THE PATH OF ENOCH

This journey follows seven readings around Enoch, the patriarch of whom Genesis 5:24 says only that he walked with God and was no more, because God took him. That short sentence produced a whole literature. The First Book of Enoch is a collection composed in stages: the part called the Book of the Watchers (chapters 1 to 36) is usually dated to the third century BC, and the Parables (37 to 71), later, have a disputed date. It survives complete in Ethiopic, with fragments in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls and in Greek. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church includes it in its canon; most other churches do not.

The path follows an order. The first day reads the announcement of judgment in 1 Enoch 1, whose verse 9 is quoted in Jude 14-15. Then comes the story of the Watchers, angels who come down to earth, tied to Genesis 6:1-4. Next, Enoch's ascent through the heavens in 2 Enoch, preserved in full only in Church Slavonic and of disputed date, compared with 2 Corinthians 12:2, where Paul speaks of a man taken to the third heaven. The following days deal with the archangels and their names, the punishment of the fallen (1 Enoch 10 and 2 Peter 2:4), the secrets of creation against Job 38 and, finally, Enoch's elevation, read beside Hebrews 11:5.

When you finish, you will be able to tell apart three things that tend to get mixed: what the Bible says about Enoch, what the books that carry his name add, and where the New Testament quotes or echoes them. Read with the constant question: is this biblical text or later tradition?