The Book of Enoch 31
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 Garden of Righteousness
Nectar named sarara and galbanum flowed forth from groves of trees among other mountains.
1nd I saw other mountains, and amongst them were groves of trees, and there flowed forth from them nectar, which is named sarara and galbanum.
2 And beyond these mountains I saw another mountain to the east of the ends of the earth, whereon were aloe-trees, and all the trees were full of stacte, being like almond-trees.
3 And when one burnt it, it smelt sweeter than any fragrant odour.
Did You Know?
Nectar named sarara and galbanum flowed forth from groves of trees among other mountains.
Beyond the mountains with tree groves another mountain stood to the east of the ends of the earth.
Aloe-trees grew on the mountain to the east of the ends of the earth.
All the trees on the mountain east of the ends of the earth were full of stacte like almond-trees.
When one burnt the stacte it smelt sweeter than any fragrant odour.
← → arrow keys to navigate chapters · spacebar to play/pause audio
Commentary
In brief
Enoch sees other mountains with groves of trees from which nectar named sarara and galbanum flows. Beyond them, east of the ends of the earth, he sees a mountain with aloe-trees full of stacte like almond-trees that smell sweeter than any fragrant odour when burned.