The Book of Enoch (Enoch)
Short summary
Ancient times, before the Great Flood. Enoch received divine visions revealing the secrets of heaven and earth.
He saw how angels called Watchers descended from heaven and took human women as wives, producing giant offspring. These angels taught humanity forbidden knowledge including weapon-making, cosmetics, and sorcery. The giants consumed all resources and turned violent, devouring humanity. God commanded archangels to imprison the fallen angels and announced judgment.
And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones
To execute judgement upon all,
And to destroy all the ungodly:
And to convict all flesh
Of all the works of their ungodliness...
Angels guided Enoch on journeys through the cosmos, showing him the places of punishment for fallen angels, the chambers of winds and waters, the courses of heavenly luminaries following a 364-day solar calendar, and the dwelling places of righteous and wicked souls awaiting final judgment. He witnessed the throne of God surrounded by fire and countless angels.
In the Parables, Enoch saw visions of the Son of Man who would sit on God's throne and judge the wicked kings and mighty ones. He revealed that righteous souls would be resurrected and dwell in eternal light, while sinners would face destruction. The Apocalypse of Weeks divided history into ten periods, culminating in final judgment and a new heaven.
Enoch recorded everything in books for future generations, warning sinners of coming judgment and encouraging the righteous to remain faithful. He was eventually taken up to heaven, transformed into an angelic being, and given authority to reveal divine mysteries to humanity.
Detailed summary
The subtitle for Chapters 1-36 is editorial.
Chapters 1β36. Enochs visions and the fall of the Watchers
The book opened with a blessing pronounced by a righteous man whose eyes were opened by God. He saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed him, and from them he heard everything. This vision was not for his generation, but for a remote one that was to come. He spoke concerning the elect, proclaiming that the Holy Great One would come forth from His dwelling and the eternal God would tread upon the earth, even on Mount Sinai.
All would be smitten with fear, and the Watchers would quake. The high mountains would be shaken and made low, melting like wax before the flame. The earth would be wholly rent asunder, and all that was upon it would perish. There would be a judgment upon all men. But with the righteous He would make peace and protect the elect, and mercy would be upon them. They would all belong to God and be prospered and blessed. He would help them all, and light would appear unto them.
And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: βCome, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.β
In those days, when the children of men had multiplied, beautiful and comely daughters were born unto them. The angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them. Their leader proposed that they choose wives from among the children of men and beget children. He feared that he alone would have to pay the penalty of a great sin, but they all swore an oath together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan. They were in all two hundred, who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
All the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one. They began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. The women became pregnant and bore great giants, whose height was three thousand ells. These giants consumed all the acquisitions of men, and when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. They began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.
One of the fallen angels taught men to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them. He also taught them about bracelets, ornaments, the use of antimony, the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones and coloring tinctures. There arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication and were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways. Another taught enchantments and root-cuttings, while others taught astrology, the constellations, the knowledge of the clouds, the signs of the earth, the signs of the sun, and the course of the moon. As men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven.
Chapters 37β71. The Parables
Four archangels looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth and all lawlessness being wrought upon it. They said to one another that the earth cried the voice of its crying up to the gates of heaven. They made their suit to the Lord of the ages, saying that all things were naked and open in His sight, and nothing could hide itself from Him. They told Him what one of the fallen angels had done, who had taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were preserved in heaven.
The Most High, the Holy and Great One spoke and sent one of the holy angels to warn a certain man to hide himself and reveal to him the end that was approaching. The whole earth would be destroyed, and a deluge was about to come upon it and destroy all that was on it. He was instructed that his seed might be preserved for all the generations of the world. Another angel was commanded to bind one of the chief fallen angels hand and foot and cast him into the darkness, making an opening in the desert and casting him therein. Rough and jagged rocks were to be placed upon him, and he was to abide there forever with his face covered so that he might not see light. On the day of the great judgment he would be cast into the fire.
The angel was also commanded to heal the earth which the angels had corrupted and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they might heal the plague and that all the children of men might not perish through all the secret things that the Watchers had disclosed and taught their sons. To another angel the Lord said to proceed against the children of fornication and destroy them, sending them one against the other that they might destroy each other in battle. No request that their fathers made would be granted unto them on their behalf, for they hoped to live an eternal life, and that each one of them would live five hundred years.
Another archangel was commanded to bind the leader of the fallen angels and his associates who had united themselves with women. When their sons had slain one another and they had seen the destruction of their beloved ones, they were to be bound fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth till the day of their judgment and consummation. In those days they would be led off to the abyss of fire and to the torment and the prison in which they would be confined forever. All the spirits of the reprobate and the children of the Watchers were to be destroyed because they had wronged mankind.
Before these things, the narrator was hidden, and no one of the children of men knew where he was hidden, where he abode, and what had become of him. His activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days were with the holy ones. The Watchers called him and said that he should declare to them who had left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and defiled themselves with women. He was told to say to them that they should have interceded for men, and not men for them. They had left the high, holy, and eternal heaven and lain with women, defiling themselves with the daughters of men and taking wives unto themselves.
And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen
Shall ... raise up the kings and the mighty from their seats,
...
