Part 1 of 2
INTRODUCTION.by the Author of "The Evolution of Christianity", Lyman Abbott
In the Authorized Version of the
Epistle of Jude, we read the following words:—
"Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands, of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."1
Modern research sees in the Epistle of Jude a work of the second century: but as orthodox theologians accept its contents as the inspired utterance of an Apostle, let us diligently search the Hebrew Scriptures for this important forecast of the second Advent of the Messiah. In vain we turn over the pages of the sacred Canon; not even in the Apocrypha can we trace one line from the pen of the marvellous being to whom uninterrupted immortality is assigned by apostolic 1 interpretation of Genesis v. 24. Were the prophecies of Enoch, therefore, accepted as a Divine revelation on that momentous day when Jesus explained the Scriptures, after his resurrection, to Jude and his apostolic brethren; and have we moderns betrayed our trust by excluding an inspired record from the Bible?
Reverting to the second century of Christianity, we find Irenæus and Clement of Alexandria citing the Book of Enoch without questioning its sacred character. Thus,
Irenæus, assigning to the Book of Enoch an authenticity analogous to that of Mosaic literature, affirms that Enoch, although a man, filled the office of God's messenger to the angels. 2 Tertullian, who flourished at the close of the first and at the beginning of the second century, whilst admitting that the "Scripture of Enoch" is not received by some because it is not included in the Hebrew Canon, speaks of the author as "the most ancient prophet, Enoch," and of the book as the divinely inspired autograph of that immortal patriarch, preserved by Noah in the ark, or miraculously reproduced by him through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Tertullian adds, "But as Enoch has spoken in the same scripture of the Lord, and 'every scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired,' let us reject nothing which belongs to us.
It may now seem to have been disavowed by the Jews like all other scripture which speaks of Christ—a fact which should cause us no surprise, as they were not to receive him, even when personally addressed by himself." These views Tertullian confirms by appealing to the testimony of the Apostle Jude. 1
The Book of Enoch was therefore as sacred as the Psalms or Isaiah in the eyes of the famous theologian, on whom modern orthodoxy relies as the chief canonist of New Testament scripture.Origen (A.D. 254), in quoting Hebrew literature, assigns to the Book of Enoch the same authority as to the Psalms. In polemical discussion with Celsus, he affirms that the work of the antediluvian patriarch was not accepted in the Churches as Divine; and modern theologians have accordingly assumed that he rejected its inspiration: but the extent to which he adopts its language and ideas discloses personal conviction that Enoch was one of the greatest of the prophets. Thus, in his treatise on the angels, we read: "We are not to suppose that a special office has been assigned by mere accident to a particular angel: as to Raphael, the work of curing and healing; to Gabriel, the direction of wars; to Michael, the duty of hearing the prayers and supplications of men." 2 From what source but assumed revelation could Origen obtain and publish these circumstantial details of ministerial administration in heaven?
Turning to the Book of Enoch we read: "After this I besought the angel of peace, who proceeded with me, to explain all that was concealed. I said to him, Who are those whom I have seen on the four sides, and whose words I have heard and written down. He replied, The first is the merciful, the patient, the holy Michael. The second is he who presides over every suffering and every affliction of the sons of men, the holy Raphael. The third, who presides over all that is powerful, is Gabriel. And the fourth, who presides over repentance and the hope of those who will inherit eternal life, is Phanuel." 1
We thus discover the source of Origen's apparently superhuman knowledge, and detect his implicit trust in the Book of Enoch as a Divine revelation.When primitive Christianity had freely appropriated the visions of Enoch as the materials of constructive dogmas, this remarkable book gradually sank into oblivion, disappeared out of Western Christendom, and was eventually forgotten by a Church, which unconsciously perpetuated its teaching as the miraculous revelations of Christianity.
The Book of Enoch, unknown to Europe for nearly a thousand years, except through the fragments preserved by Georgius Syncellus (circa 792, A.D.), was at length discovered by Bruce in Abyssinia, who brought home three copies of the Ethiopic version in 1773, respecting which he writes: "Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris was a very beautiful and magnificent copy of the Prophecies of Enoch, in large quarto; another is amongst the Books of Scripture which I brought home, standing immediately before the Book of Job, which is its proper place in the Abyssinian Canon; and a third copy I have presented to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, by the hands of Dr. Douglas, the Bishop of Carlisle."
This priceless manuscript, destined, some day, to reveal the forgotten source of many Christian dogmas and mysteries, rested in Bodleian obscurity, until presented to the world through an English translation by Dr. Laurence, Archbishop of Cashel, formerly Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, who issued his first edition in 1821, in apparent unconsciousness that he was giving to mankind the theological fossils through which we, in the clearer light of our generation, may study the "Evolution of Christianity."
