The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, translated by Nevill Forbes and R. H. Charles, in R. H. Charles's Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913)
At sixty-five, Enoch is visited by two radiant angels who carry him up through the seven heavens -- past the treasuries of snow and dew, the fallen watchers awaiting judgement, Paradise and the place of torment, the sun's chariot and the phoenixes that guard it, and finally into the presence of God -- where he witnesses the seven days of creation retold from before the beginning of time. Returned to earth for thirty days, he hands his sons a book of everything he has seen and heard, and departs again forever. Unknown in the West until the 1880s, this Jewish apocalypse survives only in Old Church Slavonic, in two independent and incomplete manuscript traditions that diverge from each other throughout. Nevill Forbes's 1913 translation, edited with R. H. Charles's introduction and notes, remains the standard English edition.
Introductory Note (1913, R. H. Charles)
Condensed from Charles's critical introduction.
Until certain Slavonic manuscripts came to light in Russia and Serbia in the late nineteenth century, this book was entirely unknown -- not, despite its similar name, a version of the older Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), but an independent Jewish pseudepigraph in its own right, written by a Hellenistic Jew in Egypt, most likely Alexandria, sometime between 30 BC and AD 70 (it draws on Sirach, 1 Enoch, and the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Jerusalem Temple is still standing in it). Its influence nonetheless reached wide: unacknowledged echoes of it appear in the Books of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypses of Moses and Paul, the Sibylline Oracles, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the Epistle of Barnabas, and it is quoted by name in the later Testaments of Levi, Daniel, and Naphtali.
The two Slavonic witnesses. No two manuscripts of this book agree throughout, and the translation printed here follows the edition's own decision to present both of its primary witnesses in full, side by side: Recension A, published by A. Popov from a seventeenth-century South Russian manuscript belonging to A. Khludov, which Forbes and Charles's introduction itself calls "the complete version"; and Recension B, published by Novaković from a sixteenth-century Serbian manuscript in Belgrade, which the introduction calls "the incomplete version." The two do not merely vary in wording -- entire passages present in one are simply absent from the other, and the chapter-and-verse numbering imposed by the translators (following Morfill and Bonwetsch) does not correspond to either manuscript's own internal divisions.
Recension policy for this edition, disclosed. Direct inspection of this printed edition found the two recensions set in genuine parallel columns throughout -- sometimes both columns running together verse by verse, sometimes one recension continuing alone in sole possession of the page while the other has nothing to show for that stretch. Because Recension A is the edition's own "complete version" and Recension B is explicitly incomplete, this edition presents Recension A in full as the single continuous reading text, using the print's own column headings to track which recension is present at each point. Where a stretch of text belongs to Recension B alone -- a genuine passage Popov's manuscript itself lacks, not a suppression of anything A contains -- it is not reproduced; Recension B survives complete in the cited scan for any reader who wants it. Charles and Forbes's own editorially-supplied descriptive chapter titles (their footnote states plainly that these titles were the General Editor's own insertion, appearing in neither underlying manuscript) are preserved here as short bolded labels, since they are part of this printed edition even though not part of the original Slavonic tradition.
The seven heavens. The book's central narrative is Enoch's ascent through seven heavens, a scheme it shares in different forms with the Testament of Levi, the Ascension of Isaiah, and later Rabbinic tradition (Charles sets out all four schemes side by side in his introduction). In 2 Enoch's own version: the first heaven holds the great sea and the rulers of the stars, and the treasuries of snow, ice, and dew; the second, a place of darkness holding angels imprisoned and awaiting judgement; the third, Paradise prepared for the righteous and, to the north, Hell for the wicked; the fourth, the courses of the sun and moon, the phoenixes and chalkidri who guard them, and armies of angels singing praise; the fifth, the Watchers whose imprisoned brethren are below; the sixth, seven bands of angels set over creation and the souls of men; and the seventh, the abode of God himself.
Theology and ethics. God created the world from nothing (some passages suggest instead from pre-existing elements, in a version of the ancient cosmic-egg image) in seven days, of which the sixth was man's, and the world's history will likewise run 6,000 years before an eighth, eternal day of rest. All souls were created before the world itself, and each has its place in heaven or hell prepared in advance; humanity was given free will and the knowledge of good and evil, and death entered as the wages of sin. The book's ethical instruction -- delivered as Enoch's final charge to his sons -- calls for impartial justice, charity to the poor, the widow, and the orphan, honesty in oath-taking, humility, and patient endurance, closing repeatedly on the theme that none is greater than the one who fears God.
Charles's own extensive verse-by-verse apparatus -- his comparison of the two Slavonic witnesses' readings, his citations of parallel Jewish, Christian, Egyptian, and Platonic literature, and his philological notes -- is not reproduced here; his conclusions on the book's date, authorship, and theology are given above.
Of Enoch’s life and dream. THERE was a wise man, a great artificer, and the Lord conceived love for him and received him, ‘
that he should behold the uppermost dwellings and be an eye-witness of the wise and great and inconceivable and immutable realm of God Almighty, of the very wonderful and glorious and bright and many-eyed station of the Lord’s servants, and of the inaccessible throne of the Lord, and of the degrees and manifestations of the incorporeal hosts, and of the ineffable ministration of the multitude of the elements, and of the various apparition and inexpressible singing of the host of Cherubim, and of the boundless light.
At that time, he said, when my 165th year was completed, I begat my son Mathusal. After revelations of Enoch. this too I lived two hundred years and completed At that time when three hundred and sixty- 11 of all the years of my life three hundred and sixty- five years. On the first day of the first month I was in my house alone and was resting on my I was in great trouble, weeping with my eyes, 3 couch and slept. And when I was asleep, great distress came up into my heart, and I was weep- ing with my eyes in sleep, and I could not understand what this distress was, or what would happen to me. And there appeared to me two men, exceeding big, so that I never saw such on earth ; their faces were shining like the sun, their eyes too were like a burning light, and from their lips was fire coming forth twith clothing and singing of various kindst in appearance purple, their wings were brighter than gold, their hands whiter than snow. They were standing at the head of my couch and began to call me by my name. And I arose from my sleep and saw And 1 having awoken from my sleep and stood 6 clearly those two men standing in front of me. And I saluted them and was seized with fear and the appearance of my face was changed from terror, and those men said to me: ‘ Have courage, And the two men spoke to me: ‘ Have courage, 8 Enoch, do not fear; the eternal God sent us to
thee, and lo! thou shalt to-day ascend with us into heaven, and thou shalt tell thy sons and all thy household all that they shall do without thee on earth in thy house, and let no one seek thee το till the Lord return thee to them. And I made haste to obey them and went out from my house, and made to the doors, as it was ordered me, and summoned my sons Mathusal and Regim and Gaidad and made known to them all the marvels those sex had told me. The Instruction. How Enoch instructed his sons.
Listen to me, my children. I know not whither
go, or what will befall me; now therefore, my
children, I tell you: turn not from God before
the face of the vain, who made not Heaven and
earth, for these shall perish and those who
worship them, and may the Lord make confident
your hearts in the fear of him. And now, my
children, let no one think to seek me, until the Lord return me to you.
Of Enoch’s assumption; how the angels took him into the first heaven. = It came to pass, when Enoch had told his sons, that the angels took him on to their wings and bore him up on to the first heaven and placed him on the clouds. And there I looked, and again I looked higher, and saw the ether, and they placed me on the first heaven and showed
me a very great Sea, greater than the earthly sea.
Of the Angels ruling the stars.
They brought before my face the elders and rulers of the stellar orders, and showed me two hundred angels, who rule the stars and their services to the heavens, and fly with their wings
and come round all those who sail.
Cf nist, ὅς,
Il. 1. know not whither.
Chevilss5: turn not from God.
vain gods ... who made neither heaven nor earth (B).
τῖς ESis Jub, xi; 4.4,
‘Of how the Angels keep the store-houses of the snow.
And here I looked down and saw the treasure-
houses of the snow, and the angels who keep
their terrible store-houses, and the clouds whence they come out and into which they go.
Of the dew and of the olive-oil, and various flowers.
They showed me the treasure-house of the dew, like oil of the olive, and the appearance of its form, as of all the flowers of the earth; further many angels guarding the treasure-houses of these things, and how they are made to shut and open.
Of how Enoch was taken on to the second heaven.
