Book of Enoch

This is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic religious text. The author of this book, by tradition, is the patriarch Enoch. Enoch was the dad of Methuselah (the oldest man in the Christian & Hebrew Bible) & the great-grandpa of Noah.

The Book of Enoch has some quite unique passages on the origins of demons & the Nephilim, why some angels fell from Heaven, an explanation of why the Genesis Flood was morally necessary, & a prophetic explanation of the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah.

3 books are traditionally attributed to Enoch, including the distinct works of 2 Enoch & 3 Enoch.

1 Enoch isn’t considered to be canonical Scripture by most sects of Judaism & Christianity. Although it’s a part of the biblical canon used by the Ethiopian Jewish community, Beta Israel. As well as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church & the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The older section of 1 Enoch is dated to circa 300-200 BCE. The latest part (Book of Parables) is probably from circa 100 BCE. It’s believed that Enoch was originally written in either Aramaic or Hebrew. The 1st languages used for Jewish texts. No Hebrew version is known to have survived.

Copies of the earlier sections of 1 Enoch were preserved in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves. The full Book of Enoch survives in its entirety only in the Ge’ez translation. Ge’ez is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originated from what’s known as Ethiopia & Eritrea.

The 1st part of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who sired angel-human hybrids called the Nephilim. The rest of the book describes Enoch’s revelations & his visits to Heaven in the form of travels, visions, & dreams.

The book consists of 5 major sections:

• The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
• The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71; sometimes called the Similitudes of Enoch)
• The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72-82; sometimes called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries)
• The Book of Dream Visions (I Enoch 83-90; sometimes called the Book of Dreams)
• The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)

The most extensive surviving early manuscripts of the Book of Enoch are in Ge’ez. Also, there are manuscripts used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to prepare the deuterocanonicals from Ge’ez into the targumic Amharic in the bilingual Haile Selassie Amharic Bible.

Judging by the number of copies found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Enoch was widely read during the Second Temple period. Today, the Ethiopian Beta Israel community of Haymanot Jews is the only Jewish group that accepts the Book of Enoch as canonical & still preserves it in its liturgical language of Ge’ez. It plays a central role in worship.

However, the Book of Enoch was excluded from both the formal canon of the Tanakh (the Jewish/Hebrew Bible) & the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament, the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew). Also from the writings known today as the Deuterocanon.

By the 5th century, the Book of Enoch was mostly excluded from Christian biblical canons. It is now regarded as Scripture only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church & the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The Book of Enoch was considered as Scripture in the Epistle of Barnabas & by some of the early Church Fathers (like Clement of Alexandria & Tertullian) who wrote circa 200 that the Jews had rejected the Book of Enoch because it purposely contained prophecies about Jesus.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) don’t consider 1 Enoch to be part of its standard canon. Although it believes that a purported, “original” Book of Enoch was an inspired book.

The Book of Moses (1st published the 1830s by the Mormon Church) is part of its standard works & has a section that claims to contain extracts from the “original” Book of Enoch.

This section has a number of similarities to 1 Enoch & other Enoch texts, including 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch, & The Book of Giants. The Enoch section of the Book of Moses is believed by the Church to contain extracts from “the ministry, teachings, & visions of Enoch.”

Though it doesn’t have the entire Book of Enoch itself. The Mormon Church considers the potions of the other texts that match its Enoch excerpts to be inspired while not rejecting but withholding judgment on the remainder.

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Originally published June 7, 2017

A tenet of geology is that rocks are old. Therefore, objects of human origin embedded in rock suggest that the rock formed after the object was created. However, there are several examples of these anomalies, which, upon first appearance, seem to set the geological timescale and assumptions topsy-turvy. One of these items is the London Hammer.

The story of its discovery goes as follows: Mr. and Mrs. Max Hahn found a nodule with the wood handle sticking out near Red Creek in London, Texas in either 1934 or 1936. Later retelling of the story by others say it was lying loose on a rock ledge when found. The nodule was broken open several years later to reveal the entire embedded iron head.

These type of anomalies are known colloquially as OOPARTs (out-of-place artifacts). Such items also include similar embedded objects like iron nails and gold chains but also alleged human footprints in prehistoric rock. Other OOPARTs assumed by some to be ancient objects created by some mysterious culture are actually natural phenomena that resemble cultural products. I hope to include some more interesting OOPARTs descriptions in future posts.

But let’s take this London hammer artifact and try to determine just how strange it is.

