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have often wondered exactly how the Book of Enoch came into the
hands of those who lived in the centuries before Christ, when
it was rediscovered, and begun to spread, in the ancient world.
I knew that Noah brought it on the Ark, and other books, because
it says so in those parts of Enoch's book, that was written and
redacted by Noah.
But then, I only could speculate that it was given to Shem, and
then to his descendants, to finally come into the hands of Moses,
and from there to the Jews, and early Christians.
I hadn't read the Book of Jubilees, except for small parts, but
it turns out, that either did someone think like me, in ancient
times, or it really happened like that, because this book tells
a quite interesting story of how Enoch's and Noah's writings were
handed down through the generations, all the way to the Levites.
So, at least according to ancient Jewish tradition, Levi and his
line of descendants, had in their posession, those age-old writings.
And Moses was of that tribe, both his father and mother were of
Levi's descent.
The story mentioned is spread out in Jubilees, but in the following
I have put it together, and also added some other notes about
the same subject I have found in other similar books, that is,
those Jewish traditions that were part of what at least many Jews
and prophets of God believed in. I have also added those parts
of the Book of Enoch mentioned earlier (where Noah is writing).
| BEFORE THE FLOOD | The generations before the Flood that we need to be concerned with, are the following: |
| 7. ENOCH (Seventh from Adam) |
Enoch receives visions and revelations from Uriel and other angels of God, and writes down these in books, or booklets "And in the eleventh jubilee Jared took to himself a
wife, and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Rasujal a daughter
of his father's brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee,
and she bare him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year
of the jubilee, and he called his name Enoch. |
| 8. METHUSELAH |
Enoch gives books to his son Methuselah. Methuselah is admonished to pass on the books to his son Lamech, who is to give them to his descendants, including Noah, who is to take them with him on the Ark "And now, my son Methuselah, all these things I am recounting to thee and writing down for thee, and I have revealed to thee everything, and given thee books concerning all these: so preserve, my son Methuselah, the books from thy father's hand, and (see) that thou deliver them to the generations of the world." (Enoch 1912 82:1) "Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days." (Enoch 1912 108:1) |
| 9. LAMECH |
Lamech passed on the knowledge from Methuselah, and Enoch, to Noah "For thus did Enoch, the father of your father command Methuselah, his son, and Methuselah his son Lamech, and Lamech commanded me all the things which his fathers commanded him." (Jub. 7:38) |
| 10. NOAH |
Enoch also gives books to Noah "And after that my grandfather Enoch gave me the teaching of all the secrets in the book in the Parables which had been given to him, and he put them together for me in the words of the book of the Parables." (Enoch 1912 68:1) "After that, he gave me instructions in all the secret things (found) in the book of my grandfather, Enoch, and in the parables which were given to him; and he put them together for me in the words of the book which is with me." (Enoch 68:1, in Isaac's transl. from another geez manuscript.) |
| AFTER THE FLOOD | The generations after the Flood, from Noah up until Moses, are the following: |
| NOAH |
Noah instructs his sons Shem, Ham and Japhet about the knowledge he received from his forefathers "For thus did Enoch, the father of your father command Methuselah, his son, and Methuselah his son Lamech, and Lamech commanded me all the things which his fathers commanded him. 39. And I also will give you commandment, my sons, as Enoch commanded his son in the first jubilees ..." (Jub. 7:38-39a) |
| 11. SHEM |
Noah gives his books, including the Book of Enoch, for Noah wrote parts of it, and redacted it, to his son Shem "And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son ; for he loved him exceedingly above all his sons." (Jub. 10:14) With these books as a ground, Shem founded a school in Salem "Of Shem the Rabbis have somewhat to say. "I have
