1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation

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Preface

1 Enoch is a collection of apocalyptic (revelatory) texts that were composed between the late fourth century B.C.E. and the turn of the era. The size of the collection, the diversity of its contents, and its many implications for the study of ancient Judaism and Christian origins make it arguably the most important Jewish writing that has survived from the Greco-Roman period.

In this revised edition, we offer a translation that is based on a critical reading of all the ancient textual sources. In chapters 37–82, it has been modified slightly from the first edition of this book (1 Enoch: A New Translation [Fortress Press, 2004]), and the whole is substantially the same as what appears in our commentaries in the Hermeneia commentary series, 1 Enoch 1 and 1 Enoch 2. The translation in chapters 1–71 and 83–108 was prepared by George Nickelsburg, and that of chapters 72–82 by James VanderKam. The two of us are responsible for the parts of the introduction that pertain to the sections that we have translated. A bibliography provides resources for further study.

We wish to thank the editorial board of Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible for their kind permission to publish our translation here in a separate format, and Fortress Press (facilitated by Neil Elliott, acquiring editor) for agreeing to print the revised edition. We are happy to acknowledge the fine work of Maurya Horgan and Paul Kobelski at the HK Scriptorium in designing and producing this work. We are also grateful to Sarah Schreiber for her help in proofreading the manuscript.

George W. E. Nickelsburg, The University of Iowa

James C. VanderKam, The University of Notre Dame

Abbreviations and Sigla

Abbreviations

Aram   Aramaic

chap.    chapter

Copt    Coptic

Eth      Ethiopic

frg.      fragment

Gk       Greek

Gka      Akhmim manuscript of the Greek version

Gks       Extracts of the Greek version quoted by the chronographer George Syncellus

hmt.       homoioteleuton, that is, words or lines that end with the same or similar letters or words

lit.        literally

ms(s)    manuscript(s)

NT       New Testament

Syr       Syriac

v(v)      verse(s)

Sigla Relating to the Translation and Its Textual Base

( )         Words supplied to clarify the translation. Also occasionally they indicate a parenthetical comment within the text itself.

< >       Textual emendation, either changing extant words or adding others presumed to have been lost

{ }       Words that are possibly not original

[ ]         Words supplied to fill a physical lacuna in a manuscript

††        Enclosed word(s) presumed to be corrupt

. . . .     A series of more than three periods indicates that a piece of text has been lost.

Chapter and verse numbers in boldface type indicate text that has been transposed from its place in the manuscripts.

Introduction

Contents of 1 Enoch

1 Enoch divides into five major sections, which are followed by two short appendices: The Book of the Watchers (chaps. 1–36); The Book of Parables (chaps. 37–71); The Book of the Luminaries (chaps. 72– 82); The Dream Visions (chaps. 83–90); The Epistle of Enoch (chaps. 91–105); The Birth of Noah (chaps. 106–107); Another Book by Enoch (chap. 108). The sections represent developing stages of the Enochic tradition, each one building on the earlier ones—though not in the order in which they presently stand in the collection. Overall they express a common worldview that characterizes this present world and age as evil and unjust and in need of divine adjudication and renewal. With the possible exception of the Book of the Luminaries, they focus on the common concern and expectation that a coming divine judgment will eradicate evil and injustice from the earth and will return the world to God’s created intention. Their authority lies in their claim that they transmit divine revelation, which the patriarch Enoch received in primordial times (Gen 5:21-24) and which is made public in the last times to constitute the eschatological community of the chosen.

The Book of the Watchers (Chaps. 1–36)

Chapters 1–5 were composed as an introduction to chapters 1–36, but now set the keynote for the entire work. They constitute a tri‑partite prophetic oracle, in which Enoch announces the coming theophany, when God and the heavenly entourage will render judgment against the rebel angels who introduced evil into the world and against sinful humans, who perpetrate it. The first section (1:1-9) paraphrases part of Moses’ final blessing on Israel (Deuteronomy 33) and an oracle of Balaam (Numbers 24) and bases Enoch’s authority on visions received in heaven and interpreted by angels. The second section (2:1—5:4), cast in the language of Israelite wisdom traditions, expands the indictment of all flesh (1:9) by contrasting the obedience of the heavenly bodies and the earthly seasons with humanity’s disobedience. The final section (5:5-9) employs language from Isaiah 56–66 to describe the blessings and curses that await the righteous chosen and the sinners.

