Enoch Apocalyptic

The Books of Enoch I Enoch or Ethiopic Enoch (c. 165 BC) | Second Enoch or the Book of the Secrets of Enoch (first century AD)The Book of Enoch | | 1-60 | Jewish Sibyl & Talmud | Renan: Life of Jesus | Brief Outline of Ancient Jewish Theological Literature | Jesus the Preterist | Reuss on the Number of the Beast | Reigning with Christ | The Temple Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus | Search TPA 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism Research – The Encyclopedia aims to offer a comprehensive introduction to scholarly research in Second Temple Judaism (or from the Babylonian Exile to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt). It includes biographies of Scholars and Authors as well as abstracts of scholarly and fictional Works on the period, from the 16th century to the present.  Bill Moore “From a preterist perspective, 1 Enoch adds considerable weight to the many passages in the New Testament which clearly indicate that the consummation of the age together with Christ’s second coming took place in A.D. 70 (in the destruction of Jerusalem). This being the case, it should not surprise us to learn that 1 Enoch was banned by Hilary, Jerome, and Augustine and was subsequently lost to Western Christendom for over a thousand years. In short, it was suppressed. Why? Because it could not be made to fit their idea that Christ’s coming had not yet been fulfilled.“

I ENOCH

(On Prophecy)
Enoch 2:1  ¹Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him.

(On the Heavenly Temple)
“Then I stood still, looking at that ancient house being transformed: all the pillars and all the columns were pulled out; and the ornaments of that house were packed and taken out together with them and abandoned in a certain place in the South of the land.  I went on seeing until the Lord of the sheep brought about a new house, greater and loftier than the first one, and set it up in the first location which had been covered up — all its pillars were new, the columns new; and the ornaments new, as well as greater than those of the first, (that is) the old (house), which was gone.  All the sheep were within it.” (I En. 90:28-29)

(On Seventy Generations)
“Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgment and of their consummation, till the judgment that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall  be confined for ever.”

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary
“Ages as Epochs of Time Both Testaments speak of “ages” as undefined periods of history over which God rules (Psalm 90:2; 1 Tim 1:17; Jude 25 ). As with much intertestamental literature, the Apocalypse of Weeks goes farther, in this case dividing history into ten epochs of varying lengths (1 Enoch 91:12-17; 93:1-10). But the canonical writers do not try to calculate when successive ages will begin or end. The Bible may refer to past ages in order to exalt God’s knowledge as Creator in comparison with human ignorance (Isa 64:4; cf. Deut 4:32).

In the New Testament the hidden wisdom of God is repeatedly connected with the gospel, a mystery that he has chosen to reveal after long ages (aion [aijwvn] in 1 Col 2:7; Eph 3:9; Col 1:26; chronoi [crovno”] in Rom 16:25; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 1:2). According to 1 Corinthians 10:11, Hebrews 9:26, and 1pe 1:20, the present era is the end of the ages. Even while the church anticipates the future consummation, it lives already in the time in which God’s plan of redemption is being fulfilled (cf. 2 Col 1:20). The boundless future may also be regarded as a series of ages. Normally the “ages to come” are invoked by the prophets to underscore God’s unending blessings for his people (Isa 45:17; Dan 7:18). This theme is later taken up by Paul in Ephesians 2:7: “that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Barnabus
“Chapter 4.-Antichrist is at Hand: Let Us Therefore Avoid Jewish Errors. It therefore behoves us, who inquire much concerning events at hand, to search diligently into those things which are able to save us. Let us then utterly flee from all the works of iniquity, lest these should take hold of us; and let us hate the error of the present time, that we may set our love on the world to come: let us not give loose reins to our soul, that it should have power to run with sinners and the wicked, lest we become like them. The final stumbling-block (or source of danger) approaches, concerning which it is written, as Enoch says, “For for this end the Lord has cut short the times and the days, that His Beloved may hasten; and He will come to the inheritance.” And the prophet also speaks thus: “Ten kingdoms shall reign upon the earth, and a little king shall rise up after them, who shall subdue under one three of the kings. In like manner Daniel says concerning the same, “And I beheld the fourth beast, wicked and powerful, and more savage than all the beasts of the earth, and how from it sprang up ten horns, and out of them a little budding horn, and how it subdued under one three of the great horns.” (Epistle of Barnabus)

Compare 1 Enoch 1:9 with Jude 1:14-15.

