An intensive look at Enoch. Part 3 - the end.

Growing up in church about the only thing we knew of Enoch was that he walked with God and was no more. Common sense tells you there is more; and, when we add in dimensions that include the probability of interactions with giants, and a strange vagueness about the lineage leading to Noah. I always found myself puzzled as I waited for the details and reasons as to why Noah's family was the only one found worthy of saving, but they never came. Doing this intensive study has shown me that Enoch was no less righteous than Noah; that Methuselah was a living prophecy and an indicator of the judgment that was coming. And, that Enoch had a "global" influence, but that information, in the form of The Book of Enoch, or the writings of Tertullian, was taken from us.

Here is where I interject some history and hopefully validation. Feel free to skip or fast forward.

The Book of Enoch had been an integral part of the early Church and had been read aloud among the church body for 700 years. Early Church fathers, such as Clement, Barnabas, and Irenaeus referenced and quoted from the Book of Enoch. Th D. JR Church published the book, “Enoch, The First Book Ever Written,” and he does the commentary on it as it progresses.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch#Rediscovery; we have this information on the origins of The Book of Enoch.

Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World (written in 1616 while imprisoned in the Tower of London), makes the curious assertion that part of the Book of Enoch "which contained the course of the stars, their names and motions" had been discovered in Saba (Sheba) in the first century and was thus available to Origen and Tertullian. He attributes this information to Origen,[59] though no such statement is found anywhere in extant versions of Origen.[60]

Better success was achieved by the famous Scottish traveler James Bruce, who, in 1773, returned to Europe from six years in Abyssinia with three copies of a Ge'ez version.[62] One is preserved in the Bodleian Library, another was presented to the royal library of France, while the third was kept by Bruce. The copies remained unused until the 19th century; Silvestre de Sacy, in "Notices sur le livre d'Enoch",[63] included extracts of the books with Latin translations (Enoch chapters 1, 2, 5–16, 22, and 32). From this, a German translation was made by Rink in 1801.

The first English translation of the Bodleian/Ethiopic manuscript was published in 1821 by Richard Laurence, titled The Book of Enoch, the prophet: an apocryphal production, supposed to have been lost for ages; but discovered at the close of the last century in Abyssinia; now first translated from an Ethiopic manuscript in the Bodleian Library. Oxford, 1821. Revised editions appeared in 1833, 1838, and 1842.

In 1838, Laurence also released the first Ethiopic text of 1 Enoch published in the West, under the title: Libri Enoch Prophetae Versio Aethiopica. The text, divided into 105 chapters, was soon considered unreliable as it was the transcription of a single Ethiopic manuscript.[64]

In 1833, Professor Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann of the University of Jena released a German translation, based on Laurence's work, called Das Buch Henoch in vollständiger Uebersetzung, mit fortlaufendem Kommentar, ausführlicher Einleitung und erläuternden Excursen. Two other translations came out around the same time: one in 1836 called Enoch Restitutus, or an Attempt (Rev. Edward Murray) and one in 1840 called Prophetae veteres Pseudepigraphi, partim ex Abyssinico vel Hebraico sermonibus Latine bersi (A. F. Gfrörer). However, both are considered to be poor—the 1836 translation most of all—and is discussed in Hoffmann.[65]

The first critical edition, based on five manuscripts, appeared in 1851 as Liber Henoch, Aethiopice, ad quinque codicum fidem editus, cum variis lectionibus, by August Dillmann. It was followed in 1853 by a German translation of the book by the same author with a commentary titled Das Buch Henoch, übersetzt und erklärt. It was considered the standard edition of 1 Enoch until the work of Charles.

Jude, the author of his own New Testament book, quotes a prophecy from Enoch that is not in our Bibles and can only be found in the Book of Enoch. The writer of Hebrews places Enoch in the hall of fame for his great faith, by which he walked off this earth and into God's arms, never to see death (Hebrews 11:5). And we find the name of Enoch in Luke 3:37, where he is listed in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

There is nothing that tells us that Enoch merely sat in one spot, waiting for God to take him away.

The man lived 365 years, and we have links between Enoch and Egypt and Africa. One of those who articulated regarding Enoch was Tertullian.

