4 Bizarre Stories From The Book of Enoch

Four Bizarre Stories from The Book of Enoch

While there are many well-known biblical characters, Enoch probably isn’t one of them. He’s perhaps most notable as the father of the famously long-lived Methuselah, and as an ancestor of that legendary ark-builder and apocalypse survivor, Noah. Another key part to his story, though, is that Enoch never explicitly dies according to the Bible, and is just at one time taken away by God. As it turns out, Enoch supposedly wrote an account of this experience, and it sure throws up some spectacular details.

So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re taking an extraordinary look at four bizarre stories from the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch is somewhat controversial. In many religions it’s considered non-canon, it isn’t taught alongside the regular Bible, and it seemingly presents some quite contradictory information. Enoch himself is mentioned in the Bible, as being Noah’s great grandfather, but he doesn’t feature heavily. Most of what we now know as the Book of Enoch was uncovered following the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, an ancient manuscript found in the 1940s, in a cave system on the shores of the Dead Sea. The Scrolls contain other books and passages – some that appear in the Bible and other religious texts, and some that don’t – but the Book of Enoch particularly catches the eye as it contains apparent revelations about the nature of God, the apocalypse, and the inner workings of the universe. It’s argued by some that these inner workings have come to be disregarded by mainstream religion, which is why the Book was unknown until it’s recent retrieval.

The first Enoch story we’re especially highlighting today, however, isn’t directly related to how space and the planets work. It concerns the creation of Nephilim. And the regular Bible does mention these. When fallen angels and Earth-bound mortals reproduce, they’re said to form a race known as the Nephilim, which are presented as demigods. They’re briefly described as heroic and noble warriors. But in the Book of Enoch, they’re anything but heroic. In fact, they’re described as terrible and horrific titans. In Enoch’s account, Nephilim are giants. They can grow to incredible heights of more than two miles tall… and, in a roundabout way, they’re said to be the reason for the Great Flood.

Having an insatiable desire, the Nephilim are said to have devoured all of humanity’s food and resources. But, still hungry, they soon move onto eating the actual humans, as well, and then all the animals. And, when they ran out of animals, they began eating each other. In the Book of Enoch, the quite unsavory situation is summed up in a particularly brutal few words; mentioning that they sinned against birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish… and that they devoured one another’s flesh, and drank the blood. They’re broadly referred to as the “lawless ones”. Though breezed over in the regular Bible, then, the Nephilim were seemingly such terrifying man-eating monsters that the horrified screams of their victims are said to have been heard in heaven itself… which is then what really prompted God to flood the earth. To wipe them off the face of the planet, and to start over with humans afresh.

But next, we leave the Nephilim and zoom out to view the wider solar system as one. In the Book, as Enoch is granted his grand tour of heaven, he gets given a truly God-like perspective. And arguably the most controversial moment (to modern minds) comes when he seemingly encounters the flat disc of the sun and suggests that there is an edge to our planet, Earth. This moment, and others, are then sometimes used by Flat Earthers to support their own claims in the here-and-now. However, it gets more bizarre than even that. In his travels, it’s said that Enoch sees a whole bunch of chambers in heaven where all the different elements of the world are stored. He sees effective waiting rooms for the natural world, where angels keep things like the winds, the rain, the clouds, and even the entire sun and moon.

Back at the apparent edge of the world, though, Enoch uncovers a deep abyss, filled with fire. It’s certainly a place that you’d want to avoid toppling into. But, oddly, this bottomless, burning pit is also described as a kind of jail… only, it’s a jail for stars. In the Book, it’s suggested that if a star were late for duty, or if it didn’t appear at all when God needed it to, then it was sent to this place, the star prison. There, it’s said that they (the stars) were bound and rolled over the fire, for sometimes thousands of years, in punishment. With the only upside perhaps being that, in the lifetime of a star, thousands of years is but the blink of an eye, it’s another example of an “alternate” creation story, that never made it into standard Bible text.

What did make it into the standard Bible, however, is the story of Noah, Enoch’s great grandson. Everyone knows how it’s told that he was warned about a Great Flood and tasked with building a massive ark to house two of every animal. What isn’t in the Bible, though, is an account of Noah’s birth… but again, that gets covered in the Book of Enoch. And it’s our third bizarre story today. When Noah comes into the world, he’s described in various glowing terms. His eyes soon take center stage, however. And they’re at first described as beautiful, too… but then something strange happens. The baby Noah opens his eyes, and proceeds to shoot rays of light out of them, with those rays said to carry the power of an entire star. As the Book of Enoch tells it, he lit up the whole house like the sun.

Immediately afterwards, Noah is said to have stood up and to have causally spoken with God… and, remember, this is still just a few moments after his being born. Naturally, Noah’s father, Lamech, is a little perturbed by the whole experience. He thinks Noah to be the son of an angel… and so, according to the Book, he seeks out Enoch, who knows all about the angels, having walked among them. Enoch then tells Lamech (his grandson) via Methuselah (his son) not to worry because it has been seen in a vision that Noah will one day save humanity. In the Book of Enoch, then, Noah’s role is destined from day one… and he has a kinda strange, souped-up eyesight superpower, to boot.

And yet even that perhaps isn’t the most bizarre story covered. Finally, we pay a visit to a fantastic being known as Metatron. And, although not mentioned explicitly in the Bible, Metatron is briefly described in the Talmud, a compilation of ancient teachings about the Bible. He’s presented as the archetype of man. The highest and most powerful. A being so powerful and so close to the divine that he acts as something like God’s mediator between the heavens and humankind. In the Book of Enoch, we learn much more.

Book Three of the text switches perspective from Enoch, and tells the story of Rabbi Ishmael, instead… who dreams about being given a tour of heaven by Metatron himself. But, plot twist, Metatron actually is Enoch. They’re one and the same thing. So, really, Enoch was never far from the heart of the story. Again, we go back to the fact that even in the Bible, Enoch never explicitly dies. The Book of Enoch seemingly clarifies this, then, by claiming that God turns him into what’s essentially a super angel. Metatron goes on to explain that he was blessed with some 5,360 blessings, one result of which is that he was given thirty-six pairs of wings – with each one of those wings being large enough to cover the entire world. Metatron also has 365 eyes, skin that’s made from flames, bones that are formed from the coals of burning juniper, eyelids flashed with lightning, eyeballs built also of fire, and fiercely flaming hair. And he’s so powerful that a storm constantly blows around him, too… and the sounds of earthquakes and thunder always accompany his stride.

The Book of Enoch is filled with alternative accounts of events and characters that are mentioned in the Bible, but otherwise little is known about them. Perhaps none are quite so eye-opening as this version of Enoch himself, however. By the end, the narrator becomes truly astonishing. But, what do you think? Which story most caught your attention? It’s worth noting that these aren’t all there is to glean from this mysterious tome, either. There are many more tales to explore… but they’re for another video. For now, those are four bizarre stories from the Book of Enoch.