This
stark anachronism, in terms of the technology believed to have
been available in the eighth millennium B.C. should not be allowed
to divert the reader, for the present, from the main theme.
The problem, however, must be faced before this book closes,
as there is far too much documentary evidence concerning this
kind of phenomenon, for it to be possible to ignore it.
The
continuing narrative of Enoch reads like the diary of a wide-eyed
traveler being shown sights which, not only has he never seen
before, but are so alien to his experience that they are partly
beyond his ability to comprehend them. In the light paraphrases
that follow, care has been taken not to superimpose modern technical
understanding onto Enoch’s halting attempts to explain
what he saw.
[EN
XVII:1-2 PP] They [the two men] conducted me to a place where
those who were there were as bright as fire [Shining Ones],
but who, when they wished, could appear as ordinary men. They
had brought me to a place of darkness from a mountain whose
summit reached to the heavens. There, I saw lighted places,
and heard thunderous noises; and, in the deepest part, there
were lights which looked like a fiery bow and arrows, with their
quiver, and moving lights like a fiery sword.
This
passage, like others to follow, only makes sense in the context
of an inexperienced country man brought suddenly into the dwellings,
and perhaps workshops, or a more advanced culture. Perhaps the
closest modern comparison would be with an intelligent Aborigine
who, having lived only in the central deserts of Australia,
is attempting to describe his experiences, after having been
brought by helicopter to the mountain ridge outside Alice Springs;
and who, after looking down on the lights of the town, through
the darkness, was taken on a tour of the streets before being
returned to his family.
If
Enoch’s high mountain were Hermon, as can be confidently
asserted; and if the Garden in Eden lay a handful of
miles to the north, Enoch could have looked down into the depths,
some hundreds of metres below him, and seen the bright lights
of a settlement; and who knows what strange shapes they might
have formed in his mind.
From
The Shining Ones by Christian and Barbara Joy O’Brien
THE
SHINING ONES
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON THIS WEBSITE