Chapters 6–11 are an interpretation of Genesis 6–9 that identifies events of the primordial past with those of the author’s time. The sons of God (Gen 6:2), identified as angels (watchers), led by their chieftain Shemihazah, rebel against God by mating with mortal women and begetting giants, who devastate the earth. The giants can be interpreted as stand-ins for the warriors of the author’s own time (the Hellenistic kings). The Genesis description of the Flood flows into a scenario that is appropriate for God’s eschatological judgment and the inception of the new age. Interwoven with the myth of the watchers and the women is a second pair of myths, which identify the sin of the watchers as the revelation of forbidden secrets (metallurgy and mining, magic and the mantic arts) that promote violence and promiscuity. Here the rebel chieftain is Asael, a figure who resembles Prometheus, the rebellious divine figure of Greek myth. Humanity’s plea, heard by the four high angels, triggers the judgment. With the sinful principals annihilated, a new age ensues with blessings for the chosen and those of humanity who have converted to the worship of God.

Chapters 12–16 interpret chapters 6–11, employing the form of a prophetic commissioning account. Enoch ascends to heaven, where God commands him to announce judgment on the fallen watchers. Here the watchers’ sin is described as the forbidden intermixture of flesh and spirit. Different from chapters 6–11, the death of the watchers does not annihilate them, but releases their spirits to constitute a realm of evil spirits who plague humanity until the final judgment.

Chapters 17–32 enhance the account of Enoch’s commissioning by providing a spatial reference to the previous temporal prediction of a future judgment. Enoch sees the places where the apparatus of judgment has been prepared and where it will be executed. Chapters 17–19 recount Enoch’s journey to the far northwest, where in the company of interpreting angels, he views the places of final punishment for the watchers and certain rebellious stars. Chapters 20–32 describe a second journey, which begins where the first one left off and carries Enoch across the face of the earth to its eastern reaches. Here, in addition to the places described in the previous journey, Enoch recounts his visions of the places of eschatological significance for humanity—both the righteous chosen and the sinners (the place of the dead, the mountain of God, and Jerusalem), as well as primordial Eden. As in the previous journey, the literary form of the segments of this journey includes these elements: Enoch’s progress to a new place; his vision; his question; an interpretation by the accompanying angel. The account of Enoch’s journey to the places of the luminaries (chaps. 33–36) briefly summarizes material in chapters 72–82. The Book of the Watchers probably took its present form by the mid- or late third century b.c.e.

The Book of Parables (Chaps. 37–71)

These chapters of 1 Enoch were originally a separate Enochic writing that announced the coming of the great judgment, in which God would vindicate the chosen and righteous and punish their oppressors, the kings and the mighty. The book divides into three major sections called parables or similitudes (chaps. 38–44; 45–57; 58–69). The term here reflects the usage of biblical prophetic literature and denotes a revelatory discourse. Since the expression occurs also in 1 Enoch 1:2-3 and 93:1, 3 (Aramaic), it is less distinctive of chapters 37–71 than the universal scholarly designation the Book of Parables might indicate. In fact, the author’s introduction entitles the work Enoch’s vision of wisdom (37:1).

Running through the parables are four major types of material, three of which parallel other parts of 1 Enoch. The book as a whole depicts a series of journeys. The seer ascends to the heavenly throne room (39:3—41:2). Then he visits the astronomical and other celestial phenomena (chaps. 41–44; 59–60) and the places of punishment (especially 52:1—56:4). The second set of materials includes narratives about Noah and the Flood (especially chaps. 65–68). As in chapters 6–11 and 106–107 the Flood is a type of the final judgment. The third group of materials consists of a series of heavenly tableaux, scenes in a developing drama that depicts events leading up to the final judgment. Intermingled with these tableaux is a series of anticipatory allusions to the judgment, often introduced with the words in those days.

The drama depicted in the Parables includes a diverse cast of characters. On the one side are God, God’s heavenly entourage, the agents of divine judgment (primarily the Chosen One, but also certain of God’s angels), and God’s people (the chosen, the righteous, and the holy). On the other side are the chief demon Azazel, his angels, and the kings and the mighty. God is usually called the Lord of Spirits, a paraphrase of the biblical title Lord of Hosts, or the Head of Days (cf. Dan 7:9). The Chosen One combines the titles, attributes, and functions of the one like a son of man in Daniel 7:13-14, the Servant of the Lord in Second Isaiah, the Davidic Messiah, and pre-existent heavenly Wisdom (Proverbs 8). Although son of man is a Semitic way of saying human being, the usage in Daniel 8:15; 9:21; 10:5; 12:6 indicates that an angel can be called a/the man or described as having the appearance of a man. The Chosen One is the agent of God’s judgment and as such is depicted with imagery that the early chapters of 1 Enoch ascribe to God. Related to his judicial function is his role as the champion of God’s people, and his titles the Chosen One and the Righteous One correspond to the titles the chosen and the righteous ones. The salient features of God’s people are their status as God’s chosen ones, their righteousness, their suffering, and their faith in God’s vindication. Azazel and his hosts are the counterparts of Asael and of Shemihazah and his hosts (chaps. 6–11), and their major sin here is the revelation of secrets. The kings and the mighty, the real villains of the piece, deny the name of the Lord of Spirits and the heavenly world, worship idols, and oppress and persecute the righteous.

