View source for Enoch, Books Of

Apocryphal Jewish writings variously dated from 175 BCE to 100 BCE. The problem of accurate dating arises because the writings cannot be attributed to one author. A portion of the work has been found duplicated in the Qumran Scrolls which are in Aramaic.

The content, particularly of I Enoch, is highly eschatological, that is, dealing with last things: death, judgement, heaven and hell; it contains extravagant descriptions of the fate of the righteous and the unrighteous.

Helena P. BLAVATSKY mentions Enoch quite frequently in her writings and considered him to be, not Jewish, but a person belonging to a far distant race and not to any nation, but to all, a generic name (see ''SD'' I:230). Blavatsky has stated that the Book of Enoch is actually a book of initiation, giving out in allegory and cautious phraseology the program of certain archaic mysteries performed in the inner temples (''SD'' II:229).


[[contributors|P.S.H.]]


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