Some interesting science and astronomy found in the Book of Enoch
He was taken to visit the Watchers, perhaps only for a few days, and then he was taken back home again and told to spend a year writing the book. Clearly there were some parts that needed to be exact, such as the message to the fallen angels, and the prophetic sections, so he must have been given some notes to copy for these.
Then there
were some parts where he was making his own notes, from what he was being
told, and from the "tablets". Possibly some of the things he saw
were on screen, or staged like a play, and some parts of the book were just
done from memory afterwards.
I was interested to find parts where Enoch relates some details of fairly
accurate science but it is clear that he doesn't understand it, and he has
just copied it out from his notes as best he can. This shows that Enoch was
being informed by people who really knew stuff, things you wouldn't expect,
and it wasn't simply imaginative creative writing as some people seem to assume.
In particular I like the part where one of the angels tries to explain to
Enoch that the thunder and lightning are one process. Enoch assumes
that you hear the thunder instantly, when it happens, and has absolutely no
concept of there being a speed of sound.
60.13
And the thunder; according to the places where it falls. And all the divisions
that are made in lightning; so that it may flash. And its hosts; how they
quickly obey.
60.14 For the thunder has fixed intervals, which have been given to its sound,
for waiting. And the thunder and the lightning are not separate; although
not the same. Through a spirit the two of them move inseparably.
60.15 For when the lightning flashes, the thunder utters its voice, and the
spirit, at the proper time, causes it to rest, and divides equally between
them, because the storehouse of the times, for their occurrence, is like that
of the sand. And each of them, at the proper time, is held by a rein, and
turned back by the power of the spirit, and likewise driven forward, according
to the number of the regions of the Earth.
The mention
of "the sand" is probably a reference to a timer where sand runs
through a small hole, and the number of "regions of the earth" is
the distance. So here there is an attempt to explain the time and distance
relationship but it doesn't really fly. The interval between the flash and
the bang is about 5 seconds per mile but how could you explain that to Enoch?
Somebody tried to do it and Enoch has written it down how he understood it..
Enoch also mentions that the planets which he calls "powers of
heaven" rotate in their orbits. Since he clearly thought the earth
is flat and that the sky "heaven" is a dome supported on pillars,
it is surprising that he would say planets rotate in their orbits. Supposedly
nobody knew that until a few hundred years ago.
82.8 And He has power in Heaven, over night and day, to cause light to shine on men; the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, and all the Powers of Heaven, which rotate in their orbits.
There is also a mention that the earth has an axis of rotation, although once again I don't think Enoch understood what his notes really meant.
75.8
And I saw chariots in Heaven, running through the region above those Gates,
in which the stars that never set, rotate.
75.9 And one is bigger than all the others. And it goes round through the
whole world.