The
book was thought to have been lost for over 2,000 years, with many ancient
sources referencing it, even quoting parts, but no known complete copies. At
that point in 1773, James Bruce brought three duplicates back from Ethiopia
after investing a few a long time investigating the nation. Enoch had two
primary reasons for composing his book. The first was because the Guardians
ordered him to (see Part 15 at 81.5 and 81.6). The second reason; he was
supposed to save his family from the flood. Enoch composed his book after his
grandson Lamech was born, but some time recently Noah was born. Noah is named
only in the part written by Methuselah (see section 10 in 107.3), and of course
in his own section (section 11, The Book of Noah). So the flood, at the time
Enoch wrote his book, could still be 40-80 years away. There is a long gap
between the time of the flood and the time when Moses praised Enoch in Genesis.
Beginning dates from around 1400 BC and shapes portion of the Torah (the
primary five books of the Book of scriptures). In Genesis there is Enoch's
family; as he named it in this book, and a quick summary of some of Enoch's
stories. So it seems likely that copies of the Book of Enoch survived into
Egyptian times, 3500 BC, and were known to Moses some 2000 years later. Moses
probably took a copy of the book with him when they all left Egypt, and was
undoubtedly pleased to see Enoch's prophecy fulfilled. The book probably
existed mainly in Hebrew for a thousand years after the Exodus. However, no
Hebrew copies exist today, although there are some Hebrew passages quoted in
some Aramaic fragments that survive from several centuries BC.
The appearance of the book in Ethiopia is
probably due to the events in the Book of Enoch 6 Jerusalem during the reign of
King Manasseh of Judah (695 - 642 BC), which are documented in the Bible (2
Chronicles 33:1 - 20 and in 2 Kings 21:1 - 18) . King Manasseh was not Jewish,
he built altars of Baal and Asherah in Solomon's temple. In Kings 21:16 it says
that so much innocent blood was shed that it filled Jerusalem from end to end.
At this time, the religious establishment left the country, taking with them
the Ark of the Covenant and all the important religious texts. After several
years in Egypt, the refugees made their way further south, near the source of
the Nile, at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The descendants of these people are the Falashes,
who today still follow a form of Judaism that was only practiced in Israel
before 620 BC. The Ethiopians translated the Book of Enoch into the Ge'ez
language and had enough respect to care for it. In the interim, all Hebrew
forms vanished, but the bulk of the book survived in Greek and a few parts in
Aramaic, but until the Scottish traveler and Freemason James Bruce returned
from Ethiopia in 1773 with three compositions, there was no one within the west,
when he saw the whole book.
Two
commonly available translations were made soon after, and the book was mostly
received with embarrassed silence and was not widely read. This book is based
on a new translation published in 1978, which was the result of research into a
large number of Ethiopic manuscripts and a review of all other extant
fragments. I hope that this present edition will be the best version of the
Book of Enoch available in English. I think it is an critical book and I have
done my best to show it as clearly as conceivable and in a way that I trust
Hanokh would endorse of.
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