Versions—Greek, Latin and Ethiopic.—The Semitic original was translated into Greek. It is not improbable that there were two distinct Greek versions. Of the one, several fragments have been preserved in Syncellus (A.D. 800), vi.-x. 14, viii. 4-ix. 4, xv. 8-xvi. 1; of the other, i.-xxxii. in the Giza Greek fragment discovered in Egypt and published by Bouriant (Fragments grecs du livre d’Enoch); in 1892, and subsequently by Lods, Dillmann, Charles (Book of Enoch, 318 sqq.), Swete, and finally by Radermacher and Charles (Ethiopic Text, 3-75). In addition to these fragments there is that of lxxxix. 42-49 (see Gildemeister in the ZDMG, 1855, pp. 621-624, and Charles, Ethiopic Text, pp. 175-177). Of the Latin version only i. 9 survives, being preserved in the Pseudo-Cyprian’s Ad Novatianum, and cvi. 1-18 discovered by James in an 8th-century MS. of the British Museum (see James, Apoc. anecdota, 146-150; Charles, op. cit. 219-222). This version is made from the Greek.
The Ethiopic version, which alone preserves the entire text, is a very faithful translation of the Greek. Twenty-eight MSS. of this version are in the different libraries of Europe, of which fifteen are to be found in England. This version was made from an ancestor of the Greek fragment discovered at Giza. Some of the utterly unintelligible passages in this fragment are literally reproduced in the Ethiopic. The same wrong order of the text in vii.-viii. is common to both. In order to recover the original text, it is from time to time necessary to retranslate the Ethiopic into Greek, and the latter in turn into Aramaic or Hebrew. By this means we are able to detect dittographies in the Greek and variants in the original Semitic. The original was written to a large extent in verse. The discovery of this fact is most helpful in the criticism of the text. This version was first edited by Laurence in 1838 from one MS., in 1851 by Dillmann from five, in 1902 by Flemming from fifteen MSS., and in 1906 by the present writer from twenty-three.
Translations and Commentaries.—Laurence, The Book of Enoch (Oxford, 1821); Dillmann, Das Buch Henoch (1853); Schodde, The Book of Enoch (1882); Charles, The Book of Enoch (1893); Beer, “Das Buch Henoch,” in Kautzsch’s Apok. u. Pseud. des A.T. (1900), ii. 217-310; Flemming and Radermacher, Das Buch Henoch (1901); Martin, Le Livre d’Henoch (1906). Critical Inquiries.—The bibliography will be found in Schürer, Gesch. d. jüdischen Volkes³, iii. 207-209, and a short critical account of the most important of these in Charles, op. cit. pp. 9-21.
The different Elements in the Book, with their respective Characteristics and Dates.—We have remarked above that the Book of Enoch is divided into five parts—i.-xxxvi., xxxvii.-lxxi., lxxii.-lxxxii., lxxxiii.-xc., xci-cviii. Some of these parts constituted originally separate treatises. In the course of their reduction and incorporation into a single work they suffered much mutilation and loss. From an early date the compositeness of this work was recognized. Scholars have varied greatly in their critical analyses of the work (see Charles, op. cit. 6-21, 309-311). The analysis which gained most acceptation was that of Dillmann (Herzog’s Realencyk.² xii. 350-352), according to whom the present books consist of—(1) the groundwork, i.e. i.-xxxvi., lxxii.-cv., written in the time of John Hyrcanus; (2) xxxvii.-lxxi., xvii.-xix., before 64 B.C.; (3) the Noachic fragments, vi. 3-8, viii. 1-3, ix. 7, x. 1, 11, xx., xxxix. 1, 2a, liv. 7-lv. 2, lx., lxv.-lxix. 25, cvi.-cvii.; and (4) cviii., from a later hand. With much of this analysis there is no reason to disagree. The similitudes are undoubtedly of different authorship from the rest of the book, and certain portions of the book are derived from the Book of Noah. On the other hand, the so-called groundwork has no existence unless in the minds of earlier critics and some of their belated followers in the present. It springs from at least four hands, and may be roughly divided into four parts, corresponding to the present actual divisions of the book.
A new critical analysis of the book based on this view was given by Charles (op. cit. pp. 24-33), and further developed by Clemen and Beer. The analysis of the latter (see Herzog, Realencyk.³ xiv. 240) is very complex. The book, according to this scholar, is composed of the following separate elements from the Enoch tradition:—(1) Ch. i.-v.; (2) xii-xvi.; (3) xvii.-xix.; (4) xx.-xxxvi.; (5) xxxvii.-lxix. (from diverse sources); (6) lxx.-lxxi.; (7) lxxii.-lxxxii.; (8) lxxxiii.-lxxxiv.; (9) lxxxv.-xc.; (10) xciii., cxi. 12-17; (11) xci. 1-11, 18, 19, xcii., xciv.-cv.; (12) cviii., and from the Noah tradition; (13) vi.-xi.; (14) xxxix. 1-2a, liv. 7-lv. 2, lx., lxv.-lxix. 25; (15) cvi.-cvii. Thus while Clemen finds eleven separate sources, Beer finds fifteen. A fresh study from the hand of Appel (Die Composition des äthiopischen Henochbuchs, 1906) seeks to reach a final analysis of our book. But though it evinces considerable insight, it cannot escape the charge of extravagance. The original book or ground-work of Enoch consisted of i.-xvi., xx.-xxxvi. This work called forth a host of imitators, and a number of their writings, together with the groundwork, were edited as a Book of Methuselah, i.e. lxxii.-cv. Then came the final redactor, who interpolated the groundwork and the Methuselah sections, adding two others from his own pen. The Similitudes he worked up from a series of later sources, and gave them the second place in the final work authenticating them with the name of Noah. The date of the publication of the entire work Appel assigns to the years immediately following the death of Herod.
