The secrets of enoch

It is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. The dating often preferred for the writing of 2 Enoch is late 1st century CE. The text has been preserved in full only in Slavonic, but in 2009 it was announced that Coptic fragments of the book had been identified.

Filled with hallucinatory visions of heaven and hell, angels and devils, Enoch introduced concepts such as fallen angels, the appearance of a Messiah, Resurrection, a Final Judgement, and the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth. Interspersed with this material are quasi-scientific digressions on calendrical systems, geography, cosmology, astronomy, and meteorology.

Biblical stories are often fantastical, unbelievable, and sometimes confusing when it comes to interpreting their meaning. Of the apocryphal biblical texts, there are few more enigmatic and fascinating than the Book of Enoch, and in certain sects of Christianity, these books are still part of the dominant biblical canon.

Most scholars believe that these five sections were originally independent works (with different dates of composition), themselves a product of much editorial arrangement, and were only later redacted into what we now call 1 Enoch.

Enoch was of the 7th generation from Adam and prophesied about the judgments on mankind. Enoch says his words were not for his generation but for a coming "generation of the elect and righteous people," far in the future who would live in the day of tribulation when all the wicked and godless are taken away." He compiled his visions and prophecies into a book of parables and passed these secrets on to Noah.