RE: Voynich is encrypted ENOCH
Radim Dobeš > 07-05-2026, 11:20 AM
The connection between Athanasius Kircher,
the Book of Enoch and the Voynich manuscript
(Radim Dobeš 2026)
1. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637) was a prominent French astronomer, antiquarian, and polymath who became one of the most influential figures of the 17th-century scientific revolution. Although he published almost nothing during his lifetime, his vast correspondence has earned him the nickname "Prince of the Republic of Scholars."
2. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc played a key role in the beginnings of European Ethiopistics (the study of Ethiopian culture and language) in the 17th century. His connection with Ethiopia lies primarily in his abiding interest in oriental manuscripts and his efforts to connect European scholars with knowledge from the Horn of Africa. Highlights of his Ethiopian activities:
3. The Search for the Book of Enoch: Peiresc was obsessed with finding the lost biblical Book of Enoch. He believed that its complete text was preserved in Ethiopia. In 1636, he obtained from missionaries in Egypt an Ethiopian manuscript that he mistakenly believed to be the book he was looking for (in fact, it was the work Mäṣḥafä mǝśṭirä – The Book of the Secrets of Heaven and Earth).
4. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and Athanasius Kircher met. Peiresc played a crucial role in Kircher's life. Their meeting in Avignon in 1632 began one of the most important scientific partnerships of the time.
5. Peiresc made his extensive collections and library available to Kircher, including Arabic and Coptic manuscripts, which later became the basis for Kircher's pioneering (albeit controversial) studies on Coptic and hieroglyphs.
6. It was through Peiresco and his network that Kircher gained access to information and materials related to Ethiopian Christianity and the Ge'ez language, both of which he saw as key to understanding ancient Egypt.
7. Peiresc was convinced that the complete Book of Enoch (mentioned in the Bible but lost in Europe) was preserved in Ethiopia. In 1636, he finally obtained an Ethiopian manuscript that he believed was the book he was looking for.
8. Peiresc showed the manuscript to Athanasius Kircher. Both were enthusiastic, but since no one in Europe at the time really understood Ethiopic (the Ge'ez language), they could not immediately verify the text.
9. It was not until 40 years later that the German scholar Hiob Ludolf, the founder of modern Ethiopian studies, examined the manuscript and discovered that it was the work Mäṣḥafä mǝśṭirä (The Book of the Secrets of Heaven and Earth) by a 15th-century monk named Bahaila Michael. It was a rare book, but not the biblical one.
10. Nevertheless, in 1636 a Capuchin named Gilles de Losches claimed to possess an Ethiopic copy of Enoch. Losches was said to have been freed from 'the Turkish Gallyes' by the collector Nicholas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), to whom he apparently gave the manuscript in gratitude. By 1656 this Ethiopic text had found its way into Cardinal Mazarin's library, and was later described as having '83. leaues, in a good faire character, bound in wood, cased in calfs leather, in smal 4to'. Not until Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704) published his Historia Aethiopica (Frankfurt, 1681) was it revealed that this supposed book of Enoch was in fact a series of 'very clear discourses of the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth, and the Holy Trinity' by one Abba Bahaila Michael. Though the manuscript acquired by Losches had proved to be 'a Book with a false Title', the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) cited from what he claimed was a Greek version of the Book of Enoch preserved in the monastic library of San Salvatore in Messina, Sicily. Moreover, Greek fragments of the text have also been preserved in the Byzantine chronicle 'Extract of Chronography' by Georgius Syncellus (after 810). Among these fragments is the story (1 Enoch 6, 1-10, 14) of how the fallen angels lusted after the daughters of men, taking them to wife and begetting gigantic progeny. These verses, with marginal differences, were reproduced by Joseph Juste Scaliger (1540-1609) in his treatise on the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea. Much of Scaliger's version was later translated into English, appearing in Samuel Purchas' Purchas his Pilgrimage (2nd ed. 1614). The story of the origin of the giants recurs in 'The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs' (Reuben's testament) and it seems that this extra-canonical account was used by Theaurau John Tany (1608-1659) to advance a heterodox reading of Genesis 6, 1-4.
11. Greek Fragments (Syncellus): Kircher knew and published an edition of the Greek fragments of Enoch, preserved in the chronicle of the Byzantine historian Georgy Syncellus. These excerpts were at that time the only real (albeit incomplete) parts of the text available to European scholars.
12. Abenephius and Arabic Sources: Kircher quoted a mysterious Arabic author named Abenephius in his works. This text contained legends about Enoch (identified with Idris or Hermes Trismegistus), but modern scholarship tends to suggest that Kircher either heavily modified these "fragments" or that Abenephius was a fictional character used by Kircher to support his theories.
13. Enoch as the "founder of wisdom": For Kircher, Enoch was not only the author of a book, but above all a mythical figure who, according to him, transferred antediluvian knowledge to Egypt in the form of hieroglyphs
14. Kircher's monumental work Mundus Subterraneus (Underground World, 1665) is a fascinating fusion of contemporary science and biblical mythology. Although Kircher sought a rational explanation of natural phenomena, the figures of the giants (Nephilim) from the Book of Enoch fit organically into his model of the world.
15. In Kircher's conception, strongly influenced by Peiresco, Enoch was not just a prophet, but a guardian of ancient knowledge. Technology and sin: The Book of Enoch describes how fallen angels (the Guardians) taught humans magic and metallurgy. In Mundus Subterraneus, Kircher discussed alchemy and mining, seeing this knowledge as a legacy that humanity had learned before the flood, but which had been misused for pride and sin. Physical existence: Kircher sought to rid the "Enochian" giants of the label of purely mythical monsters and describe them as physiologically real people of enormous stature who benefited from the extraordinary fertility of the early world. For Kircher, the entire Earth was like a living organism (with veins in the form of fire and water channels), whose history was inscribed in the subterranean layers, where the myths of the Book of Enoch became tangible geology.
Citation:
Hessayon, Ariel. (2006). Og King of Bashan, Enoch and the Books of Enoch: Extra-Canonical Texts and Interpretations of Genesis 6:1-4.