Chester Beatty-Michigan papyrus XII of the Epistle of Enoch
Missing writings from the Book of Enoch - Rare Document
The Chester Beatty Biblical papyri are a group of twelve manuscripts from Egypt. Several leaves and fragments were acquired by the University of Michigan, and a few fragments are known to be in private hands. The Chester Beatty Collection contains 8 leaves and 2 fragments, and the University of Michigan has 6 leaves in its possession including Enoch 97-107, ending with the title "The Epistle of Enoch".
A complete version of the Book of Enoch is known only in Ethiopian. It's obvious that the Ethiopian version is a collection of traditions as shown by the fact that it's divided into eight major sections and each section has a different history in terms of composition and integration into the book. In the assumed order of their composition the sections are listed as follows:
1. Book of the heavenly luminaries (chap. 72-82)
2. The Book of the Watchers (chap. 1-36)
3. The two visions of Enoch (chap. 83-90)
4. Two testamentary accounts (81:2-82:3; 91)
5. The Epistle of Enoch (chap. 92-105)
6. The account of Noah's birth (chap. 106-107), included in the Epistle of Enoch
7. Another book of Enoch (chapter 108), included in the Epistle of Enoch
8. The book of parables (chap. 37-71)
9. The Book of Giants (not included in the Ethiopian book of Enoch)
We have obtained the missing texts of Chap. 97:6-107:3 below.
I Enoch 97:6-98:1
All the words of your iniquities shall be read out in the presence of the Great Holy One before your faces. Then he will remove all the works that partook of iniquity.
Woe unto you, sinners, who are in the midst of the sea and on the dry land; there is an evil memorial against you. Woe unto you, ye who gain gold and silver not by way of righteousness; and ye will say, We have grown rich with riches and have got and possessed ourselves of goods; and let us do all that we desire, because we have treasured up silver in our treasuries and much goods in our houses, and they are poured out like water.
Ye err, for your wealth shall not abide, but it shall go from you quickly, because ye possess it all unjustly; and ye shall be given over to a great curse.
And now I swear unto you, the wise, and not to the foolish, that ye shall see many iniquities upon the earth.
I Enoch 98:2-3
For men shall put on beauty even as women, and fair color beyond maidens, in sovereignty and grandeur and in power.
They shall have silver and gold for food, and in their houses they shall be poured out like water, because they have no knowledge nor judgment.
So shall ye perish together with all your goods and all your glory and honor, and in dishonor and desolation and great slaughter your spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire.
I Enoch 98:4
Sin was not sent upon the earth, but men made it of themselves; and they who do it shall come into a great curse.
And slavery was not given to a woman, but because of the works of her hands; for it was not ordained that a slave should be a slave.
It was not given from above, but came about through oppression. Likewise neither was iniquity given from above, but it came from transgression.
I Enoch 98:5-8
Likewise a woman was not created barren, but because of her own wrongdoings she was punished with childlessness; and childless shall she die.
I swear to you, sinners, by the Holy Great One that your evil deeds shall be revealed in heaven. No unrighteous deed of yours shall be hidden.
Think not in your souls, and think not in your hearts that men know not and see not, and your wrongdoings are not observed nor written down before the Highest.
I Enoch 98:8-11
From now on know ye that all your wrongdoings are written down day by day until your judgment. Woe unto you, fools, for ye shall perish through your folly, and ye shall not give ear to the wise, and blessings shall not be your portion, but evils shall be about you.
And now know that all things have been made ready for you for the day of destruction. Hope not to be saved, ye sinners; depart and die, knowing that all things have been made ready for the day of great judgment and greater anguish to your spirits.
Woe unto you, ye obstinate in heart, doing evil and devouring blood; whence shall ye have good things that ye may eat and drink and be filled.
I Enoch 98:12-16
Woe unto you who love the works of unrighteousness; why have ye good hopes for yourselves?
Now be it known to you that ye shall be given over into the hands of the righteous, and they shall slay you and shall not spare you.
Woe unto you, ye who rejoice in the troubles of the righteous; no grave shall be dug for you.
Woe unto you, ye who would set at naught the words of the righteous; ye shall have no hope of salvation.
Woe unto you, ye who write false words and words of error; they write and they will lead many astray by their lies.
Ye yourselves err, and ye have no joy, but quickly ye shall perish.
