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212 of 230 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the read, October 10, 2000
This review is from: Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil: Why Church Fathers Suppressed the Book of Enoch and Its Startling Revelations (Mass Market Paperback)
Did you ever wonder about the "sons of God" in the sixth chapter of Genesis? Well, it was a few lines summing up the book of Enoch, likely written prior to Genesis even. This book argues that Enoch is Scripture and also explains why that is so. But since as the cover reads the church fathers suppressed it, we don't find it in our Bibles today. But by drawing parallels to it and our Bible it concludes Jesus had thorough Enochian knowledge. Not only that, but that all the characters of biblical times knew of the Watchers' fall, and the adulteration of our race with Nephilim genetics. They also believe that there were 2 'falls' of the angels rather than one, as commonly thought of as result to Lucifer's fall. The first, out of pride, the Nephilim fell. Second, out of lust, did the Watchers. And as temptation befell the Watchers to incarnate male homo sapiens, the daughters of ancient man gave birth to giants, reputed to be 300 cubits tall by the books translation of Enoch. That also adds to this books value, it has the complete book of Enoch and the book of the secrets of Enoch, and excerpts from the book of Jubilees and the testaments of the twelve patriarchs. Last of all, the book has many illustrations of angel related scenes portrayed. Not a likely best seller, but a worthy read for those interested:)
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215 of 253 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Fun and games with fallen angels, June 11, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil: Why Church Fathers Suppressed the Book of Enoch and Its Startling Revelations (Mass Market Paperback)
This is not the space for comment on the author. Anyone wanting to know about Elizabeth Clare Prophet, her Church Universal Triumphant, and the Summit Lighthouse organization can very easily search for her own web pages on the net and form their own judgement. One thing you will not find in this book is a cogent examination of 'Why church fathers supressed the book of Enoch'. To write on such a subject one would have to know something about the formation of the Hebrew canon - an area in which Ms. Prophet clearly has not even taken the trouble to read the standard texts (such as Leiman, Wurthwein and Tov), and then on patristics (where R.H. Charles gives a decent summary of Origen, Jerome and other fathers' views on Enoch). However, on the positive side, for those who are looking for a copy of the Book of Enoch, some alternative suggestions: If you are looking for a general read about all the various traditions about the Enoch mentioned in Genesis and then taken up by various Jewish, Christian and Muslim writers since, the book for you is probably 'Enoch A Man for All Generations' by the eminent professor James Vanderkam, chairman of the Society for Biblical Literature. If you are looking for a scholarly and accurate translation of the original text of Book of Enoch as quoted in Jude 14, then the book for you is either the 1912 translation by R.H. Charles published (still) by SPCK, or the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1 ed. J.H. Charlesworth, and published by Doubleday 1983. Avoid the elderly 1821 translation by Rev. Richard Laurence if possible. If the SPCK version is out of print, there seem to be various 'reproduction' copies available from American New Age publishing houses. If you are looking for what the NT writers thought of the so-called 'Book of Enoch' read Luke 20:35-36, Titus 1:14, Heb 1:14, 2Pe. 2:16-20,3:3,3:10-12, Jude 8, and compare Jude 14 with 1En1:9 and Deut 33:2. (But you might still need a copy of Enoch to understand what Peter and Jude were getting so upset about). If you are looking for sensationalist stories about fallen angels then you probably will get more out of the vampire fiction of Anne Rice...
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38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A decent introduction to 1 Enoch, but disappointing overall, February 13, 2007
This review is from: Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil: Why Church Fathers Suppressed the Book of Enoch and Its Startling Revelations (Mass Market Paperback)
I decided to give this book two stars because it offers a basic introduction to 1 Enoch and similar texts; it is also a cheap alternative for people wanting to read the apocryphal text without spending a great deal of money. However, I found the book to be quite disappointing and I can't consider it to be recommended reading. The majority of the book is nothing but Richard Laurence's translation of 1 Enoch and other related texts (such as The Book of Jubilees), so Prophet herself does not really offer any major content or insight. On a positive note, Prophet does provide some useful cross-references, footnotes, and chapters detailing parallels between Enoch and the Biblical texts (otherwise I would have given this 1 star). However, some of these are better than others, so readers should be careful when evaluating whether or not the parallels actually exist or if they are imposed upon the texts by the author.
I also disagree with most of Prophet's theories regarding the Watchers, the Nephilim, and the ongoing (perceived) struggle of good versus evil. I'm being somewhat kind to say that she's doing nothing more than offering "speculation" because there is really no support (archaeologically, scientifically, or even scripturally) to demonstrate concrete evidence of her ideas. For instance, she writes that human beings have continually been demonically possessed by evil fallen angels to carry out their dirty work and to aid in the ultimate destruction of humankind. While I'm sure that some people might find this argument believable, I find it very unconvincing and completely dependent upon adherence to superstitious beliefs. I consider it especially ridiculous when she tries to argue that this is happening even in our current day with political leaders and other important figures. In such cases, Prophet is using this lack of evidence to play right into the superstitious beliefs of some people who will therefore "see" events as she wants, and be willing to play along. She also promotes the "Sons of Seth" and "Daughters of Cain" argument, which I find erroneous, albeit she uses a modified version of this view (the demonic possession aspect) to suit her theories. Additionally, I do not care for much of Prophet's New Age "fluff" that she sprinkles into the texts. Once again, she uses such material to appeal to certain kinds of readers so that it looks like she's giving them legitimate information, but it really has no substance.
If you are just getting into this material, then you might enjoy this book. However, if you spend any amount of time researching such topics than you will see how little it has to offer and you will be wanting much more thoroughly researched material. I recommend that you spend some time reading over the other reviews posted here to get a better understanding of the pitfalls of this book and where else to look for more information.
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