Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, Slavonic Enoch)
Read Secrets of Enoch, also called 2 Enoch and Slavonic Enoch, by the chapter numbers of W. R. Morfill’s 1896 translation. This site does not reconstruct the verses from the scan. The Jewish Encyclopedia’s outline of the 1896 book runs through chapter 68. Each chapter page states why the verses are not printed here.
On This Page
Background and History
The chapter numbers above follow the 1896 edition of Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, Slavonic Enoch). This site does not reconstruct the verses from the scan. This essay is the setting of the book: the Slavonic manuscripts, the date debate, and why the major churches did not receive it as Scripture.
At a Glance
| Author | Written in Enoch’s name. The Jewish Encyclopedia, reporting R. H. Charles, says the author was probably a Jew living in Egypt. |
|---|---|
| Date | The Jewish Encyclopedia gives about 50 BC–AD 70, because the book uses 1 Enoch, Ecclesiasticus, and Wisdom and does not mention the Temple’s destruction. earlyjewishwritings.com reports that J. T. Milik wanted a ninth-century date and has had little following. |
| Place | Preserved in Slavonic. The Jewish Encyclopedia says the book was written in Greek and counts five Slavonic manuscripts, found in Russia and Serbia (the encyclopedia’s spelling is Servia). |
| Genre | An apocalypse of Enoch’s ascent. The Jewish Encyclopedia analyzes seven heavens, with the fallen angels in the second and the place of the damned in the third. |
| Chapters | 68 |
| Verses | Numbered in the 1896 edition. Not reconstructed on this site. |
| Key Chapter | Secrets of Enoch 1Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, Slavonic Enoch) 1 · R. H. Charles, 1917Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, Slavonic Enoch) 1 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source |
The Slavonic Manuscripts
The Jewish Encyclopedia calls this book “The Book of the Secrets of Enoch.” It was “preserved, so far as is known, only in Slavonic,” from “manuscripts found in Russia and Servia,” and the encyclopedia counts five manuscripts of that version. (1) The English book is W. R. Morfill’s translation, edited by R. H. Charles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896). (2)
The same article says the book was written in Greek. The evidence it gives is the derivation of Adam’s name from the four quarters of the world, and several agreements with the Septuagint. It allows that parts may rest on Hebrew. From the Greek it was translated into Slavonic. (1)
Long and Short Recensions
earlyjewishwritings.com reports James Charlesworth: the book is preserved in a long recension and a short recension, and the long recension adds chapter 68. It reports Martin McNamara: it is generally agreed that the short text is the original and that the long text is an expansion of it. (3) The Jewish Encyclopedia’s own outline of the 1896 book runs from chapters 1–2, through 3–66, to the conclusion in 67–68. (1) This site uses those 68 chapter numbers and does not add a later appendix.
Date and Place
The Jewish Encyclopedia dates the book to about 50 BC–AD 70. The earlier date is because it uses Ethiopic Enoch, Ecclesiasticus, and the Wisdom of Solomon. The later date is because it does not mention the destruction of the Temple. Charles used quotations in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs as further evidence. The encyclopedia says Emil Schürer strongly doubts those quotations. (1)
On the author, the encyclopedia reports Charles: probably a Jew living in Egypt, because he shares speculations with Philo and other Hellenistic Jews, and because other elements in the book point to Egypt. (1)
earlyjewishwritings.com reports McNamara’s summary of that same 1896 judgment: before AD 70, because the Temple is presupposed, and Egypt, probably Alexandria, by a Hellenistic Jew. It also reports that J. T. Milik wanted a ninth-century date and has had little following, that scholars still prefer Charles on the date and the place, and that some argue for a Palestinian origin of the short recension. (3) This page does not collapse those reports into one date.
The Text on This Site
The chapter numbers above follow the 1896 edition. Morfill’s translation numbers the verses. The public scan on the Internet Archive interleaves Charles’s footnotes with the translation, and the character recognition does not keep a reliable verse order. (2) This site does not reconstruct those verses and does not print a garbled chapter as if it were Morfill’s English. Each chapter page says that, and it links the scan.
Genesis 5:24Genesis 5:24 · King James VersionAnd Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Genesis 5:24 · King James VersionOpen source (4) says Enoch walked with God and God took him. This book is written as an account of that taking. Jude 14–15Jude 1:14 · King James VersionAnd Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
Jude 1:14 · King James VersionOpen source (5) quotes a sentence that matches 1 Enoch 1:9Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) 1:9 · R. H. Charles, 1917And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of ⌈His⌉ holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy ⌈all⌉ the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works ⌈of their ungodliness⌉ which they have ungodly committed, ⌈And of all the hard things which⌉ ungodly sinners ⌈have spoken⌉ against Him.
Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) 1:9 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source (6), in the Book of Enoch, not a line from this Slavonic book.
Issues With This Book
The book speaks in Enoch’s name. The Jewish Encyclopedia treats it as one author’s arrangement of traditions about Enoch, apart from a few interpolations, and it says the book uses 1 Enoch, Ecclesiasticus, and Wisdom. (1) A book that uses those works is not a writing from before the flood.
The same article says the scheme of seven heavens, and the presence of hell in the third heaven, was afterward rejected by the Church, together with that scheme. (1) The Jewish canon did not receive the book. The major Christian churches did not receive it. The Ethiopian Orthodox exception named on this shelf is for 1 Enoch and Jubilees, not for this Slavonic book.
The verse text is a separate issue. A reader who wants Morfill’s English has the 1896 scan. This site will not invent a verse order the scan does not keep.
On This Site
- Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)
- Book of Jubilees
- Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, Slavonic Enoch)
- 3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch)
- What Is the Book of Enoch and Why Isn’t It in the Bible?
- How Was the Bible Canon Decided?
- The Lost Gospels: Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary
- Apocrypha
- How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?
References
- Richard Gottheil and Enno Littmann, “Enoch, Books of (Ethiopic and Slavonic)”, II. Slavonic Enoch (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906. The manuscript count, the Greek origin, Charles’s Egyptian Jew, the 50 BC–AD 70 range, Schürer’s doubt about the Testaments, the seven heavens, and the later rejection of that scheme are this article’s.)
- W. R. Morfill and R. H. Charles, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896 (Public-domain translation and edition. This site does not reconstruct verses from the scan.)
- Peter Kirby, “2 Enoch”, earlyjewishwritings.com (This page reports James Charlesworth on the long and short recensions and Martin McNamara on the date, the place, and Milik. Those books are not quoted at length here.)
- Book of Genesis, 5:24Genesis 5:24 · King James Version
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Genesis 5:24 · King James VersionOpen source. King James Version - Letter of Jude, 1:14–15Jude 1:14–15 · King James Version1:14
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
1:15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Jude 1:14–15 · King James VersionOpen source. King James Version - The Book of Enoch, 1:9Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) 1:9 · R. H. Charles, 1917
And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of ⌈His⌉ holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy ⌈all⌉ the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works ⌈of their ungodliness⌉ which they have ungodly committed, ⌈And of all the hard things which⌉ ungodly sinners ⌈have spoken⌉ against Him.
Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) 1:9 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source (R. H. Charles, SPCK 1917. Jude’s quotation matches this verse of 1 Enoch, not a chapter of 2 Enoch.)
W. R. Morfill’s translation, edited with introduction, notes, and indices by R. H. Charles, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896). Public domain in the United States. Morfill died in 1909 and Charles died in 1931, so the book is in the public domain in the United Kingdom. This site does not reconstruct a verse text from the scan.