“And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, Till the day of their judgement and of their consummation” (1 Enoch 10:11-12)

Using Luke (Luke 1:1-4; 3:23-37)

01 Enoch
02 Methuselah
03 Lamech
04 Noah
05 Shem
06 Arphaxad
07 Cainan
08 Shelah
09 Eber
10 Peleg
11 Rue
12 Serug
13 Nahor
14 Terah
15 Abrahahm
16 Isaac
17 Jacob
18 Judah
19 Perez
20 Hezron
21 Ram
22 Amminadab
23 Nahshon
24 Salmon
25 Boaz
26 Obed
27 Jesse
28 David
29 Nathan
30 Mattatha
31 Menna
32 Melea
33 Eliakim
34 Jonam
35 Joseph
36 Judah
37 Simeon
38 Levi
39 Matthat
40 Jorim
41 Eliezer
42 Joshua
43 Er
44 Elmadam
45 Cosam
46 Addi
47 Melki
48 Neri
49 Shealtiel
50 Zerubbabel
51 Rhesa
52 Joanan
53 Joda
54 Josech
55 Semein
56 Mattathias
57 Maath
58 Naggai
59 Esli
60 Nahum
61 Amos
62 Mattathias
63 Joseph
64 Jannai
65 Melki
66 Levi
67 Matthat
68 Heli
69 Joseph
70 Jesus

Colin Brown
“a. If aion means duration of the world, and the plural occurs, the idea is obvious that eternity embraces a succession or recurrence of aeons (cf. Eccl. 1:9-10 though here the aeons are periods of the world, and the biblical concept of creation, and hence of the uniqueness of this aeon, ruled out the idea of an unending series).

1. Instead of recurrence the antithesis of time and eternity combined with the thought of plural aeons to produce the belief in a new and future aeon (or cosmos or kingdom) which will succeed this one but will be completely different from it. For the present and future aeons in the NT cf. Mk. 10:30; Lk. 16:8; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:20; Gal. 1:4; 1 Tim. 6:17; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 6:5 (and with kairos instead of aion, Jn. 8:23 etc.).

   c. The NT took over this concept from Jewish apocalyptic, e.g., Ethiopian Enoch.

Don Garlington
Some such conception is characteristic of the millennium-like passages in Jewish Apocalyptic. For references, see Mounce, Revelation, 357; G. R. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation (London: Oliphants, 1974), 288-89; J. M. Ford, Revelation: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Garden City: Doubleday, 1975), 352-54; R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920), 2.143; id., Eschatology: The Doctrine of a Future Life in Israel, Judaism and Christianity. A Critical History (New York: Schocken, 1963), 167-361. In Apocalyptic generally, time is schematized according to a predetermined pattern, e.g., 1 Enoch 21:7; 91-107 (interestingly, 1 Enoch 91:16 predicts a new heaven). It is possible that John’s organization of the eschatological timetable finds a formal parallel with Jewish precedents. Even so, the specific meaning of his various time-references must be ascertained by internal considerations. Cf. Beasley-Murray, Revelation, 289.

An idea not unknown in Apocalyptic, e.g., 1 Enoch 10:4-5 (perhaps based on Isa 24:22); 18:12-16; 21:1-10; 2 Enoch 7:1; Jubilees 5:10, or in other religious traditions (Beasley-Murray, Revelation, 286).

Cf. the prominent role of the angel in 4 Ezra, who speaks the mind of God, and the many times angles (good and bad) appear throughout the Enoch literature. Thus, in the Matthean narrative Jesus is the agent of God, while in Revelation the angel performs the same function.” (Reigning with Christ)

Jude
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation.”

