Tag Archives: Ge’ez

The Book of Enoch- Laurence

I have typed up the first English translation that was made of the Book of Enoch, translated by Richard Laurence, LL.D., the Archbishop of Cashel. It is a PDF of about 1 gigabyte in size. I also made a printed edition of it on Amazon for $9.95, and a Kindle edition.

The return of the long lost Book of Enoch to the modern western world is credited to the famous explorer James Bruce, who in 1773 returned from six years in Abyssinia with three Ethiopic copies of the lost book.  In 1821 Richard Laurence published this, the first English translation, from the Ethiopic (Ge’ez) manuscript residing in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.  The version I have uploaded is an edition updated in 1883. The volume begins with an introduction, the author anonymous, only described as “the author of ‘The Evolution of Christianity.’ ”  The text of Enoch itself is footnoted where Mr. Laurence has not rendered the Ethiopic literally into English but supplies a literal rendering in the notes.  An anonymous editor has supplied additional notes not by Mr. Laurence, giving the opinions of M. Knibb and R. H. Charles and others.

Richard Laurence, LL.D. (13 May 1760 – 28 December 1838) was an English Hebrew scholar and Anglican churchman. He was made Regius Professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1814, and Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, in 1822. He died in Dublin in 1838.

Warning: the Introduction by the Anonymous author is rather modernistic and “Unitarian,” but it contains valuable and interesting information, including a table of passages in Enoch placed next to New Testament passages that were evidently influenced by them. Download the free PDF, or purchase the paperback edition or the Kindle Edition of the Book of Enoch.