became evening, and then again morning, and it was the second day. [Monday is the first day.] The fiery Essence.

1.AND for all the heavenly troops I imaged the image and essence of fire, and my eye looked at the very hard, firm rock, and from the gleam of my eye the lightning received its wonderful nature, which is both fire in water and water in fire, and one does not put out the other, nor does the one dry up the other, therefore the lightning is brighter than the sun, softer than water and firmer than hard rock.

2.And from the rock I cut off a great fire, and from the fire I created the orders of the incorporeal ten troops of angels, and their weapons are fiery and their raiment a burning flame, and I commanded that each one should stand in his order.

Here Satanail with his angels was thrown down from the height.

3.And one from out the order of angels, having turned away with the order that was under him, conceived an impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the earth, that he might become equal in rank to my power.

4.And I threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the bottomless.

Asked of Guide

Why does Enoch describe lightning as “both fire in water and water in fire” here?

Enoch uses the phrase “fire in water and water in fire” to capture a paradoxical, hybrid quality of lightning: it is intensely bright like fire yet flows and yields like water, and it is “softer than water and firmer than hard rock.” This description makes lightning a fitting image for certain angels and their weapons—agents who combine opposing forces and so embody a complex, brilliant power.

This passage links creative imagination with moral order: from rock and gleam Enoch fashions the angelic ranks, then one angel’s “impossible thought” to exalt his throne leads to expulsion. The scene echoes themes in Isaiah and Ezekiel about a proud being cast down and resembles John Milton’s portrayal of a rebellious angel in Paradise Lost, where grandeur and fall are bound together.

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