Customer Reviews

Book of Enoch

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This pseudepigraphon of the Old testament was rejected for what seems obscure reasons, like most of the time with apocrypha, and yet this book is probably essential. It shows that God's creation was far from being perfect, which we knew of course. But it also gives the episode in which some angels known as the Watchers because they were supposed to be watching the human race, got fascinated by the beautiful women on earth. But these angels were not pure spirits and they were sexually very well provided (« the great stars whose privy members were like those of horses » 88:3) and males. Hence they descended from their heights and took some women and procreated a new race of beings with them, the famous giants who destroyed the earth. And the book contains two versions of the tale, the first one with women procreating giants, and the second one with cows, this time procreating elephants, camels and asses. This is a perfect parable for those scientists and technicians who invent anything and menace the life of the planet and of humanity with the implementation of their inventions. This will bring about God's decision to send the deluge and wipe life out completely or nearly. To clean up the damage god causes even greater damage : the radical, though not quite final, solution. But this book is also essential because there is a complete vision of the other worlds, paradise and all the hells that were being prepared for the coming apocalypse and that were surrounding the human world. The descriptions are very vivid and the trip in these climes reminds us of Dante's Divine Comedy. And that is not all. The book contains a strong section about astronomy, summarizing all human knowledge at the time about the sun and the moon, not so much about the stars, except the twelve sun portals that will give the twelve zodiacal signs. It also contains a strong prediction in the shape of wisdom chapters and verses and in the shape of dream visions that the rich and the powerful will be destroyed, even if God has to stir some trouble down on earth among their victims or subjects to have them removed from power. Finally it also predicts there will be a final day of judgment when the Elect One will perform divine justice in the name of the God of the Spirits. This is very similar to the Book of Revelation. In other words it is an important source and model for that Book of Revelation. Finally it reveals very clearly that Noah is an albino, the fear his birth caused among his relatives, first of all his father, and how Enoch saved him from destruction, which was normal in those days for off-standard children, with the argument that he had a divine mission to fulfill and that he, Enoch, knew about it because it had been revealed to him in his visions and his communication with God. This book is thus both tremendously human by the desire to get a compensation for the oppression of the majority of the people by a few rich and powerful persons or the fear an albino baby can cause among human beings, and tremendously visionary in a way that announces Isaiah, Ezekiel and John but with an extreme sense of retribution, punishment and destruction in suffering for the rich, the powerful and the violent, essentially, plus the dishonest, the blasphemous, liars, and sexual perverts, meaning here fornicators. This book should be reinstated in the Old Testament and it cannot be ignored, especially since it is one of the sources of inspiration of the English poet William Blake. It gives a vision of the Jewish and Christian religions that has a lot more power by its imagination, its humanity and its great descriptive and evocative style.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

this version of the book of Enoch is very indepth,easy to read.Enoch is a very odd character Genesis states that he walked with god. What did it mean The book gives us the back story to what happened than.The story of lust,betrayal,greed,and hate.Sex hungry angels who try to take over the Earth with there demonic offspring.The book of Enoch comes from a better source than even the gospels,texts left alone for almost a thousand years.There were no rewrites,no editorial changes by people saying"Well this is what they meant!"A pure source of history found with the dead sea scrolls, and in Ethiopic temples.Even if you don't believe it at all,the story is excellent!

I just got this book yesterday, but I can't put it down. This book is full of Messianic prophecy that predates Christ by thousands of years. Jude in his inspired epistle says that the book was written by Enoch himself. If you are a believer of the inspired Word, then this should cause you to sit up and think. It also explains the origin of the demons, and it's not what you've always been taught. The early church all accepted this view of the origin of the demons. I won't spoil it for you. You'll have to buy the book. Here's a hint: We Bible believing Christians accept the worldwide flood of Noah as literal, we then see many flood legends around the world in the collective memories of many people groups. We also see many legends around the world in the collective memories of many people groups in regards to Nephilim. In various mythological tales from Rome and Greece, we read of the god's coming down and having relations with women and bearing demi-gods. The early Christians were aware of these stories and of their true origins. They also knew what demons really were, and what Peter meant in his second epistle when he said that the angels that had sinned were sent to Tartarus (hell in the KJV). All this and more is made clearer by reading the book of Enoch. This book has many verses that are almost the same as those found in Scripture. I have been writing them down in the book as I come across them. Many are from the book of Revelations. Some are from the Gospels and some are from the Epistles. This gives me the distinct impression that the writers of the NT were aware of and in agreement with the Book of Enoch. Here are a few examples: 1 Enoch 50:2 On the day of affliction on which evil shall have been treasured up against the sinners. Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. 1 Enoch 51:1b ...Sheol shall give back that which it has received, and hell shall give back that which it owes. Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them 1 Enoch 63:6 (speaking of the unrepentant rulers of the earth) And light has vanished from before us, and darkness is our dwelling place for ever and ever. Jude 13 (speaking of false prophets) ...to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Jude also speaks in this verse of the "wandering stars". 1 Enoch speaks of the stars also. I could go on and on with the Biblical references and perhaps I will add to this review over time. It just seems to obvious to me that the Biblical writers were reading and using this book. The only downside is that parts of the book may be lost, and other parts added to it over the millenia. It seems that although this book was inspired it was not God's good pleasure to keep it wholly intact. I feel that this book should be regarded as very important, and I personally regard it as at least a deuterocanonical book. That is, at least of secondary importance after the 66-73 books of the universally accepted books. In saying that though, this book is accepted as canonical by the Ethiopic church, which has at its foundation one the Apostles.

