Library/Enochic corpus
1 Enoch (Ethiopic Enoch)
The central book of this library. Five works in one: Watchers, Parables, Astronomy, Dreams, Epistle. It is the only complete narrative of the two hundred, their arts, their children, and their binding. Survived whole because the Ethiopian Church kept it as scripture.
Open the Enoch survey- Status
- Ethiopian Orthodox canon
- Date
- c. 300–100 BCE (compiled; some units older)
- Languages
- Aramaic (Qumran) · Greek fragments · Geʿez (complete)
- Setting
- Second Temple Judaism, with an antediluvian stage
What it contains
- Book of the Watchers (1–36)
- Parables / Similitudes (37–71)
- Astronomical Book (72–82)
- Dream Visions (83–90)
- Epistle of Enoch (91–108)
Why it sits outside most canons
Rabbinic Judaism and the Western churches never received it as canon. Its angelology, calendar, and Son of Man were too much for some, too useful to sectarians for others. Jude 14–15 still quotes it.
Themes
- Watchers
- Giants
- Forbidden knowledge
- Calendar
- Judgment
- Son of Man
Passages
1 Enoch 6:1–2
It came to pass, when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born to them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and desired them.
1 Enoch 8:1
Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them… and the beautifying of the eyelids.