ENOCH, BOOK OF. The statement. Gen. v. 24. that "Enoch walked with God." etc.. interpreted in Jewish theology to refer to his translation, made it natural that in an age favorable to the production of apocalyptic literature, a book should appear claiming the authority of the mysterious Enoch. The book of Enoch, which was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic— probably the former—is a specimen of this apoc alyptic literature produced in Palestine in the two centuries preceding our era. The original Hebrew is lost, and is known to us only from an Ethiopic translation made from a Greek transla tion of the original text. Of the Greek text, thanks to recent discoveries in Egypt. a con siderable number of fragments are now known, and there are hopes of finding more. The book was well known to New Testament writers, who were influenced both by its thought and dic tion. Jude quotes it (ver. 14), and Barnabas classes it among scriptural books (Epistle iv. 3; xvi. 5). Traces of it are also to be found in other apocalyptic writings, as the Book of the Secrets of Enoch and the Testaments of the TiceIre Patriarchs, Apocalypse of Baruch, and Fourth Book of Ezra. (See The book consists of 108 chapters and is divided into five parts. The first (ehs. discourses of such subjects as the fall of the angels. and the journey of Enoch through the earth in the company of an angel, by whom he is initiated into the secrets of nature, etc. It is the oldest piece of Jewish literature to teach the general resurrection of Israel and to describe Gehenna as a place of punishment for the wicked. Sin in the world is said to have been caused by the lust of the angels. Hence they were doomed to destruction, and in addition the Deluge was sent to complete the first judg ment of the world. Through the evil spirits, born of the children of the angels and the daughters of men, sin continued in the world after the Deluge. A final judgment is therefore needed. in which all—angels, demons, and all Israelites—will receive their reward. The wicked will be east into Gehenna, all Israel will enjoy a resurrection, and the Messianic kingdom will he established in a world cleansed from sin, with Jerusalem as a eentre. The Gentiles will be converted. The second part (ells. xxxvii.-lxx.) contains Enoch's account of what was revealed to him concerning the heavenly or spiritual re gion. The origin of sin is traced back to the Satins, who in turn corrupted the angels. The Son of Man will appear to execute judgment. The third part (ells. lxxi.-lxxxii.) treats of astronomy and the phenomena of the seasons. The fourth part (ells. lxxxiii.-xc.) represents Enoch beholding in prophetic vision the course of Divine Providenee till the coming of the Messiah, whose kingdom is in the New Jerusalem set up by God; and the lust part (ells. xei•eiv.) con sists of exhortations based on what has pre ceded. in which, however, the final judgment. is
reserved till the close of time Messianic kingdom, and is not, ;is in the case of the other sections, ushered in with 1bc solvent of that kingdom.
11iiiip the general ideas and teachings in the five !malts are alike, there are a sufficient number of peculiarities to justify the supposition that different authors have worked on the subject; and recent investigations point to time independ ent character of each part. In the first part, e.g. there is a reference to a Messianic kingdom, but none to a Messiah; in the second, sin is traced back to the Satans, whereas in the first it is ascribed to the angels. A distinctive feature of the fifth is the postponement of the final judg ment till the end of the Messianic kingdom, while in the fourth it is the New Jerusalem that is the seat of the Messianic kingdom. On these grounds and others, the five parts are regarded as distinct, and the attempt has been made by Charles (Book of Enoch) to determine upon internal evidence and the development of apoc alyptic ideas the order of the parts, with the result that i.-xxxvi. are placed before B.C. 170, elms. lxxxiii.-xe. some years later, xei-civ. between B.C. 134 and 95, xxxvii.-lxx. between B.C. 94 and 64; while for the second part, which is more composite in its character, no date is ventured. In the collection of the five parts considerable liberties were taken by the redac tors, through disarrangements and interpola tions, and in addition to this the final editor made use of another Apocalypse, the Book of Noah, fragments of which he embodied in the various parts, just as in the Book of Jubilees another fragment of the Book of Noah has been incorporated.
• The book of Enoch was current in the primi tive Church and was quoted by the fathers, but was lost sight of by Christian writers about the close of the eighth century, so that until the eighteenth century it was only known by ex tracts. In 1773, however, the traveler Bruce discovered in Abyssinia two complete MSS. of the work, which he brought to England. These MSS. proved to he an Ethiopie 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 38). In 1840 Gfriirer published a Latin trans lation of the work; in 1882 an English transla tion was published by Sehodde. The best edi tion of the Ethiopic text is that of A. Dill mann, who in 1851 published in Leipzig the text from five MSS., and in 1853 a German trans lation with a valuable introduction and com mentary. The best English translation is Charles, The Book of Enoch (London, 1893).