Erased from knowledge (part 2)

June 22nd, 2024

There are reasons why religious authorities were so against the Book Of Enoch (and its derivatives 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch). There is a significant difference between those books and the canon books of the Old Testament. The books of Enoch have deeply interesting narratives and are real page-turners, which cannot be said of any other book of the Old Testament. They are coherent in their message, which again cannot be said about any other Old Testament book. Some of the canonical books of the Old Testament are deeply moving, or lyrical or touchingly poetical, or have significant ethical meaning. Still, for the most part, they are boring (I mean — how many times can you read about chosen people dissing God and then being punished for it, or about a variety of ways a vengeful and petty god decided to punish individuals or nations, or the particular ways the deeply insecure god needs to be worshiped). Books of Enoch aren’t— they are free-flowing, still very readable stories with some sci-fi touches and lucid narrative. And they bring forward questions and different interpretations — and that cannot be allowed. Especially the idea of lesser gods who worked with Demiurge until they were punished for getting too close and too familiar with humankind. And the idea that reason and example and authority can be subverted to the point requiring wholesale slaughter and punishment and cleansing by bloodbath cannot be implanted in the minds of lesser mortals than those already in charge. What if those lesser mortals turned their backs on those in authority, or maybe even requested fairness or justice?