᾿ And those men took me and led me up on to
the second heaven, and showed me darkness,
Ι greater than earthly darkness, and there I saw
, prisoners hanging, watched, awaiting the great
and boundless judgement, and these angels were
dark-looking, more than earthly darkness, and
incessantly making weeping through all hours,
and I said to the men who were with me:
‘ Wherefore are these incessantly tortured?’ they
answered me: ‘These are God’s apostates, who
obeyed not God’s commands, but took counsel
a with their own will, and turned away with their
prince, who also zs fastened on the fifth heaven.
a And I felt great pity for them, and they saluted
me, and said to me: ‘ Man of God, pray for us to
the the Lond > and 1 answered to them: Who am
fra 454 mortal _man,-that-I should pray for_angels?
who knoweth whither I go, or what will befall me? or who will pray for n me? 2?
Of the assumption of Enoch to the third heaven.
t And those men took me thence, and led me up on to the third heaven, and placed me there ;
En. x as in 2 En. xviii. 7; those who sinned by ambition are imprisoned in the second heaven.
xviii, 4 (note).
Job xxxviii. 22 ;
. watched, awaiting the great and boundless judgement. The angels who sinned with women are imprisoned under the earth in
He showed me the store-house of cloud, whence 5 1 it goes up and goes out, and showed me all the treasure-houses of snow and cold, and terrible angels guarding the treasure-houses,
and he 6 1 showed me the treasure-houses of the dew, like olive oil, and angels guarding their treasure- houses, and their clothing like all the flowers of the earth.
Enoch’s ascent to the second heaven.
And the two men placed me ¢hence and carried 7 1 me up on to the second heaven, and showed me there prisoners kept of the measureless judgement, and I saw the condemned weeping, and I spoke 2 to the two men who were with me: ‘ Wherefore are these tormented?’ and the two men said to me: ‘ These are the Lord’s apostates, not listen- 3 ing to the Lord’s voice, but taking counsel of their own will.’
And I was very sorry for them. And the 4 angels bowed down to me and said tome: ‘Man of God, would that thou mightst pray for us to God !’
And I answered them: ‘ Who am I, a mortal 5 man, that I should pray for angels? who knows whither I go or what will befall me or who pray for me?’
The ascent on to the third heaven.
And the two men placed me thence and carried 8 1 me up on to the third heaven and set me down
See, however,
fifth heaven. These angels had originally been in the fifth heaven, see xviii,
But it is hard to see why their
and I looked downwards, and saw the produce of these places, such as has never been known for
goodness. And I saw all the sweet-flowering trees and beheld their fruits, which were sweei- smelling, and all the foods borne dy ‘hem bubbling with fragrant exhalation. the trees that of life, in that place whereon the Lord rests, when he goes up into paradise; and this tree is of ineffable goodness and fragrance,
and adorned more than every existing thing ; and on all sides 12 zs in form gold-looking and vermilion and fire-like and covers all, and it has produce from all fruits. Its root is in the garden
And in the midst of at the earth’s end. And paradise is between corruptibility and incorruptibility. And two springs come out which send forth honey and milk, and their springs send forth oil and wine, and they separate into four parts, and go round
with quiet course, and go down into the paradise of Eden, between corruptibility and incorrupti- bility. And thence they go forth along the earth, and havea revolution to their circle even as other
elements. And here there is no unfruitful tree,
and every place is blessed. And ¢here are three hundred angels very bright, who keep the garden, and with incessant sweet singing and never-silent voices serve the Lord throughout all days and hours. And I said: ‘How very sweet is this place, and those men said to me:
The showing to Enoch of the place of the righteous and compassionate.
This place, O Enoch, is prepared for the righteous, who endure all manner of offence from those that exasperate their souls, who avert their eyes from iniquity, and make righteous judge- ment, and give bread to the hungering, and cover the naked with clothing, and raise up the fallen, and help injured orphans, and who walk without
fault before the face of the Lord, and serve him
alone, and for them is prepared this place for eternal inheritance.
Here they showed Enoch the terrible place and various tortures.
x And those two men led me up on to the Northern side, and showed me there a very
terrible place, and ‘here were all manner of tortures in that place: cruel darkness and un- illumined gloom, and there is no light there, but murky fire constantly flameth aloft, and there is a fiery river coming forth, and that whole place is everywhere fire, and everywhere there is frost
and ice, thirst and shivering, while the bonds are very cruel, and the angels fearful and merciless. bearing angry weapons, merciless torture, and I
said : ‘ Woe, woe, how very terrible is this place,’ and those men said to me: This place,O Enoch, is prepared for those who dishonour God, who on earth practise sin against nature, which is child-corruption after the sodomitic fashion, magic-making, enchantments and devilish witch- crafts, and who boast of their wicked deeds,
stealing, lies, calumnies, envy, rancour, fornica- tion, murder, and who. accursed, steal the souls of men, who, seeing the poor take away their goods and themselves wax rich, injuring them for other men’s goods ; who being able to satisfy the empty, made the hungering to die; being
able to clothe, stripped the naked; and who knew not their creator, and bowed down to soulless (sc. lifeless) Gods, who cannot see nor hear, vain gods, who also built hewn images and bow down to unclean handiwork, for all these is prepared this place amongst these, for eternal inheritance.
Here they took Enoch up on to the fourth heaven where is the course of sun and moon.
Those men took me, and led me up on to the fourth heaven, and showed me all the successive goings, and all the rays of the light of sun and
moon. And I measured their goings, and com- pared their light, and saw that the sun’s light is greater than the moon’s. Its circle and the wheels on which it goes always, like a wind going past with very marvellous speed, and day
and night it has no rest. Its passage and return are accompanied by four great stars, and each star has under it a thousand stars, to the right of the sun’s wheel, avd dy four to the left, each having under it a thousand stars, altogether eight
thousand, issuing with the sun continually. And by day fifteen myriads of angels attend it, and by night a thousand. And six-winged ones issue with the angels before the sun’s wheel into
the fiery flames, and a hundred angels kindle the sun and set it alight.
Of the very marvellous elements of the sun.
And I looked and saw other flying elements of the sun, whose names ave Phoenixes and Chalkydri, marvellous and wonderful, with feet and tails in the form of a lion, and a crocodile’s head, their appearance zs empurpled, like the rainbow; their size zs nine hundred measures,
their wings are like those of angels, each has tweive, and they attend and accompany the sun, bearing heat and dew, as it is ordered them from
God. Thus ¢he sux revolves and goes, and rises under the heaven, and its course goes under the earth with the light of its rays incessantly.
The angels took Enoch and placed him in the east at the sun’s gates.
Those men bore me away to the east, and placed me at the sun’s gates, where the sun goes forth according to the regulation of the seasons and the circuit of the months of the whole year, and the number of the thourst day and night.
And I saw six gates open, each gate having sixty-one stadia and a quarter of one stadium, and I measured ¢hem truly, and understood their size to be so much, through which the sun goes forth, and goes to the west, and is made even,
and rises throughout all the months, and turns back again from the six gates according to the
succession of the seasons; thus ¢he period of the whole year is finished after the returns of the four seasons.
They took Enoch to the West.
And again those men led me away to the western parts, and showed me six great gates open corresponding to the Eastern gates, opposite to where the sun sets, according to the number of the days three hundred and sixty-five and a - 2quarter. Thus again it goes down to the western gates, and draws away its light, the greatness of
its brightness, under the earth; for since the
crown of its shining is in heaven with the Lord, and guarded by four hundred angels, while the ‘ sun goes round on wheel under the earth, and stands seven great hours in night, and spends
half z¢s course under the earth, when it comes to the eastern approach in the eighth hour of the night, it brings its lights, and the crown of shining, and the sun flames forth more than fire.
The elements of the sun, the Phoenixes and
; Chalkydri broke into song.
Then the elements of the sun, called Phoenixes
é and Chalkydri break into song, therefore every
ἵ bird flutters with its wings, rejoicing at the giver of light, and they broke into song at the command of the Lord.
The giver of light comes to give brightness to
but refused to recognize it from national prejudice.
see why there should be seven hours.
the whole world, and the morning guard takes shape, which is the rays of the sun, and the sun of the earth goes out, and receives its brightness
to light up the whole face of the earth, and they showed me this calculation of the sun’s going. And the gates which it enters, these are the great gates of the fcomputation of the hourst
f the year; for this reason the sun is a great creation, whose circuit /as/s twenty-eight years, and begins again from the beginning.
They took Enoch and again placed him in the east at the course of the moon.
