The following is an extract from Mr. Charles' quite long and detailed Introduction: 

. . . To describe in short compass the Book of Enoch is impossible. It comes from many writers and almost as many periods. It touches upon every subject that could have arisen in the ancient schools of the prophets but naturally it deals with these subjects in an advanced stage of development. Nearly every religious idea appears in a variety of forms and if these are studied in relation to their contexts and dates we cannot fail to observe that in the age to which the Enoch literature belongs there is a movement everywhere and nowhere dogmatic fixity and finality.And though at times the movement may be reactionary yet the general trend is onward and upward. In fact the history of the development of the higher theology during the two centuries before the Christian era could not be written without the Book of Enoch.

From what has already been said it is clear that no unity of time authorship or teaching is to be looked for. Indeed certain considerable portions of the book belonged originally not to the Enoch literature at all but to an earlier work i. e. the Book of Noah which probably exhibited in some degree the syncretism of the work into which it was subsequently incorporated. This Book of Noah clearly embraced chapters 6-11 54-55 60 65-69 106-107.

. . . Conflicting views are advanced on the Messiah the Messianic kingdom the origin of sin Sheol the final judgment the resurrection and the nature of the future life. There is an elaborate angelology and demonology and much space is devoted to the calender and the heavenly bodies and their movements. Babylonian influences are here manifest and in a slight degree Greek. . . .

The analysis and notes are an excellent addition to this work enabling the reader to better understand the subject matter.

2010 Complete Exhaustive Edition

Paperback
450 pages