It is obvious that the author was a poet of no mean order. His inspiration was high, his ideas elevated and pure. He had a creative fancy which could body forth new forms and shapes. Speaking out of the midst of his own time, he could throw himself back into the past, and mould it suitably to his purpose. His language too, has the living freshness of a master. He was well acquainted with the book of Daniel, as is obvious from the spirit of his production. Not that he was an imitator of that book, far from it ; his mind was too powerful and independent. It is characteristic of him that he calls Jehovah Lord of Spirits, that he specifies as the seven spiritual beings that stand before God, the four highest angels, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Phanuel; and the three highest hosts, the Cherubim, Seraphim, and Ophanim ; that he speaks of the Elect, and of one in particular as the Elect by way of eminence, the Son ef Man, i. e., the Messiah. The charm of the writer's descriptions is irresistible, transporting the reader into the highest regions of the spiritual world. With a genuine glow of feeling, and the elevation of purest hope, he carries us away, till we are lost in wonder at the poetic inspiration of one living at a period comparatively so late. His work must have created a new branch of writing at the time ; leading to numerous imitations.
The first Enoch book was written after Daniel, and as far as we can judge from its descriptions and tone, it appeared about 144 B. C. , after Jonathan had been made prisoner by the Syrians ; when the Jewish people seemed to be in complete subjection to their conquerors, and it was necessary to turn all the nobler spirit they had, against the oppres sion and cunning of foreign kings. This is consis tent with the mention of the Parthians in lvi. 5-7, for that people were well known in Palestine after the Parthian expedition of Antiochus Sidetes, in which John Hyrcanus was obliged to accompany him. Laurence's argument for the year 40 B.C., founded on this mention of the Parthians, is nuga tory (Preliminary Dissertation, p. 37, et seqq., 3d edition). The connection of the passage shews that the writer does not describe his immediate present, but the distant Messianic times. He speaks in parables. The analogy too of the 57th chapter shews that he neither refers to the march of the Parthians into Palestine and to Jerusalem, about 4o B. C., nor to a definite historical event in the future, but to the Medo-Parthians as about to play the part of Magog in Ezekiel. The attention of the Israelites had been increasingly directed to the Parthians since the struggles, till they became well known in the course of the second century. Hence the date 40 B. C. is inad
missible ; though Hoffmann, Gfriirer, and Krieger, follow Laurence in adopting it. Kcestlin has en deavoured, but unsuccessfully, to spew that this piece was written between the years So and 6o of the Christian era.
The second Enoch book consists of vi. I, 2; It'll. 1-6 ; viii. 4 ; ix. 1-6, 8-1 I ; x. 4-10, 12-Xi. 2 ; xii. xvi.; lxxxi, r-4; lxxxiv.; xci. 3-cv. It may be divided into two unequal parts, the first of which is pre served in fragments that are now scattered here and there, and difficult to be discovered; the second is easily detected in xci. 3-cv. Chapters i.-v. form an introduction to the whole. The object of the writer was much the same as that of his predecessor, viz., to threaten, as well as to console, his country men. He was a gifted poet ; and had the faculty of powerful description, with a spirit moved and passionate, greatly excited by the commotion of the times. He wrote chiefly on account of the internal dissensions of the people ; not with relation to heathen oppressors. With the first book of Enoch he was acquainted, as the spirit of it is largely re echoed in his. Yet he was evidently an indepen dent author, adducing much new matter. He is more rhetorical than poetical. The people of God are generally designated by him `the right eous ;' God is ' the mighty,' the great,' the Holy One.' The Messiah he calls ' the plant or root of righteousness,' the Son of God.' His work must have been composed not long after the first book of Enoch, viz., under John Hyrcanus, about ten to fifteen years later. An analysis of the ten weeks of the world's history, described in xci. and xciii., of which seven had elapsed when Enoch revealed the wonderful things con tained in the book, brings us to the time of Hyr canus.
The third book of Enoch consists of viii. ; xx.-xxxvi.; 1.xxiii.-Ixxxii.; lxxxiii. 1-11; lxxxv.-xc.; cvi. ; not completely but fragmentarily. It is difficult to collect the dispersed and imperfect members of this scattered work. It is more didactic and learned than the other two ; and is mainly occupied with unfolding the secrets of creation. The writer, too, had a poetical genius ; but he was less impassioned than his predecessors. Fie had both skill and ability ; but borrowed from the first book more than the second author did. It is characteristic of him that he assumes seven leading evil angels, as well as seven good ones ; that he calls the latter the white ones; that he terms both good and bad angels stars, and the Holy Land, the blessed. The appendix, viz., chapter cviii., was afterwards added to this third book by an unknown hand.