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1 Enoch (Book of Enoch)

judaismAramaic (surviving complete text in Ge'ez/Ethiopic)c. 300 BCE - 100 CE (compiled from multiple works)

1 Enoch is a composite Jewish apocalyptic text attributed to the antediluvian patriarch Enoch, who in Genesis 5:24 'walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.' The book expands this brief biblical notice into an elaborate visionary literature describing Enoch's journeys through heaven and earth, the fall of the Watchers (angels who mated with human women), the coming judgment, the Messiah,

Overview

1 Enoch is a composite Jewish apocalyptic text attributed to the antediluvian patriarch Enoch, who in Genesis 5:24 'walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.' The book expands this brief biblical notice into an elaborate visionary literature describing Enoch's journeys through heaven and earth, the fall of the Watchers (angels who mated with human women), the coming judgment, the Messiah, and the final destiny of the righteous and wicked. It profoundly influenced early Jewish and Christian apocalypticism and is directly quoted in the New Testament Epistle of Jude (verses 14-15). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church considers it canonical scripture.

Bible connections
  • Genesis 6:1-4 (sons of God, Nephilim/Watchers)
  • Jude 14-15 (direct quotation of 1 Enoch 1:9)
  • 2 Peter 2:4 (angels who sinned, chains of darkness)
  • Daniel 7:13-14 (Son of Man)
  • Revelation 20:1-3 (binding of Satan/Azazel)
  • Matthew 25:31-46 (Son of Man judging the nations)
  • Isaiah 65:17 (new heaven and new earth)
Key terms
Watchers (Irin)– angelic beings who descended to earth and mated with human women
Nephilim– the giant offspring of the Watchers and human women
Son of Man– a pre-existent heavenly Messiah figure who judges the nations
Sheol/Gehenna– places of the dead and of punishment described in 1 Enoch's cosmic geography
Parables (Similitudes)– the section of 1 Enoch (chs. 37-71) containing the Son of Man Christology
Did you know?

1 Enoch is directly quoted in the New Testament (Jude 14-15), making it the only non-canonical text explicitly cited as prophecy by a biblical author. The complete text survived only because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church preserved it as part of their biblical canon.