Get the CD Now!

2 Enoch

Late First Century A.D.

Discuss this text or ask a question on the official Early Writings forum. Anyone can post.

Online Text for 2 Enoch

Online Resources for 2 Enoch

Offline Resources for 2 Enoch

Information on 2 Enoch

Leonhard Rost writes: "The book begins with an account of Enoch's journey through the ten heavens (originally perhaps only seven heavens) (1-21). Enoch then has an audience with God himself, who instructs Enoch about the process of creation from its beginning ex nihilo to the creation of man and about the duration of the world (seven thousand years plus a millennium) (22-23). God then has two angels escort Enoch back to earth for a short period so that he can instruct his children about the future destiny of the world and of mankind (34-38). Enoch recounts the mysteries of heaven he has observed, then adds an exhortation and the command to disseminate his books (39-54). The book concludes with a farewell discourse and an account of Enoch's ascension." (Judaism Outside the Hebrew Canon, pp. 111-112)

James Charlesworth writes: "The pseudepigraphon is preserved in a long and a short recension, both of which, especially the former, have been reworked by later scribes. As with 1 Enoch there appear to be five divisions: Enoch informs his sons about his imminent ascension (1-2); he ascends through seven (expanded to ten by a later editor) heavens (3-21); Enoch meets the Lord and records His revelations (22-38); he returns to the earth in order to instruct and admonish his sons (39-66); Enoch is taken by angels to the highest heaven (67; the long recension adds how the people praised God for the sign delivered through Enoch, 68)." (The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research, p. 104)

Martin McNamara writes: "As early as 1896 R. H. Charles assigned the work to the period before A.D. 70 since it presupposes the existence of the temple. He also maintained that it was composed in Egypt, probably in Alexandria, by a Hellenistic Jew. J. T. Milik in more recent times wished wished to assign it a date in the ninth century A.D. but has had little following. Scholars still prefer Charles' opinion both as to date and place of origin, although some believe that there are arguments for a Palestinian origin for the short recension. It is generally agreed that the original text was the short one and that the other is an expansion of this." (Intertestamental Literature, p. 72)

Leonhard Rost writes: "The association with the West is all the more remarkable in that the Greek recension of the book (which represents at least an important stage in the formation of the tradition, if not the crucial initial stage) undoubtedly came into being in Egypt within the circle of Hellenistic Jews who were influenced but not overwhelmed by the intellectual milieu represented by Philo. Since the author had before him Sirach, the Ethiopic Enoch, and the Wisdom of Solomon, but states the Temple was still standing (51, 59, 61, 62, 68), the work should probably be dated in the first half of the first century C.E. Its final form is due to a Christian revision in the Eastern Church dating from the seventh century." (Judaism Outside the Hebrew Canon, p. 112)


Please buy the CD to support the site, view it without ads, and get bonus stuff!

Early Jewish Writings is copyright © 2001-2013 Peter Kirby <E-Mail>.

Get the CD Now!
MLA
Style

Kirby, Peter. Early Jewish Writings. <http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/>.