The Book of Enoch 35
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.
And from thence I went towards the west to the ends of the earth,
From his prior vantage Enoch proceeded west all the way to the ends of the earth.
1nd from thence I went towards the west to the ends of the earth, and saw there three portals of the heaven open such as I had seen in the east, the same number of portals, and the same number of outlets. XXXVI. The Journey to the South.
Did You Know?
From his prior vantage Enoch proceeded west all the way to the ends of the earth.
There at the earth's western extremities Enoch beheld three portals of heaven lying open.
These western portals of heaven matched exactly the ones Enoch had previously seen in the east.
Enoch counted the same number of open portals in the west as he had observed toward the east.
The western ends of the earth featured identical portals and outlets of heaven to those of the east.
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Commentary
In brief
Enoch proceeds towards the west to the ends of the earth and sees three open portals of heaven identical to those in the east, with the same number of portals and outlets.