The land of Atlantis and the flood in the apocryphal writings of Enoch |
The Book of Enoch contains texts of Enoch's secrets, and is considered apocryphal because it has not been recognized by either the Jewish or the Christian religions. This book is a collection of five texts written by Jewish authors, originally in the Hebrew language (according to others in earlier Aramaic), about the 2nd century BC, but the original does not yet exist. However, several fragmentary copies translated into other languages have been found at times. Although it was equally respected by the early Christians and the Jews, it was later criticized by the later church fathers and it was declared heretical mainly because its subject concerned the nature and actions of fallen angels. Eventually the book was lost (or conveniently forgotten) for thousands of years.
A papyrus containing a portion of these texts, in a Greek translation, was found in Upper Egypt. In its most complete form it is today in the Ethiopian library (in Ethiopic translation), and is part of the Ethiopian Church. Copies of this book were also found in the papyri of the Dead Sea Scrolls (of Qumran), which now prove that it existed long before the time of Christ.
In 1773 the Scottish aristocratic traveler James Bruce found a copy of it in Abyssinia, written in the Coptic language, and in 1821 it was translated into English by the Jewish professor Dr. Richard Laurence and then in other languages
Today it is considered that these texts were written by many authors, at different times. However, what these texts had in common was that they all included adventures (supernatural or not) of the biblical patriarch Enoch who had lived thousands of years before they first appeared. However, it is worth noting that in the book of Enoch there are also some traditions related to Noah, the grandson (or great-grandson) of Enoch. According to scholars, it is most likely that the first texts were written during the years of the captivity of the Jews by the Babylonians and this is because many of their descriptions, such as the "Ancient of Days", resemble corresponding descriptions of the prophet Daniel.
From what we know, Enoch was a highly interesting figure in prehistoric Jewish mythology, the seventh antediluvian patriarch after Adam. The legend presents him as being taken up alive (by god) into heaven after 365 years of earthly life, because he was a virtuous man. In his "Chronicles" Eusebius of Caesarea, one of the fathers of the Christian church, mentions that, according to the Babylonians, Enoch discovered astrology and that he was known to the Greeks as "Atlas".
Many passages of the Book of Enoch have an interesting meaning for Atlantologists, since they are an indirect indication of the existence of an idyllic land to the western end of the earth, and at the same time a direct reference to a great flood which destroyed it:
Enoch himself describes:
1) Take the passage where the holy angels (note—Th.P.: they are the non-rebels angels led by Uriel) shows Enoch a piece of land in a great sea to the west:
“…And angels brought me to the living waters and to the flame of the sunset, which receives every setting of the sun, and to a fiery river, where fire flowed like water, which flows into a great sea in the west. I saw the great rivers and I came to the great river and the great darkness and I came to the place where no flesh walks. I saw the mountains of darkness in winter and the place from which all the waters of the deep flow. I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep…” [chap. 17, 4-8]
2) Ιn another chapter: Enoch's journey continues to a place even further west:
"..And from there I went to another place and the Lord showed me to the west another big mountain of solid stone, and there were four hollow places in it, deep and wide and very smooth (slippery). Three of them were dark (note—Th.P.: rift valleys?) and one was bright... "in the bright place there was a spring of water in the middle of it" [chap. 22, 1-2].
3) And further west:
"...and from there I arrived at another place located to the west of the ends of the earth" [chap. 23, 1]
4) The following passage describes an idyllic place with mountains full of precious stones, an acropolis at the highest point with fragrant trees and a royal palace:
“…And I went beyond it and saw seven wonderful mountains different from one another, and (their) stones were wonderful and beautiful, magnificent in their entirety, with the appearance of the glorious and the righteous outwardly: three toward the east, the one resting upon the other, and three towards the south, one upon the other, and deep rough ravines, none of which joined any other. And the seventh mountain was in the middle of them and was higher and looked like the seat of a throne (note—Th.P.: A citadel with a palace in the middle of an island?), and around it were fragrant trees, there was one that I had never smelled before, nor was there another like it. Its fragrance surpassed all other fragrances and never faded. And its fruit is beautiful and like that of the palm tree. .." [chap. 24, 1-6]
Description of a great flood:
5) In the following passage Noah (Enoch's grandson) becomes an observer of the first physical manifestations of an impending great flood:
"And in those days Noah saw the earth that it had sunk down and its destruction was nigh.
