Long before Dante wrote the Inferno, long before Revelation described the New Jerusalem, the Book of Enoch gave humanity its first detailed guided tour of heaven. And what Enoch described is stranger, more specific, and more vivid than anything that came after it.
Enoch describes being taken up to heaven and shown the secrets of the cosmos. He sees the storehouses of snow and hail. He sees the chambers where the spirits of the dead wait for judgment. He sees mountains of fire and chasms of darkness. He sees the throne of God — surrounded by fire, with rivers of living flame, attended by a host of beings whose faces shine like the sun.
Then he is shown the place prepared for the righteous: a valley full of trees, a mountain of fragrant wood, a spring of pure water — the Garden of Eden, still waiting. And he is shown the place prepared for the wicked: a valley deep in the earth, dark and desolate, where the damned await the final judgment.
Early readers found this material irresistible. The New Testament authors knew it well. The imagery of Revelation — the throne room, the living creatures, the sea of glass — echoes Enoch's descriptions. Paul's reference to being caught up to the "third heaven" uses Enoch's cosmological framework.
This is where Western apocalyptic literature begins. All of it flows from Enoch's vision.
Read the complete text in our collector's edition, typeset and annotated for modern readers.