(the Prophecy of); an apocryphal book, of which there remains but a few fragments.

Enoch was certainly one of the most illustrious prophets of the first world, since Moses says of him, that he walked with God. This prophet is famed in the church for two things: The first is, his being taken up into heaven, without seeing death, (Heb. xi. 5.): the second is, his prophecy; a passage of which St Jude has cited in his epistle, ver. 14. The ancients greatly esteemed the prophecy of Enoch. Tertullian, on the authority of this book, deduces the original of idolatry, astrology, and unlawful arts, from the revolted angels, who married with the daughters of men. And it is on the testimony of this book, that the fathers of the 2d and 3d centuries, as Irenæus, Cyprian, and Lactantius, received for true this fable of the marriage of the angels with the daughters of men. St Augustin, who was less credulous, allows, indeed, that Enoch wrote something divine, because he is cited by St Jude; but intimates, that the authority of this book is doubtful, and that it cannot be proved that it was really written by Enoch. Indeed, the account it gives of giants engendered by angels, and not by men, has manifestly the air of a fable; and the most judicious critics believe, it ought not to be ascribed to Enoch.