Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9754 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Synopsis
Enoch's apocryphal work from the second century B C introduced such concepts as fallen angels, resurrection, and last judgment. It exercised a powerful influence on early Christians, particularly the Gnostics. This translation of this work is intended for those interested in apocalyptic literature and the origins of Christianity.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating pre-New Testament writings...
This has been gathering dust on my shelf for a few years now, and I've only just got round to reading it. The five books of 1st Enoch range from the utterly fascinating to sure-fire cures for insomnia.

Written between the old and new testaments, it gives a fascinating insight into what some Jewish groups believed at that time (for example, several editions of Enoch were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.)

Anyone with an interest in the New Testament could learn a lot by reading Enoch. Attitudes of people in the gospels have clearly been coloured by the content and even vocabulary of Enoch. And, of course, it's even quoted in Jude and 2 Peter. Parts of it are so startlingly similar to the book of Revelation that it must surely have provided a visual vocabulary for the writer of that book.

For the background and relevance of Enoch, I *highly* recommend "Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period" by Larry R Helyer. It provides a great survey of a wide range of this and other books, from the 'Testament of Moses' to Josephus, and from the Dead Sea scrolls to Philo - and much more!

A much neglected key to a better understanding.
This impressive translation is a true masterpieceand worthy of the uttermost attention. Any book that had the Church "Fathers" as spooked as this one did demands to be read. Unlike the mostly ridiculous Gnosic gospels also excluded from the Bible, this ancient Jewish text carries a divine authority that demands it be taken seriously. The very fact that the prophecies of Enoch were fulfilled to the letter in the timeframes suggested, should be reason enough for Christans to want to study it. The prophecy concerning the judgement of a wicked generation, seventy generations from Enoch (Christ's contemporary generation according to the gospel of Luke) found a devastating fulfillment in the fiery destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, exactly as Christ predicted would befall his own generation!The majority of Christians may not accept Enoch as scripture but clearly Christ and his disciples did and I'm sure that Christ would agree that the majority are rarely, if ever right. Why not read these texts for yourself and make up your own mind what you believe? Maybe, as more and more Christians explore the Jewish roots of their faith, true Christianity will be restored and the foundations of "Churchianity" will be trampled into the dust where they belong! A truly compelling read and I very much urge you to try it.

Essential reading for anyone who reads the New Testament
"My son," said Ramandu to Caspian in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, "it is not for you, a son of Adam, to know what faults a star can commit." Perhaps Caspian could not know, but you will, if you read this book: the criminal star must have risen at the wrong time (p. 45). The Book of Enoch is full of criminal stars, lusty angels and wonderful astronomy. It was written before the birth of Christ, by a devout Jew who was determined to demonstrate the superiority of Judaism over all the pagan religions which then dominated his world. The result is an extraordinary mixture of visions, dogmatic assertion and glorious mythology. Here we are informed that the year is 364 days long (p. 98); clearly it can't be 365.25 days long as the pagans say, because that's a pagan belief. The writer is emphatic that only Jews can be saved; everyone else is damned for eternity. More optimistically, it is here that we find the first use of the title 'the Son of Man' to refer to the coming Messiah, and it is clear that it refers to one who is a child of humanity, not a divine being as the pagans might claim. The Book of Enoch. was a well-known religious text among Jews in the first century AD, and there are many references to it in the writings of first-century Christian Jews in the New Testament. Apart from the use of the term 'Son of Man', we find reference in 2 Peter 2 v. 4 to the 'angels who sinned' who are confined to the dark pits of hell - these are the villains of Enoch, the Watchers who were set to watch over the people of Earth but watched the women far too closely and ended up leading themselves and all humanity astray. And when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 v. 10 that a woman must cover her head out of fear of the angels, he doesn't mean Gabriel and co.: no, he means the evil, lustful Watchers who will carry her off if she doesn't keep her hair covered. Hey! I'll get rid of that hat. But as the Christian Church developed, it occurred to the Church Fathers that they could hardly go on recommending a text which declared that all non-Jews are damned - as that would mean that most Christians are damned too. Whoops! So Enoch was quietly set aside, and now hardly any Christians have heard of it - or if they have, they assume that it's Out Of Bounds to good Christians. No! All Christians should read this book. All students of the New Testament should read it. Every woman who has been lectured at in church and told she must cover her head 'from fear of the angels' should read it. Any woman who's been gravely informed that Jesus is 'Son of Man' because women don't exist in the eyes of God should read it. It's a gloriously liberating book. It's wild, it's weird, it's wonderful - but don't take it all as gospel truth, will you?