1 Enoch

Overview

Also called Ethiopic Enoch to distinguish it from later Enochic works. A composite Jewish apocalyptic work attributed to Enoch, the seventh from Adam (Gen 5:21–24), who “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” Survives in full only in Ge’ez (Ethiopic); Aramaic fragments of every section except the Parables were recovered at Qumran. Canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church; quoted directly in the New Testament (Jude 14–15) and echoed across Second Temple and early Christian literature.

The book is a compilation of five distinct sections:

  1. Book of the Watchers (chs. 1–36) — the rebellion of the fallen angels (the Watchers), their union with human women, the birth of the Nephilim, and the descent of forbidden knowledge.
  2. Book of Parables / Similitudes (chs. 37–71) — three parables featuring the heavenly “Son of Man,” judgment of kings and the mighty, and the vindication of the righteous.
  3. Astronomical Book / Book of the Luminaries (chs. 72–82) — a 364-day solar calendar revealed by the angel Uriel.
  4. Book of Dreams (chs. 83–90) — two vision-narratives, including the “Animal Apocalypse” surveying history from Adam to the messianic age.
  5. Epistle of Enoch (chs. 91–108) — moral exhortation, the “Apocalypse of Weeks,” and woes against the wicked.

Author

Traditionally attributed to Enoch son of Jared (Gen 5:18–24). Scholarly consensus treats the work as a composite of multiple anonymous Jewish authors writing under Enoch’s name across roughly four centuries.

Date Written

c. 300 BC – AD 100 (composite)

Chapters

108

Key Themes

Canonical Status