The hammer is of 19th-century origin. We know this because we can find matching hammers used by miners of that time and not before. The wooden handle of the hammer would not preserve much longer intact. Wood would either decompose or mineralize, depending on the conditions. How did it get encased in rock? The clue to this seems to lie in the description of the rock type – “limey”. Calcite precipitates from saturated solutions quickly under the right conditions, weeks to years. Shell beds also accumulate and cement together in a short time. In this case, we can surmise that a miner might have dropped the hammer or it fell into a spot where he was unable to retrieve it, perhaps into some limey clay that eventually hardened around the hammerhead. However, there are some suspicious details about the hammer.

First, it was not found in situ. We have no documentation of exactly where it was found or under what conditions. We just have a story from the Hahns. The strata in this location are Cretaceous in age but do not match the concreted substance. The nodule matrix cannot reliably be associated with a host rock.

But the primary problem is where the artifact is now kept and for what purpose. The item resides in a Creationist museum in Texas and is exhibited as “proof” that a worldwide flood occurred and wiped out most of the earth’s inhabitants, as related in the Biblical tale of Noah. Carl Baugh, the current owner of the artifact, will not allow testing of the wooden handle or the concretion matrix to definitively characterize its origin, though there is an undetailed, uncorroborated report from a supporter of Baugh who claims the handle was dated “from present to 700 years ago”.

Researcher Glen Kuban has an excellent chronology and details of the history of the artifact and its problematic provenance here. He supports the explanation that the hammer is a typical 19th-century miner’s tool that was encased in the limey concretion by natural means. This plausible explanation does not overturn any geological ideas about the age of the earth or of humans’ place in it. The London Hammer is simply the result of unique circumstances that produced a fascinating object.

Unfortunately, those who possess the item now (Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, TX) have no reason to have it analyzed further to help determine how this anomaly formed because of their use of it to support their anti-science narrative of Biblical creation.

Update 25-June-2024

Here is another example of rapid cementation of a recent item – an engine block left in an intertidal zone became incorporated into the rock along with shells and rock.

Young-earth creationists will shift position on these artifacts depending upon what might gain them traction in an argument. As noted above, they will claim that the rock indicates that humans were around long ago at the same time as extinct animals, so evolution must somehow be false or that fossils can form very quickly so the earth does not have to be old. Both arguments have mistaken assumptions and are flawed. Some rock does form quickly. But some types of rock are demonstrably ancient – perhaps even a billion years old for some continental bedrock – as are the creatures whose remains were preserved in them. There are multiple lines of evidence that establishes that the earth is over 4 billion years old and that there are billions of animal species that evolved and lineages that went extinct over time. It wasn’t just a few thousand years and a flood that constitutes the history of earth.

UPDATE 5-Jan-2026 (Revised) So a version of this artifact was sold for $330 at auction in January 2026. It was part of a lot of mineral specimens, fossils, casts, and related items owned by Melvin Weaver. While it seemed really strange to some of us who knew what it was that 1. it was being sold and, 2. that it went for such a low price. Jason Colavito contacted the Creationist museum where it was supposedly housed and found that it’s still there. So this version was a replica. I did not imagine there were replicas made, and there was no accessible info on the auction site that showed that. Sorry for the misinformation.

"I'll Give You $1M to Debate #NoahsFlood!" RIDICULOUS Caller Shut Down | Matt & Seth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_OVHEpGtXQ

A caller using the pseudonym "Believer" attempts to challenge the hosts to a $1M debate about Noah's #globalflood, but refuses to provide any preview of their arguments.

The Pre-#Biblical Origins of #NoahsFlood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw13SadIPOs

#genesis #religion #ancienthistory #mythology #myths #epic #gilgamesh #Mesopotamia #ninevah #Eridu #AtraHasis #greatflood #christian #judaism #fakehistory #sumerian #humans #gods #antiquity #babylon

🌊 Ever wondered if Noah's Flood really happened? Discover the scientific and archaeological evidence that sheds light on this ancient story. Dive into the debate! #NoahsFlood #AncientHistory #Geology

https://bdking71.wordpress.com/2024/08/24/uncovering-evidence-of-noahs-flood-what-does-science-say/

The story of Noah’s Flood is one of the most compelling narratives in religious and cultural history, sparking imaginations and debates for centuries. The tale of a global deluge, as depicted in the Bible, is a cornerstone of various religious traditions, but what does modern science have to say about its validity? In this blog, we’ll delve into the evidence surrounding Noah’s Flood, examining geological, archaeological, and historical perspectives to shed light on this ancient story.

Geological Evidence: A Glimpse into Ancient Cataclysms

One of the primary sources of evidence for the biblical flood comes from geological studies. Proponents of the flood theory often point to various geological formations and sedimentary layers that they believe could be remnants of a massive flood event. For instance, the discovery of sedimentary rock layers and massive fossil beds in regions like the Black Sea has sparked significant interest. Some researchers suggest that these findings might be indicative of a large-scale flooding event that could align with the biblical narrative.

