THE BOOK OF ENOCH : CHAPTERS 103 - 108
[Chapter 103]
1 Now, therefore, I swear to you, the righteous, by the
glory of the Great and Honoured and
2 Mighty One in dominion, and by His greatness I swear to
you. I know a mystery And have read the heavenly tablets,
And have seen the holy books, And have found written therein
and inscribed regarding them:
3 That all goodness and joy and glory are prepared for them,
And written down for the spirits of those who have died in
righteousness, And that manifold good shall be given to you
in recompense for your labours, And that your lot is
abundantly beyond the lot of the living.
4 And the spirits of you who have died in righteousness
shall live and rejoice, And their spirits shall not perish,
nor their memorial from before the face of the Great One
Unto all the generations of the world: wherefore no longer
fear their contumely.
5 Woe to you, ye sinners, when ye have died, If ye die in
the wealth of your sins, And those who are like you say
regarding you: ' Blessed are the sinners: they have seen all
their days.
6 And how they have died in prosperity and in wealth, And
have not seen tribulation or murder in their life; And they
have died in honour, And judgement has not been executed on
them during their life."
7 Know ye, that their souls will be made to descend into
Sheol And they shall be wretched in their great tribulation.
8 And into darkness and chains and a burning flame where
there is grievous judgement shall your spirits enter; And
the great judgement shall be for all the generations of the
world. Woe to you, for ye shall have no peace.
9 Say not in regard to the righteous and good who are in
life: " In our troubled days we have toiled laboriously and
experienced every trouble, And met with much evil and been
consumed, And have become few and our spirit small.
10 And we have been destroyed and have not found any to help
us even with a word: We have been tortured [and destroyed],
and not hoped to see life from day to day.
11 We hoped to be the head and have become the tail: We have
toiled laboriously and had no satisfaction in our toil; And
we have become the food of the sinners and the unrighteous,
And they have laid their yoke heavily upon us.
12 They have had dominion over us that hated us and smote
us; And to those that hated us we have bowed our necks But
they pitied us not.
13 We desired to get away from them that we might escape and
be at rest, But found no place whereunto we should flee and
be safe from them.
14 And are complained to the rulers in our tribulation, And
cried out against those who devoured us, But they did not
attend to our cries And would not hearken to our voice.
15 And they helped those who robbed us and devoured us and
those who made us few; and they concealed their oppression,
and they did not remove from us the yoke of those that
devoured us and dispersed us and murdered us, and they
concealed their murder, and remembered not that they had
lifted up their hands against us.
[Chapter 104]
1 I swear unto you, that in heaven the angels remember you
for good before the glory of the Great
2 One: and your names are written before the glory of the
Great One. Be hopeful; for aforetime ye were put to shame
through ill and affliction; but now ye shall shine as the
lights of heaven,
3 ye shall shine and ye shall be seen, and the portals of
heaven shall be opened to you. And in your cry, cry for
judgement, and it shall appear to you; for all your
tribulation shall be visited on the
4 rulers, and on all who helped those who plundered you. Be
hopeful, and cast not away your hopes for ye shall have
great joy as the angels of heaven. What shall ye be obliged
to do ? Ye shall not have to hide on the day of the great
judgement and ye shall not be found as sinners, and the
eternal
6 judgement shall be far from you for all the generations of
the world. And now fear not, ye righteous, when ye see the
sinners growing strong and prospering in their ways: be not
companions with them,
7 but keep afar from their violence; for ye shall become
companions of the hosts of heaven. And, although ye sinners
say: " All our sins shall not be searched out and be written
down," nevertheless
8 they shall write down all your sins every day. And now I
show unto you that light and darkness,
9 day and night, see all your sins. Be not godless in your
hearts, and lie not and alter not the words of uprightness,
nor charge with lying the words of the Holy Great One, nor
take account of your
10 idols; for all your lying and all your godlessness issue
not in righteousness but in great sin. And now I know this
mystery, that sinners will alter and pervert the words of
righteousness in many ways, and will speak wicked words, and
lie, and practice great deceits, and write books concerning
11 their words. But when they write down truthfully all my
words in their languages, and do not change or minish ought
from my words but write them all down truthfully -all that I
first testified
12 concerning them. Then, I know another mystery, that books
will be given to the righteous and the
13 wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much
wisdom. And to them shall the books be given, and they shall
believe in them and rejoice over them, and then shall all
the righteous who have learnt therefrom all the paths of
uprightness be recompensed.'
[Chapter 105]
1 In those days the Lord bade (them) to summon and testify
to the children of earth concerning their wisdom: Show (it)
unto them; for ye are their guides, and a recompense over
the whole earth.
2 For I and My son will be united with them for ever in the
paths of uprightness in their lives; and ye shall have
peace: rejoice, ye children of uprightness. Amen.
Fragment of the Book of Noah
[Chapter 106]
1 And after some days my son Methuselah took a wife for his
son Lamech, and she became
2 pregnant by him and bore a son. And his body was white as
snow and red as the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his
head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes
beautiful. And when he opened his eyes, he lighted up the
whole house like the sun, and the whole house
3 was very bright. And thereupon he arose in the hands of
the midwife, opened his mouth, and conversed with the Lord
of righteousness.
