Book of Enoch

I’ve known about this book for a long time, but only recently read it. It is purported to be written by Enoch, and in fact, fragrements of it were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, attesting to the age of the writing.

However, this book is not included in the Biblical canon for very good reasons – it is very strange. Probably i would not believe the Bible if this book was included. Listed below are just a few of the more egregious errors – angels impregnating humans, eternal punishing, astronomical foolishness like windows for the sun and moon to come out of and go into and punishment for certain stars who “transgressed”, winter before the flood, Noah blessing the Lord when just born etc. etc.

Yes, there are many good things written – about how righteousness will be rewarded in the future life, and unrighteousness will be punished in the great day of judgment. Also, there is a fascinating prophecy given around chapters 86-90. Here is one passage that is obviously a prophecy about the coming of Jesus: “All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him, And will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Hosts. And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him, Before the creation of the world and for evermore.”

But for all this, the only reason not to give it a “F”, is because parts of this book were actually quoted in the Bible.

Quotes
Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.

And Enoch went and said: ‘Azazel, thou shalt have no peace: a severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds: And thou shalt not have toleration nor request granted to thee, because of the unrighteousness which thou hast taught, and because of all the works of godlessness and unrighteousness and sin which thou hast shown to men.’
Then I went and spoke to them all together, and they were all afraid, and fear and trembling seized them.
And they besought me to draw up a petition for them that they might find forgiveness, and to read their petition in the presence of the Lord of heaven. For from thenceforward they could not speak(with Him) nor lift up their eyes to heaven for shame of their sins for which they had been condemned.
Then I wrote out their petition, and the prayer in regard to their spirits and their deeds individually and in regard to their requests that they should have forgiveness and length.

I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired regarding them, The angel said: ‘This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even) for ten thousand years.’

Also another phenomenon I saw in regard to the lightnings: how some of the stars arise and become lightnings and cannot part with their new form.

In the year 500, in the seventh month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the life of Enoch.

And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Duidain, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Hosts created.

And the spirit of the hoar-frost is his own angel, and the spirit of the hail is a good angel. And the spirit of the snow has forsaken his chambers on account of his strength -There is a special spirit therein, and that which ascends from it is like smoke, and its name is frost.

And now the angels are making a wooden {ark} (building),

And in proportion as the burning of their bodies becomes severe, a corresponding change shall take place in their spirit for ever and ever;

And those same waters will undergo a change in those days; for when those angels are punished in these waters, these water-springs shall change their temperature, and when the angels ascend, this water of the springs shall change and become cold.

For men were not created for such a purpose, to give confirmation to their good faith with pen and ink.

And the sun rises from that portal and sets in the west, and returns to the east and rises thirty mornings in the third portal and sets in the west in the third portal. And on that day the night becomes longer than the day, and night becomes longer than night, and day shorter than day till the thirtieth morning, and the night amounts exactly to ten parts and the day to eight parts.

(Regarding the sun) As he rises, so he sets and decreases not, and rests not, but runs day and night, and his light is sevenfold brighter than that of the moon; but as regards size they are both equal.

And at the ends of the earth I saw twelve portals open to all the quarters (of the heaven), from which the winds go forth and blow over the earth.

(Speaking of Noah’s birth) unto Lamech my son there hath been born a son, the like of whom there is none, and his nature is not like man’s nature, and the colour of his body is whiter than snow and redder than the bloom of a rose, and the hair of his head is whiter than white wool, and his eyes are like the rays of the sun, and he opened his eyes and thereupon lighted up the whole house. And he arose in the hands of the midwife, and opened his mouth and blessed the Lord of heaven.