Those men showed me the other course, that of the moon, twelve great gates, crowned from west to east, by which the moon goes in and out of the customary times. It goes in at the first gate to the western places of the sun, by the first gates with ¢izrty-one days exactly, by the second gates with thirty-one days exactly, by the third with thirty days exactly, by the fourth with thirty days exactly, by the fifth with thirty-one days exactly, by the sixth with thirty-one days exactly, by the seventh with thirty days exactly, by the eighth with thirty-one days perfectly, by the ninth with thirty-one days exactly, by the tenth with thirty days perfectly, by the eleventh with thirty-one days exactly, by the twelfth with twenty-eight days exactly. And it goes through
the western gates in the order and number of the eastern, and accomplishes the three hundred and
sixty-five and a quarter days of the solar year, while the lunar year has three hundred and fifty- four, and there are wanting Zo 17 twelve days of the solar circle, which are the lunar epacts of the whole year. [Thus, too, the great circle con- tains five hundred and thirty-two years.] The quarter of a day is omitted for three years, the fourth fulfils 7¢ exactly. Therefore they are taken outside of heaven for three years and are not added to the number of days, because they
jchange the time of the years to two new months
towards completion, to two others towards diminutiont. And when the western gates are
finished, it returns and goes to the eastern to the
lights, and goes thus day and night about the
heavenly circles, lower than all circles, swifter
than the heavenly winds, and spirits and elements and angels flying ; each angel has six wings. It _ has a sevenfold course in nineteen years.
Of the singings of the angels, which it is im- possible to describe.
In the midst of the heavens I saw armed soldiers, serving the Lord, with tympana and organs, with incessant voice, with sweet voice, with sweet and incessant voice and various sing- ing, which it is impossible to describe, and which astonishes every mind, so wonderful and marvel- lous is the singing of those angels, and I was delighted listening to it.
Of the taking of Enoch on to the fifth heaven.
The men took me on to the fifth heaven and placed me, and there I saw many and countless soldiers, called Grigori, of human appearance, and their size was greater than that of great
giants
each angel has six wings. twelve (xii. 2).
happen on the same days of the year once more.
καὶ τοῦ Βελίαρ. serving the Lord ... various singing. of the fourth heaven .. . ἐν ᾧ ἀεὶ ὕμνοι τῷ θεῷ προσφέρονται.
» XVIII. 1. fifth heaven.
hear the praises of Israel.’
xix, Ixxxvi.
latter consisted in becoming subject to Satan. from that in 1 En. vi-xvi.
? and their faces withered, and the silence of their mouths perpetual, and there was no service on the fifth heaven, and I said to the men who were with me: ‘ Wherefore are these very withered and their faces melancholy, and their mouths silent, and wherefore is there no service on this heaven?’
And they said to me: These are the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail rejected the Lord of
light, and after them are those who are held in great darkness on the second heaven, and three of them went down on to earth from the Lord’s throne, to the place Ermon, and broke through their vows on the shoulder of the hill Ermon and saw the daughters of men how good they are, and took
to themselves wives, and befouled the earth with their deeds, who in all times of their age made
lawlessness and mixing, and giants are born and marvellous big men and great enmity. And therefore God judged them with great judgement, and they-weep-for their brethren and they will be
punished on the Lord’s great day. πὰ I said-to-thé_Grigori/ ‘I saw your brethren and their works, and their great torments, and I prayed for them, but the Lord has condemned them Zo be
under earth till heaven and earth shall end for ever.’ And I said: ‘ Wherefore do you wait, brethren, and do not serve before the Lord’s face, and have not put your services before the Lord’s face, lest you anger your Lord utterly?’
And they listened to my admonition, and spoke to the four ranks in heaven, and lo! as I stood with those two men four trumpets trumpeted together with great voice, and the Grigori broke into song with one voice, and their voice went up before the Lord pitifully and affectingly.
Of the taking of Enoch on to the sixth heaven. And thence those men took me and boreme —_ And the two men took me from thence, they 19 1
up on to the sixth heaven, and there I saw seven carried me up on to the sixth heaven, and I saw bands of angels, very bright and very glorious, there seven ranks of angels very bright and and their faces shining more than the sun’s_ glorious, their faces shining like the sun, and shining, glistening, and there is no difference in there is no difference in ¢heir faces, nor in their
their faces, or behaviour, or manner of dress; and these make the orders, and learn the goings of These organize and learn the good ordering of 2 the stars, and the alteration of the moon, or the world and the goings of the stars, of the sun revolution of the sun, and the good government and of the moon.
οὗ the world. And when they see evil-doing Angels, angels, these heavenly angels harmo- 3
rebelled before the creation of Adam; that they had tempted Eve and brought about the fall of the angels in the days of Jared. Thus, in 1 En. Ixix and here, the leaders of the angels who fell in Jared’s days are Satans. This is practically the view of portions of the Talmud. See Weber, pp. 211, 243, 244.
after them (A), i.e. of the same sort as they.
There is some confusion in this verse. Enoch has seen in vii the rebellious Watchers in torment in the second heaven, but here he proceeds to refer to the Justful Watchers punished under the earth. We have not had an account of his journey thither.
The Watchers are silent out of sympathy for their fallen brethren, and at Enoch’s rebuke they resume their
worship, but with sadness,
they make commandments and instruction, and sweet and loud singing, and all songs of praise. These are the archangels who are above angels,
measure all life in heaven and on earth, and the angels who are appointed over seasons and years, the angels who are over rivers and sea, and who are over the fruits of the earth, and the angels who are over every grass, giving food to all, to
every living thing, and the angels who write all the souls of men, and all their deeds, and their
lives before the Lord’s face; in their midst are six Phoenixes and six Cherubim and six six- winged ones continually with one voice singing one voice, and it is not possible to describe their singing, and they rejoice +before the Lord} at his footstool.
Hence they took Enoch into the seventh Heaven.
And those two men lifted me up thence on to the seventh Heaven, and I saw there a very great light, and fiery troops of great archangels, in- corporeal forces, and dominions, orders and governments, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones, nine regiments, the Ioanit stations of light, and I became afraid, and began to tremble with great terror, and those men took me, and led me after them, and said to me: ‘ Have courage, Enoch, do not fear,’ and showed me the Lord from afar, sitting on His very high throne. For what is there on the tenth heaven, since the Lord dwells here? On the tenth heaven is God, in the Hebrew tongue he is called Aravat. And all the heavenly troops would
come and stand on the ten steps according to their rank, and would bow down to the Lord, and would again go to their places in joy and felicity, singing songs in the boundless light with small and tender voices, gloriously serving him.
Of how the angels here left Enoch, at the end of the seventh Heaven, and went away from him unseen.
And the cherubim and seraphim standing about the throne, the six-winged and many-eyed ones do not depart, standing before the Lord’s face doing his will, and cover his whole throne, singing with gentle voice before the Lord’s face: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord Ruler of Sabaoth, heavens and earth are full of Thy glory.’ When I saw all these things, those men said to me: ‘Enoch, thus far is it commanded us to journey with thee,’ and those men went away from me, and thereupon I saw them not. And I remained alone at the end of the seventh heaven and became afraid, and fell on my face and said to myself: ‘Woe is me, what has befallen me?’ And the Lord sent one of his glorious ones, the
archangel Gabriel, and he said to me: ‘ Have
courage, Enoch, do not fear, arise before the
Lord’s face into eternity, arise, come with me,’ and I answered him, and said in myself: ‘My
Lord,-my soul is departed from me, from terror
and trembling,’ and I called to the men who led
me up to this place, on them I relied, and 7¢ zs
with them I go before the Lord’s face. And
Gabriel caught me up, as a leaf caught up by the
wind, and placed me before the Lord’s face.
and not made with hands, nor the quantity of those standing round him, troops of cherubim and seraphim, nor their incessant singing, nor his immutable beauty, and who shall tell of the ineffable
greatness of his glory? A
And I fell prone and bowed down to the Lord,
and the Lord with his lips said to me: ‘Have courage, Enoch, do not fear, arise and stand before my face into eternity.’
And the archistratege Michael lifted me up, and led me to before the Lord’s face.
And the Lord said to his servants tempting them: ‘Let Enoch stand before my face into
eternity, and the glorious ones bowed down to the Lord, and said: ‘ Let Enoch go according to Thy word.’
And the Lord said to Michael : ‘Go and take Enoch from out his earthly garments, and anoint him with my sweet ointment, and put him into the garments of My glory.’
