Enoch and the Gathering of Zion (B&W): The Witness of Ancient Texts for Modern Scripture (Companions to the Book of Moses)

THIS BOOK DESCRIPTION IS FOR THE BLACK AND WHITE VERSION. THE BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN PREMIUM COLOR.

Latter-day Saints have long been fascinated and inspired by the Book of Moses story of Enoch. It provides the closest thing to a full biography we have in the Book of Moses. And what a biography! Moses 6–7 detail his call, his teaching mission, his glorious vision of all things, his surprising victories in battle, and the ultimate ascent of the city of Zion to the bosom of God. What some readers may not know is that Latter-day Saint scholars, beginning with Hugh Nibley, have begun to find pieces of new and plausibly authentic elements of Enoch’s story in fragments of ancient documents that have turned up in scattered places over the last several decades.

Among the most significant recent discoveries is an Enoch account called the Book of Giants. Although the combined fragments of the Aramaic version of the Book of Giants scarcely fill three pages in one popular translation, we find in them the most extensive series of resemblances between a single ancient text and Moses 6–7. The Book of Giants adds rich background and details to the Book of Moses story of Enoch’s prophetic mission. Based on a 2015 discovery of the Manichaean Cosmology Painting—a thirteenth–fourteenth century illustration depicting incidents within the Book of Giants—we now have further confirmation of the Book of Moses account about the gathering of Zion and the eventual ascent of Enoch’s people to heaven.

With the help of the Book of Giants and other ancient texts, we are now in a better position than ever to assemble the most complete and detailed biography of Enoch to appear in modern times. In our day, when stories of scripture figures are often dismissed as fables or ignored altogether, Enoch’s story and message are more vital and relevant than ever. After all, Latter-day Saints have been called, like Enoch’s people, to more fully engage our hearts and accelerate our labors in a spirit of consecration until the Enoch’s vision of a true and permanent Zion becomes a reality.