found in the Midrash that the Rabbi Johanan, son of Nuri, said:
'The holy, ever-blessed God took Shem, son of Noah, and consecrated
him priest of the Most High, that he should minister before Him;
and He let his Majesty dwell with Him, and He gave him the name
Melchizedek, a priest of the Most High God, king of Salem. His
brother Japheth learnt the law of him in his school, till Abraham
came, who learnt it in the school of Shem. For this Abraham
obtained, praying to God that his Majesty should remain and dwell
in the house of Shem, wherefore it was said of him, Thou art
a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' |
| 12. ARPHAXAD |
Arphaxad teaches his son Cainan preflood Hebrew, which makes Cainan able to read a preflood, heathen inscription, with Watcher teaching "In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, in the
beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name
was Easu'eja, [the daughter of Susan,] the daughter of Elam,
and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, and he
called his name Kainam. So, according to this, the blood-lines of Shem and Japhet were mixed in Cainan's generation. Kind of the same idea that drove the builders of the Tower of Babel later on. Global unity. Is that why Cainan is not mentioned in the Masorethic O.T.? The knowledge on the rock inscriptions was taught to pre-flood humanity from the seventh generation after Adam, by which some of them could figure out that a flood awaited the whole world, and they started preparing for it, in secret. "Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day. Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants." (The Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus, Book I, 2:3b-3:1a) As Josephus rightly said, the "pillar of stone remains in Siriad to this day". Siriad is Egypt, and the pillar (greek: 'pyramos', from which 'pyramid' is derived) is non other than the great Pyramid, at Giza. So Cainan, when out searching for a place to build a city, may well have come to Egypt before it was repopulated, and found stone slabs that had fallen down from the surface of the pyramid, and read the mysteries inscribed upon them. The following account, from the ninth or tenth century, about ancient Egypt, may be a memory of that Cainan, who Jubilees says travelled, and found Watcher wisdom carved on rocks: "Soyuti then says, that Seth took possession of Egypt
; and that one of his sons, Kinan, was Hermes. That he was endowed
with great wisdom and travelled through the world, being under
the especial protection of Providence. That he was likewise a
great warrior, and conquered all the east, and introduced Sabaism,
which inculcated a belief in one god — the observance of
prayer seven times in each day — sacrifices, fasts, and
a pilgrimage to the Pyramids. In the third century after Christ, Coptic Christians in Egypt had knowledge about who the Egyptian king was, that built the pyramids at Giza, and how he wanted to preserve the ancient science of the pre-flood world: PAPYRUS FOUND IN THE MONASTERY OF ABOU HORMEIS. It is said, that in a tomb at the monastery of Abou Hormeis,
a body was found wrapped round with a cloth, and bearing upon
the breast a papyrus, inscribed with antient Coptic characters,
which could not be deciphered until, a monk, from the monastery
of Al Kalmun in the Faioum, explained it as follows: "In
the first year of King Diocletian, an account was taken from
a book, copied in the first year of King Philippus — from
an inscription of great antiquity written upon a tablet of gold,
which tablet was translated by two brothers — Ilwa, and
Yercha — at the request of Philippus, who asked them, how
it happened that they could understand an inscription, which
was unintelligible to the learned men in his capital? They answered,
because they were descended from one of the antient inhabitants
of Egypt, who* was preserved with Noah in the ark, and who, after
the flood had subsided, went into Egypt with the sons of Ham,
and dying in that country left to his descendants, (from whom
the two brothers received them), the books of the antient Egyptians,
which had been written one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five
years before the time of Philippus, nine hundred and forty-six
years before the arrival of the sons of Ham in Egypt, and contained
the history of two thousand three hundred and seventy-two years
; and that it was from these books that the tablet was formed.