The scarcity of Archbishop Laurence's translation, before the publication of the second edition in 1833, produced an impression in Germany that the work had been suppressed by its author; but this report is contradicted in the preface to the third edition, issued in 1838, in response to a large order from America.
The Book of Enoch excited more interest on the Continent than in England. It was translated into German by Dr. Hoffman in 1838, into Latin by Gfrörer in 1840, again into German by Dillmann in 1853, and has been discussed by Weisse, Lücke, Hilgenfeld, and Kalisch, the latter of whom uttered the prediction, that the book of Enoch "will one day be employed as a most important witness in the history of religious dogmas." The day and the hour have come, the clock has struck, and
in thus publishing an edition of Archbishop Laurence's translation of the Book of Enoch, we place within the reach of all readers of the English language, the means of studying the pre-Christian origin of Christian mysteries.Turning towards the "Preliminary Dissertation" of Archbishop Laurence, in which he discusses, with impartial criticism and accomplished scholarship, the origin of the Book of Enoch, we find him attaining the important conclusions, that
it was written by a Jew of the Dispersion in his own language, whether Hebrew or the later Aramæan acquired in exile; that the version in the hands of the author of the Epistle of Jude and the Ante-Nicene Fathers was a Greek translation; and that the Ethiopic edition, whether translated from Aramæan or Greek, is the same work as that cited by the Apostle.In attestation of the theory of an Aramaic or Syro-Chaldæan origin, Archbishop Laurence refers to the "most ancient remains of the Cabbala (Hebrew traditions) contained
in the 'Zohar, a species of philosophical commentary upon the Law, combining theological opinions with the allegorical subtleties of the mystical school. In this celebrated compilation of what was long supposed to constitute the hidden wisdom of the Jewish nation,
occasional references are made to the Book of Enoch, as a book carefully preserved from generation to generation." Archbishop Laurence then gives extracts from the "Zohar," referring to important passages in the Book of Enoch, and infers that "the authors of the Cabbalistical remains wrote their recondite doctrines in Chaldee," and possessed a copy of the Book of Enoch, written in that language or in Hebrew, "which they regarded as the genuine work of him whose name it bore, and not as the spurious production of a later age."
'The seventh precept is to circumcise the male child on the eighth day after birth and thereby to remove the defilement of the foreskin. The "living" (hayah) of which we have spoken forms the eighth grade in the scale, and hence the soul which has flown away from it must appear before it on the eighth day. And in this way it is made clear that this is really a "living soul", emanating from that holy "living" and not from the "unholy region". And this is alluded to in the words: Let the waters swarm, which in the Book of Enoch are explained thus: Let the water of the holy seed be stamped with the stamp of the "soul of the living", which is the form of the letter yod impressed on the holy flesh in preference to all other marks....
But even unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings (Malachi III, 20). 'God', he said, 'will at the proper time cause to shine on Israel that sun which he stored away at the time of the Creation, out of sight of sinners, as alluded to in the words: "But from the wicked their light is withholden" (Job XXXVIII, 15). This light, when it first emerged, radiated from one end of the world to the other; but when God contemplated the generation of Enoch and the generation of the Flood and the generation of the division of languages and all the sinners of the world, He stored it away....
R. Isaac replied: 'This bears out what I said. Among the generation of the Flood no one was left that possessed the holy neshamah, as, for instance, Enoch or Jered or any of the other righteous who by their merits could have saved the earth from destruction, and its inhabitants from being exterminated. Scripture thus tells us that "all in whose nostrils was the soul of the spirit of life, of all those on dry land, died", that is to say, they had died already and departed this world, so that none was left to shield the world at that time....
There is a certain "breath" [7] emanating from those supernal "breaths" upon which the world is sustained, closely connected with the earth and fed from it. It depends, in fact, on the souls of the righteous who have been gathered from the earth while still pure before they have committed any sin, and while their savour is still sweet: for instance, Enoch, of whom it is written, "And he was not, for God took him" (Gen. V, 24). God took him away before his time and had delight in him. And so it is with all the righteous, for we have been taught that the righteous are removed from this world before their time for one of two reasons: one for the sins of their generation, for when there is much sin in the world the righteous are penalized for its guilt; the second is that when the Holy One, blessed be He, is aware that they would commit a sin if they lived longer, He removes them before their time....
Moses, of whom it is written, "Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness [37b] above thy fellows" (Ps. XLV, 3, 8). "Thou art fairer than the children of men" refers to Seth and Enoch; "grace is put into thy lips" means that Moses was greater than Noah and his sons; "therefore God hath blessed thee" signifies that he was above Abraham and Isaac; "oil of gladness" suggests that Moses was greater than Jacob; and "above thy fellows" that he was above all other prophets....
