Enoch did not write the Book of Enoch and it contradicts the Bible

There has been a resurgence of interest in the Book of Enoch or I Enoch, especially its account of angels called Watchers coming down from Heaven and having sex with human women, resulting in giant hybrid offspring. It is popular among supporters of the ancient aliens theory who argue that the Watchers were really aliens and some Christians, which I call Nephilim researchers, who are somewhat obsessed with the Nephilim or giants.

On the surface, the Book of Enoch appears to expand on Genesis 6: 1-4 which says that the “sons of God” took the “daughters of men” as wives and their children were the Nephilim which the King James Version translates as giants.

In other Old Testament passages, the “sons of God” meant angels (Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7). The traditional Jewish interpretation of this passage was that the “sons of God” were fallen angels or demons who had sex with human women and their offspring, the Nephilim were human/angel hybrids. “Nephilim” appears to be derived from the Hebrew “naphal”, meaning “to fall” and means “fallen ones” .

Just because many Jews at the time of Jesus believed the “sons of God” were fallen angels does not necessarily mean this is the correct view. After all, they rejected their prophesied Messiah so their understanding of the Bible was far from perfect.

The early Christians also subscribed to the fallen angel interpretation of Genesis 6, until it was replaced by the Sethite interpretation. This argued that the sons of God were not angels, but the godly descendants of Adam’s son Seth who had previously called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). The daughters of men were descendants of Cain. The Sethites married the immoral Cainite women and were corrupted by them, similar to what later happened with the Israelites and the Midianite women (Numbers 25). For most of Christian history the Sethite theory has been the dominant Christian interpretation, but there has been a revival of interest in the Watchers, Nephilim and Enoch among some conservative Christians.

However, even if the fallen angels interpretation of the sons of God is still correct, there are still problems with the Book of Enoch.

In his book Archon Invasion, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim Rob Skiba refers to the Book of Enoch and other apocryphal texts, such as the Books of Jasher and Jubilees as “synchronized, biblically endorsed, extra-biblical texts” (Rob Skiba, Archon Invasion, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim, King’s Gate Media, Texas, 2012, p 5). The Book of Enoch is supposed to supplement Genesis which Skiba refers to as the “Cliff notes version” (Archon Invasion, p 126). Such a comment should be a red flag to Christians who believe the Bible is their source of authority.

However, Genesis and I Enoch are not compatible. I Enoch does not expand on and supplement Genesis. I Enoch contradicts Genesis. Genesis says that sin and suffering came into the world as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Genesis 3). The Flood was sent to wipe out all life on Earth because of the extent of human sin (Genesis 6:5-8). Noah and his family were spared because Noah was morally righteous and blameless (Genesis 6:9). One would not know this from reading only Enoch which says that sin and suffering were not the result of human disobedience. It was the fault of the Watchers and their offspring, the giants. Humans were the victims of the violence of the giants and cried out to God to rescue them. The Flood was sent to save them by destroying the giants (I Enoch 7-10). While Genesis says that Noah built the Ark (Genesis 6:13-22), Enoch says angels built it (I Enoch 67:1-3). Most conservative Christians believe that demons are angels who sided with Satan, Enoch says they are the spirits of the giants who died in the Flood (I Enoch 15-16). There is nothing to support this in the Bible. Genesis says that Enoch was taken by God when he was 365 years old (Genesis 5:23-24), but the Book of Enoch says he lived to be over 500 years old (I Enoch 59:1). The Book of Enoch says that Lamech suspected that his new-born son Noah might really be the offspring of a Watcher, so he told his father Methuselah who asked his father Enoch. Enoch said that Noah was Lamech’s son (I Enoch 105:1-20). However, according to Genesis, Enoch was taken by God 69 years before Noah was born (Genesis 5:21-28).

What are these Christians going to believe, the Bible or the Book of Enoch? They cannot believe both.

I Enoch purports to have been written before the Flood. Christians, who believe there was a universal Flood, believe that it radically altered the world’s geography. However, the Book of Enoch mentions Mount Sinai (I Enoch 1:4), Mount Hermon on the Lebanon-Syria border (7:7), Dan (13:7), Lebanon (13:9), the Red Sea (32:3), the Great Sea (Mediterranean) (77:5, 7) and the Erythraean Sea, which used to refer to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and part of the Indian Ocean (77:6-7). Its authors knew the geography of the post-Flood world.