The contents of the book were : 'We have seen what the stars
foretold; we saw the calamity descending from the heavens, and
going out from the earth, and we were convinced that the waters
would destroy the earth, with the inhabitants and plants. We
told this to the King Surid Ben Shaluk : he built the Pyramids
for the safety of us, and also as tombs for himself and for his
household. When Surid died, he was buried in the eastern Pyramid
; his brother Haukith, in the western; and his nephew Karwars,
in the smaller — the lower part of which is built with granite,
but the upper with a stone called Kedan.' The Pyramids are described
to have had doors with subterraneous porticoes or passages one
hundred and fifty cubits in length. The entrance into the eastern
Pyramid is said to be on the side next the sea, and that of the
strong Pyramid towards the Kiblah ; and vast treasures and innumerable
precious things are mentioned to have been enclosed in these
buildings. Then the two brothers calculated what time had elapsed
from the flood to the day when the translation was made by them
for King Philip ; and it appeared to be one thousand seven hundred
and forty-one years, fifty-nine days, and twenty-three hours." * My comment: If we take this instead as "who's grandfather
(Shem) was preserved with Noah in the ark", then this ancestor
to the two brothers may have been Cainan, son of Arphaxad - who
found ancient pre-flood Watcher wisdom, inscribed on rocks, in
a land distant from his fathers', and transcribed these secrets,
and sinned much through them. This fits with the two accounts
above, very well, and also makes those accounts likely to have
happened, at least in some details. "And he said to me: 'On account of their injustice their judgment is completed; and will not be counted before me concerning the months which they have searched out, and through which they have learned that the earth will be destroyed and those who live thereon." (Enoch 65:10) This also fits well with the above accounts. Far from all,
but a few of humanity knew about the coming flood, and prepared
for it in different ways. In post-flood times, there were two
lines of rediscovered pre-flood knowledge spreading, one of them
through Shem, Eber, Abraham, to Levi and Moses, and the other
through Cainan, who taught the occult wisdom of the Watchers,
to some of his descendants, and probably to the Egyptians, where
he was remembered as a great teacher. Another Coptic man, testified the following to be a true account, handed down by his forefathers (the Copts are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians): "Masoudi's account professes to relate the Coptic tradition,
which says, "That Surid, Ben Shaluk, Ben Sermuni, Ben Termidun,
Ben Tedresan, Ben Sal, one of the kings of Egypt before the flood,
built the two great Pyramids; and, notwithstanding they were
subsequently named after a person called Sheddad Ben Ad, that
they were not built by the Adites, who could not conquer Egypt,
on account of the powers, which the Egyptians possessed by means
of enchantment [the Adites were giants, according to old tradition];
that the reason for building the Pyramids was the following dream,
which happened to Surid three hundred years previous to the flood.
It appeared to him, that the earth was overthrown, and that the
inhabitants were laid prostrate upon it ; that the stars wandered
confusedly from their courses, and clashed together with a tremendous
noise. The king, although greatly affected by this vision, did
not disclose it to any person, but was conscious that some great
event was about to take place. Soon afterwards in another vision,
he saw the fixed stars descend upon the earth in the form of
white birds, and "The Coptic account ends here. It appears from M. Quatremere's dissertation, that the traditions of the antient Egyptians were preserved by their descendants, the Copts, who were held in great respect by the Arabs. It is also said, that, in the reign of Ahmed Ben Touloun, who conquered Egypt about 260 a.h., a learned man, above one hundred years old, and of either Coptic or Nabathaean extraction, lived in Upper Egypt. This person had visited many countries, and was well informed of the antient history of Egypt, and was, by order of Ahmed Ben Touloun, examined before an assembly of learned Mahometans ; and Masoudi's account of the Pyramids is said to have been given upon the authority of this learned man. Masoudi also mentions certain persons who were, by profession, guides to the Pyramids. It may be remarked, that the Arabian authors have given the same accounts of the Pyramids, with little or no variation, for above a thousand years; and that they appear to have repeated the traditions of the antient Egyptians, mixed up with fabulous stories and incidents, certainly not of Mahometan invention. The history, however, although evidently incorrect, yet seems as well worthy of credit, as the fables of Greek mythology, or as Homer's account of the heroes engaged in the Trojan war. — Dr. Sprenger" |
| 13. CAINAN | |
| 14. SALAH | |
| 15. EBER |
