Book of Enoch

Audience

It is impossible to cite a specific audience for the book of Enoch in its time. It is not known who wrote its various parts, nor is it known specifically when they were written. Because the work is built around revelations of secret wisdom, it would have been of interest to Jewish mystics and others who regarded orthodox Hebrew scripture as incomplete. The book was read by early church fathers, who found it instructive but were not prepared to regard it as divinely inspired scripture. The book, however, is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church—and indeed it was not discovered in the West until the eighteenth century, when it was imported from Ethiopia to western Europe. It is not entirely surprising that the Christian Church in Ethiopia would retain the book of Enoch in its canon, for Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity is a blend of Christian and Jewish practices. For example, every Ethiopian Christian male is circumcised, the Sabbath (Saturday) is kept as holy, an ark (representing the Ark of the Covenant) is a key part of every church, and priests make sacrifices of goats and lambs for the sick. The peculiar blend of ancient Jewish history and Christian-like views in the book of Enoch makes the book appealing to the strain of Christianity adhered to by Ethiopian Christians.