The Book of Enoch
Book of Enoch Quotes
Twenty-two passages from 1 Enoch, word for word from R. H. Charles's translation, in the order the book tells them.
Many readers come to the Book of Enoch for the Watchers: two hundred angels who come down on Mount Hermon, take wives and father giants. That story takes up only a few chapters near the start of a book that runs to 108. The passages below run from the prophecy in chapter 1 to the strange birth of Noah near the end, exactly as R. H. Charles translated them in 1917. Where Charles put words in brackets or parentheses, they stay as he printed them. Each passage gives its chapter.
The opening prophecy
The book begins with a vision of judgement, and one verse of it made its way into the New Testament: the Letter of Jude quotes it.
“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 which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
The Watchers come down
Chapter 6 tells the part many readers come for, in a few plain sentences. Angels see the daughters of men and want them. Their leader is afraid he will be left to carry the blame alone, so they bind themselves with an oath.
“And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'”
“'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.'”
“And 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.”
The giants, and what the Watchers taught
The children of these marriages are giants, and the story turns ugly fast. The Watchers also teach. Azazel gives men weapons and ornaments; the others teach spells, roots and the signs of the sky.
“And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.”
“Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.”
“And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.”
“And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven”
The archangels, and the sentence
Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel look down, see the bloodshed and bring the cry before God. The answer comes as orders. Raphael is told to bind Azazel and bury him in the desert until the judgement.
“Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee.”
“Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.”
“And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.”
Enoch in heaven
The fallen Watchers ask Enoch to carry their petition to heaven. He writes it out, falls asleep reading it, and dreams he is carried up to heaven, where he learns it will not be granted. What he sees there is one of the strangest passages in the book: a house of crystal and fire, hot and cold at once.
“And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals: and the walls of the house were like a tesselated floor (made) of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal.”
“And I entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice: there were no delights of life therein: fear covered me, and trembling got hold upon me.”
“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 and glory and no flesh could behold Him.”
The spirits of the giants
The giants die, but chapter 15 says they do not simply end. Their spirits stay on the earth, hungry and restless, and this is where Enoch places the origin of evil spirits.
“And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.”
“And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.”
The voice of Abel
On his journeys Enoch is shown the places where the souls of the dead wait for judgement. One of them is still crying out.
“I saw (the spirit of) a dead man making suit, and his voice went forth to heaven and made suit.”
“This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from amongst the seed of men.”
The Head of Days and the Son of Man
The second part of the book, the Parables, brings in a figure Christian readers recognise at once.
“And there I saw One who had a head of days, And His head was white like wool, And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.”
The book of the luminaries
Then, for eleven chapters, the book turns into astronomy: Uriel shows Enoch the courses of the sun, moon and stars.
“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, which Uriel, the holy angel, who was with me, who is their guide”
The woes
Near the end, in the Epistle of Enoch, the voice changes again, to a string of curses on the rich and the unjust.
“Woe to those who build unrighteousness and oppression And lay deceit as a foundation; For they shall be suddenly overthrown, And they shall have no peace.”
The birth of Noah
The last chapters tell of a child so strange that his own father runs from him.
“And 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. And when he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like the sun, and the whole house was very bright.”
Questions
Where is the Book of Enoch quoted in the Bible?
The Letter of Jude, verses 14 and 15, quotes the prophecy from the first chapter of 1 Enoch: the Lord coming with ten thousands of His holy ones.
How many angels came down in the Book of Enoch?
Two hundred. Chapter 6 says they came down in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and swore an oath there together.
Who translated these passages?
R. H. Charles. His English translation of 1 Enoch was published in 1917 and is in the public domain in the United States.
For the whole book in one page, read the Book of Enoch summary. For the angels by name, see the names of the Watchers.
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