I Enoch 99:1-4
Woe unto you, ye who cause errors, and by your false deeds gain honor and glory; ye are lost, ye have no salvation for good.
Woe unto you, ye who alter the words of truth and pervert the eternal covenant, and reckon yourselves without sin; they shall be swallowed up in the earth.
Then make you ready, ye righteous, and offer your petitions for a memorial; give them in testimony before the angels, that they may bring the sins of the unrighteous before the Most High God for a memorial.
And then they shall be confounded and they shall rise on the day of the destruction of unrighteousness.
I Enoch 99:5
In that very time women who give birth shall cast out and give away and abandon their infants, and they that are with child shall destroy their fruit and they that suckle shall cast down their children and shall not return to their babies or their sucklings, and they shall not spare them.
I Enoch 99:6-10
Bloodshed shall come upon those who worship stones and those who carve images of silver and of gold, of wood and of stone and of clay, and worship phantoms and demons and abominations and evil spirits and all errors with no understanding; and they shall find no help in them.
And they shall err in the folly of their hearts, and the visions of their dreams shall lead you astray; ye and the lying works that ye have made and wrought of stone, together shall ye perish.
And then blessed are all those who have heard words of the wise and will learn them, so as to do the commandments of the Highest; and they will walk in the ways of his righteousness and they shall not go astray with them that err, and they shall be saved.
I Enoch 99:13-14
Woe to them who build their houses not by their own labor; and of stone and of bricks ye make every house. Foolish men, ye have no joy.
Woe to them who set at naught the foundation and the inheritance of their fathers which is from all time, for a spirit of error shall pursue you. There is no rest for you.
I Enoch 99:15-100:1
Woe to you who work iniquity and give aid to unrighteousness, slaying their neighbor until the day of the great judgment; because then he will destroy your glory and will arouse his anger against you; he will slay you all by the sword, and all the righteous shall remember your unrighteousness.
And then in one place, fathers and sons will be smitten together.
I Enoch 100:1-3
Brothers shall fall in death together and their blood shall flow.
And a man shall not withhold his hand from his son, nor from his beloved, to slay him, and the sinner from the man of worth, nor from his brother. From dawn until the sun sets they shall be slaughtered together.
And the horse shall walk through the blood of sinners up to his chest, and the chariot shall sink down to its axles.
I Enoch 100:4-6
And angels shall come down, descending into the secret places on that day; and all who helped unrighteousness shall be gathered together into one place and the Highest will rise on the day of judgment to make a great judgment upon all.
And over all the righteous and holy he will set a guard of the holy angels, and they shall be kept as the apple of the eye until tribulations and sin shall give over.
And from that time the pious shall sleep a sweet sleep, and there shall no longer be any to make them afraid.
Then the wise among men shall see, and the sons of the earth shall give heed to these words of this letter, and they shall know that their wealth cannot save them in the fall of unrighteousness.
I Enoch 100:6-9
Woe unto you, ye unrighteous, when ye oppress the righteous on the day of hard anguish, and guard them in fire; for ye shall be recompensed according to your deeds.
Woe unto you, ye hard of heart, watchful to devise evil; fear encompasses you about, and there is none to take your part.
Woe unto you, all ye sinners, because of the works of your mouth.
Woe unto you, all ye sinners, because of the words of your mouth and the works of your hands, because ye have gone astray from the deeds of holiness; in blazing fire flaming worse than any fire.
I Enoch 100:11-12
Every cloud and mist and dew and rain shall be withheld because of your sins.
Therefore offer gifts to the rain, that it be not hindered from descending for you, and to dew and cloud and mist; pay gold that they may come down.
For if snow falls upon you, and frost and its cold, and the winds with their chill, and all their scourges, ye cannot stand before cold and their scourges.
I Enoch 101
Consider then, sons of men, the works of the Highest and fear to do evil before him. If he closes the windows of heaven and hinders the dew and the rain from descending because of you, what will ye do?
If he sends his anger against you and against your works, will you not be entreating him? Why do ye utter with your mouths bold and hard sayings against his greatness?
Ye see the sailors that sail the sea, their ships tossed by the billow and storm; and beaten by the storm they all fear and cast out into the sea all their goods and their property, and in their hearts they forebode that the sea will swallow them up and they will perish in it.
Are not all the sea and all its waters the work of the Most High, and did he not set their limits, and bind it and fence it about with sand?