Joe Machuta (2003)
“Usually, when one examines spurious works, the author will slip and elude to something from the future so specific as to give away that they are really writing about the past.  For example, the book of Mormon, claims that the Greek name Jesus was known to the ancient world as the name of the Messiah. This is patently absurd.  This book however, was read widely and accepted during the Messiah’s earthly mission and yet, it is locked within the epoch of Adam as it mentions people only up to Noah.  It does not mention Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob, no concept of the nation Israel is in its pages and yet it refers to God’s elect.  This is a prophecy of first, the fleshly nation, and then the Spiritual nation of Israel.  These prophecies can as easily be identified by biblical fulfillment, as Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of Christ which never mentions His name beyond righteous servant.  Yet, all but the spiritually blind know that the reference is to Christ.  Man alone, would not be clever enough to write the book of Enoch.”

What was in the minds of canon committee whether Nicea or Carthage, that precluded the Book of Enoch from inclusion?

1. It was quoted verbatim by Jude (14,15)

2. It was eluded to by Jesus and Paul

3. It contains a most inspired parable/prophesy of the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem and 70AD

4. It explains the workings of Demons. (Yahoo Groups)

Alan Richardson
“.. in the later writings of the Old Testament we find the picture of the healing river, or living waters, which will flow out from Jerusalem in the Messianic Age (Ezek. 47.1-12; Zech. 14.8; Joel 3.18; cf. Isa. 12.3; 33.21), bringing life to the world. St. John, in whose writing Jewish eschatology is adapted to Christian ends with consummate skill, fastens on the idea and represents Christ as the fulfillment of the promise of ‘living water’ (John 4.10) in the latter days: ‘The water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into the life of the (new) Age’ (John 4:14)… Thus, the conception of life, which the New Testament takes over from later Judaism, is thoroughly eschatological.” (An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, pp.71, 72.)

The fact is that in the New Testament zoe, or more fully zoe aionios, is an eschatological conception; it is one of the characteristic marks of the Age to Come, like glory, light, etc. In the contemporary rabbinic conception, the Age to Come (cf. Mark 10.30, ho erchomenos aion; Heb. 6.5, ho mellon aion), as distinct from this age (ho nun aion or ho aion hou-tos), was to be characterized by zoe, that is, zoe aionios, the life of the (coming) aion. Thus, what appears in EVV as ‘eternal life’ or ‘life everlasting’ really means ‘the life of the Age to Come’. The phrase zoe aionios need not necessarily imply ever-lasting life (e.g. Enoch 10.10), but the usual meaning is life after death indefinitely prolonged in the World to Come (Dan. 12.2; Test. Asher 5.2; Ps. 501. 3.16; II (4) Esd. 7.12f.; 8.52-54). (An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, pp.73,74)

Randall Otto
“In fact, the apocalyptic and pseudepigraphical evidence generally contains a mix of eschatological portrayals which prohibit any clear determination of personal destiny after death. The only text that truly bears any resemblance to 1 Thess 4:13-18 is 2 Esdr 13:24: “those who are left are more blessed than those who have died” (cf., however, 1 Enoch 103:3: “Your lot [those who died in righteousness] exceeds even that of the living ones”). The weight of this isolated text must be balanced by assertions within that same book that the pious departed attain immediate blessedness (7:88-99, e.g.). Indeed, the immediate blessedness of the righteous departed may well be the predominant view of pseudepigraphical literature. 33 While the body lies in the dust of the earth, the soul rises to heavenly bliss at the moment of death, following from the anthropological dualism that marks hellenistic Jewish thought, including the thought of Paul. 34 The Greek thought that influenced Jewish eschatology here converges with that indigenous to Thessalonica. The issue perplexing the Thessalonian church is rooted in its own religious milieu and is provoked by what they view as the powers of darkness at work around them. The church wonders if their departed are “with the Lord”.”

“The theophanies of God in the OT may also be involved here, as Paul recalls such passages as Mic 1:3 and the whole tradition of holy war wherein God is viewed as the commander of the angelic hosts who come as his agents of judgment upon the impenitent (2 Sam 24:16; 2 Kgs 19:35; 1 Enoch 1:8-9; Syb. Or. 2:287, 3:309) and of deliverance of the elect (dead [Luke 16:22; Jude 9] and living [1 Enoch 104; Apoc. Elijah 5:2]).”

