2 (Slavonic) Enoch (late First Century A.D.) depicts Adam as preexisting as a "second angel, honored and great and glorious."

Date
1983
Type
Manuscript
Source
Francis I. Andersen
Non-LDS
Hearsay
Translation
Reference

2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch [J] The Longer Recension 30:10-14 in F.I. Andersen (trans.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (New York: Yale University Press, 1983), 1:150, 152 (late First Century A.D.)

Scribe/Publisher
Yale University Press
People
Francis I. Andersen, Adam
Audience
Reading Public
Transcription

10 Behold, I have thought up an ingenious poem to recite:

From invisible and visible substances I created man.

From both his natures come both death and life.

And (as my) image he knows the word like (no) other creature.

But even at his greatest he is small,

and again at his smallest he is great.

11 And on the earth I assigned him to be a second angel, honored and

great and glorious. 12 And I assigned him to be a king, to reign |on| the earth, |and| to have my wisdom. And there was nothing comparable to

him on the earth, even among my creatures that exist. 13 And I assigned to him a name from the four components:

from East—(A)

from West—(D)

from North—(A) |South|—(M)

from South—(M) |North|—(A).

14 And I assigned to him four special stars, and called his name Adam.

BHR Staff Commentary

In Chapter 22: The Ancient of Days in his unpublished book, Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, the late John A. Tvedtnes noted that

Most early Christian texts separate Adam and Michael, but a few provide circumstantial evidence that they are the same person. The Christian Ethiopic Conflict of Adam and Eve I, 10:5 lends partial support to this idea by having God tell Adam, “While thou wast under My command and was a bright angel,” suggesting that when Adam lived in God’s presence he was an angel. Version J of 2 Enoch 30:10-14 has God saying of Adam, “From invisible and visible substances I created man . . . And on the earth I assigned him to be a second angel, honored and great and glorious. And I assigned him to be a king, to reign |on| the earth [and] to have my wisdom. And there was nothing comparable to him on the earth, even among my creatures that exist . . . And I assigned to him four special stars, and called his name Adam.”

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