Enoch

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Topic in Antediluvian Patriarchs. By Charles Kamins.

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Enoch the seventh generation after Adam was the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah.(Genesis 5:3-18)

Very little information or biography is available for most of the patriarchs. In the case of Enoch, several religions revere him as a pious man who "walked with God." Three apocryphal works are attributed to Enoch and Rabbinic tradition identifies Enoch as the Metatron, the angel who communicates God's word. In the Kabbala, the written version of once secret oral Rabbinic teachings, Enoch is identified as the one who communicated God's revelations to Moses as well as dictating the Book of Jubilees. The New Testament has three references to Enoch ( Luke 3:23-38, Hebrews 11:5, Jude 14-15).

Ancient Jewish texts identify Enoch as a righteous, pious man in whom God was well pleased. It wasn't until Noah, Enoch's great grandson, that such praise was bestowed on a patriarch. Because he was a righteous man it is believed that God opened Enoch's eyes. In the Book of Enoch Chapter 1 it was written:

2. And he took up his parable and said--Enoch a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, ⌈which⌉ the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come.

It needs to be clearly understood that here it is plainly stated that Enoch was educated by angels "and from them I heard everything." In view of later revelations in the apocraphal works of Enoch that angels had fallen and caused many problems for humans, that the visions and interpretations by Enoch are influenced by the angels that educated him. In other words, much of what is said by Enoch is "slanted" by its sources. Later Enoch is said to have ascended and transformed into an angel himself and not just any angel but the Metraton, leader of all angels and spokesman of God. It further needs to be clearly understood that it is a step down for a human to become an angel and consequently affects the reliability of Enoch's revelations.

Apocryphal Books of Enoch

The pseudigraphical Books of Enoch are believed to have been written in the third century BCE or shortly after. The works of Enoch were popular in the centuries before Jesus and copies were found in the Caves at Qumran. The authors of the early gospels were familiar with the content of the texts and influenced by it. The text was utilised by the Essen community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. Enoch is mentioned in the geneaologies of Jesus by Luke (Luke 3:37). In the Letter to the Hebrews it says "... that he pleased God." Thirdly he is mentioned in the Epistle of Jude (1:14-15) which quotes a prophecy from the Book of Enoch which Jude interpreted to refer to Jesus:

14 It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the Lord is coming[a] with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

The three aporcyphal works are attributed to Enoch: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Books of Enoch. The works recount the testimony of Enoch how he was taken up to Heaven and taught all secrets and mysteries by the angels. By his testimony Enoch boasts that he was appointed guardian of all celestial treasures and appointed chief of archangels.

The first part of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, angels who, in an act of deliberate defiance to the Creator, took wives among earthly women and gave birth to chldren, the Nephilim. These events took place during his father Jared's generation. These fallen angels approached Enoch and educated him, according to the texts, in order that Enoch might intercede with God on their behalf after they had been condemned for their actions. Later Enoch prophesizes a judgment to come on all the earth as a result of the corruption brought upon humanity by the fallen angels in apparent reference to the flood which takes place during the lifetime of Noah, Enoch's great, great grandson. God sought to rid the world of the Nephilim and the people corrupted by them.

The book consists of five sections:

• The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
• The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71)
• The Astronimcal Book (1 Enoch 72-82)
• The Book of Dream visions (1 Enoch 83-90)
• The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)

Scholars believe these sections were independent works, composed at different times, and the result of much editing over the centuries.

Classic Rabbinic literature

The early view was that Enoch was a pious man, taken to Heaven and given the title Great Scribe.

See also

• Antediluvian Patriarchs
• Jared

External links

• Book of Enoch
• Summary of Contents of the Book of Enoch
• Metraton
• Kabbala