God's Face and the Creation of Humans 2 Enoch 44

God's Face and the Creation of Humans in 2 Enoch

According to Genesis, humans are created in the image of God. 2 Enoch takes this idea and likens God's face to the human face, which is God's image, and which should not be treated with contempt.

Chapter 30:10 On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man from seven consistencies: one, his flesh from the earth; two, his blood from the dew; three, his eyes from the sun; four, his bones from stone; five, his intelligence from the swiftness of the angels and from cloud; six, his veins and his hair from the grass of the earth; seven, his soul from my breath and from the wind.

11And I gave him seven natures: to the flesh hearing, the eyes for sight, to the soul smell, the veins for touch, the blood for taste, the bones for endurance, to the intelligence sweetness [enjoyment].

12I conceived a cunning saying to say, I created man from invisible and from visible nature, of both are his death and life and image, he knows speech like some created thing, small in greatness and again great in smallness, and I placed him on earth, a second angel, honourable, great and glorious, and I appointed him as ruler to rule on earth and to have my wisdom, and there was none like him of earth of all my existing creatures.

13And I appointed him a name, from the four component parts, from east, from west, from south, from north, and I appointed for him four special stars, and I called his name Adam, and showed him the two ways, the light and the darkness, and I told him:

14This is good, and that bad, that I should learn whether he has love towards me, or hatred, that it be clear which in his race love me.

15For I have seen his nature, but he has not seen his own nature, therefore through not seeing he will sin worse, and I said After sin what is there but death?

In this respect another, even more striking parallel between the account of creation in 2 Enoch 30 and the Gnostic materials should be mentioned. In the longer recension44 of 2 Enoch 30.8 the deity commanded his Wisdom45 to create man out the seven components.46 Scholars have previously noted the parallels between this role of Wisdom (Gk. Sophia) in the creation of the first human in the Slavonic apocalypse and the Gnostic texts.47 Some scholars even suggested that the Sophia tradition in 2 Enoch 30 might be an early Jewish prototype of the later Gnostic developments.48

Enoch instructs his sons, that they might not insult the face of any person, small or great

2 Enoch 44:1 The Lord with his hands having created man, in the likeness of his own face, the Lord made him small and great.
2 Enoch 44:2 Whoever insults a person's face insults the face of the Lord;... Whoever treats with contempt the face of any person treats the face of the Lord with contempt.

In this passage, 2 Enoch likens the human face to the divine face, vers 1; reminds us of Gen 1:27 it has similar wording

44:1 The Lord with his hands having created man, in the likeness of his own face, the Lord made him small and great.

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

"in the image of God" That is, in the image of the Elohim whom the Father used in the work of creation. Man is In the Image And Likeness Of The Elohim, or angels . The word image means a shadow, or a likeness. The word is reproduced in Daniel 2 in relation to the image, and thus relates to form or appearance.

Genesis 5:3 states that "Adam begat a son in his likeness after his image" which illustrates its use here.

Man was made "in the image" of the Elohim, and inasmuch as they are "sons of God," the image is divine (though the nature of man is not).

Of the Lord Jesus Christ also, we read that he is "the exact representation of his (God's) very being" (Heb. 1:3). Yahweh has corporeal existence in heaven.

"While image, then, hath reference to form or shape, 'likeness' hath regard to mental constitution, or capacity... Adam's mental capacity enabled him to comprehend and receive spiritual ideas

But whereas Adam was made in "the image and likeness of the Elohim," the descendants of Adam inherit the consequences of the Fall. Seth was "in the likeness after the image" of Adam (Gen. 5:3), and not that of God.

Therefore, since the Fall it has been impossible for man to reflect the divine excellence in its fullness, and this has required the formation of a New Man who should exactly reveal the divine image and likeness. This Christ accomplished by conquering the flesh (Rom. 1:3; Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15).

Man is a facsimile of god that is of god's visible face
any disrespect for any human being is to disrespect  God himself

2 Enoch 44:2 Whoever insults a person's face insults the face of the Lord; ....Whoever treats with contempt the face of any person treats the face of the Lord with contempt.

James 3:8 But the tongue, not one of mankind can get it tamed. An unruly injurious thing, it is full of death-dealing poison. 9 With it we bless God, even [the] Father, and yet with it we curse men who have come into existence “in the likeness of God


And now, my children, it is not from my own lips that I am reporting to you today, but from the lips of the Lord who has sent me to you. As for you, you hear my words, out of my lips, a human being created equal to yourselves; but I, I have heard the words from the fiery lips of the Lord. For the lips of the Lord are a furnace of fire, and his words are the fiery flames which come out. You, my children, you see my face, a human being created just like yourselves; I, I am one who has seen the face of the Lord, like iron made burning hot by fire, emitting sparks. For you gaze into (my) eyes, a human being created just like yourselves; but I have gazed into the eyes of the Lord, like the rays of the shining sun and terrifying the eyes of a human being.