2 Enoch

The Second Book of Enoch (usually abbreviated 2 Enoch, and otherwise variously known as Slavonic Enoch or The Secrets of Enoch) is a pseudepigraphic text (a text whose claimed authorship is unfounded) of the Old Testament. It is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. The dating often preferred for the writing of 2 Enoch is late 1st century CE. The text has been preserved in full only in Slavonic, but in 2009 it was announced that Coptic fragments of the book had been identified. Greek is indicated as the language from which the Slavonic version was translated. 2 Enoch is not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group. It was rediscovered and published at the end of the 19th century.

Most scholars consider 2 Enoch to be composed by an unknown Jewish sectarian group, while some authors think it is a 1st-century Christian text. Very few scholars consider it a later Christian work.

2 Enoch is distinct from the Book of Enoch, known as 1 Enoch. There is also an unrelated 3 Enoch. The numbering of these texts has been applied by scholars to distinguish the texts from one another.

2 Enoch has survived in more than twenty Slavonic manuscripts and fragments dated from the 14th to 18th centuries CE. These Slavonic materials did not circulate independently, but were included in collections that often rearranged, abbreviated, or expanded them. Typically, Jewish pseudepigraphical texts in Slavic milieux were transmitted as part of larger historiographical, moral, and liturgical codexes and compendiums, where ideologically marginal and mainstream materials were mixed with each other.

2 Enoch exists in longer and shorter recensions. The first editors considered the longer version to be the original. Since 1921, Schmidt and many authors challenged this theory, and considered the shorter recension to be more ancient. Vaillant showed in 1952 that the additional parts found only in the longer version use more recent Slavonic terms. Other scholars suggest that both of them preserve original material, and posit the existence of three or even four recensions.

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