ENOCH, Bow( oF. This book, from which, curiously enough, St. Jude quotes as if it were history, shows how richly mythical the history of the mysterious antediluvian E. had become ! It was probably written originally in Aramaic, by a native of Pales tine, in the 2d. c. B.C. The precise date is not known. At subsequent periods, it would seem to have been enlarged by additions and interpolations. It is divided into five parts; and the first discourses of such subjects as the fall of the angels, and the journey of E. through the earth and through Paradise in the company of an angel, by whom he is initiated into the secrets of nature, etc.; the second contains E.'s account of what was revealed to him concerning the heavenly or spiritual region; the third treats of astronomy and the phenomena of the seasons; the fourth represents E. beholding, in prophetic vision, the course of Divine Providence till the coining of the Messiah; and the last consists of exhortations based on what has preceded. The book was current in the primitive church, and was quoted by the fathers, but was lost sight of by Christian writers about the close of the 8th c., so that until last century it was only known by extracts.
Fortunately, however, the traveler Bruce discovered in Abyssinia three complete MSS. of the work, which he brought to England in 1773. These MSS. proved to be an Ethio pic version made from the Greek one, in use among the fathers, as was evident from the coincidence of language. The Ethiopic version did not appear till 1838, when it was published by archbishop Lawrence. An English translation, however, by the same writer, had appeared in 1821, which passed through three editions, and formed the basis of the German edition of Hoffmann (Jena, 1833-1838). In 1840, Gfrorer published a Latin translation of the work; but by far the best edition is that of Dr. A. Dillmann, who, in 1851, published the Ethiopic text from five MSS. ; and in 1853, a German trans lation, with an introduction and commentary, which has recently turned the attention of many German scholars to the subject.