Once considered to be of Christian origin because of its obvious references to Christ, ten fragments of The Book of Enoch have been found at Qumran in the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is known to have existed in its present form since at least the 2nd Century BC.
The book was believed to have been composed by Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. Most critics and scholars believe it was begun in the second century BC and was a collection of works that includes writings for the first century BC as well. Some believe it contains the actual words of Enoch and that it was handed down through the ages. There is no real way to know for certain if that is so. The only thing we know for certain is that fragments of the book date back to the 2nd century BC.
It is generally believed that the Apostles and the writers of the New Testament were fully aware of the Book of Enoch also called 1 Enoch. In fact, it is directly quoted in the Bible:
Jude 1:14-15 “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, {15} To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” SOURCE: http://book-ofenoch.com/
From Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch
The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch;[1]Ge’ez: መጽሐፈ ሄኖክ mätṣḥäfä henok) is an ancient Jewish religious work, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, although modern scholars estimate the older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) to date from about 300 BC, and the latest part (Book of Parables) probably to the first century BC.[2]
It is not part of the biblical canon as used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel. Most Christian denominations and traditions may accept the Books of Enoch as having some historical or theological interest, but they generally regard the Books of Enoch as non-canonical or non-inspired.[3] It is regarded as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, but not by any other Christian groups.
It is wholly extant only in the Ge’ez language, with Aramaic fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls and a few Greek and Latin fragments. For this and other reasons, the traditional Ethiopian belief is that the original language of the work was Ge’ez, whereas non-Ethiopian scholars tend to assert that it was first written in either Aramaic or Hebrew; Ephraim Isaac suggests that the Book of Enoch, like the Book of Daniel, was composed partially in Aramaic and partially in Hebrew.[4]:6 No Hebrew version is known to have survived. It is asserted in the book itself that its author was Enoch, before the Biblical Flood.
The authors of the New Testament were familiar with the content of the story and influenced by it:[5] a short section of 1 Enoch (1 En 1:9 or 1 En 2:1 depending on the translation) is quoted in the New Testament, Epistle of Jude, Jude 1:14–15, and is attributed there to “Enoch the Seventh from Adam” (1 En 60:8). The text was also utilised by the community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The first part of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim. The remainder of the book describes Enoch’s visits to heaven in the form of travels, visions and dreams, and his revelations.
The book consists of five quite distinct major sections (see each section for details):
- The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36)
- The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71) (also called the Similitudes of Enoch)
- The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72–82) (also called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries)
- The Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83–90) (also called the Book of Dreams)
- The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91–108)
Most scholars believe that these five sections were originally independent works[6] (with different dates of composition), themselves a product of much editorial arrangement, and were only later redacted into what we now call 1 Enoch.
