Pronounced 'E-n&k (/&/ as in the word abut") or 'E-nik.
The apparent origin of Enoch is biblical: he was the first son of Cain, whose name was eponymous for the city of Enoch founded by Cain in the Land of Nod (Gen 4:17). The second Enoch was the father of Methuselah (Gen. 5:22). It's unclear whether the following verse from Hebrews relates Enoch's death or Enoch's undying:
"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." (Hebrews 11:5 KJV)
The question turns on the word translated, which comes from the Greek meta-tith-ay-mee -- to be removed or taken away. Since Enoch was seen by God to be a righteous man, he was taken from a terrible, violent place ("And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt" -Gen 6:12), but the theory that Enoch was taken by God to heaven is contradicted in the New Testament when Jesus says, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3:13). So where exactly was Enoch taken to?
He turns up again in Jude 1:14-15, who is quoted as saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, [15] to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
What text is Jude quoting from? The Book of Enoch was considered scripture by many early Christians and by the Ethiopic Church (important later), which had the book in its official canon. It was "discredited" and banned by the Council of Laodicea, however, (where the biblical canon was established) along with many other Books and so promptly vanished. In that context it was known as The Secrets of Enoch (now classified 2 Enoch).
By the time of the Protestant Reformation it had become the Lost Book of Enoch, and there was renewed interest in locating it (as well as creating it, as forgeries started popping up). It wasn't until 1773 that the explorer James Bruce returned from Abyssinia with three Ethiopic copies of the Lost Book of Enoch (known as the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch, or 1 Enoch). This, along with some fragments in Greek, were the sum of the Book of Enoch until seven fragmentary copies of the original Aramaic text were discovered in cave 4 of Qumran among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
See 1 Enoch 70-71 for an account of Enoch's translation into heaven. What's also interesting is the beginning of a pattern of Enoch as the recipient of arcane knowledge and the bearer of celestial secrets:
And the angel Michael seized me by my right hand,
And lifted me up and led me forth into all the secrets,
And he showed me all the secrets of righteousness.
And he showed me all the secrets of the ends of the heaven,
And all the chambers of all the stars, and all the luminaries,
Whence they proceed before the face of the holy ones.
1 Enoch 71:3-4
In Hebrew there exists a third book (3 Enoch), known to magic circles around the 6th and 7th centuries C.E., according to which, God took Enoch and transformed (translated) him into the angel Metatron (I swear I'm not making this up). Metatron is the "Angel Prince of the Divine Presence" (3:1 and elsewhere), a celestial priest, God's lieutenant, even the "Lesser Yahweh". He acts as the otherworldly guide for R. Ishmael who narrates 3 Enoch, taking him on an apocalyptic tour of the universe and revealing to him celestial and eschatological secrets. So Enoch has gone from human experiencer to angelic guide and divine mediator.
In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I had a court astrologer named John Dee (1527-1608), a man known now for both his mathematical accomplishments and his study of the occult. Dee had in his possession a polished obsidian mirror ("The Devil's Looking Glass") -- a "speculum" given him by Sir William Pickering -- and two crystal balls in which his assistant and scryer Edward Kelley (aka Edward Talbot; 1555-1597) claimed to see visions of an angel he identified as Uriel. Like Enoch, Uriel is a creature of the Pseudepigrapha of once-sacred and later defamed texts. The Book of Enoch identifies Uriel as the angel who warned Noah of the Flood, and who revealed to Enoch the astrological secrets of the stars and planets (the "heavenly luminaries").
Enoch had also recorded the Adamic Language -- the language God had taught to Adam -- which he had used to name all the beasts of Eden, had been the one language before the fall of the Tower of Babel, was reputed to be the language spoken on the ancient lost continent of Atlantis, and which was believed to remain the language of the angels. Dee believed that by learning this lost language he could unlock the secrets of the universe in rediscovering the key to divine knowledge, so he entreated Uriel to teach it to him.
Uriel and the other entities contacted through the mirror and crystals reputedly taught Dee a system of magic -- the same system that the angels had taught Enoch -- beside which "all other forms of magic were mere playthings," and which formed the core of what came to be known as Enochican Magic(k). Dee recorded his communications (through Kelley) with the angels in his diaries, most of which were compiled by Meric Casaubon in a work called "A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years between Dr. John Dee ...and Some Spirits" (1659), but never practiced it.
For a full discussion of the Enochian Keys, see Brother Blue's account. For a full account of John Dee, see Benjamin Woolley's The Queen's Conjurer
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