We shall now give an analysis of the book, with the dates of the various sections where possible. Of these we shall deal with the easiest first. Chap. lxxii.-lxxxii. constitutes a work in itself, the writer of which had very different objects before him from the writers of the rest of the book. His sole aim is to give the law of the heavenly bodies. His work has suffered disarrangements and interpolations at the hands of the editor of the whole work. Thus lxxvi.-lxxvii., which are concerned with the winds, the quarters of the heaven, and certain geographical matters, and lxxxi., which is concerned wholly with ethical matters, are foreign to a work which professes in its title (lxxii. 1) to deal only with the luminaries of the heaven and their laws. Finally, lxxxii. should stand before lxxix.; for the opening words of the latter suppose it to be already read. The date of this section can be partially established, for it was known to the author of Jubilees, and was therefore written before the last third of the 2nd century B.C.
Chaps. lxxxiii.-xc.—This section was written before 161 B.C., for “the great horn,” who is Judas the Maccabee, was still warring when the author was writing. (Dillmann, Schürer and others take the great horn to be John Hyrcanus, but this interpretation does violence to the text.) These chapters recount three visions: the first two deal with the first-world judgment; the third with the entire history of the world till the final judgment. An eternal Messianic kingdom at the close of the judgment is to be established under the Messiah, with its centre in the New Jerusalem set up by God Himself.
Chaps. xci.-civ.—In the preceding section the Maccabees were the religious champions of the nation and the friends of the Hasidim. Here they are leagued with the Sadducees, and are the declared foes of the Pharisaic party. This section was written therefore after 134 B.C., when the breach between John Hyrcanus and the Pharisees took place and before the savage massacres of the latter by Jannaeus (95 B.C.); for it is not likely that in a book dealing with the sufferings of the Pharisees such a reference would be omitted. These chapters indicate a revolution in the religious hopes of the nation. An eternal Messianic kingdom is no longer anticipated, but only a temporary one, at the close of which the final judgment will ensue. The righteous dead rise not to this kingdom but to spiritual blessedness in heaven itself—to an immortality of the soul. This section also has suffered at the hands of the final editor. Thus xci. 12-17, which describe the last three weeks of the Ten-Weeks Apocalypse, should be read immediately after xciii. 1-10, which recount the first seven weeks of the same apocalypse. But, furthermore, the section obviously begins with xcii. “Written by Enoch the scribe,” &c. Then comes xci. 1-10 as a natural sequel. The Ten-Weeks Apocalypse, xciii. 1-10, xci. 12-17, if it came from the same hand, followed, and then xciv. The attempt (by Clemen and Beer) to place the Ten-Weeks Apocalypse before 167, because it makes no reference to the Maccabees, is not successful; for where the history of mankind from Adam to the final judgment is despatched in sixteen verses, such an omission need cause little embarrassment, and still less if the author is the determined foe of the Maccabees, whom he would probably have stigmatized as apostates, if he had mentioned them at all, just as he similarly brands all the Sadducean priesthood that preceded them to the time of the captivity. This Ten-Weeks Apocalypse, therefore, we take to be the work of the writer of the rest of xci.-civ.
Chaps. i.-xxxvi.—This is the most difficult section of the book. It is very composite. Chaps. vi.-xi. is apparently an independent fragment of the Enoch Saga. It is itself compounded of the Semjaza and Azazel myths, and in its present composite form is already presupposed by lxxxviii.-lxxxix. 1; hence its present form is earlier than 166 B.C. It represents a primitive and very sensuous view of the eternal Messianic kingdom on earth, seeing that the righteous beget 1000 children before they die. These chapters appear to be from the Book of Noah; for they never refer to Enoch but to Noah only (x. 1). Moreover, when the author of Jubilees is clearly drawing on the Book of Noah, his subject-matter (vii. 21-25) agrees most closely with that of these chapters in Enoch (see Charles’ edition of Jubilees, pp. lxxi. sq. 264). xii.-xvi., on the other hand, belong to the Book of Enoch. These represent for the most part what Enoch saw in a vision. Now whereas vi.-xvi. deal with the fall of the angels, their destruction of mankind, and the condemnation of the fallen angels, the subject-matter now suddenly changes and xvii.-xxxvi. treat of Enoch’s journeyings through earth and heaven escorted by angels. Here undoubtedly we have a series of doublets; for xvii.-xix. stand in this relation to xx.-xxxvi., since both sections deal with the same subjects. Thus xvii. 4 = xxiii.; xvii. 6 = xxii.; xviii. 1 = xxxiv.-xxxvi.; xviii. 6-9 = xxiv.-xxv., xxxii. 1-2; xviii. 11, xix. = xxi. 7-10; xviii. 12-16 = xxi. 1-6. They belong to the same cycle of tradition and cannot be independent of each other. Chap. xx. appears to show that xx.-xxxvi. is fragmentary, since only four of the seven angels mentioned in xx. have anything to do in xxi.-xxxvi. Finally, i.-v. seems to be of a different date and authorship from the rest.
Chaps. xxxvii.-lxxi.—These constitute the well-known Similitudes. They were written before 64 B.C., for Rome was not yet known to the writer, and after 95 B.C., for the slaying of the righteous, of which the writer complains, was not perpetrated by the Maccabean princes before that date. This section consists of three similitudes—xxxviii.-xliv., xlv.-lvii., lviii.-lxix. These are introduced and concluded by xxxvii. and lxx. There are many interpolations—lx., lxv.-lxix. 25 confessedly from the Book of Noah; most probably also liv. 7-lv. 2. Whence others, such as xxxix. 1, 2a, xli. 3-8, xliii. sq., spring is doubtful. Chaps. 1, lvi. 5-lvii. 3a are likewise insertions.