And shall loosen the reins of the strong,
And break the teeth of the sinners
The narrator saw in a vision how he was transported to heaven. He went in till he drew nigh to a wall which was built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire, and it began to affright him. He went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals. Its walls were like a tessellated floor made of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal. Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their heaven was clear as water. A flaming fire surrounded the walls, and its portals blazed with fire. He entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice. There were no delights of life therein, and fear covered him.
And the Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence...
He beheld a vision and saw therein a lofty throne whose appearance was as crystal, and the wheels thereof as the shining sun. From underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that he could not look thereon. The Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory, and no flesh could behold Him. The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, yet He needed no counselor. The most holy ones who were nigh to Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him.
Chapters 72β82. The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries
A holy angel who was the guide showed the narrator the book of the courses of the luminaries of the heaven, the relations of each according to their classes, their dominion and their seasons, according to their names and places of origin, and according to their months. He showed all their laws exactly as they were and how it was with regard to all the years of the world and unto eternity, till the new creation was accomplished which would endure till eternity.
The luminary the Sun had its rising in the eastern portals of the heaven and its setting in the western portals. There were six portals in which the sun rose and six portals in which the sun set, and the moon rose and set in these portals. The leaders of the stars and those whom they led followed each other in accurately corresponding order. First there went forth the great luminary, named the Sun, and his circumference was like the circumference of the heaven, and he was quite filled with illuminating and heating fire. The chariot on which he ascended was driven by the wind.
The angel showed the narrator the treasuries of all the winds and how He had furnished with them the whole creation and the firm foundations of the earth. He saw the corner-stone of the earth and the four winds which bore the earth and the firmament of the heaven. He saw how the winds stretched out the vaults of heaven and had their station between heaven and earth, which were the pillars of the heaven. He saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds and the paths of the angels. At the end of the earth he saw the firmament of the heaven above.
Chapters 83β90. The Dream-Visions
The narrator told his son that he would show him all his visions which he had seen, recounting them before him. Two visions he saw before he took a wife, and the one was quite unlike the other. The first was when he was learning to write, the second before he took his mother. He had laid down in the house of his grandfather when he saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth. When it fell to the earth, he saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems and hurled down and sunk in the abyss.
His grandfather waked him and said that he had seen a terrible thing, and of grave moment was his dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth. It must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction. He was told to arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since he was a believer, that a remnant might remain on the earth and that He might not destroy the whole earth. From heaven all this would come upon the earth, and upon the earth there would be great destruction. After that he arose and prayed and implored and besought, and wrote down his prayer for the generations of the world.
Chapters 91β105. The Concluding Section of the Book
The narrator called to him all his brothers and gathered together all the sons of his mother. The word called him, and the spirit was poured out upon him, that he might show them everything that would befall them forever. He spoke unto all the children of righteousness and said that they should hear all the words of their father and hearken aright to the voice of his mouth. He exhorted them and said that they should love uprightness and walk therein, and draw not nigh to uprightness with a double heart, and associate not with those of a double heart.
And the righteous shall be in the light of the sun,
And the elect in the light of eternal life:
The days of their life shall be unending,
And the days of the holy without number.
He knew that violence must increase on the earth, and a great chastisement would be executed on the earth, and all unrighteousness would come to an end. It would be cut off from its roots, and its whole structure would be destroyed. Unrighteousness would again be consummated on the earth, and all the deeds of unrighteousness and of violence and transgression would prevail in a twofold degree. When sin and unrighteousness and blasphemy and violence in all kinds of deeds increased, and apostasy and transgression and uncleanness increased, a great chastisement would come from heaven upon all these.
He began to speak the third Parable concerning the righteous and elect. Blessed were the righteous and elect, for glorious would be their lot. The righteous would be in the light of the sun, and the elect in the light of eternal life. The days of their life would be unending, and the days of the holy without number. They would seek the light and find righteousness with the Lord of Spirits. There would be peace to the righteous in the name of the Eternal Lord.
Chapters 106β107. Fragment of the Book of Noah
After some days, a son took a wife for his son, and she became pregnant by him and bore a son. His body was white as snow and red as the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes beautiful. When he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like the sun, and the whole house was very bright. Thereupon he arose in the hands of the midwife, opened his mouth, and conversed with the Lord of righteousness.
His father was afraid of him and fled, and came to his father. He said that he had begotten a strange son, diverse from and unlike man, and resembling the sons of the God of heaven. His nature was different, and he was not like them, and his eyes were as the rays of the sun, and his countenance was glorious. It seemed that he was not sprung from him but from the angels, and he feared that in his days a wonder might be wrought on the earth. He was told that the Lord would do a new thing on the earth.
Chapter 108. An Appendix to the Book of Enoch
Another book was written for a son and for those who would come after him and keep the law in the last days. Those who had done good would wait for those days till an end was made of those who worked evil and an end of the might of the transgressors. They would wait indeed till sin had passed away, for their names would be blotted out of the book of life and out of the holy books, and their seed would be destroyed forever, and their spirits would be slain. They would cry and make lamentation in a place that was a chaotic wilderness, and in the fire they would burn, for there was no earth there.