The first comprehensive examination of the Book of Enoch and its prophecies, origins, and history

• Examines in depth Enoch’s full story of the Watchers, the fallen angels who came to Earth and shared corrupting forbidden knowledge

• Explores how Enoch was a vital component of Second Temple messianic Judaism, speculative Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, and Gnostic mythology

• Investigates the entire history of the Book of Enoch and its important esoteric offshoots, including the later Enoch II (the Slavonic “Book of the Secrets of Enoch”) and the so-called Hebrew “Book of Enoch” (Enoch III)

Said to have been written by the prophet Enoch, great-grandfather of Noah, the first Book of Enoch disappeared for many centuries, except for one place: the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which held it as canonical.

Revealing the profound influence of Enoch on world thought over the past two thousand years, Tobias Churton investigates the entire history of the Book of Enoch and its important esoteric offshoots, including the later Enoch II (the Slavonic “Book of the Secrets of Enoch”) and the so-called Hebrew “Book of Enoch” (Enoch III). He explains how Enoch was taken to heaven where he received personal instruction from God and examines in depth Enoch’s full story of the Watchers, the fallen angels who came to Earth and shared corrupting forbidden knowledge. He explains how the Enoch tradition was a vital component of Second Temple messianic Judaism and speculative Jewish mysticism, playing a key role in the development of both the Kabbalah and Gnostic mythology. He also shows how Enoch is a key figure in Western esoteric traditions.

Informed by up-to-date studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Churton provides the first comprehensive examination of the Book of Enoch, clarifying and refuting many errors of understanding about Enoch’s apocalyptic and sometimes sensational prophecies.

Tobias Churton is an authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Appointed Honorary Fellow of Exeter University in 2005 to specialize in Western Esotericism, he is the author of many books, including The Lost Pillars of Enoch and Gnostic Philosophy. He lives in the heart of England.

Foreword by Jeffrey J. Bütz
Preface

PART ONE
Out of Ethiopia

ONE
Bruce

TWO
A Long Time Coming

THREE
1 Enoch

A Note on Translation
Introduction (chapters 1–5)
The Book of the Watchers
The Astronomical Book
Dream Visions (chapters 83–90)
The Epistle of Enoch (chapters 91–105)
Fragment from a Book of Noah (chapters 106–107)
An Addition (chapter 108)

FOUR
The Book of Enoch 2

The Similitudes or Parables of Enoch (chapters 37–71)
Finale

FIVE
Further Adventures of 1 Enoch

Enter R. H. Charles

PART TWO
The Qumran Explosion

SIX
AMAZING DISCOVERIES

The Enoch Seminar
The Essene Hypothesis
Josephus and the Essenes
The Enochic-Essene Hypothesis
A New Age at Dan?
Damascus

PART THREE
Enoch’s Reception in History

SEVEN
Enoch Received 1

The Book of Jubilees
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

EIGHT
The Epistle of Jude

1 Peter, 2 Peter, and 1 Enoch

NINE
2 Enoch

Ten Heavens
2 Enoch Bounces Back—in Coptic!

TEN
Testimony to Enoch from Church Fathers,
or . . . Enoch Gets Around

ELEVEN
Panopolis: Zosimos, Enoch, and Hermes Trismegistos

Zosimos of Panopolis: Scourge of Demons

TWELVE
Hermes Trismegistos and Enoch

A Jewish Temple . . . in Egypt

THIRTEEN
Ethiopia

FOURTEEN
3 Enoch: Enoch-Metatron, Hero of Jewish Mysticism

Merkaba and Hekhalot Mysticism
Metatron

FIFTEEN
Enoch in Medieval Islamic Traditions

SIXTEEN
“Holy Enoch” and the Renaissance

Lodovico Lazzarelli and Divine Regeneration
Lazzarelli and Enoch

SEVENTEEN
John Dee, Guillaume Postel, and the Book of Enoch

Enter John Dee

EIGHTEEN
A Rosicrucian Fludd and Freemasonry

Interlude: The First Commentary on 1 Enoch
by Pompeo Sarnelli (1710)
Enter the Grand Lodge

NINETEEN
Prophets and Magic Galore

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley

PART FOUR
Enoch and Christian Origins

TWENTY
The Son of Man and Gospel Echoes

Son of Man and Hermetic Poimandrēs
Enoch, Priesthood, and Jesus

TWENTY-ONE
Enoch and Christian Origins II: Jesus

Oppression in Galilee?
Yeshua ben Yosef (a Hypothesis)
More to Nazareth than Meets the Eye

TWENTY-TWO
Further Enochic Adventures in Galilee

The Hypothesis Continued
Jesus’s Anti-Demon Operation
Ethics and Vision
Back to Dan with the Son of Man—the Profound Ascent
A Personal Coda

Chronology

Notes

Bibliography

Index