That this verse involves a literal rapture of believers is far from necessary, particularly in light of 1QM which may well form the conceptual background for much of this pericope. In the 1QM xiv 2-17 hymn of victory of the sons of light over the sons of darkness (cf. 1 Thess 5:4-5), those who have been preserved from death in battle praise God for their own victory over evil using the metaphor of assumption: “raise from the dust for yourself and subdue gods” (vv 14-15). 49 This metaphorical use of a rapture idea is also found in some other peudepigraphical texts. 1 Enoch 96:2 asserts, “your children shall be raised high up and be made openly visible like eagles,” and “you shall ascend and enter the crevices of the earth” in authority over sinners. 50 Here “the righteous are assured of reconciliation and miraculous protection” in the judgment upon sinners. TMos 10:8-9 says, “Then will you be happy, O Israel! And you will mount up above the necks and wings of an eagle. Yea, all things will be fulfilled. And God will raise you to the heights. Yea, he will fix you firmly in the heaven of stars, in the place of their habitations.” This is likely an allusion to Israel’s exaltation over its enemies. 51 None of the contexts of these pseudepigraphical texts supports the idea of a literal general rapture of believers. Rather, these texts demonstrate the metaphorical use of the assumption motif as divine assurance of protection and victory over evil in eschatological conflict. In his use of harpaz” Paul may therefore be describing the protection of his people and the victory which Christ obtains over evil in the figure of a rapture of the sons of light after the manner of 1QM and certain other pseudepigraphical texts.

“Air” also carried great significance for the Jewish apocalyptic theology of the apostle Paul. In Jewish apocalyptic thought the air was considered to be the domain of evil spirits (Eph 2:2; 6:12) and the lower regions of the heavens were viewed as the place of great struggle between the hosts of Satan and of God (Rev 12:7-12; Mart. Isa. 7:9). The souls of both the righteous and the unrighteous were thought to reside in these lower regions of the heavens, be it in Paradise or Sheol, awaiting the final judgment (2 Enoch 3-20). This meant that the soul had to pass through the realms of the demonic en route to Hades. “Whether it is a question of Satan and the fallen Watchers, or of the demons of the air, the common dwelling place of the evil angels is in the lower zones of heaven, those which are in direct contact with the earth. This has the important consequence for the Jewish Christian world-view that souls must in their ascent to heaven after death pass through the spheres of the demons.” 61 With this in mind, it is equally untenable that Paul would have casually utilized a term with so many notorious associations from Jewish apocalyptic in his response to the Thessalonians, because there is a significant convergence between their concerns in the semantic domain of this word.

50. A. Dillmann, Das Buch Henoch (Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, 1853) 307; he admits, however, that the images used “are not happily chosen.” R. H. Charles (The Books of Enoch or 1 Enoch [Oxford: Clarendon, 1912] 238) thinks the verse “must be interpolation; it is foolish in itself and interrupts the context.” (The Meeting in the Air)

Ernst Renan
“The Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, especially the Jewish part of the Sibylline verses, and the Book of Enoch together with the Book of Daniel, which is also really an Apocrypha, have a primary importance in the history of the development of the Messianic theories, and for the understanding of the conceptions of Jesus respecting the kingdom of God. The Book of Enoch especially, which was much read at the time of Jesus, gives us the key to the expression “Son of Man,” and to the ideas attached to it. The ages of these different books, thanks to the labors of Alexander, Ewald, Dillmann, and Reuss, are now beyond doubt. Every one is agreed in placing the compilation of the most important of them in the second and first centuries before Jesus Christ. The date of the Book of Daniel is still more certain. The character of the two languages in which it is written, the use of Greek words, the clear, precise, dated announcement of events which reach even to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, the incorrect descriptions of Ancient Babylonia there given, the general tone of the book, which in no respect recalls the writings of the captivity, but, on the contrary, responds, by a crowd of analogies, to the beliefs, the manners, the turn of imagination of the time of the Seleucidae; the Apocalyptic form of the visions, the place of the book in the Hebrew canon, out of the sense of the prophets, the omission of Daniel in the panegyrics of chapter xlix. of Ecclesiastics, in which his position is all but indicated, and many other proofs which have been deduced a hundred times, do not permit of a doubt that the Book of Daniel was but the fruit of the great excitement produced among the Jews by the persecution of Antiochus. It is not in the old prophetical literature that we must class this book, but rather at the head of Apocalyptic literature, as the first model of a kind of composition, after which come the various Sibylline poems, the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of John, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the Fourth Book of Esdras.”

