Book of Enoch - The Epistle of Enoch

The Epistle of Enoch

Some scholars propose a date somewhere between the 170 BC and the 1st century BC.

This section can be studied as formed by five sub-sections, mixed by the final redactor:

• Apocalypse of Weeks (93:1–10 91:11–17): this sub-section, dated usually the first half of 2nd century BC, narrates the history of the world using a ten periods (said "weeks") scheme, of which seven regard the past and three the future events (the final judgment). The climax is in the seventh part of the tenth week where new heaven shall appear and there will be many weeks without number for ever, and all shall be in goodness and righteousness.
• Exhortation (91:1–10 91:18–19) this short list of exhortations to follow the righteousness said by Enoch to his son Methuselah looks like to be a bridge to next sub-section.
• Epistle (92:1–5 93:11–105:2): the first part of the epistle sketches the wisdom of the Lord, final reward of the justs and the punishment of the evils, and the two separated paths of righteousness and unrighteousness. Then we have six oracles against the sinners, the witness of the whole creation against them and the assurance of the fate after death. According Boccaccini the epistle is composed by two layers: a "proto-epistle", with a theology near the deterministic viewpoint of the Qumran group, and a slightly later part (94:4–104:6) that points out the personal responsibility of the single, describing often the sinners as the wealthy ones and the justs as the oppressed (a theme we find also in the Book of Parables).
• Birth of Noah (106–107): this part appears in Qumran fragments separated from the previous text by a blank line, thus looking like an appendix. It narrates of the deluge and of Noah who is born already with the appearance of an angel. Probably this text derives, as other small portions of 1 Enoch, from an originally separated book (see Book of Noah), but was arranged by the redactor as direct speech of Enoch himself.
• Conclusion (108): this second appendix was not found in Qumram and is considered to be work of the final redactor. It highlights the "generation of light" in opposition to the sinners destined to the darkness.