The Jewish Bible or Christian Old Testament mentions other ancient books which were not included in the Bible, such as the Book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13, 2 Samuel 1:18). There is no mention of the Book of Enoch. This is because it had not been written yet.

Scholars do not believe the book of Enoch was written by one person. I Enoch is a compilation of 5 books and 2 appendices which were written in Aramaic and maybe Hebrew between 400 BC and 100 AD (George Nickelsburg, I Enoch I, A Commentary of the Book of I Enoch, Chapters 1-36, 81-108, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2001, p 1-2, Michael Heiser, A Companion to the Book of Enoch, Defender Press, Missouri, 2019, p 3,8). Chapters 1 to 36, or the Book of the Watchers, which is the focus of most of the attention, is believed to have been written and edited by several authors over a period of time (Annette Yoshiko Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity, The Reception of Enochic Literature, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, p 16, 24).

There are a lot of claims that the Emperor Constantine or the Roman Catholic Church censored the Book of Enoch and removed it from the Bible. It sounds like they have been reading The Da Vinci Code. I Enoch was not removed from the Bible because it was never in it. I Enoch is a Jewish text. Constantine and the Catholic Church did not tell the Jews what they could put in their Bible, the Christian Old Testament. The canon of the Jewish Bible could have decided as early as 300 BC (Paul Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translation, Baker, Michigan, 1999, p 104). The Book of Enoch was not included because most of it had not been written yet.

Sometime in the 4th to 6th centuries the Book of Enoch was incorporated into the Ethiopic Bible, along with over apocryphal texts which are rejected by Protestants. It was brought back to the West in the late 18th century and was translated into English by Richard Laurence in 1838. Fragments have been found in Egypt and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Richard Laurence’s translation can be found here. Three more recent translations of the Book of Enoch can be found here and here and here.

Finally, there are the claims that Enoch built the Great Pyramid. For example in his book The Return of the Gods Erich von Daniken writes, “The ancient Egyptians regarded Enoch as the builder of the pyramids.” (Erich von Daniken, The Return of the Gods, Element, Dorset, 1998, p 184) This would be news to an Egyptologist. Von Daniken also claims that Enoch wrote the Book of Enoch (The Return of the Gods, p 62-63). As I have discussed in my post Giorgio Tsoukalos tells porky pies about Herodotus and the Great Pyramid in Ancient Aliens The Official Companion Handbook, the ancient Egyptians told the Greek historian Herodotus that the Pharaoh Cheops (Khufu) (2589-2566 BC) built the Great Pyramid in 20 years using 100,000 labourers (Herodotus, The Histories, 2:124-125). The Egyptians did not say Enoch, the Nephilim or aliens built it. They built it all by themselves.

The Book of Enoch does not say anything about Enoch building the Great Pyramid. This is a medieval Arab myth with no historical value. You can read how this myth developed here.

Inca Farming Terraces Were Not Steps For Giants

 

I have seen this meme several times on Facebook groups about UFOs, ancient aliens and giants. Judging by the comments a lot of people really do think these were steps for ancient giants or the Nephilim.

This is a photo of Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo about 70 kilometres from the Inca capital of Cuzco in Peru. Here are some photos of the site which I scanned from Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Kings by Fernando Salazar and Edgar Salazar (Tankar Eirl, Peru, 2005, p 102, 104).

Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Kings p 102

Once we have a more accurate idea of the location this photo was taken, it begs the question, if these were steps for giants, where were they supposed to go when they got to the top of them? There’s a mountain in the way. And if they were steps for giants, shouldn’t there be some other evidence, such as the ruins of some really big houses for them to live in?

These “steps” were simply Inca farming terraces which were probably during the reign of the emperor Pachacuti (1418-1472).  Here’s a clip about them from the  2015 BBC series The Inca: Masters of the Clouds.

And here is a tourist’s video about them.

The terraces were probably part of the royal estates so the “steps” were made for the Inca emperor Pachacuti.

