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What do we know about the book of Enoch?  The First book of Enoch is one of the Old Testament’s Pseudepigrapha, meaning, it’s a composition ascribed by an unknown personage from the Hebrew Bible, but has not been included in either the Jewish or the Christian Bibles.

The name "Enoch" (or Henoch) can be found in Genesis, where this patriarch is mentioned as the seventh descendant of Adam and Eve. Jared (Enoch’s father), had lived 162 years when he begat Enoch (3328 B.C.), and after he begat Enoch, he lived 800 years, and begat sons and daughters. All the days of Jared were 962 years. Then he died, which is thought to have occurred in (2528 B.C.).

Enoch had lived 65 years when he begat his son, Methuselah, and after he begat Methuselah; Enoch walked with God 300 years, and begat sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch were 365 years that he dwelled and walked with God. Then he vanished because God took him. This is believed to have occurred sometime during or around (2963 B.C.).

Since the writer of Genesis does not write that Enoch died, but instead says that he "walked with God", and then vanished, later generations thought that Enoch had seen all mysteries of the universe, and that he did not actually die, but was directly taken up into the heavens by God.

From the third century B.C., many writers used him as their spokesman, attributing all sorts of secret knowledge to his revelation. Five of these texts were joined together during an unknown event, sometimes during the 4th or 3rd century B.C., and are now known as the First Book of Enoch.

This book is also referred to as the "Ethiopian Book of Enoch", because the book is best known from some forty manuscripts from Ethiopia. However, there are many Aramaic fragments of the constituent parts among the Dead Sea scrolls, a handful of Greek fragments, and one scrap in Latin.

The title "First Book of Enoch", suggests there is a "Second Book" as well. These writings are on the lives of Enoch and his descendants, and it is only known to us in a Slavonic translation, and it is unknown when it was written.

The Third Book of Enoch was written in the fifth or sixth century B.C., and describes how the second-century rabbi Ishmael journeyed into heaven and saw God's throne and chariot. This work has influenced the writings of the Zohar, the sacred book of Kabbala.

Regarding the First book of Enoch, which consists of five main parts, which also can be subdivided. These parts were written at different times and were not originally composed to become a synchronized unit of chapters:

This complex work was extremely influential and considered by many to be very important. It is the oldest known Jewish apocalyptic text, older than the canonical book of Daniel and this proves that it is incorrect to maintain that the apocalyptic genre originated in the age of the Maccabean revolt.

The Enochic literature was historically popular. There are many fragments among the Scrolls of the Dead Sea. Oddly enough, these belong to the first and last three units only.