The Book of Enoch 23
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.
The Fire that deals with the Luminaries of Heaven.
Enoch went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth. Themes: Divine Judgment and the Flood
1rom thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth.
2 And I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but (ran) regularly.
3 And I asked saying: 'What is this which rests not?'
4 Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said unto me: 'This course of fire which thou hast seen is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.'
Did You Know?
Enoch went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth.
Enoch saw a burning fire which ran without resting after arriving at that western place.
The burning fire paused not from its course day or night but ran regularly.
Enoch asked saying what is this which rests not while viewing the burning fire.
Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with Enoch, said this course of fire is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.
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Commentary
In brief
Enoch goes to another place to the west of the ends of the earth and sees a burning fire which runs without resting day or night. The angel Raguel tells him that this course of fire is the one which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.