The Book Of Enoch

By R.H. Charles

"The Book of Enoch, written during the second century B.C., is one of the most important non-canonical apocryphal works, and probably had a huge influence on early Christian, particularly Gnostic, beliefs. Filled with hallucinatory visions of heaven and hell, angels and devils, Enoch introduced concepts such as fallen angels, the appearance of a Messiah, Resurrection, a Final Judgement, and a Heavenly Kingdom on Earth. Interspersed with this material are quasi-scientific digressions on calendrical systems, geography, cosmology, astronomy, and meteorology. "

The Book of Enoch is an old composition considered a pseudepigraphal work (a work that claims to be by a biblical character). The discovery of the texts from Qumran Cave 4 has finally provided parts of the Aramaic original of the .Book of Enoch. This discovery is very important because it eliminates doubts about the Book of Enoch, which was considered a medieval forgery in the past. The Enoch fragment found (4Q201) was copied around 200-150 BC.