It will be seen that nothing in all these theories was absolutely new. The Gospels and the writings of the Apostles scarcely contain anything as regards apocalyptic doctrines but what might be found already in “Daniel,” “Enoch,” and the “Sibylline Oracles,” of Jewish origin. Jesus accepted the ideas, which were generally received among his contemporaries. He made them his basis of action, or rather one of his bases; for he had too profound an idea of his true work to establish it solely upon such fragile principles — principles so liable to be decisively refuted by facts. ” (Renan: Life of Jesus)

Apostle Peter
“2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”

{Sharon}  This is the only verse in the O.T. that uses AZAL #0682, ‘Atsel {aw-tsale’}. All other instances of the number 0682 are actually AZEL and Strongs says it literally translated is “reserved”, but the definition given is “A Benjamite descendant of Saul & Jonathan”. Under AZAL they have this; “Proximity: he has reserved” 1.) a place near Jerusalem, site presently unknown.”

{Betty} Hi Sharon,  I’m not sure how this applies to what you have found But….. When you mentioned the word “Azazel”, and showed that “AZEL” in Strongs is literally translated as “reserved”, my mind immediately went to Enoch, as I remembered the name mentioned as one of the fallen “angels” or “watchers” who is said to be the source or author of all sin. They were to be “reserved” in chains until the great judgment. It is these that Jude is referring to in Jude 6

6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

I think that it is interesting that Enoch says there will be 70 generations from him until the great judgment. If you count the generations from Enoch to Jesus you find…..70 generations! I think this is one reason they have sought to discredit the Book of Enoch, because it doesn’t line up with their “Futurist” views.

These are a few excerpts from the Book of Enoch that mention Azazel.

The Book of Enoch

VI-XI. The Fall of the Angels: the Demoralization of Mankind: the Intercession of the Angels on behalf of Mankind. The Dooms pronounced by God on the Angels of the Messianic Kingdom– (a Noah fragment).

And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all
2
colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they
3
were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.

Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven, which 7men were striving to learn

Bind Azâzêl hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening
5
in the desert, which is in Dûdâêl, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may 6,7 not see light. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire. And heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague, and that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things that the 8 Watchers have disclosed and have taught their sons. And the whole earth has been corrupted 9 through the works that were taught by Azâzêl: to him ascribe all sin.’

(Here is another section out of Enoch where Azazel is mentioned… there may be several more but, I didn’t look any farther)

XII-XVI. Dream-Vision of Enoch: his Intercession for Azâzêl and the Fallen Angels: and his Announcement of their first and final Doom.

And Enoch went and said: ‘Azâzêl, thou shalt have no peace: a severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds:
(end Enoch quote)

Again, I’m not sure how this all applies to what you have found. But, I think it is VERY INTERESTING that every time the word “scapegoat” is used, it is the word “Azazel” #5799…. Hmm…<thinking>
I think that it is just tooooo coincidental that the exact same word is used in Enoch as the name of one of the “fallen angels or watchers,” Don’t you??? How that applies to Zech.14
I don’t know, except that….. Zech. 14, IS referring to the same judgment that Enoch was referring to! Very interesting………….   Blessings,   Betty” (Preterist Yahoo Group, December 5 2003)

About the Book of Enoch
(also known as “Ethiopian Enoch” or “1 Enoch”)

The Book of Enoch (also known as 1 Enoch) was once cherished by Jews and Christians alike, this book later fell into disfavor with powerful theologians – precisely because of its controversial statements on the nature and deeds of
the fallen angels.

