1 Enoch 32
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And after these fragrant odours, as I looked towards the north over the mountains I saw seven mountains full of choice nard and fragrant trees and cinnamon and pepper.
2And thence I went over the summits of all these mountains, far towards the east of the earth, and passed above the Erythraean sea and went far from it, and passed over the angel Zotîêl.
3And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and saw beyond those trees many large trees growing there and of goodly fragrance, large, very beautiful and glorious, and the tree of wisdom whereof they eat and know great wisdom.
4That tree is in height like the fir, and its leaves are like (those of) the Carob tree: and its fruit is like the clusters of the vine, very beautiful: and the fragrance of the tree penetrates afar.
5Then I said: ‘How beautiful is the tree, and how attractive is its look!’
6Then Raphael the holy angel, who was with me, answered me and said: ‘This is the tree of wisdom, of which thy father old (in years) and thy aged mother, who were before thee, have eaten, and they learnt wisdom and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they were driven out of the garden.’
The chapter, studied
The Garden of Righteousness, and the Tree That Opened Eyes
Enoch crosses the Erythraean Sea and comes to the Garden of Righteousness, filled with large, beautiful, fragrant trees, among them the tree of wisdom. Raphael tells him this is the very tree his father and mother, old Adam and Eve, ate from, gaining wisdom, having their eyes opened, realizing they were naked, and being driven from the garden.
This chapter is the destination the whole eastward tour of chapters 28 through 31 has been building toward, and it identifies itself unmistakably: the Garden of Righteousness is Eden, and the tree of wisdom is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from Genesis. Raphael's description tracks Genesis closely: eating brings knowledge, opened eyes, and awareness of nakedness, followed by expulsion.
The book is not narrating a new fall here; it is placing Enoch, generations later, at the site of the original one, letting him see with his own eyes the garden his ancestors lost. That framing matters for how the whole Watchers section reads Genesis as connected history: the corruption of Eden and the corruption brought by the Watchers are treated as two chapters of the same story of the world going wrong, both requiring the same great judgment the earlier chapters keep pointing toward.
Unlike the fragrant tree of chapters 24-25, reserved for the righteous at the end of days, the tree of wisdom here is Eden's own tree, already eaten from, already the cause of exile: the tour has arrived at the source of the problem rather than its future remedy.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 2:9 — the tree of knowledge of good and evil that Raphael identifies for Enoch
- Genesis 3:7 — echoes their eyes being opened and their knowing that they were naked
- Genesis 3:23 — echoes the Lord God sending them forth from the garden of Eden
Teachers on this ground
R. H. Charles
The Book of Enoch (1917)
The public-domain translation this shelf reads, with the critical introduction the field still builds on.
Johnny Enlow
The Book of Enoch: Paraphrase and Commentary (2025)
A living teacher's paraphrase of the whole book with his own running commentary, from the prophetic stream.
Michael S. Heiser
A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader's Commentary, Vol. I — The Book of the Watchers (2019)
A verse-by-verse reader's commentary on chapters 1–36: the closest thing in print to a study Bible for this section.
1And after these fragrant odours, as I looked towards the north over the mountains I saw seven mountains full of choice nard and fragrant trees and cinnamon and pepper.
2And thence I went over the summits of all these mountains, far towards the east of the earth, and passed above the Erythraean sea and went far from it, and passed over the angel Zotîêl.
3And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and saw beyond those trees many large trees growing there and of goodly fragrance, large, very beautiful and glorious, and the tree of wisdom whereof they eat and know great wisdom.
4That tree is in height like the fir, and its leaves are like (those of) the Carob tree: and its fruit is like the clusters of the vine, very beautiful: and the fragrance of the tree penetrates afar.
5Then I said: ‘How beautiful is the tree, and how attractive is its look!’
6Then Raphael the holy angel, who was with me, answered me and said: ‘This is the tree of wisdom, of which thy father old (in years) and thy aged mother, who were before thee, have eaten, and they learnt wisdom and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they were driven out of the garden.’
The language it was written in
Aramaic (the Qumran fragments' language); parts possibly Hebrew. The Parables (chs. 37–71) have no Qumran witness and their original language is debated.
What survives, and where
Aramaic: Dead Sea Scrolls
Eleven fragmentary manuscripts from Qumran Cave 4 covering every section except the Parables (3rd c. BC – 1st c. AD).
Greek
Substantial portions: chs. 1–32 (Codex Panopolitanus), quotations in Syncellus, and the Chester Beatty papyrus of the Epistle.
Ge’ez (Ethiopic)
The only complete text, preserved by the Ethiopian church, whose canon receives the book; the base of every full translation.
What you are reading here
R. H. Charles's 1917 English translation, made from the Ge’ez against the Greek and Aramaic evidence then known — public domain, quotable in full.
No tagged word floor exists for the Aramaic or Ge’ez text; word-by-word study on this shelf awaits a future ingest. What stands here is the manuscript story itself.