Then the Lord gave him the commandment concerning the one tree: and, alas! man failed in his obedience and was not steadfast in the commandment of his Master. We find in the book of Enoch that after the Holy One, blessed be He, had transported Enoch to the supernal regions and shown him all the treasures of the King, both the celestial and the terrestrial, He permitted him to behold the Tree of Life and that Tree of which Adam was warned, and showed him the place where Adam had dwelt in the Garden of Eden, and Enoch perceived that if Adam had been obedient he would have so dwelt for ever, having eternal life and perpetual joy in the glory of the Garden. But because he broke the commandment of his Lord, he was punished.'...
For the spirit which was left by the deceased still clinging to that vessel has not been lost -- since nothing is lost in the world -- but it is still there and seeks to return to its basis; and so the "redeemer" brings it and builds it up again in its place, and it becomes a new creation, a new spirit in a new body. It may be said, "the spirit becomes the same as what it was": this is so, but it has not been built up save for the sake of the other spirit which was left in that vessel. [100a] There is here a profound mystery. According to the Book of Enoch, this "building" is indeed constructed by the other spirit which was left in the "vessel", and which draws after him the spirit which roams about in the air naked and alone; and these two spirits are welded together, and if the person is worthy to be built up again, the two spirits become one indeed, an organ in which a superior soul may wrap herself. For just as other men have a spirit which is seized by the over-soul and another higher spirit, and the holy over-soul is clothed with both, so here there are two spirits for the superior soul to wrap herself therewith, and for them another body (the child which is to be borne by the widow who married the near of kin), which is now built anew....
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. XII, 2). "The dust of the earth" is a reference similar to that explained in the Book of Enoch, that the associates saw the letters of which these words are composed, and a voice was heard, saying: "Awaken and sing, ye who dwell in the dust" (Isa. XXVI, 19)....
AND FASHIONED IT WITH A GRAVING-TOOL. This does not mean, as people are apt to think, that he carved designs upon it with a graving-tool or chisel. What the text comes to show us is that Aaron was not sufficiently on his guard. For had he, even after taking it from their hands, thrown in on the ground, even if he had picked it up afterwards, this evil operation would not have [192b] succeeded; but what he did was to put the whole of the gold into a bag, so keeping it hidden from view. This made the witchcraft effective. We have found in the Book of Enoch the following: "An only son [7] will be born unto Him of the White Head, [8] and when they of the asses' flesh [9] shall come, they will mislead him through him who puts pearls into bells of gold without knowing what he does, and an image will be fashioned with a chisel." What does heret ("chisel" -- or more literally "style") here signify? It alludes to the "style of a man (enosh)" (Isa. VIII, 1), namely, to the style of the wicked Enosh, the grandchild of Adam (Gen. V, 6), who corrupted the world by chiselling images and idols with that "style"....
Elijah and all those who cleave to the King were made messengers of the heavenly King, as we find in the book of Adam that all holy spirits above perform God's messages and all come from one place, whereas the souls of the righteous are of two degrees combined together, and therefore they ascend to a greater height. This applies to Enoch and Elijah....
R. Eleazar said: 'There is a mystery relating to the offering in the verse, "I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride ... eat, O friends, drink, O beloved" (S.S. V, 1), which I have seen in the book of Enoch.' Said R. Simeon: 'Tell us what you have seen [240b] and heard.' He said: 'God says, "I have come into my garden" because all offerings when they ascend go into the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the sacrifice when a man confesses his sins over it, and, as it were, his own blood is poured out on the altar....
-- The Zohar, by translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon
Archbishop Laurence then considers the probable date of the work, and infers, from the quotation of Jude, that it must have been written antecedent to the Christian era, but not before the Captivity of Babylon, because it contains the language and imagery of Daniel, "in the representation of the Ancient of Days coming to judgment with the Son of man." But since Archbishop Laurence wrote, modern criticism has disclosed how nebulous is the date of Daniel, so that it becomes as reasonable to assume that the author or compiler borrowed from the Book of Enoch, as to attribute plagiarism to the pseudo-patriarch. The learned translator, however, discovered more satisfactory proof,
through internal evidence, that
the book "was written long subsequent to the commencement, and even to the conclusion, of the Babylonian Captivity."
That section of the Book of Enoch, extending from chapter lxxxii. to xc., contains an allegorical narrative of the royal dynasties of Israel and Judah, from which Archbishop Laurence constructs a history extending from Saul to the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great, and infers that the Book of Enoch was written " before the rise of Christianity; most probably at an early period of the reign of Herod." The Archbishop adds: "That it could not have been the production of a writer who lived after the inspired authors of the New Testament, or who was even coeval with them, must be manifest from the quotation of St. Jude—a quotation which proves it to have been in his time a work ascribed to Enoch himself."
Archbishop Laurence, furthermore, attains probability of date through another line of argument.
