Book of Enoch
From Textus Receptus
The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch;መጽሐፈ ሄኖክ, Ge'ez:maṣḥafa hēnok) is an ancient Hebrew apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. Enoch contains bizarre material on the origins of demons and Nephilim, why some angels fell from heaven, an alternate explanation of why the Genesis flood was morally necessary, and prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah.
The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) of the text are estimated to date from about 300–200 BC, and the latest part (Book of Parables) to 100 BC. But these are guesses.
Various Aramaic fragments found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as Koine Greek and Latin fragments, show that the Book of Enoch may have been known by Jews and early Near Eastern Christians. This book was also quoted by some 1st and 2nd century authors as in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Authors of the New Testament were also familiar with some content of the story. A short section of 1 Enoch (1:9) is either cited in the New Testament Epistle of Jude, Jude 1:14–15, or copied from the NT into Enoch, and is attributed there to "Enoch the Seventh from Adam", although this section of 1 Enoch is a midrash on Deuteronomy 33:2. Several copies of the earlier sections of 1 Enoch were preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It is not part of the biblical canon used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews). While the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church consider the Book of Enoch as canonical, other Christian groups regard it as non-canonical or non-inspired, but may accept it as having some historical or theological interest.
It is today wholly extant only in the Ethiopian Ge'ez language, with earlier Aramaic fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls and a few Greek and Latin fragments. For this and other reasons, the traditional Ethiopian belief is that the original language of the work was Ge'ez, whereas modern scholars argue that it was first 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. No Hebrew version is known to have survived. The book itself asserts that its author was Enoch, before the biblical flood.
The most complete Book of Enoch comes from Ethiopic manuscripts, maṣḥafa hēnok (መጽሐፈ ሄኖክ), written in Ge'ez, which were brought to Europe by James Bruce in the late 18th century and were translated into English in the 19th century.
Contents |
Content
The first part of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the angel-human hybrids called Nephilim. The remainder of the book describes Enoch's revelations and his visits to heaven in the form of travels, visions, and dreams.
The book consists of five quite distinct major sections (see each section for details):
- 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), themselves a product of much editorial arrangement, and were only later redacted into what is now called 1 Enoch.
Canonicity
Judaism
Although evidently widely known during the development of the Hebrew Bible canon, 1 Enoch was excluded from both the formal canon of the Tanakh and the typical canon of the Septuagint and therefore, also from the writings known today as the Deuterocanon. One possible reason for Jewish rejection of the book might be the textual nature of several early sections of the book that make use of material from the Torah; for example, 1 En 1 is a midrash of Deuteronomy 33. The content, particularly detailed descriptions of fallen angels, would also be a reason for rejection from the Hebrew canon at this period;– as illustrated by the comments of Trypho the Jew when debating with Justin Martyr on this subject: "The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God." Today, the Ethiopic Beta Israel community of Haymanot Jews is the only Jewish group that accepts the Book of Enoch as canonical and still preserves it in its liturgical language of Ge'ez where it plays a central role in worship and the liturgy.
External links
- Text
- Book of the Watchers (Chapters 1–36): Ge'ez text and fragments in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin at the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha
- Ethiopic text online (all 108 chapters)
- R H Charles 1917 Translation
- R.H. Charles 1893 edition
- George H. Schodde 1882 Translation (PDF format)
- Richard Laurence 1883 Translation
- Book of Enoch Interlinear (Including three English and two Swedish translations)
- Book of Enoch New 2012 Translation with Audio Drama
- August Dillmann (1893). The Book of Enoch (1Enoch) translated from Geez, መጽሐፈ ፡ ሄኖክ ።.
- William Morfill (1896). The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (2Enoch) translated from Slavic languages (Russian and Serbian - Mss. Codex Chludovianus and Codex Belgradensis Serbius)
- Hugh Nibley (1986). (Enoch the Prophet)
- Hugo Odeberg (1928). The Hebrew Book of Henoc (3Enoch), from a Rabbinic perspective and experiment.
- Rev. D. A. De Sola (1852). Signification of the Proper Names occurring in the Book of Enoch from the Hebrew and Chaldee languages.
- Apocryphi testamenti veteris, access to the Ethiopic Greek, a Latin translation, and 3 Enoch in Hebrew and English.
- Introductions and others