In the late 1990s, a groundbreaking study led by a team of scientists uncovered evidence suggesting that the Black Sea experienced a significant rise in water levels around 7,500 years ago. This event, often referred to as the “Black Sea deluge,” has been linked to a massive influx of water from the Mediterranean, which could have been remembered and mythologized as a global flood. However, while this evidence is compelling, it remains one of many pieces in a complex puzzle.

Archaeological Insights: Bridging Myth and Reality

Archaeology plays a crucial role in understanding ancient civilizations and their myths. While no direct evidence of Noah’s Ark has been discovered, some archaeological finds suggest that ancient peoples experienced significant flooding events. For example, archaeological sites in Mesopotamia, such as Ur and Eridu, reveal layers of silt and debris that might have resulted from historical floods.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian text predating the Bible, also contains a flood narrative with striking similarities to the story of Noah. This epic describes a great flood sent by the gods to cleanse the earth, with a hero named Utnapishtim building a boat to save his family and various animals. The similarities between these ancient stories hint at a shared cultural memory of catastrophic flooding, possibly rooted in real historical events.

Historical Context: Unraveling the Story’s Origins

To fully grasp the context of Noah’s Flood, it’s essential to explore the historical and cultural backdrop of ancient civilizations. The story of Noah and the flood likely reflects a broader tradition of flood myths common in ancient cultures. These myths often served as allegories or explanations for natural disasters and their impacts on early societies.

Historical research suggests that flood myths were prevalent in ancient Near Eastern cultures, with variations of the story appearing in the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian traditions. The widespread nature of these myths indicates that the idea of a great flood was deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of early civilizations. This cultural phenomenon may have been influenced by actual catastrophic events, such as regional floods or tsunamis, which were interpreted and recorded in mythological terms.

Scientific Skepticism: A Critical Perspective

While there is intriguing evidence supporting the possibility of ancient floods, many scientists remain skeptical about the literal interpretation of Noah’s Flood. Critics argue that the geological and archaeological evidence does not conclusively point to a global deluge but rather suggests localized or regional events. The concept of a worldwide flood, as described in the Bible, poses significant challenges from a scientific standpoint, particularly when considering the logistics of such an event.

Furthermore, the absence of concrete evidence for the Ark’s existence and the challenges of fitting the biblical narrative into the geological and historical record contribute to the ongoing debate. Many scientists advocate for a more nuanced interpretation, suggesting that the flood story may be a mythologized account of real events rather than a literal historical occurrence.

Conclusion: A Blend of Myth and Reality

The evidence surrounding Noah’s Flood is a complex interplay of geology, archaeology, and historical context. While scientific investigations offer intriguing insights, they also highlight the challenges of interpreting ancient narratives within a modern framework. The story of Noah’s Flood continues to captivate our imagination, blending historical kernels of truth with mythological embellishments.

Ultimately, the quest for evidence of Noah’s Flood serves as a reminder of the enduring human fascination with our origins and the natural world. Whether seen as a literal historical event or a rich cultural allegory, the flood narrative invites us to explore the intersections of science, history, and mythology.

D. Bryan King

Join the Discussion

What do you think about the findings related to Noah’s Flood? Share your opinions and insights with our community! We’re eager to hear your thoughts and engage in a meaningful conversation about this intriguing topic. Your perspective could add a valuable dimension to the discussion. Leave a comment below and let’s explore the evidence together!

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https://bdking71.wordpress.com/2024/08/24/uncovering-evidence-of-noahs-flood-what-does-science-say/

#ancientCivilizationsFlood #ancientFloodAccounts #ancientFloodMyths #ancientTextsFlood #archaeologicalEvidenceFlood #AssyrianFloodMyths #BabylonianFloodStories #biblicalFlood #biblicalStoriesAndScience #BlackSeaDeluge #BlackSeaFloodEvidence #culturalSignificanceFloodMyths #EpicOfGilgameshFlood #evidenceOfNoahSFlood #floodAllegory #floodArchaeology #floodDisasterAncient #floodLegendsAndHistory #floodMythOrigins_ #floodMythsAndReality #floodMythsComparison #floodMythsNearEast #floodNarrativeHistory #floodResearch #floodSedimentEvidence #floodStorytelling #geologicalEvidenceFlood #geologicalFormationsFlood #globalFloodEvidence #historicalContextOfNoahSFlood #historicalFloods #MesopotamianFloodStories #NoahSArk #NoahSFlood #NoahSFloodAndGeology #NoahSFloodDebate #regionalFloodEvents #scientificSkepticismNoahSFlood #scientificViewNoahSFlood #SumerianFloodMyths #UtnapishtimFlood

An apology & a response to an argument for #Noahsflood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8x5egVABDg
#fossils #science #atheism #atheist #deconstructionism #counterapologetics