In chapter liv. 9, of the Book of Enoch we read, "The chiefs of the East, among the Parthians and Medes, shall remove kings, in whom a spirit of perturbation shall enter. They shall hurl them from their thrones, springing as lions from their dens, and like famished wolves into the midst of the flock." Commenting on this passage, Archbishop Laurence says, "Now the Parthians were altogether unknown in history, until the 250th year before Christ, when, under the guidance of Arsaces (the family name of all their subsequent kings) they revolted from Antiochus Theus, the then king of Syria. It was not, however, until the year 230 B.C. that their empire became firmly established, when Arsaces defeated and took prisoner Seleucus Callicinus, the Syrian monarch, and first assumed the title of King of Parthia. By degrees they expelled the Syrian dominion from every province over which it extended east of the Euphrates; so that from about the year 140 B.C. their vast empire reached from the Ganges to the Euphrates, and from the Euphrates to the Caucasus." These facts would therefore lead to the conclusion that the Book of Enoch was written about the middle of the second century B.C.; but as
the author adds to the passage already cited, "They shall go up, and tread upon the land of their elect, the land of their elect shall be before them. The threshing-floor, the path, and the city of my righteous people shall impede the progress of their horses." Archbishop Laurence connects this language with the invasion of Syria by the Parthians in the year 54 B.C., and their defeat of Anthony eighteen years later, "when the credit of the Parthian arms was at the highest; and it is probable that about the same period, or at least not long after, the Book of Enoch was written."The question now naturally arises, How was this work of fiction accepted within so short a period, as the genuine production of the patriarch Enoch? The Archbishop answers by showing,
through internal evidence, that
the book was written by a Jew residing at a distance from Palestine, and having been brought into Judæa in the name of the prophet Enoch, the obscurity of its origin caused some to accept it as the genuine production of the patriarch himself. In chapter lxxi. Pseudo-Enoch divides the day and night into eighteen parts, and represents the longest day in the year as consisting of twelve out of these eighteen parts. "Now the proportion of twelve to eighteen is precisely the same as sixteen to four and twenty, the present division in hours of the period constituting day and night. If therefore we consider in what latitude a country must be situated to have a day of sixteen hours long, we shall immediately perceive that Palestine could not be such a country. We may then safely conclude that the region in which the author lived must have been situated not lower than forty-five degrees north latitude, where the longest day is fifteen hours and a half, nor higher perhaps than forty-nine degrees, where the longest day is precisely sixteen hours. This will bring the country where he wrote, as high up at least as the northern districts of the Caspian and Euxine seas; probably it was situated somewhere between the upper parts of both these seas; and if the latter conjecture be well founded,
the author of the Book of Enoch was perhaps a member of one of the tribes which Shalmaneser carried away, and placed 'in Halah and in Habor by the river Goshen, and in the cities of the Medes,' and who never returned from captivity."Since Archbishop Laurence wrote his "Preliminary Dissertation," fresh light has been thrown on the origin of the Book of Enoch through the publication of Mr. Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," recording the discovery, in Babylonian ruins, of cups or bowls of terra cotta, covered on the inner surface with inscriptions in ink, which have been deciphered by Mr. Thomas Ellis of the Manuscript Department in the British Museum, as amulets or charms against evil spirits, disease, calamity, and sudden death, composed in the Chaldean language mingled with Hebrew words, 1 and written in characters which combine Syriac and Palmyrene with the ancient Phoenician. These inscriptions are undated; but Mr. Ellis attained the conclusion
through internal evidence, that
these cups belonged to the descendants of the Jews who were carried captive to Babylon and the surrounding cities.But the most important revelation attained through these discoveries of Mr. Layard lies in the interesting fact, mentioned in his work, that
the names of the angels inscribed on these cups, and those recorded in the Book of Enoch, are, in many instances identical, so that no doubt remains as to the Hebrew-Chaldee origin of that great Semitic work, whether assignable to human genius or Divine revelation; and the exhumed amulets of Jews of the Dispersion attest the accuracy of Archbishop Laurence's conclusions respecting the nationality of Pseudo-Enoch.
Ignorance of the contents of the Apocrypha, as canonized by the Church of Rome, is so general in England that many otherwise well-informed people imagine that the Book of Enoch may be found in its pages, whereas it has been lost to all English readers, except those who may possess or have access to copies of the English translation last issued in 1838. On this aspect of the question Archbishop Laurence writes:—
"The fate of the
Apocryphal writings in general has been singular. On one side, from the influence of theological opinion or theological caprice, they have been sometimes injudiciously admitted into the Canon of Scripture; while on the other side, from an over-anxiety to preserve that Canon inviolate, they have been not simply rejected, but loaded with every epithet of contempt and obloquy. The feelings perhaps of both parties have on such occasions run away with their judgment. For writings of this description, whatever may or may not be their claim to inspiration, are at least of considerable utility, where
they indicate the theological opinions of the periods at which they were composed. This I apprehend to be peculiarly the case of the Book of Enoch; which, as having been manifestly written before the doctrines of Christianity were promulgated to the world, must afford us, when it refers to the nature and character of the Messiah, as it repeatedly does so refer, credible proof of what were the Jewish opinions upon those points before the birth of Christ; and consequently before the possible predominance of the Christian creed."Archbishop Laurence thus clearly recognized that the visions of Enoch preceded the teaching of Jesus; but it was not given to him, or to his generation, to see how deeply his conclusions affected the supernatural claims of Christianity.
