Michael Heiser is author of the best-selling ‘The Unseen Realm’, which examines the ancient context of Scripture, explaining how its supernatural worldview can help us grow in our understanding of God.
Introducing The Book of Enoch
In this more recent work, Heiser again asks readers to check in their preconceptions at the front door, but also to enter a world where traditional church beliefs are challenged and an alternative understanding of the pre- and post-flood world is presented with thorough examination and an appreciation of The Book of Enoch.
The Book of Enoch is today labelled as a pseudigraphical book, with the author choosing to take the name of a biblical character. Whilst not within the canon that we are familiar with, it is part of the Ethiopian Church canon and Ethiopia’s Beta Israel canon. It was from there that James Bruce brought three copies, written in Ge’ez, back to England in 1773. The Book of Enoch was also mentioned in Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1616 ‘History of the World’, written when he was in the Tower of London.
Sin of the Watchers
Reversing Hermon seeks to unveil what most in the modern Church have never heard regarding how the story of the sin of the Watchers in 1 Enoch 6-16 helped frame the mission of Jesus, the Messiah. Jews of the first century expected the messiah to reverse the impact of the Watchers’ transgression. For Jews of Jesus day, the Watchers were part of the explanation for why the world was so profoundly depraved.
Jews of the first century expected the messiah to reverse the impact of the Watchers transgression.
The Messiah would not just revoke the claim of Satan on human souls and estrangement from God, solving the predicament of the Fall. He would also not only bring the nations back into relationship with the true God by defeating the principalities and powers that governed them. Jews also believed that the messiah would rescue humanity from self-destruction, the catalyst for which was the sin of the Watchers and the influence of what they had taught humankind.
Extrapolating Genesis 6:1-4
As Reversing Hermon sets out, the Book of Enoch goes into substantial detail around the verses of Genesis 6:1-4. In doing so Heiser posits three primary contentions: -
1. Genesis 6:1-4 is a piece of polemical writing aimed at refuting the assertions of Mesopotamian writings that interaction between human beings and spiritual entities was a good thing.
2. Enoch’s account of the fallen angels taking an oath to engage in sexual relations with human women resulted in the offspring that the Bible describes as Nephilim, but with a different root to the one we normally assume, and that this oath was taken on Mount Hermon.
3. The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Hermon was a direct reversal of that oath by the fallen angels and, together with Jesus’ miracles, was a clear declaration that Jesus had taken up his Kingship.
Step by step, Dr Heiser details how passages we know and love within the Bible have direct links to the events that Enoch details and demonstrate the authority and lordship of Jesus.
Step by step, Dr Heiser details how passages we know and love within the Bible have direct links to the events that Enoch details and demonstrate the authority and lordship of Jesus.
Enoch references in the NT
Chapters 1 – 11 break out into four sections. Section 1 sets Genesis 6 into the context of The Watchers, while subsequent sections demonstrate how the effects of that oath by the fallen angels at Hermon are reversed in the Gospels (Section 2), the Epistles (Section 3) and Revelation (Section 4).
Then the final 140 pages or so of the book comprises appendices that examine the context of, and evidence for, the Book of Enoch, along with a very useful collation of New Testament allusions and quotations from Enoch. This part is my personal favourite − I was stunned by the sheer volume of Enoch-based references that are there in the New Testament. The final appendix is a profile of the antichrist from a Jewish and early church perspective.
I was stunned by the sheer volume of Enoch-based references that are there in the New Testament.
Challenging and beneficial
Reading 'Reversing Hermon' was a hugely positive experience for this reviewer. I found that its contentions joined many dots for me, whilst still holding true to scripture. It was challenging in places but entirely beneficial; and I feel, having read it twice, that I now have a significantly better understanding, not just of Jesus and his ministry, but also of the times we are living in and moving towards.
Along with Abraham Joshua Heschel’s ‘Shabbat’ and Marvin Wilson’s ‘Our Father Abraham’, this book is right up there as one of the most impactful books I have read.
'Reversing Hermon' (331pp) is published by Defender, and is available from Blackwells for £11.99 (including p&p).
