The Book of ENOCH

CHAPTER 1

The words of the blessing of Enoch where-with he blessed the chosen and just, who will exist on the day of tribulation when all the wicked and impious shall be removed.
2. And then answered and spoke Enoch, a just man, whose eyes were opened by God so that he saw a holy vision in the heavens, which the angels showed to me, and from them I heard everything, and I knew what I saw, but not for this generation, but for the far-off generations which are to come.
3. Concerning the chosen I spoke and conversed concerning them with the Holy and Great One, who will come from his abode, the God of the world.
4. And from there he will step on to Mount Sinai, and appear with his hosts, and appear in the strength of his power from heaven.
5. And all will fear, and the watchers will tremble, and great fear and terror will seize them to the ends of the earth.
6. And the exalted mountains will be shaken, and the high hills will be lowered, and will melt like wax before the flame.
7. And the earth will be submerged, and everything that is on the earth will be destroyed, and there will be a judgment upon every thing, and upon all the just.
8. But to the just he will give peace, and will protect the chosen, and mercy will abide over them, and they will all be God’s, and will be prosperous and blessed, and the light of God will shine for them.
9. And behold, he comes with myriads of the holy to pass judgment upon them, and will destroy the impious, and will call to account all flesh for everything the sinners and the impious have done and committed against him.

CHAPTER 2

I observed everything that took place in the heavens, how the luminaries, which are in the heavens, do not depart from their paths, that each one rises and sets in order, each in its time, and they do not depart from their laws.
2. See the earth and observe the things that are done on it, from the first to the last, how no work of God is irregular in appearing.
3. See the summer and the winter, how then the whole earth is full of water, and clouds and dew and rain rest over it.

CHAPTER 3

I observed and saw how then all the trees appeared as if withered, and all their leaves are shaken off, except fourteen trees, whose leaves are not shaken off, but which abide with the old from two to three years, till the new come.

CHAPTER 4

And again I observed the days of summer, how the sun is then above it [i.e. the earth], opposite to it, but ye seek cool and shady places on account of the heat of the sun, and the earth also burns with fervent heat, but ye cannot step on the earth or on a rock
because of their heat.

CHAPTER 5

I observed how the trees cover themselves with the green of the leaves and bear fruit; but observe ye all this and learn how he who lives forever has made all these for you;
2. how his works are before him in every year that comes, and all his works serve him and are not changed, but as God has ordained, so everything takes place.
3. And see how the seas and the rivers together accomplish their work.
4. But ye have not persevered and have not done the commandment of the Lord, but have transgressed, and have slandered his greatness with high and hard words from your unclean mouths. Ye hard-hearted, ye will have no peace.
5. And therefore ye will curse your days, and the years of your lives perish; the everlasting curse will increase and ye will receive no mercy.
6. On that day ye will give away your peace for an everlasting curse to all the just, and they will ever curse you as sinners, you together with the sinners.
7. but for the chosen there will be light and joy and peace, and they will inherit the earth, but for you, the impious, there will be a curse.
8. And then also wisdom will be given to the chosen, and they will all live and not continue to sin; neither through wickedness nor through pride; but they in whom there is wisdom will be humble without continuing to sin.
9. And they will not be punished all the days of their lives, and will not die through plagues or judgments of wrath, but the number of the days of their lives will be completed, and their lives will become old in peace, and the years of their joy will be many in everlasting happiness and peace, for all the days of their lives.

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Chapters 1 to 5 contain the author’s introduction to his book, i.e. to 1-36 and 72-105.

CHAP. 1, 1 gives the superscription. The blessing of Enoch is here introduced like the blessing of Moses over Israel before his death (Deut. xxxiii. 1). The writer proposes a double object—to announce the blessed condition of the just on the day of the final judgment, and the destruction of the sinners. The former is the more important object; and therefore he announces it first, and adds the second in a subordinate manner. The removal of the sinners is not their annihilation, but, as will soon appear, their removal from the earth to the place of punishment.

—2. Cf. Num. xxiv. 3, 4, 15. Apocryphal writers claim inspiration for their works, and thus seek to put a pia fraus on a level with the canonical books. The character and source of the vision entitles it to the appellation holy. The sudden change from the third to the first person is not rare in this book; cf. 12:1-3 (37:1, 2; 70:1-3; 71:6); 92:1; 108:4. Changes of similar character are found Gen. xxii. 12; Isa. I. 29; iii. 26; v.8; xxii. 16; xxxi. 7; xlii. 20; in Gr. Thucyd. I. 128, 7; Xen. Hell. 5, 1, 31; and frequently in the Koran, The difference here noted between this generation and the far-off generations is not the HTR and the HTR, which in later Jewish theology designate the strictly pre and post Messianic times, but in general terms designates those that will live “in the days of the sinners.”—3. The speaking and conversing with God is the author’s interpretation of Gen. v. 24.