Turning to the contents of the Book of Enoch,
the first six chapters announce the condemnation of transgressors and the blessings of the righteous, through the triumphal advent of the Messiah, forecast in the famous prediction quoted by the author of the Epistle attributed to Jude.
Chapters vii. to xvi. record the descent of two hundred angels on the earth, their selection of wives, the birth of their gigantic offspring, and the instruction of mankind in the manufacture of offensive and defensive weapons, the fabrication of mirrors, the workmanship of jewellery, and the use of cosmetics and dyes, combined with lessons in sorcery, astrology, divination, and astronomy—all which
Tertullian accepts as Divine revelation, when he
denounces woman as the "devil's gateway," 1 and assures her, on the authority of the inspired Enoch, that Tyrian dyes, Phrygian embroidery, Babylonian cloth, golden bracelets, gleaming pearls, flashing onyx-stones, and brilliant emeralds, with all the other adjuncts of an elegant toilette, are the special gifts of fallen angels to female frailty. The advent of the angels multiplies transgressions on earth, they are condemned to "the lowest depths of the fire in torments," and Enoch, as the messenger of God, announces to them the eternity of their punishment.
Chapters xvii. to xxxvi. give a graphic description of the miraculous journeys of Enoch in the company of an angel, from whom he learns the secrets of creation and the mysteries of Infinity. From the top of a lofty mountain "which reached to heaven," he beheld the receptacles of light, thunder, and lightning, "the great darkness or mountains of gloom which constitute winter, the mouths of rivers and of the deep, the stone which supports the corners of the earth, and the four winds which bear up the earth, and constitute the pillars of heaven." 1 Is not this obviously the inspired cosmology, through which the author of the Book of Enoch unconsciously condemned mediæval physicists to the stake for impiously proclaiming the mobility of the earth? If an inspired prophet saw the stone which supports the corners of the earth, how inexpiable the guilt of men, who fostered scepticism through the heliocentric theory of a world coursing swiftly round the sun!But had not the Book of Enoch disappeared for centuries out of Europe, before the persecution of Galileo and the martyrdom of
Bruno? We answer that its teaching had survived, as numerous other superstitions have passed from generation to generation long after all knowledge of their origin has been lost to the theologians who accept them as Divine.
In the "Evolution of Christianity" we cite the following passage from Irenæus: "It is impossible that the Gospels can be more or less than they are. For as there are four zones in the world which we inhabit, and four principal winds, while the Church is spread abroad throughout the earth, and the pillar and basis of the Church is the gospel and the spirit of life, it is right that she should have four pillars exhaling immortality on every side, and bestowing renewed vitality on men. From which fact it follows that the Word has given us four versions of the Gospel, united by one spirit." We now recognize that this fanciful theory of a limited number of Evangelists is based on the cosmology of Enoch; and
if in the second century, Irenæus accepted the visions of an antediluvian patriarch as facts, the traditional survival of the earth's "corner stone" doubtless controlled the orthodox astronomy of mediaeval theologians.
Proceeding on his journey with the angel Uriel, Enoch furthermore beheld the prison of the fallen angels, in which struggling columns of fire ascended from an appalling abyss. He saw the regions in which the spirits of the dead await the day of judgment; he looked upon the trees of knowledge and of life, exhaling fragrant odours from leaves which never withered, and from fruit which ever bloomed; and he beheld the "great and glorious wonder" of the celestial stars, coming forth through the "gates of heaven."
Chapters xxxvii. to lxxi. record the second vision of wisdom, divided into three parables. The first depicts the future happiness and glory of the elect, whom Enoch beheld reclining on couches in the habitations of angels, or standing in thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads before the throne of God, blessing and glorifying Him with celestial song, as the Holy, Holy Lord of spirits, before whom righteousness eternally dwells.As Enoch uttered his prophecies respecting the elect, before the existence of Christianity, it is important to learn in what sense he understood the doctrine of election. The language of the first parable happily leaves no room for doubt—
"The righteous will be elected for their good works duly weighed by the Lord of Spirits." 1 Election, therefore, traced to its original source, means nothing more than Divine "selection of the fittest"—a theory more consistent with the justice of God, than the capricious choice of the metamorphical potter, whose arbitrary fashioning of plastic clay symbolized, in Pauline theology, the doctrine of predestination.The second parable (xlv.-lv.) demands the absorbed attention of modern Jews and Gentiles; for it is either the inspired forecast of a great Hebrew prophet, predicting with miraculous accuracy the future teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, or the Semitic romance from which the latter borrowed His conceptions of the triumphant return of the Son of man, to occupy a judicial throne in the midst of rejoicing saints and trembling sinners, expectant of everlasting happiness or eternal fire: and whether these celestial visions be accepted as human or Divine, they have exercised so vast an influence on the destinies of mankind for nearly two thousand years, that candid and impartial seekers after religious truth can no longer delay inquiry into the relationship of the Book of Enoch with the revelation, or the evolution, of Christianity.