The book description asks "If this book was so important to Christian beginnings, why was it removed from the canon and banned?". The reason was that the Book of Enoch is essentially not compatible with the Christian gospel. The core story of Enoch, apart from the myth about angels marrying which is explicitly contradicted by Christ ("and do not marry for they are like unto the angels"), there are many other conflict points with the New Testament. The principle one being that Enoch functions as a mediator, a role that 1Tim2:5 allows only for Christ.

One can also note that the Enoch version of events where Michael accuses the rebel angels is again explicitly contradicted by Peter ("even angels do not accuse such beings") and by Jude (who even names Michael as not accusing). Maybe this is why it was not accepted by the church?

Enoch originated about 300BC, and the oldest copies, dating back to about 150BC are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. The best modern translations are to be found in the G. Vermes or Martinez editions of the Scrolls, or in the J. Charlesworth OT Pseudepigrapha set from Doubleday. The 300+ page facsimile edition of R.H. Charles' 1912 translation is also worth obtaining for the copious notes, but the 110 page version only contains the text. The translations by Laurence and Schodde are not worth acquiring.

Despite all the modern enthusiasm that surrounds this book it is worth remembering that it has always been contested. Trypho the Jew, the Talmud, Pseudo-Philo, all the Rabbis prior to the 8th Century, St. Augustine, St. Jerome were only a few to contest the midrash interpretation of "Sons of God" of Gen6:2 as angels. The book was rejected from the Jewish canon, the Septuagint and Vulgate, and consequently the Apocrypha. After 400AD it was preserved only in minority Ethiopian and Slavonic traditions.

It is often noted that Jude quotes from this book, which is true - although with obvious sarcasm as the context shows; Jude's epithet "the seventh from Adam" is taken from Enoch60:8 not Genesis. Tertullian did quote from it and consider it as scripture, along with various other pseudepigraphical and apocryphal literature. It is also true that Peter gets his details regarding the "angels that sinned" being cast into Tartarus from Enoch. As also is indicated by the mentions of "myths" and "cunningly devised fables" with which Peter precedes it.

Okay, the reviewer below is wrong about a couple things: A-Jesus said angels "in Heaven" don't marry; he wasn't talking about ones that might take human form! Also, Enoch never in this text is a mediator between God and men. Even if he was, Jesus didn't become the mediator until his rise to Heaven. Now for the actual review: While much of the Intro is wild speculation to say the least, ( I doubt the NT was as influenced by "Enoch" as Mr. Charles thinks ) it is still an invaluable document in studying how the Jews did eagerly await a PERSONAL Messiah and they believed in an EARTHLY manifestation of His Kingdom. The Book of Enoch is stunning in it's glowing poetry and vivid images; this text was of great importance to both William Blake and even modern day Anne Rice. I doubt strongly this is some "lost book" of the Bible, but it has added so much to my faith in the canonical Scriptures that I heartily urge ANY lover of the Word, or truth-seeker, to obtain and study this fascinating ancient text.

I gave this two stars because the formatting is awful; no real consideration for the electronic book format. Also, the middle third of the book is really boring because it is a metaphorical representation of angels breeding with humans using animal husbandry as a basis for the explanation. While this may have been an effective way to explain things to Enoch's son Methuselah, it isn't very effective for me. :) I'd rather he just lay it all out there in straight talk so I can wrap my head around it without translating it into modern thought.

It is still worth reading though.

The beginning and end of the book are fascinating. It begins with the way angels changed the history of man by teaching them things which God did not want them to know. And it ends with a short explanation about what Noah was like as a baby (reminded me a little bit of the last book of the Twilight series with regard to the baby Renesmee), according to Enoch, Noah could talk immediately after he was born, so right there we can see he was wired differently than everyone else around him. This is a very cool bit of insight that our forefathers decided we didn't need to know. I feel a bit gypped that I waited this long to read it. This is exactly the kind of stuff my mind craves. And exactly the kind of stuff those folks that assembled our current Bible decided I didn't really need to know. I'm trying not to hold a grudge. ;)

I ordered this book, The Book of Enoch, on April 9, 2010. A nice surprise when the book arrived was the book's final page that says "Made in the USA, Lexington, KY, 10 April 2010". A freshly printed copy!

Surprise #2 was found on a beginning page..."Forgotten Books takes the uppermost care to preserve the wording and images from the original book. However, this book has been scanned and reformatted from the original, and as such we cannot guarantee that it is free from errors or contains the full content of the original." I wanted a "full content" and probably got it. It is a beautifully done book and I'm glad I blindly ordered this edition.

Surprise #3 was a note in the back of the book concerning many books free to read on their web site. On going to the site, it appears that you need a membership to read them but you don't. A very nice bonus! Lots of books there among my interests.

This book company is "Forgotten Books".

This book is easy to read. I found it to be very interesting. It makes clear the origins of the Nephilim and how wickedness spread over that generation. Also, the origins of ungodly crafts,the shadow people and spirits that are all over the earth.

As a religion and philosophy major I studied the Bible and other texts but we never covered the non canonical books such as those in the Apocrypha. This book focuses on Enoch, one of the books not in the Catholic canon and also not in the other reformist churches. it is an interesting read and highly recommended.

the book was in excellent condition, which is an extra plus considering the age of the book! I love it when a fellow reader believes in taking care of his/her books also!