The Book of Enoch 22
Book I The Book of the Watchers Chapters 1–36 · 3rd century BCE
The oldest core of 1 Enoch: the descent of the two hundred Watchers, the birth of the giants, Enoch's intercession, and his guided journeys through the cosmos and the places of judgment.
Dating & manuscripts. Among the oldest apocalyptic writings in existence. Aramaic copies were found at Qumran (4QEnoch a-c), confirming its pre-Maccabean date - older than the Book of Daniel.
Chapters 6-11 preserve an older Semjaza/Shemihazah myth cycle later woven together with the Azazel/Asael tradition; scholars read them as composite, with a Noah fragment embedded. Angel names vary by manuscript (Semjaza/Shemihazah, Azazel/Asael).
In later tradition. This section's imagery echoes through later scripture and tradition: the Epistle of Jude (verses 14-15) quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 by name, and the Watchers legend shaped 2 Peter, the Book of Revelation, and the theology of the Qumran community and early Christianity.
The Book of Giants. A sixth Enochic work that expands the Watchers story from the giants' point of view - their violence, their prophetic dreams, and their doom. Known from Aramaic fragments at Qumran and, centuries later, adopted into Manichaean scripture. It is not part of the Ethiopic 1 Enoch preserved here.
1 Enoch is an anthology of five distinct works, composed over roughly three centuries.
Sheol, or the Underworld.
Enoch went to another place and was shown in the west a great and high mountain of hard rock. Themes: Divine Judgment and the Flood, Heavenly Journeys and Revelations
1nd thence I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain and of hard rock. Etheopic Greek
2 And there were four hollow places in it, deep and very smooth: three of them were dark and one bright; and there was a fountain of water in its midst. And I said: 'How smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to view.'
3 Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should 4 assemble therein, yea that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here.
4 And these places have been made to receive them till the day of their judgement and till their appointed period till the period appointed, till the great judgement (comes) upon them.' Etheopic Greek
5 I saw (the spirit of) a dead man making suit, and his voice went forth to heaven and made suit.
6 And I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said unto him: 'This spirit which maketh suit, whose is it, whose voice goeth forth and maketh suit to heaven?'
7 And he answered me saying: 'This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from amongst the seed of men.' Etheopic Greek
8 Then I asked regarding all the hollow places: 'Why is one separaged from the other?'
9 Then he answered me saying: "These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And this division has bas been made for the spirits of the righteous, in which there is a bright spring of water.
10 And this has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgement has not been executed upon them in their lifetime.
11 Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain, till the great day of judgement, scourgings, and torments of the accursed for ever, so that (there may be) retribution for their spirits. There he shall bind them for ever.
12 And this division has been made for the spirits of those who make their suit, who make disclosures concerning their distruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners.
13 And this has been made for the spirits of men who shall not be righteous but sinners, who are godless, and of the lawless they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be punished in the day of judgement nor shall they be raised from thence.'
14 Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and said: 'Blessed art Thou, Lord of righteousness, who rulest over the world.'
Did You Know?
Enoch went to another place and was shown in the west a great and high mountain of hard rock.
There were four hollow places in it, deep and very smooth: three of them were dark and one bright.
Raphael answered that these hollow places have been created for the spirits of the souls of the dead to assemble till the day of their judgement.
The spirit of Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth.
A division has been made for the spirits of the righteous in which there is a bright spring of water.
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Commentary
In brief
Enoch is shown four hollow places in a western mountain for the spirits of the dead to await judgment. Raphael explains they separate the righteous with a bright spring, sinners in torment, the slain like Abel who makes suit against Cain, and the godless neither punished nor raised, then Enoch blesses the Lord of righteousness.