The Enochian writings, in addition to many other writings that were excluded (or lost) from the Bible (i.e., the Book of Tobit, Esdras, etc.) were widely recognized by many of the early church fathers as “apocryphal” writings.  The term “apocrypha” is derived from the Greek word meaning “hidden” or “secret”.  Originally, the import of the term may have been complimentary in that the term was applied to sacred books whose contents were too exalted to be made available to the general public.

In Dan. 12:9-10 we hear of words that are shut up until the end of time and, words that the wise shall understand and the wicked shall not. In addition, 4 Ezra 14:44ff. mentions 94 books, of which 24 (the OT) were to be published and 70 were to be delivered only to the wise among the people (= apocrypha). Gradually, the term “apocrypha” took on a pejorative connotation, for the orthodoxy of these hidden books was often questionable. Origen (Comm. in Matt. 10.18; p. 13.881) distinguished between books that were to be read in public worship and apocryphal books. Because these secret books were often preserved for use within the esoteric circles of the divinely – knit believers, many of the critically – spirited or “unenlightened” Church Fathers found themselves outside the realm of understanding, and therefore came to apply the term “apocryphal” to, what they claimed to be, heretical works which were forbidden to be read.

In Protestant parlance, “the Apocrypha” designate 15 works, all but one of which are Jewish in origin and found in the Septuagint (parts of 2 Esdras are Christian and Latin in origin).  Although some of them were composed in Palestine in Aramaic or Hebrew, they were not accepted into the Jewish canon formed late in the 2nd cent. AD (Canonicity, 67:31-35). The Reformers, influenced by the Jewish canon of the OT, did not consider these books on a par with the rest of the Scriptures; thus the custom arose of making the Apocrypha a separate section in the Protestant Bible, or sometimes even of omitting them entirely (Canonicity, 67:44-46). The Catholic view, expressed as a doctrine of faith at the Council of Trent, is that 12 of these 15 works (in a different enumeration, however) are canonical Scripture; they are called the Deuterocanonical Books (Canonicity, 67:21, 42-43).

The three books of the Protestant Apocrypha that are not accepted by Catholics are 1-2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh. The theme of the Book of Enoch dealing with the nature and deeds of the fallen angels so infuriated the later Church fathers that one, Filastrius, actually condemned it openly as heresy (Filastrius, Liber de Haeresibus, no. 108). Nor did the rabbis deign to give credence to the book’s teaching about angels. Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai in the second century A.D. pronounced a curse upon those who believed it (Delitzsch, p. 223). So the book was denounced, banned, cursed, no doubt burned and shredded – and last but not least, lost (and conveniently forgotten) for a thousand years. But with an uncanny persistence, the Book of Enoch found its way back into circulation two centuries ago.

In 1773, rumors of a surviving copy of the book drew Scottish explorer James Bruce to distant Ethiopia. True to hearsay, the Book of Enoch had been preserved by the Ethiopic church, which put it right alongside the other books of the Bible. Bruce secured not one, but three Ethiopic copies of the book and brought them back to Europe and Britain. When in 1821 Dr. Richard Laurence, a Hebrew professor at Oxford, produced the first English translation of the work, the modern world gained its first glimpse of the forbidden mysteries of Enoch.

Most scholars say that the present form of the story in the Book of Enoch was penned sometime during the second century B.C. and was popular for at least five hundred years. The earliest Ethiopic text was apparently made from a Greek manuscript of the Book of Enoch, which itself was a copy of an earlier text. The original was apparently written in Semitic language, now thought to be Aramaic.

Though it was once believed to be post-Christian (the similarities to Christian terminology and teaching are striking), recent discoveries of copies of the book among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran prove that the book was in existence before the time of Jesus Christ. But the date of the original writing upon which the second century B.C. Qumran copies were based is shrouded in obscurity. It is, in a word, old.  It has been largely the opinion of historians that the book does not really contain the authentic words of the ancient biblical patriarch Enoch, since he would have lived (based on the chronologies in the Book of Genesis) several thousand years earlier than the first known appearance of the book attributed to him.

