books of Enoch

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Enoch, Books of.
1. Enoch, or ‘Ethiopic Enoch’, so called because it survives in its most complete form in Ethiopic, is one of the most important Jewish Pseudepigrapha. It embodies a series of revelations, of which Enoch is the professed recipient, on such matters as the origin of evil, angels, and the nature of Gehenna and Paradise. It is clearly a composite work. The passages on ‘the Son of Man’ in the ‘Parables’ or ‘Similitudes’ (chs. 37–71) have been widely held to have influenced the NT writings, but it seems probable that the section is a later (Christian) insertion into the Book. Other parts of the Book are reflected in the NT.

2. Enoch, or ‘Slavonic Enoch’, or ‘The Book of the Secrets of Enoch’, which survives only in Old Church Slavonic (the language of the Russian Church), has points of contact with 1 Enoch. About its origin, date, authorship, and original language opinions have differed widely.

3. Enoch is a Jewish work dating from well within the Christian era (perhaps 4th or 5th cent.). It appears to have traces of anti-Christian polemic.