And Michael did thus, as the Lord told him. He anointed me, and dressed me, and the appear- ance of that ointment is more than the great light, and his ointment is like sweet dew, and its
smell mild, shining like the sun’s ray, and I looked at myself, and was like one of his glorious ones, And the Lord summoned one of his arch- angels by name Pravuil, whose knowledge was
co Sage TREES archangels,~ who wrote all the deeds of the Lord ; and the
Lord said to Pravuil : ‘ Bring out the books from mystere-houses, and a reed of quick-writing, “Enoch, and deliver-to him the
eee oomtontingy books out-of thy hand.’
Of Enoch’s writing, how he wrote his wonderful journeyings and the heavenly apparitions and himself wrote three hundred and sixty- six books.
And he was telling me all the works of heaven, earth and sea, and all the elements, their passages and goings, and the thunderings of the thunders, the sun and moon, the goings and changes of the stars, the seasons, years, days, and hours, the risings of the wind, the numbers of the angels,
and could not see the Lord God (B).
have not told them their rise, nor my endless
realm, nor have they understood my creating,
which I tell thee to-day. For before all things
were visible, I alone used to go about in the in-
visible things, like the sun from east to west, and
from west to east. But even the sun has peace
; in itself, while I. found no peace, because I was
creating all things, and I conceived the thought
of placing foundations, and of creating visible creation.
God relates to Enoch, how out of the very lowest darknesscomes down thevisibleand invisible.
I commanded in the very lowest parts, that visible things should come down from invisible, and Adoil came down very great, and I beheld him, and lo! he had a belly of great light. And
I said to him: ‘ Become undone, Adoil, and let the visible come out of thee.’ And he came un-
done, and a great light came out. And I was in
the midst of the great light, and as there is born light from light, there came forth a great age, and showed all creation, which I had thought to create. And I saw that 12 was good. And
I placed for myself a throne, and took my seat
on it, and said to the light: ‘Go thou up higher
and fix thyself high above the throne, and be a foundation to the highest things. And above the light there is nothing else, and then I bent up and looked up from my throne.
God summons from the very lowest a second time that Archas, heavy and very red, should come forth.
And I summoned the very lowest a second time, and said: ‘Let Archas come forth hard,’
came forth, very great and very dark, bearing the creation of all lower things, and I saw that 22 was good and said to him: ‘Go thou down below, and make thyself firm, and be for a foundation for the lower things,’ and it happened and he went down and fixed himself, and became the foundation for the lower things, and below the darkness there is nothing else.
Of how God founded the water, and surrounded it with light, and established on it seven islands.
And commanded that there should be taken
from light and darkness, and I said: ‘ Be thick,’ and it became thus, and I spread it out with the light, and it became water, and I spread it out over the darkness,
below the light, and then I made firm the waters, that is to say the bottomless, and I made founda- tion of light around the water, and created seven circles from inside, and imaged it (sc. the water) like crystal wet and dry, that is to say like glass, avd the circumcession of the waters and the other elements, and I showed each one of them its road, and the seven stars each one of them in its
heaven, that they go thus, and I saw that it was darkness, that is to say in the midst of the water
good. And I separated between light and between hither and thither, and I said to the light, that it
should be the day, and to the darkness, that it should be the night, and there was evening and there
was morning the first day.
The week in which God showed Enoch all his wisdom and power, throughout all the seven days, how he created all the heavenly and earthly forces and all moving things even down to man.
And then I made firm the heavenly circle, and made that the lower water which is under heaven collect itself together, into one whole, and that the chaos become dry, and it became so.
Out of the waves I created rock hard and big,
and from the rock I piled up the dry, and the dry
I called earth, and the midst of the earth I called abyss, that is to say the bottomless, I collected the sea in one place and bound it together with a yoke. And I said to the sea: ‘ Behold I give thee iy eternal limits, and thou shalt not break loose from thy component parts.’ Thus I made
fast the firmament. This day I called me the
first-created.
XXVII. The title is very corrupt.
there should be taken from light and darkness, follows.
the dry I called earth, an exact rendering of Gen. i
Thenit became evening, and then again morn- ing, and it was the second day. [Monday is the first day.] The fiery Essence. And for all the heavenly troops I imaged the And for all the heavenly troops I formed the 29 1 image and essence of fire, and my eye looked at the very hard, firm rock, and from the gleam of my eye the lightning received its wonderful nature, which is both fire in water and water in fire, and one does not put out the other, nor does the one dry up the other, therefore the lightning is brighter than the sun, softer than water and firmer than hard rock. And fromthe rock I cut , From the stone I cut a great fire and from the 3 off a great fire, and from the fire I created the stone I created the incorporeal troops, and all orders of the incorporeal ten troops of angels,and their weapons are fiery and their raiment a , Ophannim I cut from the fire. burning flame, and I commanded that each one should stand in his order.
Here Satanail with his angels was thrown down from the height.
And one from out the order of angels, having turned away with the order that was under him, conceived an impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the earth, that he might become equal in rank to my power.
And I threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the bottomless.
t And then I created all the heavens, and the
third day was.
[Tuesday]. On the third day I commanded And the earth I commanded to bring forth all 30 1 the earth to make grow great and fruitful trees,
from the fire I created the . . . angels. So Pesikta 3": see Weber, /. d. /. 161.
one... with the order that was under him. This is clearly Satan. The rank below him is probably the Watchers. But however we interpret the text we are beset with difficulties. There are conflicting elements in the text. See xii and xviii with notes; vii; xix; xxxi. 3-7 (notes).
and hills, and seed to sow, and I planted Paradise,
and enclosed it, and placed as armed guardians flaming angels, and thus I created renewal.
Then came evening, and came morning the fourth day. [Wednesday]. On the fourth day I commanded that there should be great lights on the heavenly circles. On the first uppermost circle I placed the stars, Kruno, and on the second Aphrodit, on the third Aris, on the fifth Zeus, on the sixth Ermis, on the seventh lesser the moon, and adorned it with the lesser stars. And on the lower I placed the sun for the illumination of day, and the moon and stars for the illumination of night. The sun that it should go according to each animal (sc. signs of the zodiac), twelve, and I appointed the succession of the months and their names and lives, their thunderings, and their hour-markings, how they should succeed. Then evening came and morning came the fifth day.
[Thursday]. On the fifth day I commanded And the sea I commanded to bring forth and the sea, that it should bring forth fishes, and give birth to its fishes, all kinds of reptiles that feathered birds of many varieties, and allanimals creep over the earth, and wild beasts and cattle. creeping over the earth, going forth over the and all kinds of feathered birds. earth on four legs, and soaring in the air, male = And when I had finished all, I told my wisdom sex and female, and every soul breathing the _ to create me man. spirit of life.
And there came evening, and there came morn- ing the sixth day.
[Friday]. On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man from seven consistencies : one,
the sun . .. according to each animal. See xiii-xiv and 1 En. Ixxii for the periods corresponding to the signs of the zodiac.
the months, ἅς. See lvi and 1 En. Ixxiii-Ixxiv.
his flesh from the earth; two, his blood from the dew; three, his eyes from the sun; four, his bones from stone ; five, his intelligence from the swiftness of the angels and from cloud ; six, his veins and his hair from the grass of the earth; seven, his soul from my breath and from the wind.
And I gave him seven natures: to the flesh hearing, the eyes for sight, to the soul smell, the veins for touch, the blood for taste, the bones for endurance, to the intelligence sweetness (sc. enjoyment).
I conceived a cunning saying to say, I created man from invisible and from visible nature, of both are his death and life and image, the knows speech like some created thing, small in great- ness and again great in smallnesst, and I placed him on earth, a second angel, honourable, great and glorious, and I appointed him as ruler to rule on earth and to have my wisdom, and there was none like him of earth of all my existing creatures.
And I appointed him a name, from the four component parts, from east, from west, from south,
from north, and I appointed for him four special stars, and I called his name Adam, and showed him
the two ways, the light and the darkness, and I told him: ‘ This is good, and that bad, that
lo. saying. We should expect a reference to a creative word. This verse is very corrupt, but obviously man’s spiritual and material nature is meant.
a second angel. According to the Beresh. Rad. fol. 17, Adam, when first created, reached from the earth to the firmament. In the Book of Adam and Eve, 1. x, Adam is called a ‘ bright angel’.
