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Enoch, Jubilees and others · 2 Enoch 1:3–5; 3:1

Two tall men with shining faces

EvidenceDocumentedThe text exists and is quoted from a published translation. What it describes is a separate question.What this means
Reference2 Enoch 1:3–5; 3:1
WrittenDebated, c. 1st century CE
SetEnoch's 365th year
There appeared to me two men, exceeding big, so that I never saw such on earth; their faces were shining like the sun, their eyes too were like a burning light… and they took me on to their wings and bore me up on to the first heaven.

Translation: Morfill and Charles, 1896 · About the translator

Read it literally

An abduction by two giant men at Enoch's bedside. He asks for time to tell his sons, and they wait.

What scholars say

Survives only in Slavonic manuscripts from the 1300s on. Some scholars date it much later.

Taken up alive From the sky

Quick answers about 2 Enoch 1:3–5

Where is 2 Enoch 1:3–5 found?

2 Enoch 1:3–5; 3:1 (Enoch, Jubilees and others). Translation quoted: W. R. Morfill and R. H. Charles, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (1896).

When was 2 Enoch 1:3–5 written?

Debated, c. 1st century CE.

What do scholars say about 2 Enoch 1:3–5?

Survives only in Slavonic manuscripts from the 1300s on. Some scholars date it much later.

Rabbit holes in this passage

PersonEnochGenesis spends only a few lines on Enoch, and then breaks its own pattern. Everyone else in his family line dies, but of him it says only that God took him. He lived 365 years, the same number as days in a solar year. That odd ending sparked a whole library of visions, still being read today.

Sources

  1. W. R. Morfill and R. H. Charles, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (1896)Primary text
  2. Genesis 5:18–24, King James VersionPrimary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

Updated