4 And his father Lamech was afraid of him and
5 fled, and came to his father Methuselah. And he said unto
him: ' I have begotten a strange son, diverse from and
unlike man, and resembling the sons of the God of heaven;
and his nature is different and he is not like us, and his
eyes are as the rays of the sun, and his
6 countenance is glorious. And it seems to me that he is not
sprung from me but from the angels, and I fear that in his
days a wonder may be
7 wrought on the earth. And now, my father, I am here to
petition thee and implore thee that thou mayest go to Enoch,
our father, and learn from him the truth, for his
dwelling-place is
8 amongst the angels.' And when Methuselah heard the words
of his son, he came to me to the ends of the earth; for he
had heard that I was there, and he cried aloud, and I heard
his voice and I came to him. And I said unto him: ' Behold,
here am I, my son, wherefore hast
9 thou come to me ? ' And he answered and said: ' Because of
a great cause of anxiety have I come to thee, and because of
a disturbing vision
10 have I approached. And now, my father, hear me: unto
Lamech my son there hath been born a son, the like of whom
there is none, and his nature is not like man's nature, and
the colour of his body is whiter than snow and redder than
the bloom of a rose, and the hair of his head is whiter than
white wool, and his eyes are like the rays of the sun, and
he opened his eyes and
11 thereupon lighted up the whole house. And he arose in the
hands of the midwife, and opened
12 his mouth and blessed the Lord of heaven. And his father
Lamech became afraid and fled to me, and did not believe
that he was sprung from him, but that he was in the likeness
of the angels of heaven; and behold I have come to thee that
thou mayest make known to me the truth.' And I, Enoch,
answered and said unto him: 'The Lord will do a new thing on
the earth, and this I have already seen in a vision, and
make known to thee that in the generation of my father Jared
some of the angels of heaven transgressed the word of the
Lord. And behold they commit sin and transgress the law, and
have united themselves with women and commit sin with them,
and have married some of them, and have begot children by
them. And they shall produce on the earth giants not
according to the spirit, but according to the flesh, and
there shall be a great punishment on the earth, and the
earth shall be cleansed from all impurity. Yea, there shall
come a great destruction over the whole earth, and there
shall be a deluge and
16 a great destruction for one year. And this son who has
been born unto you shall be left on the earth, and his three
children shall be saved with him: when all mankind that are
on the earth
8 shall die [he and his sons shall be saved]. And now make
known to thy son Lamech that he who has been born is in
truth his son, and call his name Noah; for he shall be left
to you, and he and his sons shall be saved from the
destruction, which shall come upon the earth on account of
all the sin and all the unrighteousness, which shall be
consummated on the earth in his days. And after that there
shall be still more unrighteousness than that which was
first consummated on the earth; for I know the mysteries of
the holy ones; for He, the Lord, has showed me and informed
me, and I have read (them) in the heavenly tablets.
[Chapter 107]
1 And I saw written on them that generation upon generation
shall transgress, till a generation of righteousness arises,
and transgression is destroyed and sin passes away from the
earth, and all
2 manner of good comes upon it. And now, my son, go and make
known to thy son Lamech that this
3 son, which has been born, is in truth his son, and that
(this) is no lie.' And when Methuselah had heard the words
of his father Enoch-for he had shown to him everything in
secret-he returned and showed (them) to him and called the
name of that son Noah; for he will comfort the earth after
all the destruction.
[Chapter 108]
1 Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and
for those who will come after him,
2 and keep the law in the last days. Ye who have done good
shall wait for those days till an end is made of those who
work evil; and an end of the might of the transgressors. And
wait ye indeed till sin has passed away, for their names
shall be blotted out of the book of life and out of the holy
books, and their seed shall be destroyed for ever, and their
spirits shall be slain, and they shall cry and make
lamentation in a place that is a chaotic wilderness, and in
the fire shall they burn; for there is no earth there. And I
saw there something like an invisible cloud; for by reason
of its depth I could not look over, and I saw a flame of
fire blazing brightly, and things like shining
5 mountains circling and sweeping to and fro. And I asked
one of the holy angels who was with me and said unto him: '
What is this shining thing? for it is not a heaven but only
the flame of a blazing
6 fire, and the voice of weeping and crying and lamentation
and strong pain.' And he said unto me: ' This place which
thou seest-here are cast the spirits of sinners and
blasphemers, and of those who work wickedness, and of those
who pervert everything that the Lord hath spoken through the
mouth
7 of the prophets-(even) the things that shall be. For some
of them are written and inscribed above in the heaven, in
order that the angels may read them and know that which
shall befall the sinners, and the spirits of the humble, and
of those who have afflicted their bodies, and been
recompensed
8 by God; and of those who have been put to shame by wicked
men: Who love God and loved neither gold nor silver nor any
of the good things which are in the world, but gave over
their bodies to torture. Who, since they came into being,
longed not after earthly food, but regarded everything as a
passing breath, and lived accordingly, and the Lord tried
them much, and their spirits were
10 found pure so that they should bless His name. And all
the blessings destined for them I have recounted in the
books. And he hath assigned them their recompense, because
they have been found to be such as loved heaven more than
their life in the world, and though they were trodden under
foot of wicked men, and experienced abuse and reviling from
them and were put to shame,
11 yet they blessed Me. And now I will summon the spirits of
the good who belong to the generation of light, and I will
transform those who were born in darkness, who in the flesh
were not recompensed
12 with such honour as their faithfulness deserved. And I
will bring forth in shining light those who
13 have loved My holy name, and I will seat each on the
throne of his honour. And they shall be resplendent for
times without number; for righteousness is the judgement of
God; for to the faithful
14 He will give faithfulness in the habitation of upright
paths. And they shall see those who were,
15 born in darkness led into darkness, while the righteous
shall be resplendent. And the sinners shall cry aloud and
see them resplendent, and they indeed will go where days and
seasons are prescribed for them.'
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams Northwest Nazarene
College, 1995