Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil (37 page)

8 “And unto him of you who shall be left, O my sons, shall the Word of God come, and when he goes out of this land he shall take with him the body of our father Adam, and shall lay it in the middle of the earth, the place in which salvation shall be wrought.”

9 Then Noah said unto him, “Who is he of us that shall be left?”

10 And Jared answered, “Thou art he that shall be left. And thou shalt take the body of our father Adam from the cave, and place it with thee in the ark when the flood comes.

11 “And thy son Shem, who shall come out of thy loins, he it is who shall lay the body of our father Adam in the middle of the earth, in the place whence salvation shall come.”

12 Then Jared turned to his son Enoch, and said unto him, “Thou, my son, abide in this cave, and minister diligently before the body of our father Adam all the days of thy life; and feed thy people in righteousness and innocence.”

13 And Jared said no more. His hands were loosened, his eyes closed, and he entered into rest like his fathers. His death took place in the three hundred and sixtieth year of Noah, and in the nine hundred and eighty-ninth year of his own life; on the twelfth of Takhsas on a Friday.

14 But as Jared died, tears streamed down his face by reason of his great sorrow, for the children of Seth, who had fallen in his days.

15 Then Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah, these four, wept over him; embalmed him carefully, and then laid him in the Cave of Treasures. Then they rose and mourned for him forty days.

16 And when these days of mourning were ended, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah remained in sorrow of heart, because their father had departed from them, and they saw him no more.

Only three righteous men left in the world. The evil conditions of men prior to the Flood.

1 But Enoch kept the commandment of Jared his father, and continued to minister in the cave.

2 It is this Enoch to whom many wonders happened, and who also wrote a celebrated book; but those wonders may not be told in this place.

3 Then after this, the children of Seth went astray and fell, they, their children and their wives. And when Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah saw them, their hearts suffered by reason of their fall into doubt full of unbelief; and they wept and sought of God mercy, to preserve them, and to bring them out of that wicked generation.

4 Enoch continued in his ministry before the Lord three hundred and eighty-five years, and at the end of that time he became aware through the grace of God, that God intended to remove him from the earth.

5 He then said to his son, “O my son, I know that God intends to bring the waters of the Flood upon the earth, and to destroy our creation.

6 “And ye are the last rulers over this people on this mountain; for I know that not one will be left you to beget children on this holy mountain; neither shall any one of you rule over the children of his people; neither shall any great company be left of you, on this mountain.”

7 Enoch said also to them, “Watch over your souls, and hold fast by your fear of God and by your service of Him, and worship Him in upright faith, and serve Him in righteousness, innocence and judgment, in repentance and also in purity.”

8 When Enoch had ended his commandments to them, God transported him from that mountain to the land of life, to the mansions of the righteous and of the chosen, the abode of Paradise of joy, in light that reaches up to heaven; light that is outside the light of this world; for it is the light of God, that fills the whole world, but which no place can contain.

9 Thus, because Enoch was in the light of God, he found himself out of the reach of death; until God would have him die.

10 Altogether, not one of our fathers or of their children, remained on that holy mountain, except those three, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. For all the rest went down from the mountain and fell into sin with the children of Cain. Therefore were they forbidden that mountain, and none remained on it but those three men.

An entirely different Enoch manuscript has survived in the Slavonic language. This text, dubbed “2 Enoch” and commonly called “the Slavonic Enoch,” was discovered in 1886 by a Professor Sokolov in the archives of the Belgrade Public Library. It appears that just as the Ethiopic Enoch (“1 Enoch”) had escaped the sixth-century Church suppression of Enoch texts in the Mediterranean area, so a Slavonic Enoch had survived far away, long after the originals from which it was copied were destroyed or hidden away.

Specialists in the Enoch texts surmise that the missing original from which the Slavonic was copied was probably a Greek manuscript. This may have been, in turn, based upon a Hebrew or Aramaic manuscript.

Many Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch have been recovered in the past few decades from the Qumran caves which preserved the scriptures of the Essenes, showing the importance of Enoch to the Essene community. It is also possible that the core of the Slavonic Enoch, the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, was known to the Essene brotherhood, although none of its records have been found in the few scattered remnants of that community.

The Slavonic text bears evidence of many later additions to the original manuscript. Such editorializing is common in religious texts, and it can include, unfortunately, the deletion of teachings considered “erroneous.”

Because of certain calendrical data in the Slavonic Enoch, some claim the text cannot be earlier than the seventh century
A.D.
Most scholars see Christian influences in the Slavonic Enoch and therefore assign it, at the earliest, to the first century
A.D.

But some see these troublesome passages not as evidence of Christian authorship, but as later Christian interpolations into an earlier manuscript. Enochian specialist R. H. Charles, for instance, believes that even the better of the two Slavonic manuscripts contains interpolations and is, in textual terms, “corrupt.”

Most scholars agree that the Slavonic Enoch is an eclectic and syncretistic text, perhaps compiled by Christian writers but probably having origins in an earlier tradition. It may be dependent upon 1 Enoch, although it is recognized as a separate part of the literary tradition concerning the patriarch Enoch.

The Slavonic Enoch thus could preserve another part of a profound teaching on the fallen angels known to the early Judaic peoples but mainly lost to us. For this reason, the Slavonic Enoch is valuable, despite its editorial shortcomings.