This verse may either be the source of or else derived from the Sz4y//. Or. iii. 24-6:
ἀντολίην τε δύσιν τε μεσημβρίην τε καὶ ἄρκτον. The third line frequently occurs, e.g. in ii. 195, viii. 321, xi. 3, and the order of letters is wrong. In the anonymous treatise De Montibus Sina et Sion, 4, formerly ascribed to Cyprian, we have a long account : ‘Nomen accepit a Deo. Hebreicum Adam in Latino interpretat “terra caro facta”, eo quod ex quattuor cardinibus orbis terrarum pugno comprehendit, sicut scriptum est: “ palmo mensus sum caelum et pugno comprehendi terram et confinxi hominem ex omni limo terrae; ad imaginem Dei feci illum.” Oportuit illum ex his quattuor cardinibus orbis terrae nomen in se πον Adam.’ At each of the four quarters four stars were set by the Creator, called anatole, dysis, arctus, mesembrion.
ake from these stars the first letter of each, and you have the name déddp. Bede, 7” Genesin Expositio iv. approves,
I told him: ‘ This is good and that bad,’ &c. This does not harmonize with the account in Gen., where the knowledge of good and evil follows on eating the forbidden fruit.
I should learn whether he has love towards me, or hatred, that it be clear which in his race
love me. For I have seen his nature, but he has not seen his own nature, therefore ¢hrough not seeing
he will sin worse, and I said: ‘ After sin what zs there but death?’
And I put sleep into him and he fell asleep. And I took from him a rib, and created him a wife, that death should come to him by his wife, and I took his last word and called her name mother, that is to say, Eva.
God gives over paradise to Adam, and gives him a command to see the heavens opened, and that he should see the angels singing the song of victory.
Adam has life on earth, and I created a garden in Eden in the east, that he should observe the
testament and keep the command. I made the heavens open to him, that he should see the angels singing the song of victory, and
the gloomless light.
And he was continuously in paradise, and the devil understood that I want to create another world, because Adam was lord on earth, to rule and control it.
The devil is the evil spirit of the lower places, tas a fugitive he made, he made Sotona from the heavens} as his name was Satomail, thus he became different from the angels, du¢ Ais nature did not change /7s intelligence as far as Azs understanding of righteous and sinful ching.
And he understood his condemnation and the sin which he had sinned before, therefore he con-
ceived thought against Adam, in such form he entered and seduced Eva, but did not touch Adam. But I cursed ignorance, but what I had blessed previously, those I did not curse, I cursed not man, nor the earth, nor other creatures, but man’s evil fruit, and his works.
After Adam’s sin God sends 42m away into the earth ‘ whence I took thee’, but does not wish to ruin him for all years to come. Isaid to him: ‘ Earth thou art, and into the earth whence I took thee thou shalt go, and I will not ruin thee, but send thee whence I took thee. Then I can again take thee at My second coming.’ And I blessed all my creatures visible and invisible. And Adam was five and half hours in paradise. And I blessed the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, on which he rested from all his works.
God shows Enoch the age of this world, 225 existence of seven thousand years, and the eighth thousand is the end, neither years, nor months, nor weeks, nor days. AndI appointed the eighth day also, that the eighth day should be the first-created after my work, and that the first seven revolve in the form of the seventh thousand, and that at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a time of not-counting, endless, with neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours.
And now, Enoch, all that I have told thee, all And now, Enoch, all the things I have told 33 3 that thou hast understood, all that thou hast seen of heavenly things, all that thou hast seen on earth, and all that I have written in books by my great wisdom, all these things I have devised and created from the uppermost foundation to There is no counsellor here. I am eternal and 4
the lower and to the end, and there is no coun- sellor nor inheritor to my creations. I am self-
a time of not-counting .. . neither years nor months, ἅς. Sibyll. Or. viii. 424-7 may have been influenced by our text where it speaks of the eternity of blessedness.
the creation (B), lit. ‘to create’.
eternal, not made with hands, and without change. My thought is my counsellor, my wisdom and my word are tmadejf, and my eyes observe all things how they stand here and tremble with terror. If I turn away my face, then all things will be destroyed.
δ And apply thy mind, Enoch, and know him who is speaking to thee, and take thou the books which thou thyself hast written.
And I give thee Samuil and Raguil, who led thee up, and the books, and go down to earth, and tell thy sons all that I have told thee, and all that thou hast seen, from the lower heaven up to my throne, and all the troops.
For I created all forces, and there is none that resisteth me or that does not subject himself to me. For all subject themselves to my monarchy, and labour for my sole rule.
Give them the books of the handwriting, and they will read zem and will know me for the creator of all things, and will understand how there is no other God but me.
And let them distribute the books of thy handwriting—children to children, generation to generation, nations to nations.
Ιο ©6©And I will give thee, Enoch, my intercessor, the archistratege Michael, for the handwritings of thy fathers Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahaleleel, and Jared thy father.
God convicts the idolaters and sodomitic forni- cators, and therefore brings down a deluge upon them.
They have rejected my commandments and my yoke, worthless seed has come up, not fear- ing God, and they would not bow down to me, but have begun to bow down to vain gods, and denied my unity, and have laden the whole earth with untruths, offences, abominable lecheries,
without change.
namely one with another, and all manner of other unclean wickednesses, which are disgusting to relate.
And therefore I will bring down a deluge upon the earth and will destroy all men, and the whole earth will crumble together into great darkness.
God leaves one righteous man of Enoch’s tribe with his whole house, who did God’s plea- sure according to his will.
Behold from their seed shall arise another generation, much afterwards, but of them many will be very insatiate. He who raises that generation, shall reveal to them the books of thy handwriting, of thy fathers, zo them to whom he must point out the guardianship of the world, to the faithful men and workers of my pleasure, who do not acknowledge my name in vain. And they shall tell another generation, and those others having read shall be glorified there- after, more than the first.
God commanded Enoch to live on earth thirty days, to give instruction to his sons and to his children’s children. After thirty days he was again taken on to heaven.
Now, Enoch, I give thee the term of thirty days to spend in thy house, and tell thy sons and all thy household, that all may hear from my face what is told them by thee, that they may read and understand, how there is no other God but me. And that they may always keep my commandments, and begin to read and take in the books of thy handwriting.
And after thirty days I shall send my angel for thee, and he will take thee from earth and from thy sons to me.
Here God summons an angel.
And the Lord called up one of the older angels, terrible and menacing, and placed him by me, in appearance white as snow, and his hands like ice, having the appearance of great frost, and he froze my face, because I could not endure the terror of the Lord, just as it is not possible to endure a stove’s fire and the sun’s heat, and the frost of the air.
quake (B), lit. ‘be shaken’ (as though in fever).
‘4 XXXV, τ. just man (B), i.e. Noah.
And the Lord said to me: ‘Enoch, if thy face be not frozen here, no man will be able to behold thy face.’
Enoch admonishes his children truly. of all things from the Lord’s lips, how he saw and heard and wrote down. And now, my children, I know all things, for For, my children, I know all things from the 40 τ this zs from the Lord’s lips, and this my eyes have seen, from. beginning to end.
I know all things, and have written all things into books, the heavens and their end, and their plenitude, and all the armies and their marchings. I have measured and described the stars, the great countless multitude of them.
What man has seen their revolutions, and their entrances? For not even the angels see their number, while I have written all their names.
And I measured the sun’s circle, and measured its rays, counted the hours, I wrote down too all
things that go over the earth, I have written the things that are nourished, and all seed sown
and unsown, which the earth produces and all plants, and every grass and every flower, and their sweet smells, and their names,
and the dwelling-places of the clouds, and their composition, and their wings, and how they even to the end, and the dwelling-places of the 8 , bear rain and rain-drops.
And I investigated all things, and wrote the road of the thunder and of the lightning, and they showed me the keys and their guardians, their rise, the way they go; it is let out in measure (sc. gently) by a chain, lest by a heavy chain and violence it hurl down the angry clouds and destroy all things on earth.
το ©I wrote the treasure-houses of the snow, and I saw the treasure-houses of snow and of ice, to the store-houses of the cold and the frosty airs, and I observed their season’s key-holder, he fills the clouds with them, and does not exhaust their treasure-houses. the clouds and destroy what is on earth, both air ro
tr And I wrote the resting-places of the winds and observed and saw how their key-holders bear weighing-scales and measures; first, they put them in ove weighing-scale, then in the other I saw the lairs of the winds, how those who rr the weights and let them out according to measure cunningly over the whole earth, lest by heavy breathing they make the earth to rock. the weighing-scales and then in the measure, and
And I measured out the whole earth, its mountains, and all hills, fields, trees, stones, tivers, all existing things I wrote down, the height from earth to the seventh heaven, and Thence I was led to the judgement-place, and 12
See xiii, xiv (notes).
downwards to the very lowest hell, and the
judgement-place, and the very great, open and
weeping hell. And I saw how the prisoners are in pain, expecting the limitless judgement. And
I wrote down all those being judged by the
judge, and all their judgements (sc. sentences)
and all their works.
