The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch;[a] Hebrew: סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ, romanized: Sēfer Ḥănōḵ; Ge’ez: መጽሐፈ ሄኖክ, romanized: Maṣḥafa Hēnok) is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the patriarch Enoch who was the father of Methuselah and the great-grandfather of Noah.[1][2] The Book of Enoch contains unique material on the origins of demons and Nephilim, why some angels fell from heaven, an explanation of why the Genesis flood was morally necessary, and a prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah. Three books are traditionally attributed to Enoch, including the distinct works 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch.
1 Enoch is not considered to be canonical scripture by most movements of Judaism or branches of Christianity, although it is part of the biblical canon used by the Ethiopian Jewish community Beta Israel, as well as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
The older sections of 1 Enoch are estimated to date to c. 300–200 BCE, and the latest part (Book of Parables) is probably from c. 100 BCE.[3] Scholars believe Enoch was originally written in either Aramaic or Hebrew, the languages first used for Jewish texts. Ephraim Isaac suggests that the Book of Enoch, like the Book of Daniel, was composed partially in Aramaic and partially in Hebrew.[4]: 6 No Hebrew version is known to have survived. Copies of the earlier sections of 1 Enoch were preserved in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves.[2]
Authors of the New Testament were also familiar with some content of the book.[5] A short section of 1 Enoch is cited in the Epistle of Jude,[6] being attributed to “Enoch, the Seventh from Adam” (1 Enoch 60:8). The full Book of Enoch survives in its entirety only in the Geʽez translation.
Synopsis
The first part of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the angel-human hybrids called Nephilim.[1] The remainder of the book describes Enoch’s revelations and his visits to heaven in the form of travels, visions, and dreams.[2]
The book consists of five major sections (see each section for details):[1]
The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36)
The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71) (also called the Similitudes of Enoch)
The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72–82) (also called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries)
The Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83–90) (also called the Book of Dreams)
The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91–108)
Most scholars believe that these five sections were originally independent works (with different dates of composition),[7] themselves a product of much editorial arrangement, and were only later redacted into what is now called 1 Enoch.[2] Because the Book of Parables is unattested in all except the Ethiopic manuscripts, and because a copy of The Book of Giants appears to be written on the same manuscript as a portion of Enoch, it seems likely that the former may have replaced the latter from the original Enochic pentateuch.[8][9]
The Book of the Watchers
This first section of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim, the bene Elohim,[10] and narrates the travels of Enoch in the heavens. This section is said to have been composed in the 4th or 3rd century BCE according to Western scholars.[11]
Contents
1–5: Parable of Enoch on the Future Lot of the Wicked and the Righteous.
6–11: 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.
12–16: Dream-Vision of Enoch: his Intercession for Azazel and the fallen angels: and his Announcement of their first and final Doom.
17–36: Enoch’s Journeys through the Earth and Sheol: Enoch also traveled through a portal shaped as a triangle to heaven[citation needed].
17–19: The First Journey.
20: Names and Functions of the Seven Archangels.
21: Preliminary and final Place of Punishment of the fallen Angels (stars).
22: Sheol or the Underworld.
23: The fire that deals with the Luminaries of Heaven.
24–25: The Seven Mountains in the North-West and the Tree of Life.
26: Jerusalem and the Mountains, Ravines, and Streams.
27: The Purpose of the Accursed Valley.
28–33: Further Journey to the East.
34–35: Enoch’s Journey to the North.
36: The Journey to the South.
Description
The introduction to the book of Enoch reflects that Enoch was “a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come”.[12]
It discusses God coming to Earth on Mount Sinai with his hosts to pass judgment on humankind. It also recalls the luminaries rising and setting in the order and in their own time and never change:[13]
Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.[14]
The book also discusses how all things are ordained by God and take place in his time. The sinners shall perish and the great and the good shall live on in light, joy and peace.[15]
And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.
The first section of the book depicts the interaction of the fallen angels with mankind; Sêmîazâz compels the other 199 fallen angels to take human wives to “beget us children”:
And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: “I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.” And they all answered him and said: “Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.” Then swore they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
The names of the leaders are given as “Samyaza (Shemyazaz), their leader, Araqiel, Râmêêl, Kokabiel, Tamiel, Ramiel, Dânêl, Chazaqiel, Baraqiel, Asael, Armaros, Batariel, Bezaliel, Ananiel, Zaqiel, Shamsiel, Satariel, Turiel, Yomiel, Sariel.”
This results in the creation of the Nephilim (Genesis) or Anakim (‘giants’) as they are described in the book:
And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three hundred ells:[b] Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood.
It also discusses the teaching of humans by the fallen angels, chiefly Azazel:
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 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, taught astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun, and Sariêl the course of the moon.
Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel appeal to God to judge the inhabitants of the world and the fallen angels.[16] Uriel is then sent by God to tell Noah of the coming cataclysm and what he needs to do.[2]
Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spoke, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him: Go to Noah and tell him in my name “Hide thyself!” and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it. And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.
God commands Raphael to imprison Azâzêl:
[T]he Lord said to Raphael: “Bind Azâzêl hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: And make an opening in the desert, which is in Dûdâêl (God’s kettle / crucible / cauldron), 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 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 Watchers have disclosed and have taught their sons. And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azâzêl: To him ascribe all sin.”
God gave Gabriel instructions concerning the Nephilim and the imprisonment of the fallen angels:
And to Gabriel said the Lord: “Proceed against the biters and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy [the children of fornication and] the children of the Watchers from amongst men [and cause them to go forth]: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle …”
The Lord commands Michael to bind the fallen angels.
And the Lord said unto Michael: “Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. 12. 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, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. 13. 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. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations. …”