Despite its unknown origins, Christians once accepted the words of this Book of Enoch as authentic scripture, especially the part about the fallen angels and their prophesied judgment. In fact, many of the key concepts used by Jesus Christ himself seem directly connected to terms and ideas in the Book of Enoch.  Thus, it is hard to avoid the  conclusion that Jesus had not only studied the book, but also respected it highly enough to adopt and elaborate on its specific descriptions of the coming kingdom and its theme of inevitable judgment descending upon “the wicked” – the term most often used in the Old Testament to describe the Watchers.

There is abundant proof that Christ approved of the Book of Enoch. Over a hundred phrases in the New Testament find precedents in the Book of Enoch.  Another remarkable bit of evidence for the early Christians’ acceptance of the Book of Enoch was for many years buried under the King James Bible’s mistranslation of Luke 9:35, describing the  transfiguration of Christ: “And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son: hear him.” Apparently the translator here wished to make this verse agree with a similar verse in Matthew and Mark. But Luke’s verse in the original Greek reads: “This is my Son, the Elect One (from the Greek ho eklelegmenos, lit., “the elect one”): hear him.”  The “Elect One” is a most  significant term (found fourteen times) in the Book of Enoch.  If the book was indeed known to the apostles of Christ, with its abundant descriptions of the Elect One who should “sit upon the throne of glory” and the Elect One who should “dwell in the midst of them,” then the great scriptural authenticity is accorded to the Book of Enoch when the “voice out of the cloud” tells the apostles, “This is my Son, the Elect One” – the one promised in the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Jude tells us in vs. 14 that “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied…” Jude also, in vs. 15, makes a direct reference to the Book of Enoch  (2:1), where he writes, “to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly…” The time difference between Enoch and Jude is approximately 3400 years. Therefore, Jude’s reference to the Enochian prophesies strongly leans toward the conclusion that these written prophesies were available to him at that
time.

Fragments of ten Enoch manuscripts were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The famous scrolls actually comprise only one part of the total findings at Qumran. Much of the rest was Enochian literature, copies of the Book of Enoch, and
other apocryphal works in the Enochian tradition, like the Book of Jubilees. With so many copies around, the Essenes could well have used the Enochian writings as a community prayer book or teacher’s manual and study text.

The Book of Enoch was also used by writers of the noncanonical (i.e.apocryphal or “hidden”) texts. The author of the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas quotes the Book of Enoch three times, twice calling it “the Scripture,” a term specifically denoting the inspired Word of God (Epis. of Barnabas 4:3, 16:5,6).  Other apocryphal works reflect knowledge of the Enoch story of the Watchers, notably the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Book of Jubilees.

Many of the early church fathers also supported the Enochian writings. Justin Martyr ascribed all evil to demons whom he alleged to be the offspring of the angels who fell through lust for women (from the Ibid.)-directly referencing the Enochian writings.  Athenagoras, writing in his work called Legatio in about 170 A.D., regards Enoch as a true prophet. He describes the angels which “violated both their own nature and their office.”  In his writings, he goes into detail about the nature of fallen angels and the cause of their fall, which comes directly from the Enochian writings.

Many other church fathers: Tatian (110-172); Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (115-185); Clement of Alexandria (150-220); Tertullian (160-230); Origen (186-255); Lactantius (260-330); in addition to: Methodius of Philippi, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, and Ambrose of Milanalso-also approved of and supported the Enochian writings.

One by one the arguments against the Book of Enoch fade away. The day may soon arrive when the final complaints about the Book of Enoch’s lack of historicity and “late date” are also silenced by new evidence of the book’s real antiquity.

EXCERPTS FROM THE VARIOUS BOOKS OF ENOCH

XCIII, XCI.12-17. The Apocalypse of Weeks.

And after that Enoch both gave and began to recount from the books. And Enoch said:

‘Concerning the children of righteousness and concerning the elect of the
world, And concerning the plant of uprightness, I will speak these things,
Yea, I Enoch will declare (them) unto you, my sons:

According to that which appeared to me in the heavenly vision,
And which I have known through the word of the holy angels,
And have learnt from the heavenly tablets.’