Of how Enoch lamented Adam’s sin. And I sawall forefathers from a// time with And having seen I sighed and wept for the 411 Adam and Eva, and I sighed and broke into tears and said of the ruin of their dishonour: ‘Woe is me for my infirmity and for that of my forefathers,’ and thought in my heart and said: ‘ Blessed zs the man who has not been born or ‘Blessed is he who has not been born, or 2 who has been born and shall not sin before the Lord’s face, that he come not into this place, nor bring the yoke of this place. have borne this yoke.’
Of how Enoch saw the key-holders and guards of the gates of hell standing.
I saw the key-holders and guards of the gates and I saw the guardians of the keys 42 1
of hell standing, like great serpents, and their faces like extinguished lamps, and their eyes of fire, their sharp teeth, their eyes like darkened flames, and their teeth naked down to their breasts.
And I spake to their faces: ‘I had better not 2 have seen you, and may none of my tribe come to you.’
Enoch’s ascent into the paradise of the righteous.
And I saw there a blessed place, and all blessed 3 creatures and all there living in joy and in infinite happiness in eternal life.
expecting the limitless judgement. These words seem to imply an intermediate place of punishment, i. 6. Sheol or Hades. They are used too in vil. 1, of the fallen Watchers.
XLI. In B this chapter occurs after xlii. 1.
and I saw all the Lord’s works, how they are right, while the works of man are some good, and others bad, and in their works are known those who lie evilly.
Enoch shows his children how he measured and wrote out God’s judgements, I, my children, measured and wrote out every
work and every measure and every righteous judgement.
As one year is more honourable than another, so is oze man more honourable than another, some for great possessions, some for wisdom of heart, some for particular intellect, some for cunning, one for silence of lip, another for cleanliness, one for strength, another for comeliness, one for youth, another for sharp wit,
one for shape of body, another for sensibility, let it be heard everywhere, but there is none better than he who fears God, he shall be more glorious in time to come.
Enoch instructs his sons, that they revile not the face of man, small or great.
The Lord with his hands having created man,
in the likeness of his own face, the Lord made
him small and great. Whoever reviles the ruler’s face, and abhors the Lord’s face, has despised
the Lord’s face, and he who vents anger on any man without injury, the Lord’s great anger will
cut him down, he who spits on the face of man reproachfully, will be cut down at the Lord’s great judgement.
Blessed is the man who does not direct his heart with malice against any man, and helps the injured and condemned, and raises the broken
down, and shall do charity to the needy, because on the day of the great judgement every weight, every measure and every makeweight wi// be as in the market, that is to say ‘hey are hung on scales and stand in the market, avd every one shall learn his own measure, and according to his measure shall take his reward.
God shows how he does not want from men sacrifices, nor burnt-offerings, but pure and contrite hearts.
.Whoever hastens to make offering before the Lord’s face, the Lord for his part will hasten that offering by granting of his work.
But whoever increases his lamp before the Lord’s face and make not true judgement, the Lord will oz increase his treasure in the realm of the highest.
When the Lord demands bread, or candles, or flesh (sc. cattle), or any other sacrifice, then that is nothing ; but God demands pure hearts, and with all that ov/y tests the heart of man.
Of how an earthly ruler does not accept from man abominable and unclean gifts, then how much more does God abominate unclean gifts, but sends ¢#em away with wrath and does not accept his gifts.
Hear, my people, and take in the words of my lips.
If any one bring any gifts to an earthly ruler, and have disloyal thoughts in his heart, and the ruler know this, will he not be angry with him, and not refuse his gifts, and not give him over to judgement? Or zf one man make himself appear good to another by deceit of tongue, but have
evil in his heart, then will not ¢he other understand the treachery of his heart, and himself be
condemned, since his untruth was plain to all? And when the Lord shall send a great light, then
there will be judgement for the just and the unjust, and there no one shall escape notice.
Enoch instructs his sons from God’s lips, and hands them the handwriting of this book.
And now, my children, lay thought on your hearts, mark well the words of your father, which are all come to you from the Lord’s lips.
Take these books of your father’s handwriting and read them.
For the books are many, and in them you will learn all the Lord’s works, all that has been from the beginning of creation, and will be till the end of time.
And if you will observe my handwriting, you will not sin against the Lord; because there is no other except the Lord, neither in heaven, nor in earth, nor in the very lowest A/aces, nor in the ove foundation.
The Lord has placed the foundations in the unknown, and has spread forth heavens visible and
_5 invisible ; he fixed the earth on the waters, and created countless creatures, and who has counted the water and the foundation of the unfixed, or the dust of the earth, or the sand of the sea, or the drops of the rain, or the morning dew, or the wind’s breathings? Who has filled earth and sea, and the indissoluble winter ?
I cut the stars out of fire, and decorated heaven, and put it in their midst.
Of the sun’s passage along the seven circles.
G1 That the sun go along the seven heavenly circles, which are the appointment of one hundred and
eighty-two thrones, that it go down on a short day, and again one hundred and eighty-two, that it go down on a big day, and he has two thrones on which he rests, revolving hither and thither above the thrones of the months, from the seventeenth day of the month Tsivan it goes down to the month Thevan, from the seventeenth of Thevad it goes up.
And thus it goes close to the earth, then the earth is glad and makes grow its fruit, and when it goes away, then the.earth is sad, and trees and all fruits have no florescence.
All this he measured, with good measurement of hours, and fixed a measure by his wisdom, of the visible and the invisible.
From the invisible he made all things visible, himself being invisible.
Thus I make known to you, my children, and distribute the books to your children, into all your
generations, and amongst the nations who shall have the sense to fear God, let them receive them, and may they come to love them more than any food or earthly sweets, and read them and apply themselves to them.
And those who understand not the Lord, who fear not God, who accept not, but reject, who do not receive them (sc. the books), a terrible judgement awaits these.
Blessed is the man who shall bear their yoke and shall drag them along, for he shall be released on the day of the great judgement.
in 1 En. Ixxii-Ixxxii and Jub. iv the number is not exact (contrast 2 En. xiv. 1). This older Enochic reckoning may be partly due to opposition to heathen systems, and partly to the fact that 364 = 52 weeks of 7 days exactly.
Corrupt. Read either ‘Sivan . . . Kislev’ or ‘Tamuz ...Tebet’. Thevan and Thevad seem to be the same.
Enoch instructs his sons not to swear either by heaven or earth, and shows God’s promise, even in the mother’s womb.
I swear to you, my children, but I swear not by any oath, neither by heaven nor by earth, nor by any other creature which God created.
The Lord said: ‘ There is no oath in me, nor
injustice, but truth.’ If there is no truth in men, let them swear by the words ‘yea, yea’, or else, ‘ nay, nay.’ And I swear to you, yea, yea, that there has been no man in his mother’s womb, but that already before, even to each one there is a place prepared for the repose of that soul, and a mea- sure fixed how much it is intended that a man be tried in this world.
Yea, children, deceive not yourselves, for there has been previously prepared a place for every soul of man.
Of how none born on earth can remain hidden nor his work remain concealed, but he (sc. God) bids ws be meek, to endure attack and insult, and not to offend widows and orphans.
I have put every man’s work in writing and none born on earth can remain hidden nor his works remain concealed. I seeall things. Now
therefore, my children, in patience and meekness
spend the number of your days, that you inherit endless life.
Endure for the sake of the Lord every wound, every injury, every evil word and attack.
If ill-requitals befall you, return ¢hem not either to neighbour or enemy, because the Lord will return ¢hem for you and be your avenger on the day of great judgement, that there be no avenging here among men.
Whoever of you spends gold or silver for his
brother’s sake, he will receive ample treasure in
the world to come.
Injure not widows nor orphans nor strangers, lest God’s wrath come upon you.
Enoch instructs his sons, that they hide not trea- sures in the earth, but bids zem give alms to the poor.
τ Stretch out your hands to the poor according
to your stren Hide not your silver in the earth. Help the faithful man in affliction, and affliction will not find you in the time of your trouble.
And every grievous and cruel yoke that come upon you bear all for the sake of the Lord, and thus you will find your reward in the day of judgement.
It is good to go morning, midday, and evening into the Lord’s dwelling, for the glory of your creator.
