NOAH, BOOK OF. An ancient Jewish work about Noah, known to us from Jubilees (see 10:13; 21:10) and now thought prob. to underlie certain portions of the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch).

R. H. Charles (see Bibliography) assigns the following portions of 1 Enoch to the Book of Noah: chs. 6-11; 54-55:2; 60; 65-69:25; 106, 107. J. E. H. Thompson shows some disagreement with this (see Bibliography). On Charles’ reckoning of the limits of the Book of Noah, it can be dated as follows: Chs. 83-90 of 1 Enoch presuppose the existence of chs. 6-36 of which the Book of Noah is thought to form a part, and since chs. 83-90 can be dated to a period no later than 161 b.c. the latest date of composition for the Book of Noah is 161 b.c.

The general teaching of 1 Enoch points to an author who was one of the Chasids or of the later Pharisees. The author of the book fits into the Chasidic designation well, but further than this it is impossible to go. The book is important as forming part of 1 Enoch which furnishes very valuable information regarding pre-Christian Jewish theology.

No MS of the Book of Noah on its own is extant. There are many MSS of 1 Enoch, some of which are fragmentary and most of which are very late. In addition to this, there are Greek, Latin and Ethiopic VSS.

Bibliography R. H. Charles, APOT, II (1913), 163-281; J. E. H. Thompson, “Apocalyptic Literature,” ISBE, I (1929), esp. 165, 166.