Erich von Daniken, The Tayos Cave Scandal and the Crespi Collection Forgeries

In his 1973 book The Gold of the Gods Erich von Daniken claimed that he and a local guide Juan Moricz explored a cave system in Ecuador known as Cueva de los Tayos (Cave of the Oilbirds) which was supposed to be an underground tunnel system which ran for hundreds of miles. He wrote,

“To me this is the most incredible, fantastic story of the century. It could easily have come from the realms of Science Fiction if I had not seen and photographed the incredible truth in person. What I saw was not the product of dreams and imagination, it was real and tangible.” (Erich von Daniken, The Gold of the Gods, Corgi, London, 1975, p 1)

Von Daniken described entering the cave, “We switched on our torches and the lamps on our helmets, and there in front of us was the gaping hole which led down to the depths. We slid down a rope to the first platform 250 feet below the surface. From there we made two further descents of 250 feet. Then our visit to the age-old underworld of a strange unknown race really began.” (The Gold of the Gods, p 6)

Someone, who reads this and von Daniken’s use of the first person, would conclude that von Daniken is saying he went into the cave and saw these things himself.

He described how they entered “a hall as big as the hangar of a Jumbo Jet … Galleries leading in different directions branched off it.” (The Gold of the Gods, p 7) They went down a side passage to another hall which measured 153 feet by 164 feet where there was a library comprising 2-3000 metal plaques, about three feet high and one foot wide with writing upon them (The Gold of the Gods, p 9-10) .

It sounds like the greatest archaeological discovery of all time.

However, not long after The Gold of the Gods was published, Juan Moricz told a reporter from the German magazine Der Spiegel, “Daniken was never in the caves – unless it was in a flying saucer. … If he claims to have seen the library and other things then that’s a lie. That’s extremely indecent. We didn’t show him these things.” (Ronald Story, The Space Gods Revealed, New English Library, London, 1978, p 88)

In a 1974 interview with Playboy, von Daniken was asked, “Which of you is telling the truth?”

Von Daniken replied, “I guess we both are telling half the truth.” He went on, “In German we say a writer, if he is not writing pure science, is allowed to use some dramaturgisch effekte – some theatrical effects. And that is what I’ve done.”

The interviewer asked, “Did you, in fact, see things you describe? Seven chairs made of a plastic like material, a zoo of solid-gold animals, a library of gold plates?”

Von Daniken replied. “Definitely. No doubt. I must say I am not sure, anymore, if the so-called zoo is made of gold. It could be something different.” (“Playboy Interview: Erich von Daniken,”, Playboy, August, 1974, p 58)

In his 2009 book History is Wrong von Daniken quotes his description of the metal library from The Gold of the Gods, but it is edited in such a way that he now does not claim to have seen it himself (Erich von Daniken, History is Wrong, New Page Books, New Jersey, 2009, p 91) . He now says the description of the metal library came from Juan Moricz who told von Daniken about it in a restaurant and only took him into a side cave (History is Wrong, p 98-109) .

“Afterward, we crawled a few meters into the cave. From deep within the dull depths we could hear the rumbling of water … Apart from a few strange figures and stone sculptures that stood out in the scampering torchlight, there was little to see. Certainly no metal library.” (History is Wrong, p 109)

Von Daniken does not admit he did anything wrong or acted dishonestly. It was everyone else’s fault. Von Daniken wrote his second book Return to the Stars (Gods from Outer Space) while he was in prison in Switzerland in 1970 for fraud and embezzlement from the hotel which he had managed. An article in The New York Times reported, “A court psychiatrist examined von Daniken and found him a prestige-seeker, a liar and an unstable and criminal psychopath with a hysterical character.” That would explain a lot.

Moricz claimed that the gold library was real, only that von Daniken had not seen it. In 1976 a British Cave Research Association expedition, which included Neil Armstrong, explored the cave and, not surprisingly, did not find any gold library.

One would not know this from reading what David Hatcher Childress wrote in Ancient Aliens, The Official Companion Book in 2016,

“Maybe the most mysterious network is the Tayos cave system. This part of Ecuador is very remote and dangerous to reach. Back in the 1970s, several Ecuadorians contacted Erich von Daniken and told him the could take him there, and that inside the cave he would find alien artifacts, gold tablets, copper tablets, and mysterious statues. He went and ended up writing his third book, The Gold of the Gods, largely about the experience and all the things he had seen there, which were just as the Ecuadorians had promised. In the mid-1970s, a British Special forces expedition explored Tayos, as did Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, Many people were fascinated by the stories around Tayos.” (David Hatcher Childress, “Tombs of Blood and Gold”, Ancient Aliens, The official Companion Book, Harper Collins, New York, 2016, p 79)

Childress was still giving the impression that von Daniken had seen the gold library when he had admitted he made it up. The mid-1970s “British Special Forces expedition” presumably means the 1976 British Cave Research Association expedition which included Neil Armstrong. Childress does not make it clear that the 1976 expedition did not find any gold plates.

