The Book of Enoch, Translated by R.H. Charles

Book of Enoch

The Book of Enoch is any of several pseudepigraphal works that attribute themselves to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah; that is, Enoch son of Jared.

Most commonly, the phrase "Book of Enoch" refers to 1 Enoch, which is wholly extant only in the Ethiopic language. There are two other books named "Enoch": 2 Enoch (surviving only in Old Slavonic, c. first century AD; English translation by R. H. Charles (1896); and 3 Enoch (surviving in Hebrew, c. fifth - sixth century). The numbering of these texts has been applied by scholars to distinguish the texts from one another. The remainder of this article deals with 1 Enoch only.

Whilst this book does not form part of the canon of Holy Scripture for the larger Christian Churches, various groups, including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, regard parts or all of 1 Enoch to be inspired Scripture. The currently known texts of this work are usually dated to Maccabean times (ca. 160s BC).

Content

The Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim (cf. the bene Elohim, from Genesis 6:1-2 NRSV). The fallen angels went to Enoch to intercede on their behalf with God after he declared to them their doom. The remainder of the book describes Enoch's visit to Heaven in the form of a vision and his revelations.

The book contains descriptions of the movement of heavenly bodies (in connection with Enoch's trip to Heaven), and some parts of the book have been speculated about as containing instructions for the construction of a solar declinometer (the Uriel's machine theory).

From the Orthodox Wiki:

Enoch

The Patriarch Enoch is the son of Jared, the great-great-great-great grandson of Adam, and the father of Methuselah. He is not to be confused with Enoch the son of Cain

Enoch did not taste death. He lived 365 years and then ascended into Heaven, since it is written "for God took him" (Gen. 5:24).

The New Testament contains three references to Enoch. The first is a brief mention in one of the genealogies of the ancestors of Jesus by Luke (Luke 3:37). The second mention is in Hebrews 11:5 which says, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." This suggests he did not experience the mortal death ascribed to Adam's other descendants which is consistent with Genesis 5:24, which says, "And Enoch walked with God: and he [was] not; for God took him."

The third mention is in the Epistle of Jude (1:14-15) where the author attributes to "Enoch, the Seventh from Adam" a passage unknown in the Old Testament. The quotation is believed by most modern scholars to be taken from 1 Enoch 1:9 which exists in Greek, in Ethiopic as part of the Ethiopian Orthodox canon and also in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church includes the Book of Enoch in their canons. This text describes Enoch's ascent into heaven. This book is not accepted in the Eastern Orthodox Canon but is considered as an apocryphal text. According to prophecies of the holy Fathers, God will send Elijah and Enoch before coming of the Antichrist to bear witness for Christ on the earth and to strengthen the faithful.

Download: The Book of Enoch, Translated by R.H. Charles (.epub)

Tags: Christianity

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