3. Canonicity. — That the work was recognized as inspired in certain Jewish circles appears from the above references in Jubilees and the Test. XII. Patriarchs. St. Jude quotes a passage from it as an authentic prophecy of Enoch. The Epistle of Barnabas (xvi. 5) refers to it in the words \eyei. yap i] ypacpT] ; Athenagoras {Leg. pro Christianis, 24) as 4 To:s irpo<pi^ais ^KTrecpuvrjrai ; Tert. {de Idol. XV.), ' Spiritus . . . prececinit per . . . Enoch ' ; {de Cultu .Fe7rt. i. 3), ' scioscripturamEnoch . . . non recipi a quibusdam, quia nee in armarium Judaicum admit- titur . . . cum Enoch eadem scriptura etiam de Domino praedicarit, a nobis quidem nihil omnino rejiciendum est, quod pertiiieat ad nos. ... A Judaeis potest jam videri propterea reiecta, sicut et cetera quae Christum sonant. ' Origen, however, in c. Celsum, v. 54, says : ^v rah iKKXrjcriais oii iravv (piperai tliy dela to. hriyeypanijAva rod 'Evix /3i/3Xia. Chrj'sostom {Horn, in Gen. vi. 1), Jerome {Com. in Ps. cxxxii. 3), and Augustine {de Civ. Dei, XV. xxiii. 4) denounce the work as apocryphal, and this opinion henceforward prevails.
4. Critical structure and dates. — That the work was composite might be inferred from the external evidence of the titles, ' Books ' or ' Words of Enoch,' under which the work is quoted in other writings. But internal evidence is more decisive. The fre- quent headings, such as 'the book written by Enoch' (xcii. 1), 'another book which Enoch wrote' (cviii. 1), and the divergence of historical outlook, of method of treatment, of ideas and phrases, in the various parts, point even more clearly to the fact that the work in its present form is a redaction of several of the more prominent writings belonging to a diffuse and varied cycle of literature passing under the name of Enoch. The work as we have it falls naturally into five quite distinct main sections as shown in 1 above :
Section i. : Visions and journeys (for contents see above). — xii.-xxxvi. belong to the earliest Enochic portion of this section ; they are pre- Maccabaean, as, unlike Ixxxiii.-xc, they make no reference to Antiochus' persecution. They fall into subsections : xii.-xvi. (out of their original order), xvii.-xix., xx.-xxxvi. Chs. vi.-xi. belong to the earlier Book of Noah (see below). Chs. i.-v. appear to be an introduction written by the final editor of the entire work. The problem in this section is the origin of e\al, which is traced to the fall of the Watchers. There is no Messiah ; God Himself is to abide with men (xxv. 3) ; all the Gentiles will become righteous and worship God (x. 21) ; the righteous are admitted to the tree of life and live patriarchal lives with very material joys and blessings.
Section ii. : The Parables (formerly known as 'the Similitudes'). — There are three Parables (xxxviii.-xliv., xlv.-hii., Iviii.-IxLx.), while xxxvii. forms an introduction, and Ixx. a conclusion to them. Ch. Ixxi. belongs to the Third Parable. There are many interpolations. Some are from the Book of Noah — Ix., Ixv.-lxix. 25 confessedly, and probably xxxix. 1-2, liv. 7-lv. 2 as well. Behind the Parables proper lie two sources, as Beer (Kautzsch's Apok. unci Pseud, ii. 227) has shown : one deals with the 'Son of Man' — xl. 3-7, xlvi.- xlviii. 7, liL 3-4, Ixi. a-4, IxiL 2-Lxiii., Ixix. 26-29,
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Ixx.-lxxi., and has 'the angel who went with me' as Enoch's interpreter ; the other deals with ' the Elect One'— xxxviii.-xxxix., xl. 1-2, 8-10, xli. 1-2, 9, xlv., xlviii. 8-10, l.-lii. 1-2, 5-9, liii.-liv. 6, Iv. 3-lvii., Ixi. 1-2, 5-13, Ixii. 1, and has the 'angel of peace' as interpreter of the vision (so Charles, Enoch, p. 65). Only the former source attributes pre-existence to the Son of INIan (xlviii. 2). This section is full of peculiar features, e.g. ' Lord of Spirits ' as a Divine title ; Phanuel replaces Uriel as the fourth archangel. The angelology is more developed : besides Clierubim, we have Seraphim, Ophannim, angels of power and of principalities. And so is the demonology : the origin of evil is traced back to the Satans and an original evil spirit- world. The Messiah is eternally pre-existent, and all judgment is committed to Him. The date of this section appears to lie between 95 and 64 B. C. and probably between 95 and 79. ' The kings and the mighty ' are evidently the later Maccabsean princes and their Sadduc-ean supporters. The mighty cannot refer to the Komans ; it must refer to the Sadductean nobles, who did not support the Herods. The problem is the oppression of the righteous by tlie kings and mighty, and the solution consists in a vision of the coming liberator and vindicator, the Messiah of supernatural power and privilege.
Section in. : The Book of the Heavenly Lumin- aries.— Chs. Ixxii.-lxxviii., Ixxxii., Ixxix. are original to this section ; Ixxx. and Ixxxi. are in- terpolations. The conceptions at times approach those of i.-xxxvi., but the points of divergence are very numerous. The date is not ascertainable. The object is to establish the solar year of 364 days as a Divine law revealed as early as the time of Enoch (Ixxiv. 12 as emended. Cf. Jub. vi. 32-36).