"Heber is said to have alone retained the Hebrew language, because he took no part in the building of Babel." (Note by R. H. Charles to Jub. 12:25. The statement "appears in the Catena Nicephori, i. col. 177, on Gen. xi. 8." "In the next colophon of the same work the same statement is attributed to Diodorus of Antioch (378-394 A.D.).") After the Tower of Babel incident, Eber moves to Salem in Canaan, and becomes head of the school of Shem "Rivkah consulted with the heads of the academy founded by Shem and subsequently headed by his great grandson Ever." (Kedushat Levi, Genesis, Toldot, on Gen. 25:22.) |
| 16. PELEG | |
| 17. REU | |
| 18. SERUG | "And she bare him Nahor, in the first year of this week, and he grew and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, and his father taught him the researches of the Chaldees to divine and augur, according to the signs of heaven." (Jub. 11:8) |
| 19. NAHOR | |
| 20. TERAH |
Terah teaches Abram his son to read and write Chaldean "And in the seventh year of this week she bare him a
son, and he called his name Abram, by the name of the father
of his mother ; for he had died before his daughter had conceived
a son. |
| 21. ABRAM |
Abram learns to read and speak preflood Hebrew, and can transcribe the Books of Enoch and Noah to Aramaic "And the Lord God said: "Open his mouth and his
ears, that he may hear and speak with his mouth, with the language
which has been revealed"; for it had ceased from the mouths
of all the children of men from the day of the overthrow (of
Babel). "... for thus I have found it written in the books of my forefathers, and in the words of Enoch, and in the words of Noah." (Jub. 21:10) Note on v. 10: "Written in the books of my forefathers. According to x. 14 Noah gave all his secret books to Shem, who may have passed them on to Abraham, as, according to rabbinic tradition, Abraham attended the school of Shem. According to xii. 27, however, Abram is said to have been a "home " student, and 'to have studied the books of his fathers. Singer (p. 126 note) states that according to Pirke R. El, viii., Jalk. Gen. § 41, Abraham received from Shem the knowledge of the calendar which was imparted to Adam from heaven, and which had come down to Shem through Enoch and Noah." When Abraham moved from Haran in Aram into Canaan, he came to know Shem, his ancestor, and attended his school "I have found in the Midrash that the Rabbi Johanan, son of Nuri, said: 'The holy, ever-blessed God took Shem, son of Noah, and consecrated him priest of the Most High, that he should minister before Him; and He let his Majesty dwell with Him, and He gave him the name Melchizedek, a priest of the Most High God, king of Salem. His brother Japheth learnt the law of him in his school, till Abraham came, who learnt it in the school of Shem. For this Abraham obtained, praying to God that his Majesty should remain and dwell in the house of Shem, wherefore it was said of him, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.'" (Legends of Old Testament Characters by Sabine Baring-Gould, XVII. The Sons of Noah, printed 1884.) During his stay in Egypt because of a famine, Abraham taught the Egyptian priests from the Book of Enoch "And Abraham dwelt with the Egyptian priests in Heliopolis and taught them many things; and it was he who introduced astronomy and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and himself had found these things out, but tracing back the first discovery to Enoch, and saying that he, and not the Egyptians, had first invented astrology." (Alexander Polyhistor, quoting Eupolemos [Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel). Tr. E.H. Gifford (1903) -- Book 9].) |
| ISAAC |
Also Isaac went to the school of Shem "And Izhak was coming from the school of the Rabba Shem, by the way of the fountain where had been revealed to him the Living and Eternal One, who seeth, and is not seen; and he resided in the land of the south." (Targum Jonathan 24:62) |
| JACOB |
And so did Jacob "And the youths grew, and Jacob learned to write
; but Esau did not learn, for he was a man of the field and a
hunter, and he learnt war, and all his deeds were fierce. "But Jakob was a man peaceful in his words, a minister of the instruction-house of Eber, seeking instruction before the Lord." (Targum Jonathan 25:27b) |
| LEVI |
Jacob (also named Israel), gives his books and the books of his fathers to Levi, his son, and Levi is to pass them on to his descendants "And Israel blessed his sons before he died and told
them everything that would befall them in the land of Egypt ;
and he made known to them what would come upon them in the last
days, and blessed them and gave to Joseph two portions in the
land. Thus, it is possible that Levi got in possession of both
the books that Shem had, and the books that Abraham had. Obviously,
it is from these that Moses later writes Genesis. |
| KOHATH |