And by his wrath they are affrighted and dried up; and the fish die and all that is in it.
Did he not make heaven and the earth and all that is in them? And who gave understanding to all things that move in the sea? The sailors fear the sea.
I Enoch 102
And when he hurls out against you the surge of the fire of your burning, where shall ye flee and be safe?
And when he gives forth his voice against you, will ye not be shaken and affrighted by the mighty sound?
And the whole earth shall be shaken and trembling and thrown into confusion, and the angels fulfilling that which is commanded them, and the heaven and its lights shaken and trembling and all the sons of the earth.
And ye, sinners accursed forever, there is no joy for you.
Be of good courage, souls of the just that are dead, the just and the pious, and be not grieved that your souls have gone down to Hades with grief, and the body of your flesh fared not in your life according to your holiness, for the days that ye lived were days of sinners and of men accursed upon the earth.
When ye die, then will the sinners say that the pious have died according to their fate, and what have they gained because of their deeds? They too have died even as we.
See now how they die in grief and darkness, and what had they more than we?
From now on let them rise and be saved, and they shall for ever see us eating and drinking.
Therefore it is well for you to eat and drink and plunder and sin and rob and gain property and see good days.
Behold, now, they who try to justify themselves, how great has been their downfall, because no righteousness was found in them until they died and were destroyed and became as though they were not, and their souls went down in pain to Hades.
I Enoch 103
I swear to you, the righteous, I understand this mystery; for I have read the tablets of heaven and have seen the writing of authority; I learned that which was written upon them and graven thereon concerning you, that blessings and joy and honor have been prepared and written down for the souls of those who died in godliness.
And their spirits shall be glad and shall not perish, nor their memorial from before the face of the Great One unto all the generations of the ages.
Therefore fear not their revilings.
And ye of the sinners who are dead, when ye are dead they will say of you, Blessed were the sinners all their days that they saw in their life, and they have died in glory and there was no judgment in their life.
Ye yourselves know that they will take your souls down to Hades, and there they shall be in great anguish and in darkness and in toils and in burning flame, and your souls shall come into a great judgment in all the generations of the age.
Woe unto you, there is no joy for you.
For say not, ye who were righteous and holy in your life, During the days of oppression we suffered hardships and were spent and became few, and we found none to take our part; we have been ground to powder and destroyed, and we have given up hope even to know safety again day by day.
We hoped to be the head, we became the tail; we toiled and labored and we have not been masters of our wages.
We have become the prey of sinners, the lawless have made the yoke heavy upon us.
They who are our masters, our enemies, goad us and encompass us about; we sought where we might flee from them to be refreshed.
We cried out against those who insulted and outraged us and they did not receive our petitions, and would not give ear to our voice.
And they did not take our part, finding no complaint against those who outrage and devour us; but they harden against us them who slew us and made us few; they lay no charge concerning those of us who have been murdered, and concerning the sinners they remember not their sins.
I Enoch 104
I swear to you that the angels in heaven remember you for good before the glory of the Great One. Be of good courage now because ye have grown old in troubles and in tribulations.
Like lamps of heaven shall ye shine and be seen; the windows of heaven shall be opened for you.
And your cry shall be heard, and your judgment for which ye cry shall also be made manifest against everything that shall help against you for your oppression, and shall be exacted from all who partook with those who outrage and devour you.
Ye shall not fear evil on the day of the great judgment and ye shall not be found as the sinners; but ye sinners shall be troubled, and there shall be eternal judgment upon you to all the generations of the ages.
Fear not, ye righteous, when ye see sinners waxing strong and prospering, and be not sharers with them, but keep far away from all their unrighteousness. Say not, ye sinners, that the sins of your days will not be sought out.
And now I show to you that light and darkness, day and night, behold all your sins.
Err not in your hearts, nor lie, nor change the words of truth, nor utter falsehood against the words of the Holy One, and give not praise to your images; for all your lies lead not to righteousness, and all your error leads to sin.
Sinners alter and write against the words of truth and lead the many away, and they lie and invent great falsehoods and write out the Scriptures in their names; and would that they would write all my words truthfully in their names, and neither take away or change anything in these words, but write truthfully all that I testify to them!
And again I know a second mystery, that to the just and holy and wise my books shall be given for joy in the truth, and they shall believe them and in them shall they be glad; and all the righteous shall rejoice to learn from them all the ways of truth.