And he arose from thence and went to the ends of the earth, and cried aloud to his grandfather Enoch.
Noah said three times with an embittered voice: "Hear me, hear me, hear me."
And Noah said to him, Enoch: "Tell me what it is that is falling out on the earth that the earth is in such evil plight and shaken, lest perchance I shall perish with it?" [chapter 65, 1-4].
And Enoch, my grandfather came and stood near me and said:
"Why Noah hast thou cried unto me with a bitter cry and weeping?
A command has gone forth from the presence of the Lord concerning those who dwell on the earth that their ruin is accomplished because they have learnt all the secrets of the angels, and all the violence of the Satans, and all their powers, the most secret ones.
And all the power of those who practice sorcery, and the power of witchcraft, and the power of those who make molten images. For the whole earth: And how silver is produced from the dust of the earth, and how soft metal originates in the earth. For lead and tin are not produced from the earth like the first: it is a fountain that produces them, and an angel stands therein, and that angel is preeminent." [ch. 65, 6-8]
6) From his grandfather, Enoch, Noah also learned that in those days of the impending deluge decided by the "Lord of Spirits" not only the sinful human race but also the fallen watcher angels would be punished.
They are the two hundred (200) "angels-children of heaven" (the author calls them "Erigors") who rebelled in violation of the Lord's law and descended during the days of Jared on the top of Mount Hermon, they called it Hermon because they swore and cursed each other on it. They mingled with the lovely daughters of men, each one choosing a wife, and began to enter them and pollute themselves with them, and great Giants were born, three thousand cubits in height, who devoured the labors of men. Their leaders, by scores, were twenty and the first was Shemiazas.
In chapter 8 it is stated that fallen angels exposed occult and divinely inspired wisdom to earthly women in an ungodly manner. Thus they taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth, and the art of working them, and bracelets, and earrings, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of precious stones and all dyes. And there was much ungodliness, and women committed fornication and were led astray and corrupted by their teachings. They taught them charms and rhizotomies, the solution of charms, astrology, the signs of the earth, the constellations, the course of the moon (Chapter 8, verses 1-4)
They taught them magic, potions, roots herbs, processing and use of metals, making swords, knives, shields, breastplates, ornaments, the first stages of science e.g. astronomy and the observation of the course of the moon and thus arose impiety, fornication, corruption, sin in mankind.
The rebellious angels were first imprisoned in the place to the west described above.
Enoch describes the destruction of this place with the following characteristics: continuous earthquakes, tsunamis, "boiling waters" and fiery lava:
" .... And he will imprison those angels, who have shown unrighteousness in that burning valley which my grandfather Enoch had formerly shown to me in the west among the mountains of gold and silver and iron and soft metal and tin.
And I saw that valley in which there was a great convulsion and a convulsion of the waters.
And when all this took place, from that fiery molten metal and from the convulsion thereof in that place, there was produced a smell of sulphur, and it was connected with those waters, and that valley of the angels who had led astray burned beneath that land.
And through its valleys proceed streams of fire where these angels are punished who had led astray those who dwell upon the earth.... " (ch. 67, 4-7)
Interpretation - Comments
In the above paragraph where I quote the contents of chapter 67 of the book of Enoch, the authors of the book describe in a veiled allegorical way the destruction of the land of Atlantis due to a cataclysm accompanied by a tsunami, continuous earthquakes and bubbling waters of fiery lava. It is presented allegorically as a "valley of angels whose people seduced humanity" and which was located to the west, near the mountains with the precious metals (gold-silver-iron, tin). Allegory for the purpose of concealing real facts is found in wide use among ancient peoples, as well as in the Christian Old and New Testaments.
Indeed, these Atlanteans-angels presented themselves as saviors-angels to the peoples (even in Judea-Babylonia) and taught them the arts, crafts, the principles of Science, etc. But, in the end, all these teachings corrupted and harmed the people of that time, according to the opinion, of course, of the Christian writers of the book of Enoch.
It should also not escape notice that the manufacture of warlike objects is regarded by the writers of the book of Enoch as the work of demons, as well as the discovery of the working of metals and the early stages of science, e.g. astronomy and the observation of the course of the moon. The first teachers of these arts to humanity are presented as angels-children of heaven who fell from the will of God, demons and monsters who seduced the human race and polluted it.