The Book of Enoch: Apocalyptic Apocrypha
[A free copy of The Book of Enoch is available in the Free Lit Archive]
The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. It is believed to have been written between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, with various parts possibly dating earlier.
The Book of Enoch contains five sections:
1) The Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
2) The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71)
(Also called the Similitudes of Enoch)
3) The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72-82)
(Also called the Book of Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries)
4) The Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90)
(Also called the Book of Dreams)
5) The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)
(Also called A Book of Exhortation and Promised Blessing for Righteous and of Malediction and Woe for the Sinners)
The Book of Enoch is believed to have emerged during the "Second Temple Period," a period of rebuilding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. This period saw a rise in various religious sects and movements, including the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and others. It was a period marked by diverse theological ideas and literary activity.
Some scholars believe the five sections of the book of Enoch were originally independent works (with different dates of composition), that were later editorially arranged into what is now called "1 Enoch," or "The Book of Enoch."
The Book of Enoch belongs to a genre known as Apocalyptic Literature, which was popular during the Second Temple Period. Apocalyptic writings often feature visionary experiences, esoteric symbolism, and predictions about the end of the world, a "final judgement," or the coming of a messianic figure.
The book is not included as part of the canonical Hebrew Bible, but is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and Eritrean Orthodox Church, while it is deemed non-canonical by most other Christian and Jewish denominations.
Fragments of The Book of Enoch were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Biblical New Testament contains allusions to concepts found in The Book of Enoch, and early Christian writers such as Tertullian and Origen referenced The Book of Enoch in their theological works, suggesting its influence on early Christian thought and theology. The book was likely influenced by a variety of cultural and religious factors, including Mesopotamian and Persian mythologies, Hellenistic philosophy, and indigenous Jewish traditions.
The process of canonization, or the recognition of certain texts as authoritative and sacred, could be fluid and gradual in ancient Judaism. While some books, such as the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), were widely accepted as canonical from an early date, others were subject to debate and variation among different Jewish communities.
Despite its popularity and influence, The Book of Enoch was ultimately excluded from the Hebrew Bible over theological concerns and discrepancies with established doctrines or beliefs, as well as a result of questions regarding the book's authorship, authority, and authenticity. The Pharisaic/Rabbinic tradition eventually became the dominant form of Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70CE, and some argue that this tradition tended to prioritize texts that were perceived as consistent with Pharisaic teachings.
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The concept of Nephilim, is one of great intrigue and controversy, and is not only mentioned in The Book of Enoch, but in many other ancient texts.
In the Torah / Biblical book of Genesis Chapter 6, Verse 4, when discussing the time of "The Great Flood," it reads:
New International Version: "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days -- and also afterward -- when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown."
King James Bible Version: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were old old, men of renown."
This mention of the Nephilim was included in the canon by the Biblical scholars, as part of the first book included, and this term is included in the Bible two other times. After this verse in Genesis, Nephilim are mentioned again in Numbers 13:32-33 (which is part of the Torah / Pentateuch, first five books), and later in Ezekial 32:17-32.
Scholars debate the meaning behind the word "Nephilim," with some claiming there is ambiguous meaning that leaves it unclear as to whether these creatures were "sons of God," or the sons of "mighty men of old, men of renown."
New International Version: "(32) And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, 'The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. (33) We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
King James Bible Version: "(32) And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
Within the section of verses from Ezekiel 32:17-32, there is phrasing contained in Ezekiel 32:27 that has a disputed meaning among scholars.
New International Version: "(27) But they do not lie with the fallen warriors of old, who went down to the realm of the dead with their weapons of war -- their swords placed under their heads and their shields resting on their bones -- though these warriors also had terrorized the land of the living."
King James Bible Version: "(27) And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living."
With the traditional vowels added to the text in the medieval period, the phrase is read: "gibborim nophlim" which is said to translate as "fallen warriors" or "fallen Gibborim," although some scholars read the phrase as "gibborim nephilim," meaning "Nephilim warriors" or "warriors, Nephilim."
The word "gibborim" is used in the Hebrew Bible over 150 times, applied to men as well as lions (Proverbs 30:30), hunters (Genesis 10:9), soldiers (Jeremiah 51:30), and leaders (Daniel 11:33). The word is also applied to "David's Mighty Warriors," a group of 37 men who fought with King David, identified in 2 Samuel 23:8-38. In Modern Hebrew, the word "gibbor" equates with the English word "hero," if used as a noun, and "brave," if used as an adjective.
The Hebrew "nefilim" has a literal translation of "the fallen ones." In The Book of Enoch, they were referred to as "great giants, whose height was three hundred cubits." The size of 1 cubit is 18 inches (46cm), which would make these beings 450 feet (140 m) tall.