3
And Enoch began to recount from the books and said:
‘I was born the seventh in the first week,
While judgement and righteousness still endured.

4
And after me there shall arise in the second week great wickedness,
And deceit shall have sprung up;
And in it there shall be the first end.

And in it a man shall be saved;
And after it is ended unrighteousness shall grow up,
And a law shall be made for the sinners.

5
And after that in the third week at its close
A man shall be elected as the plant of righteous judgement,
And his posterity shall become the plant of righteousness for evermore.

6
And after that in the fourth week, at its close,
Visions of the holy and righteous shall be seen,
And a law for all generations and an enclosure shall be made for them.

7
And after that in the fifth week, at its close,
The house of glory and dominion shall be built for ever.

8
And after that in the sixth week all who live in it shall be blinded,
And the hearts of all of them shall godlessly forsake wisdom.

And in it a man shall ascend;
And at its close the house of dominion shall be burnt with fire,
And the whole race of the chosen root shall be dispersed.

9
And after that in the seventh week shall an apostate generation arise,
And many shall be its deeds,
And all its deeds shall be apostate.

10
And at its close shall be elected
The elect righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness,
To receive sevenfold instruction concerning all His creation.

11
[For who is there of all the children of men that is able to hear the voice
of the Holy One without being troubled? And who can think His thoughts? and who
is there that can behold all the works

12
of heaven? And how should there be one who could behold the heaven, and who
is there that could understand the things of heaven and see a soul or a spirit
and could tell thereof, or ascend and see

13
all their ends and think them or do like them? And who is there of all men
that could know what is the breadth and the length of the earth, and to whom has been shown the measure of all of them?

14
Or is there any one who could discern the length of the heaven and how great
is its height, and upon what it is founded, and how great is the number of the
stars, and where all the luminaries rest?]

XCI.12-17. The Last Three Weeks.

12
And after that there shall be another, the eighth week, that of
righteousness, And a sword shall be given to it that a righteous judgement may be executed on the oppressors,
And sinners shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous.

13
And at its close they shall acquire houses through their righteousness,
And a house shall be built for the Great King in glory for evermore,
14d
And all mankind shall look to the path of uprightness.

14a
And after that, in the ninth week, the righteous judgement shall be revealed
to the whole world,
b
And all the works of the godless shall vanish from all the earth,
c
And the world shall be written down for destruction.

15
And after this, in the tenth week in the seventh part,
There shall be the great eternal judgement,
In which He will execute vengeance amongst the angels.

16
And the first heaven shall depart and pass away,
And a new heaven shall appear,
And all the powers of the heavens shall give sevenfold light.

17
And after that there will be many weeks without number for ever,
And all shall be in goodness and righteousness,
And sin shall no more be mentioned for ever.

CHAPTER HEADINGS

LXXXIX.10-27. From the Death of Noah to the Exodus.
LXXXIX.28-40. Israel in the Desert, the Giving of the Law, the Entrance into
Palestine.

LXXXIX.41-50. From the Time of the Judges to the Building of the Temple.

LXXXIX.51-67. The Two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the Destruction of
Jerusalem.

LXXXIX.68-71. First Period of the Angelic Rulers -from the Destruction of
Jerusalem to the Return from Captivity.

LXXXIX.72-77. Second Period -from the Time of Cyrus to that of Alexander the Great.

XC.1-5. Third Period -from Alexander the Great to the Graeco-Syrian
Domination.

XC.6-12. Fourth Period -from the Graeco-Syrian Domination to the Maccabean Revolt.

XC.13-19. The last Assault of the Gentiles on the Jews (where vv. 13-15 and
16-18 are doublets).

XC.20-27. Judgement of the Fallen Angels, the Shepherds, and the Apostates.

XC.28-42. The New Jerusalem, the Conversion of the surviving Gentiles, the
Resurrection of the Righteous, the Messiah. Enoch awakes and weeps.