1 Enoch

Three books have been ascribed to this Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, the seventh generation after Adam.  1 Enoch is an ancient Hebrew religious work, attributed to Enoch, but probably dates from about the third century BCE, with the last part belonging to the first century BCE, written in either Aramaic or Hebrew.  Enoch occupied an important position among the Old Testament men of God.  When removed from the earth, Enoch and the prophet Elijah were carried directly to heaven because of their contact with God.  Thus, this apocalyptic writing appeared, purporting to have been composed by Enoch himself, around 200 BCE.  This Book of 1 Enoch was already known to the author of the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, as it became a great favorite in the Christian Church, even quoted in the Epistle of Jude.  Many of the early Christian Fathers used it without hesitation as the genuine production of Enoch, containing authentic divine revelations, although it has never been officially recognized as part of the Hebrew Bible or the canonical New Testament by the Christian Church.  In the twentieth century, Aramaic and Hebrew fragments from four of the five sections of this book were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.  This book was arranged in five sections, just like the Psalms and the Pentateuch.  Section I (chapters 1-36) is mainly concerned with pronouncing God’s judgment on the angels who fell, through their love for the daughters of men in Genesis, 6:1-4, with Enoch’s intercession for them.  There also is a weird description of Hades in this section.  Section II (chapters 37-71) has three parables, or apocalyptic revelations, together with the story of Enoch’s transportation into heaven.  Section III (chapters 72-87) is primarily concerned with furnishing a treatise on astronomy, the secrets of the movement of the stars as revealed to Enoch, who sees with his own eyes their very course, transmitting this information to future generations.  Section IV (chapters 88-90) runs along lines laid down in the first two portions dealing with the problem of sin and the suffering of Israel.  Enoch relates to Methuselah his visions of the deluge, the fall of the angels, and their punishment in the underworld, the deliverance of Noah, the Exodus, the giving of the Law, the conquest of Canaan, the time of the judges, the establishment of the United Kingdom, the building of the Temple, the story of the two kingdoms, the fall of the Northern Kingdom, and the Exile.  This was followed by four periods of angelic rule up to the time of the Maccabean Revolt, the last assault of the gentiles, and the great Judgment.  The last part of Section IV (83-90) contains the prediction of the foundation of the new Jerusalem, the conversion of the gentiles, the resurrection of the righteous, and the coming of the Messiah.  Section V (chapters 91-107) is without any account of the origin of sin but seems to be mainly devoted to the problem of suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the oppressing sinners.  It denounces evil and utters woes on sinners and promises blessings to the righteous.  Within this section is an older work “The Apocalypse of Weeks”.  Have you ever heard of Enoch?

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