His full name was Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, c. 155 – c. 240 AD and he was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. Born:160 AD, Died:220 AD, Carthage, Tunisia [Wikipedia]

Others, including “Arabic writers, tell us of pyramids and pillars erected by him, on which he engraved the arts and the instruments of them; and some writers ascribe the invention of letters of letters and writing of books to him.” JR Church on page 23 of his book The Book of Enoch, tells us that he obtained this information from John Gill, D.D., Ch. 2, Pg. 36 of his book A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel Points, and Accents.

Diane Severance, PH.D. Writing for the website Christianity Today, tells us that “Tertullian coined the phrase Trinity, a word that does not appear anywhere in the Bible, to help us to understand the New Testament teaching about what God is like.” “In later life, he lost favor with much of the Church when he at least temporarily took up with the Montanists-- what we would probably call today a puritanical-charismatic sect.”

This Egyptian and Northern African influence may explain why writings on Enoch were found in the Ethiopian nation.

Since we understand that the earth had become so dangerous that the thoughts of every man were only evil; and, that, men like Nimrod were merely violent chieftains and hunters of men, then one can safely assume that this was the universal theme of all those who had come from a fallen angel descent.

This man Enoch, though perhaps less vague now, still leaves many questions. One of those questions arises as we try to ascribe names to the two witnesses we see in the Revelation. These two witnesses who stand in the streets of Jerusalem, testifying to Jehovah; performing miracles; stopping the rain; calling fire down from heaven, and preventing, for 1260 days, any attempts at harming them, are removed from the earth and back to the Father at the midpoint of the seven years of wrath.

Let me attempt to address some arguments that may arise.

Genesis 6:1-2 NASB Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2) that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Note that the verse tells us:

• “ they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”
  The Hebrew word for took also means to fetch, seize, and use.
  I seriously doubt there was much anyone could do about it.

• “when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,”
   The Hebrew word for multiply also means to cast together, that is, increase, especially in number; also to multiply by the myriad:

There is nothing about this statement, that limits it to the chronological period exclusive to Genesis 6:1, and may well have been applied to babies created in the garden before the fall.

I said it before, but it bears repeating. Eve had children prior to the fall of man.

Genesis 3:16 Darby To the woman he said, I will greatly increase thy travail and thy pregnancy; with pain thou shalt bear children; and to thy husband shall be thy desire, and he shall rule over thee.

1. There would be no reason to make this assertion we see in Genesis 3:16 unless she had already been having children, as the statement would make no sense. 
2. The Darby translation demonstrates an increase in the travail. The Hebrew word ‛iṣṣāḇôn also denotes pain and sorrow. So pain and sorrow are both over and above whatever Eve deemed ordinary.
3. Having a man and a woman run naked through the most serene atmosphere you can imagine would have only evoked their passions for each other.
4. After Cain kills his brother and gets admonished by God, he shows some concern as he says, people will kill me. I have heard the illogical arguments that project far into the future where Adam and Eve would have eventually filled the earth with children. But we ignore the context and tense, as what Cain describes is a present threat. Cain also gets himself a wife; here again, we project into the future in hopes that mom and dad will produce a daughter that Cain can have for a wife. There is something sick and distasteful about the very idea.

Genesis 6:3 NASB Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

• “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh,”
  While this will impact the lineage of those extending out to Noah, the effect is not felt until after the flood. The evidence for this can readily be ascertained from virtually any of the people that existed prior to the flood. Methuselah lived 969 years, and when he died, the flood came.
  But there was a more pressing concern. So God, to constrain these violent, enormous hybrids who were part flesh and breath, restricts the age of everyone who will live on earth for a maximum of 120 years.

“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward.”

Genesis 6:4 CJB The N'filim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; these were the ancient heroes, men of renown.

After what? The flood.

Does that mean that some of these titans survived the flood and lived on? No, it means fallen angels continued their sick game plan, to disrupt and destroy God's plan, by filling the earth with hybrids. Look at what the verse says,

“ when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.”

They took what they wanted and always produced offspring.

Notice one more thing in this verse.

It says, “these were the ancient heroes, men of renown.” 

What our frightened little minds do, is to attribute this statement to men like those that gathered with King David, as they too were mighty men. 

But this was not the case with the pre-flood giants, for these titans became the imagery and god-like characteristics from which all myths are made.