The third parable (lvi.-lxx.) recurs, with glowing eloquence, to the inexhaustible theme of Messianic glory, and again depicts the happy future of the righteous in contrast with the appalling misery of the wicked. It also records the supernatural control of the elements, through the action of individual angels presiding over the winds, the sea, hail, frost, dew, the lightning's flash, and reverberating thunder. The names of the principal fallen angels are also given, among whom we recognize some of the invisible powers named in the incantations inscribed on the terra cotta cups of Hebrew-Chaldee conjuration.
Chapters lxxi. to lxxxi. contain the "book of the revolutions of the luminaries of heaven," the sun, the moon, and the stars, controlled in their movements by the administration of angels. In commenting on this section of the Book of Enoch, Archbishop Laurence says, "This system of astronomy is precisely that of an untutored, but accurate observer of the heavens. He describes the eastern and western parts of heaven, where the sun and moon rise and set, as divided each into six different gates, through which those orbs of light pass at their respective periods. In the denomination of these gates he begins with that through which the sun passes at the winter solstice; and this he terms the first gate. It of course answers to the sign of Capricornus; and is the southernmost point to which the sun reaches, both at rising and setting. The next gate, at which the sun arrives in its progress towards the east at rising, and towards the west at setting, and which answers to the sign of Aquarius, he terms the second gate. The next, in continuation of the same course of the sun, which answers to the sign of Pisces, he terms the third gate. The fourth gate in his description is that which is situated due east at sun-rising, and due west at sun-setting, and which, answering to the sign of Aries, the sun enters at the vernal equinox. With this fourth gate he commences his account of the sun's annual circuit, and of the consequent change in the length of day and night at the various seasons of the year. His fifth gate is now to be found in the sun's progress northwards, and answers to the sign of Taurus. And his sixth gate is situated still further north; which, answering to the sign of Gemini, concludes at the most northern point of heaven to which the sun arrives, and from which it turns at the summer solstice, again to measure back its course southwards.
"Hence it happens, that the same gates which answers to the six signs alluded to in the sun's passage from the winter to the summer solstice, necessarily also answer to the remaining six of the twelve signs of the Zodiac in its passage back again.
"The turning of the sun both at the winter and summer solstices, the first at the most southern, the last at the most northern point of its progress, must have always struck the eye of those who contemplated the variety as well as the splendour of its daily appearance. The astronomy of the apocryphal Enoch was perhaps formed in this respect upon the same principles as the astronomy of Homer, who places the situation of the island Συρίη under the turning of the sun, ὅθι τροπαὶ ἠελίοιο (Odyss. lib. xv. 404)."
Chapters lxxxiii. to lxxxix. contain a vision of Enoch giving an allegorical forecast of the history of the world up to the kingdom of the Messiah.
Chapter xcii. records a series of prophecies extending from Enoch's own time to about one thousand years beyond the present generation. In the system of chronology adopted, a day stands for hundred, and a week for seven hundred years. Reference is made to the deluge, the call of Abraham, the Mosaic dispensation, the building and the destruction of the Temple of Solomon—events which preceded the date at which the Book of Enoch was probably written: but when the author, in his character of a divinely inspired seer, extends his vision beyond the horizon of his own age, he discloses the vanity of his predictive pretensions, through prophecies which remain unfulfilled. If, however, the Book of Enoch had reached us through the Western, as well as the Ethiopic Canon, apologetic theologians would doubtless affirm that centuries are but trifles in prophetic time; and that the predictions of the great antediluvian prophet shall, sooner or later, attain miraculous fulfilment.
