Enoch
Jews and Christians in antiquity were fascinated by Enoch, an obscure figure from a genealogy (a list of ancestors) in
Did you know…?
- First Enoch is an anthology made up of at least five distinctive booklets. While parts of 1 Enoch are found in Aramaic and Greek, the entire anthology survives only in Classical Ethiopic.
- Selections from many Enochic booklets have been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but those texts were not likely authored there.
- In the Astronomic Book (or Book of Heavenly Luminaries) Enoch sees the movement of heavenly bodies, which were important in antiquity for maintaining calendars and determining religious holidays.
- Interpretations of Enoch are not always flattering. Enoch is presented by some early Jewish interpreters in association with repentance (suggesting an imperfect past), and some later rabbinic literature also underscores his moral failings.
- In some traditions, Enoch not only spends time with angels—he becomes one! Both 2 and 3 Enoch refer to Enoch’s bodily transformation into an angel.
- The Book of Enoch (commonly known as 1 Enoch) is sometimes included in the Old Testament of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
How is Enoch portrayed in the Bible and other early Jewish and Christian writings?
In contrast to these vivid descriptions, the Bible’s presentation of Enoch is rather limited. Enoch’s appearances in biblical texts relate especially to his role in the genealogy or among famous ancestors (
Many scholars understand the vibrant traditions about Enoch emerging from close reading and interpretation of Genesis. From their perspective, early Jews and Christians intensely studied a book like Genesis and sought to explain further aspects of the text that were not clear or obvious for their communities. Enoch’s distinctive presentation in Gen 5’s brief genealogy invites speculation. A reader of
At the same time, Enoch’s being taken by God is similar to ancient Near Eastern stories in which a sage like Adapa or Utuabzu or kingly Enmeduranki ascends to the heavens and receives privileged information. Likewise, Enoch’s rebuke of angels who shared knowledge forbidden to humans and had sexual relations with women recalls Mediterranean traditions of boundary-crossing culture bringers like Prometheus and Greek tales of gods mating with mortals. Simply put, traditions associated with Enoch may have been widespread, with ancient roots extending beyond Genesis. This would be rather unremarkable since aspects of
Where did the books of Enoch come from and how were they used?
The origin of this exceptional figure remains unclear. The books associated with Enoch do not provide historical information about an actual person from a time of a great flood. Rather, writings like the Epistle of Enoch are considered pseudepigraphal. This means that even though the texts appear to contain the words, visions, or experiences of Enoch, they were, in fact, written by someone else and attributed to the patriarch. There are many other texts regarded as pseudepigraphal that are related to figures from the Hebrew scriptures, such as Levi, Isaiah, or Ezra. While both biblical and nonbiblical traditions set Enoch prior to the great flood, many of the books associated with this patriarch come from the third century BCE to the first century CE The authors of Enochic books may have understood the patriarch’s setting just prior to the great flood (a time of judgment on the world) as similar in some ways to their own context—a connection they wished their readers to make as well.
Books associated with Enoch were popular among ancient Christians, and a selection from the Book of the Watchers (which we find today in 1 Enoch) is quoted in
