- 1And after this I saw another dream, and I will show the whole dream to thee, my son.
- 2And Enoch lifted up (his voice) and spake to his son Methuselah: ‘To thee, my son, will I speak: hear my words—incline thine ear to the dream-vision of thy father.
- 3Before I took thy mother Edna, I saw in a vision on my bed, and behold a bull came forth from the earth, and that bull was white; and after it came forth a heifer, and along with this (latter) came forth two bulls, one of them black and the other red.
- 4And that black bull gored the red one and pursued him over the earth, and thereupon I could no longer see that red bull.
- 5But that black bull grew and that heifer went with him, and I saw that many oxen proceeded from him which resembled and followed him.
- 6And that cow, that first one, went from the presence of that first bull in order to seek that red one, but found him not, and lamented with a great lamentation over him and sought him.
- 7And I looked till that first bull came to her and quieted her, and from that time onward she cried no more.
- 8And after that she bore another white bull, and after him she bore many bulls and black cows.
- 9And I saw in my sleep that white bull likewise grow and become a great white bull, and from him proceeded many white bulls, and they resembled him.
- 10And they began to beget many white bulls, which resembled them, one following the other, (even) many.
ANCIENT JEWISH LITERATURE · R. H. CHARLES
1 ENOCH 85
Read the chapter and trace carefully labeled connections throughout the Bible.
CHAPTER VISUAL
Enoch 85 — The animal apocalypse begins with the first human family and the symbolic cattle that continue through the generations.
About this illustration
Five cattle condense the chapter’s opening family and continuing line; the black bull’s attack stays non-graphic and the animals carry no modern heraldic meaning.
Passage basis: 1 Enoch 85:1–10Ancient Jewish literatureIncluded for historical and biblical study; not part of the Protestant biblical canon.
R. H. Charles translation (1912) · Reprinted 1917 · Public domain in the United States · Editorial brackets and uncertainty markers preserved · Source edition
Bible Connections
These links distinguish direct quotation, explicit retelling, strong literary parallel, and broader shared tradition. A parallel does not by itself prove direct dependence.
Adam, formed from the ground, appears in the Animal Apocalypse as a white bull coming forth from the earth.
Cain’s murder of Abel is pictured as a black bull attacking the red bull until the red bull disappears.
Seth is represented as another white bull born after Abel’s death.