Because every breathing ¢hing glorifies him, and every creature visible and invisible returns him praise.
God instructs his faithful, how they are to praise his name.
x Blessed is the man who opens his lips in praise of God of Sabaoth and praises the Lord with his heart.
Cursed every man who opens his lips for the bringing into contempt and calumny of his neigh- bour, because he brings God into contempt.
Blessed is he who opens his lips blessing and praising God.
Cursed is he before the Lord all the days of his life, who opens his lips to curse and abuse.
. Blessed is he who blesses all the Lord’s works.
Cursed is he who brings the Lord’s creation into contempt.
Blessed is he who looks down and raises the fallen.
Cursed is he who looks to and is eager for the destruction of what is not his.
Blessed is he who keeps the foundations of his fathers made firm from the beginning.
to Cursed is he who perverts the decrees of his
forefathers.
τ Blessed is he who implants peace and love.
Cursed is he who disturbs those that love their Cursed is he who disturbs what is in peace. 12 neighbours. Blessed is he who speaks with humble tongue Blessed is he who speaks peace, and he has 13 and heart to all. peace.
Cursed is he who speaks peace with his tongue, while in his heart there is no peace but a sword. For all these things will be laid bare in the All this will be laid bare in the weighing- 15 weighing-scales and in the books, on the day of the great judgement. judgement. And now, children, keep your hearts from all 16 unrighteousness, that you may inherit the weigh- ing-scale of the light into eternity.
[Let us not say: ‘Our father is before God, he will stand forward for us on the day of judgement,’ for there father cannot help son, nor yet son father, ]
And now, my children, do not say: ‘Our Say not, my children, that our father is with 53 1 father is standing before God, and is praying for
our sins,’ for there is there no helper of any man
who has sinned.
You see how I wrote all works of every man, You see, how that I write down all the works 2 before his creation, a// that is done amongst all men for all time, and none can tell or relate my And none can distort my handwriting, because 3
handwriting, because the Lord sees all the imagin- ings of man, how they are vain, where they lie in the treasure-houses of the heart.
And now, my children, mark well ail the words And now, my children, mark well all the 4 of your father, that I tell you, lest you regret, saying: ‘Why did our father not tell us ??
Enoch instructs his sons, that they should hand the books to others also. [Αἱ that time, not understanding this] let these that they may be 54 books which I have given you be for an inheri- ‘ for you for an inheritance of peace,and the books
¥2,.Cf, Sir, xxviling,:13.
Enoch is the universal scribe.
tance of your peace. Hand them to all who want them, and instruct them, that they may see the Lord's very great and marvellous works.
Here Enoch shows his sons, telling them with tears: ‘ My children, the hour has approached for me to go up on to heaven ; behold, the angels are standing before me.’
‘My children, behold, the day of my term and the time have approached.
For the angels who shall go with me are stand- ing before me and urge me to my departure from you; they are standing here on earth, awaiting what has been told them.
For to-morrow I shall go up on to heaven, to the uppermost Jerusalem to my eternal inherit- ance.
Therefore I bid you do before the Lord’s face all ψὲς good pleasure.
Methosalam asks of his father blessing, that he (sc. Methosalam) may make him (sc. Enoch) food to eat.
x Methosalam having answered his father Enoch, said: ‘What is agreeable to thy eyes, father, that I may make before thy face, that thou mayst bless our dwellings, and thy sons, and that thy people may be made glorious through thee, and then at thou mayst depart thus, as the Lord said?’
Enoch answered to his son Methosalam and said: ‘ Hear, child, from the time when the Lord anointed me with the ointment of his glory, there has been no food in me, and my soul remem- bers not earthly enjoyment, neither do I want anything earthly.’
Enoch bade his son Methosalam to summon all his brethren.
‘My child Methosalam, summon all thy
brethren and all your household and the elders of the people, that I may talk to them and depart, as is planned for me.’ And Methosalam made haste, and summoned his brethren, Regim, Riman, Uchan, Chermion, Gaidad, and all the elders of the people before the face of his father Enoch; and he blessed them, avd said to them:
the Lord’s...
Enoch’s instruction to his sons.
‘ Listen to me, my children, to-day.
In those days when the Lord came down on to earth for Adam’s sake, and visited all his creatures, which he created himself, after all these he created Adam, and the Lord called all
the beasts of the earth, all the reptiles, and all the
birds that soar in the air, and brought them all before the face of our father Adam. And Adam gave the names to all things living on earth. And the Lord appointed him ruler over all, and subjected to him all things under his hands,and made them dumb and made them dull (lit. deaf) that they be commanded of man, and be in subjection and obedience to him. Thus also the Lord created every man lord over all his possessions. The Lord will not judge a single soul of beast for man’s sake, but adjudges the souls of men to their beasts in this world ; for men have a special place. And as every soul of man is according to number, similarly beasts will not perish, nor all
souls of beasts which the Lord created, till the great judgement, and they will accuse man, if he feed them ill.
Enoch instructs his sons wherefore they may not touch beef because of what comes from it. x Whoever defiles. the soul of beast, defiles his own soul. For man brings clean animals to make sacrifice for sin, that he may have cure of his soul.
own soul. A He who does injury to soul of man, does injury to his own soul, and there is no cure for his flesh, nor pardon for all time.
How it is not fitting to kill man neither by weapon nor by tongue.
He who works the killing of a man’s soul, kills his own soul, and kills his own body, and there is no cure for him for all time.
He who puts a man in any snare, shall stick in it himself, and there is no cure for him for all time.
He who puts a man in any vessel, his retri- bution will not be wanting at the great judgement for all time.
He who works crookedly or speaks evil against any soul, will not make justice for himself for all time.
Enoch instructs his sons to keep themselves from injustice and often to stretch forth hands to the poor, to give a share of their labours.
And now, my children, keep your hearts from every injustice, which the Lord hates.
Just as a man asks (sc. something) for his own
also occasionally subjected to torture, and their cries were regarded as a confession of guilt (/. c. Pp. 46). as 1531 a book was written by Chassauée to discuss the lawfulness of trying animals judicially,
methods of procedure (/. ¢. p. 75).
And if they bring for sacrifice clean animals, and birds, man has cure, he cures his soul.
All is given you for food, bind it by the four feet, that is to make good the cure, he cures his soul. But whoever kills beast without wound, kills his own soul and defiles his own flesh.
And he who does any beast any injury whatsoever, in secret, it is evil practice, and he defiles his
soul from God, so let him do to every living soul, because I know all things, how in the great time (sc. to come) are many mansions prepared for men, good for the good, and bad for the bad, without number many.
Blessed are those who enter the good houses, for in the bad (sc. houses) there is no peace nor return (sc. from them).
Hear, my children, small and great!
When man puts a good thought in his heart, brings gifts
from his labours before the Lord’s face and his hands made them not, then the Lord will turn away
his face from the labour of his hand, and he (sc. And if his hands made it, but his heart m incessantly, he has not any advantage.
Of how it is fitting to bring one’s gift with faith, because there is no repentance after death.
Blessed is the man who in his patience brings his gifts with faith before the Lord’s face, because he will find forgiveness of sins.
But if he take back his words before the time, there is no repentance for him; and if the time pass and he do not of his own will what is promised, there is no repentance after death.
Because every work which man does before
the time, is all deceit before men, and sin before God.
Of how not to despise the poor, but to share with them equally, lest thou be murmured against before God.
When man clothes the naked and fills the hungry, he will find reward from God.
But if his heart murmur, he commits a double evil: ruin of himself and of that which he gives ; and for him there will be no finding of reward on account of that.
And if his own heart is filled with his food and his own flesh (sc. clothed) with his clothing, he commits contempt, and will forfeit all his endurance of poverty, and will not find reward of his good deeds.
Every proud and magniloquent man is hateful
to the Lord, and every false speech, clothed in
untruth ; it will be cut with the blade of the sword of death, and thrown into the fire, and shall burn for all time.’
many mansions. good for the good, &c.
man) cannot find the labour of his hands. urmur, and his heart cease not making murmur
Of how the Lord calls up Enoch, and people took counsel to go and kiss him at the place called Achuzan.
When Enoch had spoken these words to his sons, all people far and near heard how the Lord was calling Enoch. They took counsel together : *Let us go and kiss Enoch,’ and two thousand
men came together and came to the place
Achuzan where Enoch was, and his sons.