The Quran refers to the "people of Ad," in Quran 26, whom the prophet Hud declares to be like "jabbarin," (Hebrew: "gibborim"), which scholars believe is probably in reference to the similar Biblical Nephilim.
The people of Ad are said to be giants, the tallest among them 100 feet (30 m) high. According to Islamic legend, the people of Ad were not wiped out by the flood, since some of them were too tall to be drowned. Instead, God destroyed them after they rejected further warnings, and after death, they were banished into the lower layers of hell.
For example, 1 Enoch 7:2 reads:
"(2) And when the angels, (3) the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became enamoured of them, saying to each other, Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children."
Some scholars claim that explicitly interpreting this to mean that angelic beings mated with humans can be traced to the rabbinical Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. This line of interpretations finds support from Genesis 6:4, which juxtaposes "sons of God" (male gender, divine nature), with the "daughters of men" (female gender, human nature), believing that this parallelism can be used to infer that "sons of God" was understood as a form of superhuman being.
Other scholars use the Epistle of Jude to bolster their argument, saying it implicitly refers to the paternity of Nephilim as heavenly beings who came to earth and had sexual intercourse with women, and that the author clearly intended the Nephilim to be an anecdote of a superhuman race. Others argue that "Superhuman," in these contexts, is meant to refer to the extremity of their wickedness.
The Book of Enoch further elaborates into the topic of these "fallen angels," also referred to "egregoroi" or "Watchers." There is an angel of high rank, Samyaza, who is described as leading a rebel sect of angels in a descent to earth to have sexual intercourse with human females. The children of the Nephilim are called the "Elioud," which are considered a part-angel hybrid race of their own.
The term "Watcher" occurs in both singular and plural forms in the Biblical Book of Daniel (2nd century BC), where reference is made to the holiness of these beings. The apocryphal Books of Enoch (The Book of Enoch, 2nd-1st centuries BC), refer to both good and bad Watchers.
In the Book of Daniel 4:13-23, the term is introduced by Nebuchadnezzar, who says he saw "a watcher, a holy one come down (singular verb) from heaven." Nebuchadnezzar describes how the Watcher tells him he will "eat grass and be mad" and that this punishment "by the decree of the Watchers, the demand by the word of the holy ones."
Daniel responds to this with advice including, "Because the king saw a Watcher..." perhaps showing its relevant use as an understood term, but some scholars interpret this scene as a differentiation of Babylonian and Jewish traditions, where Daniel is attempting to show how the Hebrew God is greater than the Babylonian Gods (Watchers).
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Other scholars argue that this language used for Nephilim, can be taken to understand them as (perhaps once material beings) now disembodied spirits, that could be called demons, wicked, or unclean spirits.
Others argue that the "sons of God" were the formerly righteous descendants of Seth, who rebelled, while the "daughters of men" were the unrighteous descendants of Cain, and the Nephilim were the offspring of this union. It is also important to note that Cain is considered the father of Enoch.
Those who believe in the "Sons of Seth" theory argue that the offspring of Seth were said to have disobeyed God by breeding with the Cainites, and produced wicked children, thus angering God into bringing about "the Deluge."
In Arab paganism, the idea of "fallen angels" was often believed as those sent to earth in the form of men, and that some of them mated with humans and gave rise to hybrid children, or believed various people written of in history were sons of disobedient angels that mated with human women. In Aramaic culture, some consider the term "nephilim" to refer to the offspring of Orion in mythology, but others consider this theory dubious.
There are many instances of large bones that have been discovered, where claims have been made that they are the remains of giants or Nephilim bones, however, each case has been refuted by other scholars claiming these are mammoth or dinosaur bones.
We probably have all heard a joke about someone being "possessed by a demon," or have seen or heard of stories like The Exorcist, but what if there is truth to this notion of Nephilim, or a hybrid species of human bred from "evil" or "fallen angels"?
Perhaps we can see this notion echoed in Greek and Roman Mythology, full of tales of instances when Gods were said to have mated with humans, both consensually and non-consensually. How radically might it change one's view of God or The Gods, to consider ideas of "hybrid offspring," both on Earth, like an idea of Hercules, but also in the Heavens, like a centaur, or, what is archangel, really?
Regardless of how thick the lens of "literal truth" may be that one applies to The Book of Enoch, it remains a complex, fascinating, and influential ancient text that is enjoyable to read. It not only offers valuable insights into world history and ancient Jewish and esoteric theologies, but also possess what feels like a timeless power to inspire minds into a whirlwind of cosmological considerations and visions.
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