This Book of Enoch needs to be in the hands of every serious Bible student as an indispensable aid in understanding the New Testament regarding the evolution of theology between 200 BC and 100 AD, and also the Old Testament concerning problem prophetical passages. The book was written by a number of Jewish writers around the second century BC, and was considered inspired Scripture in the century before Christ and up to the third century AD by such early Church Fathers, as Justin Martyr, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. It was eventually removed from the canon of Scripture in the fourth century and was virtually lost to Western Christendom until the early 1800s AD, when Laurence published the first English translation based upon a single Ethiopic manuscript. There are several other popular versions in print today, but the only translation worthy of serious study is the R.H. Charles edition, published in the early 1900s after twenty years of extensive research. His translation is based upon 23 Ethiopic manuscripts and all available source fragments of the time. Compared to other translations, the Charles version is quite exhaustive in the number of pages (nearly twice as many as other editions). He, alone, offers an extensive, in-depth Introduction of over 100 pages, and a comprehensive analysis and criticism of the text, plus accurate verse numbering. This is definitely the version to purchase without question! Two other important ancient books readers might want to consider are The Book of Jasher Referred to in Joshua and II Samuel (1840 edition), and The Book of Jubilees translated from the Ethiopic by Schodde, offered by Artisan Publishers.