2 Baruch 23

Related ancient text — scholarly reference

Extra-canonical text — not LDS scripture and not in the KJV Apocrypha. Provided as scholarly reference for parallel literature of the Second Temple period and the early Christian era. Read with discernment; the Apostle Jude quotes 1 Enoch and Paul knew this material, but inclusion here is for study, not doctrine.

1And I answered and said: 'Not so, O LORD, my Lord.'

2And He answered and said unto me: "Why therefore art thou troubled about that which thou knowest not, and why art thou ill at ease about things in which thou art ignorant?

3For as thou hast not forgotten the people who now are and those who have passed away, so I remember those who are appointed to come.

4Because when Adam sinned and death was decreed against those who should be born, then the multitude of those who should be born was numbered, and for that number a place was prepared where the living might dwell and the dead might be guarded.

5Unless therefore the number aforesaid is fulfilled, the creature will not live again [for My spirit is the creator of life], and Sheol will receive the dead.

6And again it is given to thee to hear what things are to come after these times.

7For truly My redemption has drawn nigh, and is not far distant as aforetime.

Public-domain text (R.H. Charles 1913 and equivalents). These works are not canonical, but several were widely read in antiquity and one (1 Enoch) is quoted by name in Jude 1:14–15. Useful for understanding the doctrinal landscape from which the apostles and earliest saints taught.