I noticed translation errors in the King James when I started reading the first time where Jacob stole things from his father-in-law it says he took his "gods" instead of goods. When Prince James had the bible translated he told the wise men something to the effect "If you get any words wrong I will have your head" so, you can see why they never came forward and confessed any errors.
Would that be the Necronomicon? I started to read that but it scared me as stated anyone who opens this book is damned to hell for all eternity. hehe, just a little scary.
A little late, but no, The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a famous Buddhist book about the journey of the soul after death. I can see why you thought of the Necronomicon though (Book of Dead Names) but I'm sure that's fictional!
Anyway, I finally started reading the Book of Enoch, so I'll post my thoughts as I go along. This is a good on-line version for anyone interested which is an exact translation and provides notes as to which manuscript each line is from:
The Book of Enoch Index
First note: The giants are stated to be 4,500 feet tall. Wow. So a human being would be about 2mm tall to them? I guess they weren't born that size to human mothers! In any case I can see how that would cause problems, although I'm not sure what use the world would be to somebody that size. I'm not surprised they ran out of food! As for eating people, how many 2mm tall people would it take to make a meal? I'm amazed that anyone was left by the flood! Reading on it seems that they resorted to cannibalism. I suppose that would be the only way.
Enoch is decended from Seth. The Sethians believed that Seth was the child of the Holy Spirit/ Silence/ Barbello and that the descendants of Seth all contained part of the spirit within them and lived among the rest of the human race. I've wondered if this is about those who have empathy vs. those who don't (sociopaths and psychopaths) who cause suffering and death and can have no spiritual side.
Meaning of the name Enoch:
The amazing name Enoch: meaning and etymology
Initiated. This ties in with secret knowledge, as does Enoch being hidden. The description of God as the ruler of ages (aeons) has a specific gnostic link (very much with Sethian texts) in which the daimons (lesser gods/angels/demons/spirits) are known as aeons.
"You have been in heaven, but ⌈all⌉ the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones" More secret wisdom talk. Compare to Corinthians with "I have given you only milk". I'm sure there is a lesson intended here for people who have part of a religion and spread stupid and dangerous interpretations to people. This is a drawback with the levels of initiation way of teaching. As the higher lessons are a secret until the student is ready, bad students just walk off during level one thinking they know everything.
"I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place whence all the waters of the deep flow. I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep."
The mountains of darkness of winter symbolise death. Near death through drowning (water) fire or being entombed (earth) are a thing in initiation rituals and a near death experience
does give a new sense of things.
Water symbolised knowledge/wisdom and the waters of the deep represent hidden knowledge, so Enoch, the initiated is being led into the hidden mysteries.
"Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons"
That has got to be a swipe at Zeus, famous for 'romancing' women in the form of a swan or magical golden rain or such things and them giving birth to demi-gods like Herakles. Actually this whole thing is about that isn't it? Gods = angels. The gods all had dominion over one or more things, like the Watchers teaching different things. It's a rejection of the gods. Does this imply that any god demanding sacrifice is a demon? This was a major cause of the schisms in early Christianity and this could lend itself to the 'the god Moses encountered is not God' argument of the non-Judaic Christians but could also not be interpreted that way. I wouldn't be surprised if it was used as ammunition in any case! It may be the main reason The Book of Enoch was rejected from the Bible.
"And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens" More Greek mythology!
"And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen." As Enoch represents the initiate into the deepest mysteries, this is another admonition that if you aren't at that level you are not qualified to spout revelation and teachings.
"Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus." More Greek! Tartarus is the abyss where the Titans were imprisoned. So are the Watchers not the gods, but the Titans, or is this saying that the gods have also been cast down?
"And I saw towards the east another mountain higher than this, and between them a deep and narrow ravine: in it also ran a stream ⌈underneath⌉ the mountain." More secret wisdom. The Magi (mages or foreign priests - it was much the same in those days) of the nativity are in some texts from the east. In the Revelation of the Magi they journey from the eastern edge of the world.
"1. And thence I went to another place in the desert, and approached to the east of this mountain range. 2. And ⌈⌈there⌉⌉ I saw
aromatic trees exhaling the fragrance of frankincense and myrrh, and the trees also were similar to the almond tree." I called it!
"And thence I went over the summits of ⌈all⌉ these mountains, far towards the east, and passed above the Erythraean sea and went far from it, and passed over Zotîêl." What? The Erythraean sea is off the coast of Arabia! And Enoch has been traveling east for ages. Where did he start? This geography makes no sense and I'm going to leave this for today!
