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61 return, and impart the acquired knowledge to his sons. The second journey was one way only: Enoch did not return from it, and thus the biblical statement that Enoch was gone, for the Elohim had taken him. In the Book of Enoch it is a cadre of angels that perform the divinely ordained tasks. The Bible states that Enoch "walked with the Elohim" well before he was taken aloft; the Book of Enoch enlarges on that pre-ascent period. It describes Enoch as a scribe with prophetic powers. "Before these things Enoch was_ hidden, and no one of the Children of Adam knew where he was hidden, and where he abode ... his days were with the Holy Ones." His Divine Encounters began with dreams and vi- sions. "I saw in my sleep what I will now say with my tongue of flesh," he said of the start of his involvement with the Divine Ones. It was more than a dream, it was a vision: and a mist summoned me; the course of the stars and lightnings sped and hastened me; the winds in the vision caused me to fly and lifted me upwards, and bore me unto heaven. Arriving in Heaven, he reached a wall "which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire." He braved the fire and came upon a house built of crystals whose ceiling emulated the starry sky and showed the paths of the stars. In his vision he then saw a second house, larger and more mag- nificent than the first. Braving the fires that enflamed it, he saw inside a throne of crystal resting upon streams of fire; "jts appearance was crystal and the wheels thereof as a shin- ing sun." Seated on the throne was the Great Glory, but not even the angels could approach and behold His face because of the brilliance and magnificence of His glory. Enoch pros- trated himself, hiding his face and trembling. But then "the Lord called me with His own mouth, and said, 'Come hither, Enoch, and hear my words.' " Then an angel brought him closer, and he heard the Lord tell him that because he was a The Three Who to Heaven Ascended And the vision was shown to me thus: In the vision, clouds invited me