"Now, to you, Amram my son, I command [a heritage that has been transmitted (to me) and which you receive] and to your chil[dren], and to their descendants I command[ all the sacred writings that our fathers received/ wrote] and gave to my father Levi, and that my father Levi [gave] to me [and which I Qohath give to you, my son, and to your sons] all my writings as a testimony, that you should take warning from them [as the heritage of your forefathers. And there shall be] great merit for you in them when you carry them along with you..." (Testament of Qahat, '4Q542 1 ii 9-13, In the translation of E. Cook in The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Reference Library (Revised Edition 2006; Leiden: Brill, 2006) who, contrary to the DSSE, translates the reconstruction of Puech.' - All the above from Parabiblical Literature from Qumran and the Canonical Process, Florentino García Martínez, KULeuven.) As can be seen from this text, these books from the forefathers were considered holy, divine, and authoritative, and this was before Moses wrote his 5 books. And among those books of the forefathers, were of course the Book of Enoch, and the Book of Noah. |
| AMRAM |
Amram teaches and instructs his people from the doctrines that Jacob had preserved "He was, like Ahijah of Shiloh, one of the long-lived saints whose life extended over many generations of Jews, to whom he became a transmitter of ancient lore. He instructed even Ahijah, the prophet, in the doctrines taught by the patriarch Jacob. Being the son of Kohath, who, though the second son of Levi, was the one chosen to "lead the assemblies of people in worship" (=kehat 'ammim) and therefore, the real heir to Levi, the tenth one (beginning the count from the youngest) of the twelve tribes and for this reason the consecrated bearer of Abraham's blessings and Jacob's traditions (Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Levi, xi.; Book of Jubilees, xxxii.; Gen. R. lxx.), Amram was the "chief of his generation" (Sotah. 12a)." (Jewish Encyclopedia, Amram, Father of Moses.) |
| MOSES | Moses quotes parts of the Book of Enoch in
Genesis 6, and is aware of the story of Azazel, when he receives
the instructions concerning the atonement in Leviticus 16. After Moses, it seems that the Book of Enoch was hidden, and no longer used by the Biblical authors coming after Moses. This may have an explanation, in that Moses knew that if this book still was read, the memories of the giants he warred against, would never cease. That God wanted not only the Nephilim giants to perish, but also even the memories of them, can be seen in Isa. 26:14, where it says: "Dead - they live not, Rephaim, they rise not, Therefore Thou hast inspected and dost destroy them, Yea, thou destroyest all their memory." (Isa. 26:14, YLT) |
| AFTER MOSES | What happened to the Book of Enoch after Moses? |
| ... | Up until the 3 century or so B.C., it seems
the Book of Enoch was unknown among the Israelite and Jewish
people, thus, because in their area of the world, the giants
were exterminated, and there was no need to remind or tempt anyone
to revive the memories or remains of these unlawful invaders
of Adam's domain. I haven't been able to find any references to the Book of Enoch after Moses, in the Old Testament, apart from perhaps in Ez. 32, where the verse 27 seems to talk about the Nephilim in the underworld (and the word Nofelim, for fallen ones, could originally have been Nefilim, as there only consonants in the Hebrew). In such case, it is rather the Book of Noah, cited in Jubilees, that is known to Ezekiel, about the part of the Nephilim that is sent to Sheol because of Noah's prayer. But this knowledge could as easily have been transmitted orally, or having been known by new revelation or spiritual experiences, good or bad, so I don't see it as a definite proof of Ezekiel having read those ancient books. Strangely enough, in the Greek world, the at least content of the Book of Enoch seems to have influenced Hesiod, in his Theogony. When he writes about Tartarus, there are too many similarities with Enoch's chapter 18, to be a coincidence. Hesiod is considered to have lived in the 800's BC, so if my assumption is right, the book of Enoch was still around, but not very wellknown, after the time of Moses. That all changed in the 3 century BC, probably because of the Library of Alexandria, and the drive to translate all ancient books into Greek, including the Old Testament books. It seems someone found also a copy of the Book of Enoch, somewhere, and so it too was translated, from the Aramaic, into the Greek language. From that time on, the book is referenced and cited in almost every new Hebrew religious text. What could have been the cause for God now letting the ancient memories of the giants surface, again? Well, one cause perhaps was, that the time of Christ was coming close, and he was going to start a devastating war against those remaining Nephilim spirits, he and his followers, and so it was necessary to know about their ancient origins and the whole, wider, story of why they were here. There are other obvious reasons why the Book of Enoch surfaced in the time before the first coming of the Son of Man, and those are of course the astonishing prophecies of Jesus, that Enoch received |