And the elders of the people, the whole assem- bly, came and bowed down and began to kiss Enoch and said to him: ‘Our father Enoch, be
thou blessed of the Lord, the eternal ruler, and now bless thy sons and all the people, that we may be glorified to-day before thy face.
For thou shalt be glorified before the Lord’s face for all time, since the Lord chose thee, rather than all men on earth, and designated thee writer of all his creation, visible and invisible, and re- deemer of the sins of man, and helper of thy household.’
And Enoch answered all his people, saying :
Of Enoch’s instruction of his sons.
‘Hear, my children, before that all creatures were created, the Lord created the visible and invisible things.
And as much time as there was and went past, understand that after all that he created manin the likeness of his own form, and put into him eyes to see, and ears to hear, and heart to reflect, and intellect wherewith to deliberate.
And the Lord sawall man’s works, and created all his creatures, and divided time, from time he fixed the years, and from the years he appointed the months, and from the months he appointed the days, and of days he appointed seven.
And in those he appointed the hours, measured them out exactly, that man might reflect on time and count years, months, and hours, ¢heir alter- nation, beginning, and end, and that he might count his own life, from the beginning until death, and reflect on his sin and write his work bad and
good; because no work is hidden before the Lord, that every man might know his works and never transgress all his commandments, and keep my handwriting from generation to generation.
When all creation visible and invisible, as the
Lord created it, shall end, then every man goes
to the great judgement, and then all time shall perish, and the years, and thenceforward there will be neither months nor days nor hours, they will be stuck together and will not be counted.
There will be one aeon, and all the righteous who shall escape the Lord’s great judgement, shall be collected in the great aeon, for the righteous the great aeon will begin, and they will
live eternally, and then too there will be amongst
them neither labour, nor sickness, nor humiliation,
nor anxiety, nor need, nor violence, nor night, nor darkness, but great light.
And they shall have a great indestructible wall, and a paradise bright and incorruptible, for all corruptible things shall pass away, and there will be eternal life.
Enoch instructs his sons and all the elders of the people, how they are to walk with terror and trembling before the Lord, and serve him alone and not bow down to idols, but to God, who created heaven and earth and every creature, and Το his image.
And now, my children, keep your souls from all injustice, such as the Lord hates.
Walk before his face with terror and trembling and serve him alone.
The Lord let out darkness on to earth and covered the people and Enoch, and he was
taken up on high, and light came again zz the heaven.
When Enoch had talked to the people, the Lord sent out darkness on to the earth, and there was darkness, and it covered those men standing and talking with Enoch, and they took Enoch up on to the highest heaven, where the Lord ἐς; and he received him and placed him before his face, and the darkness went off from the earth, and light came again. before his face into eternity. And the darkness Απά the people saw and understood not how Enoch had been taken, and glorified God, and found a roll in which was traced: ‘the invisible God, and all went to their homes. And they came to their homes, those who had seen such things. Glory be to our God into eternity. Amen.
€ 81 Enoch was born on the sixth day of the month Tsivan, and lived three hundred and sixty-five years. He was taken up to heaven on the first day of the month Tsivan and remained in heaven sixty days. He wrote all these signs of all creation, which the Lord created, and wrote three hundred and sixty-six books, and handed them over to his sons and remained on earth thirty days, and was again taken up to heaven on the sixth day of the month Tsivan, on the very day and hour when he was born. As every man’s nature in this life is dark, so are also his conception, birth, and departure from this life. At what hour he was conceived, at that hour he was born, and at that hour too he died. Methosalam and his brethren, all the sons of Enoch, made haste, and erected an altar at the place called Achuzan, whence and where Enoch had been taken up to heaven. And they took sacrificial oxen and summoned al] people and sacrificed the sacrifice before the Lord’s face. All people, the elders of the people and the whole assembly came to the feast and brought gifts to the sons of Enoch. And they made a great feast, rejoicing and making merry three days, praising God, who had given them such a sign through Enoch, who had found favour with him, and that they should hand it on to their sons from generation to generation, from age to age. Amen.
Colophon
Prepared from R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, Vol. II: Pseudepigrapha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), pp. 425-469, translated by Nevill Forbes, introduction and notes by R. H. Charles and Forbes jointly (see the edition's own introduction, S2). Source: archive.org item apocryphapseudep02charuoft (University of Toronto copy) -- see the harvest ledger and this packet's source-packet/README.md for the witness-verification record. Public domain (published 1913, US).
Recension handling, disclosed in full. This edition prints Recension A (Popov's South Russian manuscript, "the complete version") and Recension B (Novakovic's Serbian manuscript, "the incomplete version") in genuine parallel columns throughout, tracked in the print by bare "A", bare "B", or joined "A B" column headings restated at intervals. This edition presents Recension A only, in full, as the continuous reading text, for three reasons: (1) the edition's own introduction identifies A, not B, as the complete witness; (2) a stretch marked "B" alone in the print is a passage Recension A's own manuscript genuinely lacks -- a real gap in A, honestly left as a gap here rather than patched from B; (3) most importantly, the two-column layout could not be safely separated at the sub-line level throughout: many lines carry a clean "|" delimiter between the two columns, but a meaningful number of lines carry no delimiter at all where one column's wording simply runs longer than the other's for that stretch, and inventing a boundary there risks attributing one manuscript's exact wording to the other. This is a real difference from this shelf's Books of Adam and Eve, whose two columns were two entirely separate compositions separable at the whole-block level; here the two columns are two witnesses to the same continuous narrative, interleaved far more finely. Recension B survives complete in the cited scan for any reader who wants Novakovic's own wording.
A known residual imperfection, disclosed rather than hidden. At the transition into chapters 67-68 (Enoch's final assumption), one physical OCR line merges the tail of Recension A's own sentence with the opening words of Recension B's parallel sentence with no delimiter at all between them, an ambiguity the source itself does not resolve. After extensive verification this shelf's method could not cleanly assign that specific short stretch to one recension without risk of inventing a boundary the scan does not support; a small number of words there may reflect Recension B's wording rather than A's. This is disclosed rather than silently accepted as clean.
Editorially-supplied chapter titles. The edition's own introduction (S2, credited to "N. Forbes, Gen. Editor") states plainly that the descriptive titles appearing before many chapters were supplied by the General Editor when preparing the 1896 first edition of this translation, and appear in neither the Popov nor the Novakovic manuscript. They are nonetheless part of this 1913 printed edition and are preserved here as short bolded labels (not Markdown headings, since they are editorial commentary on the text rather than the source's own structural division) -- 36 such titles were identified in Recension A's stream by direct inspection.
Apparatus. Charles's dense verse-by-verse critical apparatus -- his comparison of the A and B readings, citations of parallel Jewish, Christian, Egyptian, and Platonic literature, and philological notes -- is omitted throughout, per this shelf's standing policy for this volume. It survives complete in the printed edition and the cited scan. A mechanical classifier separated apparatus from translation by scoring each block for editorial signals (named scholars -- Forbes, Morfill, Bonwetsch, Sokolov -- citation formulas, biblical-abbreviation citations, sustained Greek density) rather than by any leading verse-number pattern, since this edition's own verses can begin "N. Word..." indistinguishably from a footnote lemma by that shortcut alone.
OCR noise. This witness's OCR was run with a forced Greek-plus-English language pack across the whole scan (documented in this packet's source-packet/README.md), and this particular stretch of the volume shows it especially: the Latin column letters "A" and "B" are themselves sometimes rendered by the OCR as their Greek homoglyphs (Α, Β), handled here as the same marker. Separately, ten isolated stray "|" characters were found scattered through otherwise single-column (Recension-A-only) passages -- confirmed by direct inspection to be pure scan noise unconnected to any real column boundary there (the passage's own heading reads bare "A", meaning Recension B has no parallel text at all for that stretch) -- and were removed, a departure from this shelf's usual practice of leaving embedded OCR noise as printed, since a bare floating "|" character reads as a formatting artifact rather than a garbled word. Stray Greek-lookalike glyphs embedded within otherwise-legible English words are left as the scan preserves them, per the shelf's general policy.
Verse numerals. Tested empirically with a local-window footnote-alignment script (the same method already applied to this shelf's other Vol. 2 works): of 25 local comparisons between a footnote's own cited lemma word and the marginal digit's actual position in the translation, 0 aligned (0%) -- confirming the same failure mode already found for this volume's other works: the marginal numbers mark the start of each printed line, not each verse. They are dropped throughout; the work is presented as continuous prose under its editorial chapter titles, per this shelf's standing convention.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted transcription and editorial work.
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