The designation of God as the Holy and the Great One is strictly confined to this portion of the book, and is found neither in the Parables nor in the Noachic fragments; cf. 10:1; 14:1; 25:3; 84:1; 92:2; 97:6; 98:6; 104:9; simply Holy, 93:11; and Great, 14:2; God of the world, 12:3; 81:10; 84:2, and once in the Parables 58:4. He will come from his abode, which, like Isa. xxvi. 21; Mic. I. 3, indicates him as coming to judge.—4. Sinai, as the mount from which the law was given, will be the place upon which the Lord will descend to judge according to this law; cf. Deut. xxxiii. 2; Ps. lxviii. 17. God, who as HTR is the god of the heavenly hosts (cf. Delitzsch, Zeitschrift für luth. Theol. u. K., 1874, p. 217-222), is here accompanied by his host, who assist in the judgment, 1:9; 10:4; 90:21; 100:4; cf. also 1 Kings xxii. 19; Ps. ciii. 21.—5. Watchers, cf. notes on chap. 12-16. Them, i.e. the inhabitants of the earth: cf. Jer. xxv. 30, 31. Ends of the earth, Isa. xlii. 10; Ps. lxxii. 8; 1 Sam. ii. 10; Ps. xxii. 27; lxvii. 7; xcviii. 3; Isa. xlv. 22; lii. 10; Zech. ix. 10.—6. Cf. Ps. xviii. 7; xcvii. 5; Hab. iii. 6; Judith xvi. 15.

These sentiments expressed similarly in Assumptio Mosis, c. 10.—7. Here the two judgments, the temporary one or the deluge, and the final one, are blended into one, just as in 10:15 sqq. the period after the deluge and the Messianic times are combined.

—8. The blessedness of the just is not a reward for their firmness, but, as is taught in the Old Testament, a gift of God. The HTR is the highest degree of bliss. God’s light shines for them, 38:2, and often, similar to Dan. xii. 3; cf. Isa. ii. 5; li. 4; Prov. vi. 23; Ps. cxix. 105.—9. The myriads of angels, more minutely explained 14:22; 40:1; 71:8, 13, are like those in Dan. vii. 10. All flesh shall be judged, Jer. xxv. 31. This is the verse that is quoted in a free manner in the Epistle of Jude 14 and 15.

CHAP. 2, 1. Solomon directs the sluggard to the animal kingdom; Enoch, the sinners to the inanimate, as could be expected from an author who knows the secrets of nature, and writes a “book of the luminaries,” 72-82. These obey God’s laws, but rational man does not; cf. Ps. civ. 19; Eccl. I. 5. A similar contrast is found in Testamentum Naphtali. —3. The division of the year into two seasons is after the manner of the Old Testament; cf. Gen. viii. 22; Ps. lxxiv. 17; Isa. xviii. 6.

CHAP. 3. What fourteen evergreen trees are here meant is uncertain. Cf. Dillmann ad loc.

CHAP. 4. Opposite, i.e. in such a position that the heat can be best felt.

CHAP. 5. 1. For you, i.e. for your instruction.—4. Cf. Isa. 1-3. Here he applies the lesson of the preceding. Blaspheme, or slander is a sin often rebuked in this portion of the book; cf. 27:2 81:8; 91:7, 11; 94:9; 96:7; 97:6; 98:15; 99:1; 100:9; 101:3; but is not mentioned in 37-71; cf. Ps. xii. 4; Dan. vii. 8, 11, 20; Ps. cxxxix. 20, etc.—5. Their unhappy fate will induce them to curse their day as Job did when in misfortune, Job iii. 1 sqq.; Jer. xx. 14.—6. The just who had been oppressed by the sinners will curse them in the last times. You together with the sinners, i.e. you and the other sinners.—7. The author’s doctrine of retribution stands substantially on the Old Testament basis; for the reward for steadfastness consists in the blessings of this world; cf. Ex. xx. 12; Lev. xxv. 18, 19; xxvi. 4 sqq.; Deut. iv. 40; v. 33; vi. 18 sqq.; 1 Chron. xxviii. 8; Ps. xxv. 13; xxxvii. 19; lxlx. 35, 36; Isa. lvii. 13; lxv. 9; Ezek. xxiii. 24-26.—8.

The wisdom to be given to the just in the Messianic kingdom plays an important role in this part, and is one of the characteristics of the glorious time, 91:10; 93:10. Its throne is God’s throne, 84:3; and is personified, 91:10; and what he means by the word can be seen from 93:8, where forgetting wisdom is synonymous with departure from the divine law. In the Parables it is not a distinctive feature of the just or of the Messianic kingdom, but is an attribute of the Messiah himself, 49:3.

The Messianic times will be free from sin, 92:5,—a moral perfection, as is found Isa. iv. 3; xi. 9; xxxii. 1-6; 15-18.—9. Old age, according to the Old Testament idea, was a special blessing, Gen. xv. 15; xlvii. 9; Ex. xx. 12; Job v. 26; xiv. 5; and as a blessing of the Messianic times, Isa. lxv. 20, 22; Zech. viii. 4; and especially Isa. xxv. 8. Taught also in the book of the Jubilees.


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