In a 2018 episode of the Travel Channel’s Expedition Unknown titled, “Hunt for the Metal Library” the host Josh Gates led an expedition which explored even more of the Tayos Cave. They did not find anything man-made, including the alleged gold library.

Childress also writes, “The Tayos caves are said to connect with a vast underground tunnel system that connects Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil.”  (Ancient Aliens, The Official Companion Book, p 79)It may be “said”, but there is no evidence it is true. The British Cave Association and Expedition Unknown expeditions could only explore a few kilometres. There is nothing to suggest the cave is part of “a vast underground tunnel system.”

In The Gold of the Gods von Daniken also describes visiting Father Carlo Crespi in Cuenca, Ecuador. He writes that Crespi was “a trustworthy friend of the Indians, who during past decades fetched the most valuable gold, silver, and metal objects from their hiding places piece by piece and gave them to him.”(The Gold of the Gods, p 21)

“Father Crespi led us through his treasure chambers. Room I houses stonemason’s work; Room II contains Inca artifacts of gold, silver, copper and brass, while Room III holds the gold treasure, which he seldom shows anyone, and then unwillingly. Cuenca has a “Gold Museum” of its own, but it cannot compare with Father Crespi’s.”(The Gold of the Gods, p 21-22)

Von Daniken wrote about one of Crespi’s artifacts,

“The showpiece was a stele (Fig. 26), 20 ½ inches high, 5 ½ inches wide and 1 ½ inches thick. Fifty-six different character are “stamped” on its 56 sqaures. I had seen absolutely identical characters on the leaves in the metal library in the Great Hall.” (The Gold of the Gods, p 22)

Von Daniken specifically said he had seen the same symbols in the gold library in the Tayos Cave – the cave he had never been in.

In History is Wrong, in which he now said he had never been in the Tayos Cave, he wrote about the stele,

“The most impressive piece from the Crespi collection remains the roughly 60-centimeter-tall gilded metal panel with its 56 “stamped” symbols. As Father Crespi assured me – I visited him several times – this was just one prize example from an entire metal library that lay in secret hiding places.” (History is Wrong, p 82)

So now, Von Daniken is telling us that he did not see it in the gold library, which he had never been in. Rather, Crespi told him it was from the gold library. Does von Daniken think no one reads his older books anymore?

The skeptic James Randi visited Father Crespi in the late 1960s. He was not so impressed with the collection,

“The collection was a total fraud from wall to wall, Scraps of tin cans, brass sheets, and copper strips abounded, mixed with piles of rusted chains, shards of armor, and bits of miscellaneous machinery. Some of the embossed sheets were embossed and scratched with everything from elephants to dinosaurs. Crude and rather poor designs were plentiful in the margins and backgrounds, and there were more representations of pyramids than I cold count.” (James Randi, Flim-Flam, Prometheus Books, New York, 1982, p 125)

Randi only saw one piece of gold, “It was quite obviously a scrap from a larger artifact, chopped out of the original and reworked by human hands.”(Flim-Flam, p 125)

Randi continued, “Some of it doubtless came from the artefact factories that abound in Ecuador. But the nature of the entire collection was proven to me when, in looking over the pile of debris, I came upon a cooper float for a toilet tank and an embossed tin on which the words “product of Argentina” were still visible. But it was all good enough to fool von Daniken, And/or his readers. I can only conclude, based on these facts, that von Daniken is a liar and an incompetent fake.” (Flim-Flam, p 127)

David Hatcher Childress claims that the Crespi collection “had vanished” (Ancient Aliens, The Official Companion Book, 79). Actually, 5,000 pieces from the Crespi collection are in the Pumapungo Museum in Cuenca. In the Expedition Unknown episode “Hunt for the Metal Library” the host Josh Gates examines some pieces with an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer which reveals they contained lead and zinc, which was not used by pre-Columbian Americans, so they must be modern forgeries.

Then there is the theory that Father Crespi was actually Adolf Hitler hiding out in South America, but not even Erich von Daniken will touch that one.