Chapters xciii. to civ. contain the eloquent exhortations of Enoch, addressed to his children, in which he follows Buddha in commending the "Paths of Righteousness," and anticipates Jesus in pronouncing the doom of sinners and the joys of saints, and gives utterance to the most emphatic assurance of immortality which has ever flowed from human lips: "Fear not, ye souls of the righteous, but wait with patient hope for the day of your death in righteousness. Grieve not because your souls descend in trouble and sorrow to the receptacle of the dead; for great joy shall be yours, like that of the angels in heaven. And when you die, sinners say concerning you, 'As we die the righteous die. What profit have they in their works? Behold, like us, they expire in sorrow and in darkness. What advantage have they over us? Henceforward are we equal; for behold they are dead, and never will they again perceive the light.' But now I swear to you, ye righteous . . . that I comprehend this mystery; that I have read the tablet of heaven, have seen the writing of the holy ones, and have discovered what is written and impressed on it concerning you. I have seen that all goodness, joy, and glory have been prepared for you. . . . The spirits of you who die in righteousness shall exist and rejoice; and their remembrance shall be before the face of the Mighty One from generation to generation. 1 How profound the impression necessarily produced on the Semitic imagination by this impassioned language, uttered in an age of faith in inspired dreams and celestial visions by a supposed visitant of the unseen world, who had conversed with angels in the presence of the Lord of spirits!
The final chapter of the Book of Enoch records the birth of Noah, and the further prophecies of Enoch, addressed to Methuselah on the subject of the birth of Noah and the future deluge.In attestation of the relationship between the Book of Enoch and Christianity, we now collate its language and ideas with parallel passages in New Testament scripture.
En. lxiv. 4. "And a voice was heard from heaven."
Matt. iii. 17. "And lo, a voice from heaven, saying."
En. vi. 9. "The elect shall possess light, joy, and peace, and they shall inherit the earth."
Matt. v. 5. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
En. l. 2, 4, 5. "He shall select the righteous and holy from among them; for the day of their salvation has approached . . . and they shall become angels in heaven. Their countenances shall be bright with joy. . . . The earth shall rejoice; and the elect possess it."
Luke xxi. 28. "Your redemption draweth nigh."
Matt. xxii. 30. "In the resurrection . . . they are as the angels of God in heaven."
Matt. xiii. 43. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
En. xciii. 7. "Those, too, who acquire gold and silver, shall justly and suddenly perish. Woe to you who are rich, for in your riches have you trusted; but from your riches you shall be removed."
James v. 1. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you."
Luke vi. 24. "Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation."
En. xcvi. 6, 7, 25. "Woe unto you, sinners, who say, 'We are rich, possess wealth, and have acquired everything which we can desire. Now then will we do whatsoever we are disposed to do; for we have amassed silver; our barns are full.' . . . They shall surely die suddenly."
Luke xii. Compare the parable of the rich man whose barns were full, and who said to himself, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."
En. cv. 26. "And I will place each of them on a throne of glory, of glory peculiarly his own."
Matt. xix. 28. "Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
En. lxii. 11. "In his judgments he pays no respect to persons."
Rom. ii. 11. "For there is no respect of persons with God."
En. xxxviii. 2. "Where will the habitation of sinners be . . . who have rejected the Lord of spirits. It would have been better for them, had they never been born."
Matt. xxvi. 24. "Woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would be good for that man if he had not been born."
En. xix. 2. "So that they sacrifice to devils as to Gods."
1 Cor. x. 20. "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God."
En. xxii. 10, 12. (The angel Raphael addressing Enoch in the region of the dead:) "Here their souls are separated . . . by a chasm."
Luke xvi. 26 (Abraham addressing Dives from the region of the blessed:) "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed."
En. xxxix. 3, 4, 7. "A cloud then snatched me up . . . placing me at the extremity of the heavens. There I saw another vision. I saw the habitations and couches of the saints . . . with the angels . . . under the wings of the Lord of spirits. All the holy and the elect sung before him, in appearance like a blaze of fire, their mouths being full of blessings, and their lips glorifying the name of the Lord of spirits."
2 Cor. xii. "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ . . . caught up to the third heaven, . . . whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth. How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."
Rev. xix. 1. "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God."
En. xlvi. 2. "This is the Son of man . . . who will reveal all the treasures of that which is concealed."
Col. ii. 3. "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
En. ix. 3, 4. "Then they said to their Lord, the King: Thou art Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings. The throne of thy glory is for ever and ever, and for ever and ever is thy name sanctified and glorified. Thou art blessed and glorified. Thou hast made all things; thou possessest power over all things: and all things are open and manifest before thee. Thou beholdest all things, and nothing can be concealed from thee."
Rev. xvii. 14; xix. 16. "King of kings, and Lord of lords."
Rev. iv. 11. "Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created."
Heb. iv. 13. " Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
En. xxiv. 11, 10, "I blessed the Lord of glory, the everlasting King, because He has prepared this tree for the saints, formed it, and declared that he would give it to them. . . . The sweet odour shall enter into their bones; and they shall live a long life on the earth, as thy forefathers have lived; neither in their days shall sorrow, distress, and punishment afflict them."
Rev. xxii. 2. "On either side of the river was a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Rev. ii. 7. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
Rev. xxii. 14. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life."
En. lxxxv. 2. "And behold a single star fell from heaven."
Rev. ix. 1. "I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth."