The first parable introduces most of the dramatis personae, as well as the theme of judgment. Together with the introduction to the book (chap. 37), it follows roughly the structure of the first chapters of 1 Enoch. (Compare chap. 37 with 1:1-3; chap. 38 with 1:3-9; 39:1 with chaps. 6–11; and 39:2-14; 40 with chap. 14.) The Wisdom poem in chapter 42 suggests a parody on Sirach 24 and Baruch 3:9—4:4. Wisdom does not dwell in Israel; unrighteousness drove her back to heaven—a pithy summary of the apocalyptic worldview (cf. 94:5).

In the second parable, chapters 46–47 present the first tableau in the developing drama about the Chosen One and the judgment. In 46:1-3 the author draws on Daniel 7:9, 13, identifying his protagonist with the one like a son of man in Daniel 7. The tableau in chapters 48–49 depicts the naming of that son of man through an interpretation of the call of the Servant in Isaiah 49. Language about the preexistence of that son of man and his name (vv 3, 6) suggests that this figure is related to preexistent Wisdom. The unique expression kings of the earth and the reference to the Lord of Spirits and his Anointed (48:8, 10) are drawn from Psalm 2:2 and reflect biblical language about the Davidic Messiah, as does the paraphrase of the royal oracle in Isaiah 11:2 at 49:3. Verse 4 paraphrases Isaiah 42:1, the source of the Servant title the Chosen One. Chapters 50–51 anticipate future events connected with the judgment, and 51:4-5 designates earth as the locus of salvation and eternal life (cf. 45:4-6). The journey and visions described in chapters 52:1—56:4 are related to the myth of the angels and to the journey traditions in 1 Enoch 6–11 and 17–21.

The third parable focuses on the great judgment itself. The climactic tableau in chapters 62–63 employs a traditional judgment scene, attested also in Wisdom of Solomon 4–5. The present text begins with the exaltation of the Chosen One (a Servant title). The kings and the mighty who stand before him are the counterpart of the audience in Isaiah 52–53. Verse 2 draws on the language of Isaiah 11:2, 4, the messianic strand of the Chosen One tradition (cf. 49:3). The kings and the mighty petition for mercy without success and are driven from the presence of the Lord and delivered to the angels of punishment (62:9-12; cf. 53:3-5). The author then shifts the focus to the righteous and chosen and to their coming deliverance and fellowship with their helper and champion, the son of man (62:13-16; cf. Isa 52:1). Chapter 63 is the counterpart of the confession in Isaiah 53:1-6.

Chapters 65–68 are a collection of Noachic traditions. The story in chapter 65 is closely related to 1 Enoch 83–84 and 106–107 and presumes a typology between the Flood and the last judgment. The scene in 69:26-29 belongs with the judgment scene in chapters 62–63.

The Book of Parables in its present form has two conclusions. The first briefly recounts Enoch’s final removal from earth (70:1-2). The second (70:3—71:17) is Enoch’s own summarizing account of his removal to Paradise and his ascent to heaven, where instead of being commissioned to be a prophet of judgment (chaps. 14–16) he is presented as the son of man who was born for righteousness (71:14; cf. 46:1-3).

The Parables can be dated sometime around the turn of the era. The reference to the Parthians and the Medes in 56:5 may refer to the invasion in 40 b.c.e., just before the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great. At the very least, the description of the Chosen One/son of man (if not the entire book) is presumed in the gospel traditions about Jesus, the Son of Man.

The Book of the Luminaries (Chaps. 72–82)

Enoch, whose biblical age at his final removal by God was 365 years, naturally became associated with the annual calendar. The Book of the Luminaries is the place where these traditions are recorded. It contains the revelations that the angel Uriel (his name means God is my light) showed to Enoch about these subjects when the two of them were together. Like the other early Enoch texts, it was written in the Aramaic language, four copies of which have been found at Qumran (see below, pp. 96–115). The evidence of the Aramaic manuscripts indicates that the original work was much longer than the form that has survived in the Ethiopic translation. In its Aramaic form, the book seems to have begun, after an introduction setting