So although the fingerprints of many centuries of later editors are left upon this manuscript, they do not necessarily invalidate the authenticity and antiquity of this book and its teaching. The ring of truth echoes from many of its pages.

As with the Ethiopic text of 1 Enoch, the chapters of this book may be spartan editions of several separate and larger books. Many scholars have seen in 1 Enoch separate books titled: the Ancient Book, the First and Second Books of the Watchers, the First Book of Secrets or the Vision of Wisdom, the Vision of Noah and History, and the Book of Astronomy. There could be a similar set of resources, differently compiled, behind the Slavonic Enoch.

Enoch tells us here that he wrote 366 books. Why, then, should we not postulate some one or two or ten of his “lost” books behind this Slavonic Enoch?

[Our inclusion of the Book of the Secrets of Enoch and the apocryphal works that follow in “Enoch in the Forgotten Books” does not indicate that they are necessarily of the same spiritual caliber as the Book of Enoch, which is the longest and most important document in the Enochian literature. But these lesser works do underscore the authenticity of the Book of Enoch, both by thematic borrowing (as in the Book of the Secrets of Enoch) and in direct citation (as in the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs).]

An account of the mechanism of the world showing the machinery of the sun and moon in operation. Astronomy and an interesting ancient calendar. See Chapter 15–17 also 21. What the world was like before Creation, see Chapter 24. Chapter 26 is especially picturesque. A unique account of how Satan was created (Chapter 29.)

1 There was a wise man, a great artificer, and the Lord conceived love for him and received him, that he should behold the uppermost dwellings and be an eyewitness of the wise and great and inconceivable and immutable realm of God Almighty, of the very wonderful and glorious and bright and many-eyed station of the Lord’s servants, and of the inaccessible throne of the Lord, and of the degrees and manifestations of the incorporeal hosts, and of the ineffable ministration of the multitude of the elements, and of the various apparition and inexpressible singing of the host of Cherubim, and of the boundless light.

2 At that time, he said, when my 165th year was completed, I begat my son Mathusal.

3 After this too I lived two hundred years and completed of all the years of my life three hundred and sixty-five years.

4 On the first day of the first month I was in my house alone and was resting on my couch and slept.

5 And when I was asleep, great distress came up into my heart, and I was weeping with my eyes in sleep, and I could not understand what this distress was, or what would happen to me.

6 And there appeared to me two men, exceeding big, so that I never saw such on earth; their faces were shining like the sun, their eyes too
were
like a burning light, and from their lips was fire coming forth with clothing and singing of various kinds in appearance purple, their wings
were
brighter than gold, their hands whiter than snow.

7 They were standing at the head of my couch and began to call me by my name.

8 And I arose from my sleep and saw clearly those two men standing in front of me.

9 And I saluted them and was seized with fear and the appearance of my face was changed from terror, and those men said to me:

10 ‘Have courage, Enoch, do not fear; the eternal God sent us to thee, and lo! thou shalt to-day ascend with us into heaven, and thou shalt tell thy sons and all thy household all that they shall do without thee on earth in thy house, and let no one seek thee till the Lord return thee to them.’

11 And I made haste to obey them and went out from my house, and made to the doors, as it was ordered me, and summoned my sons Mathusal and Regim and Gaidad and made known to them all the marvels those
men
had told me.

The Instruction. How Enoch instructed his sons.

Listen to me, my children, I know not whither I go, or what will befall me; now therefore, my children, I tell you: turn not from God before the face of the vain, who made not Heaven and earth, for these shall perish and those who worship them, and may the Lord make confident your hearts in the fear of him. And now, my children, let no one think to seek me, until the Lord return me to you.

Of Enoch’s assumption; how the angels took him into the first heaven.

It came to pass, when Enoch had told his sons, that the angels took him on to their wings and bore him up on to the first heaven and placed him on the clouds. And there I looked, and again I looked higher, and saw the ether, and they placed me on the first heaven and showed me a very great Sea, greater than the earthly sea.

Of the angels ruling the stars.

They brought before my face the elders and rulers of the stellar orders, and showed me two hundred angels, who rule the stars and
their
services to the heavens, and fly with their wings and come round all those who sail.

Of how the angels keep the store-houses of the snow.

And here I looked down and saw the treasure-houses of the snow, and the angels who keep their terrible store-houses, and the clouds whence they come out and into which they go.

Of the dew and of the olive-oil, and various flowers.

They showed me the treasure-house of the dew, like oil of the olive, and the appearance of its form, as of all the flowers of the earth; further many angels guarding the treasure-houses of these
things, and
how they are made to shut and open.

Of how Enoch was taken on to the second heaven.

1 And those men took me and led me up on to the second heaven, and showed me darkness, greater than earthly darkness, and there I saw prisoners hanging, watched, awaiting the great and boundless judgement, and these angels were dark-looking, more than earthly darkness, and incessantly making weeping through all hours.

2 And I said to the men who were with me: ‘Wherefore are these incessantly tortured?’ they answered me: ‘These are God’s apostates, who obeyed not God’s commands, but took counsel with their own will, and turned away with their prince, who also
is
fastened on the fifth heaven.’

3 And I felt great pity for them, and they saluted me, and said to me: ‘Man of God, pray for us to the Lord’; and I answered to them: ‘Who am I, a mortal man, that I should pray for angels? who knoweth whither I go, or what will befall me? or who will pray for me?’