En. lx. 13. "All the angels of power."
2 Thess. i. "The angels of His power."
En. x. 15, 16. "To Michael also, the Lord said, Go and announce his crime to Samyaza and to the others who are with him who have been associated with women. . . . Bind them for seventy generations underneath the earth, even to the day of judgment, and of consummation, until the judgment, which shall last for ever, be completed. Then shall they be taken away into the lowest depths of the fire in torments, and in confinement shall they be shut up for ever."
Jude 6. "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day."
2 Pet. ii. 4. "God spared not the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."
Rev. xx. 10. "The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, . . . and shall be tormented day and night for ever."
En. xxi. 56. "I beheld columns of fire struggling together to the end of the abyss, and deep was their descent. But neither its measurement nor magnitude was I able to discover. . . . Uriel, one of the holy angels . . . said, This is the prison of the angels, and here are they kept for ever."
Rev. xx. 1-3. "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit (abyss) and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the devil and . . . cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut it, and sealed it over him."
En. lxxix. "In the days of sinners the years shall be shortened, . . . and every thing done on earth shall be subverted and disappear in its season. . . . In those days the fruits of the earth shall not flourish in their season, . . . heaven shall stand still. The moon shall change its laws, and not be seen at its proper period; . . . and all the classes of the stars shall be shut up against sinners."
Matt. xxiv. 7, 21, 22, 29, 30. " There shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places . . . great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. . . . Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. . . . Then shall the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory."
En. lxi. 9. "And trouble shall seize them when they shall behold this Son of woman sitting upon the throne of his glory."
En. xlvii. 3. "He sat upon the throne of his glory, while the book of the living was opened in his presence, and while all the powers which were above the heavens stood around and before him."
En. l. "In those days shall the earth deliver up from her womb, and hell deliver up from hers, that which it has received, and destruction shall restore that which it owes. He shall select the righteous and holy from among them."
En. liv. "In those days shall the mouth of hell be opened into which they shall he immerged; hell shall destroy and swallow up sinners from the face of the elect."
Rev. xx. 11-13,15. "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, . . . and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne; and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things what were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. . . . And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
En. xl. 1. "After this I beheld thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, and an infinite number of people, standing before the Lord of spirits."
Rev. v. 11. "I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, . . . and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands."
En. xlv. 3. "In that day shall the Elect One sit upon a throne of glory, and shall choose their conditions and countless habitations."
Matt. xxv. 31, 32. "Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another."
John xiv. 2. " In my father's house are many habitations."
En. xlv. 4. "In that day I will cause my Elect One to dwell in the midst of them. I will change the face of the heaven: I will bless it and illuminate it for ever. I will also change the face of the earth: I will bless it, and cause those whom I have chosen to dwell upon it."
Rev. vii. 15. "He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them."
2 Peter iii. 13. "Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
En. xcii. 17. "The former heaven shall depart and pass away, a new heaven shall appear."
Rev. xxii. 1. "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."
En. lxi. 4-9. "The word of his mouth shall destroy all sinners, and all the ungodly who shall perish at his presence. . . . Trouble shall come upon them, as upon a woman in travail. One portion of them shall look upon another; they shall be astonished, and shall abase their countenances; and trouble shall seize them, when they shall behold this Son of woman sitting upon the throne of His glory."
2 Thess. i. 9. "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."
1 Thess. v. 3. "Then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape."
2 Thess. ii. 8. "That wicked whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth."
Matt. xxv. 31. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory."
En. lxvi. 5-8. "I beheld that valley in which . . . arose a strong smell of sulphur which became mixed with the waters; and the valley of the angels, who had been guilty of seduction, burned underneath its soil. Through that valley also rivers of fire were flowing, to which the angels shall be condemned, who seduced the inhabitants of the earth."
Matt. xiii. 42. "And shall cast them into a furnace of fire."
Matt. xxv. 41. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
Rev. xx. 10. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone."
En. civ. "Now will I point out a mystery. Many sinners shall turn and transgress against the word of uprightness. They shall speak evil things; they shall utter falsehood."
1 Tim. iv. 12. "The Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, . . . through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies."
En. xlviii. 1-7. "In that place I beheld a fountain of righteousness which never failed, encircled by many springs of wisdom. Of these all the thirsty drank, and were filled with wisdom, having their habitation with the righteous, the elect, and the holy."
John iv. 14. "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
Rev. xxi. 6. "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely."
En. xlviii. "He has preserved the lot of the righteous, because they have hated and rejected this world of iniquity, and have detested all its works and ways in the name of the Lord of spirits."
Gal. i. 4. "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father."
1 John ii. 15. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world."
En. ii. xxvi. 2. "Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him. . . . [who utter with their mouths unbecoming language against God, and speak harsh things of his glory]."
Jude 14, 15. "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."