A Nearly Lost Edition
Like the Book of Enoch itself, John Baty’s nineteenth-century edition had been virtually lost. Published in 1839, it appears never to have received wide circulation, and Baty seems to have died shortly afterward.
The restored twenty-first-century edition seeks to correct that neglect. Baty’s rendering of the Book of Enoch the Prophet has much to recommend it, both as a translation and as a historical witness to the modern recovery of Enoch.
The Second Complete English Edition
The early nineteenth century marked the first time the complete Book of Enoch became available to English readers. Baty’s was only the second English edition. Translators of that era possessed a few Greek fragments and three complete Ethiopic manuscripts brought to the West by the explorer James Bruce in 1773.
Baty translated Andrew Gottlieb Hoffmann’s German version, but he also consulted the Greek fragments preserved by George Syncellus in order to correct errors Hoffmann had left unresolved.
A Correction Vindicated Nearly Two Centuries Later
The clearest example appears in the passage conventionally numbered Enoch 7:2. Hoffmann’s text described giants three hundred cubits tall. Later English translations repeated or even magnified this extraordinary reading.
Baty instead followed the alternate Greek wording:
“And there were born unto them three sorts, the first were great giants, and to the giants were born Nephilim, and to the Nephilim were born Elioud.”
For roughly two centuries, English translations continued to leave the giant-height reading uncorrected. The later Nickelsburg–VanderKam translation ultimately agreed with the textual form Baty had selected: the passage describes a succession of giants, Nephilim, and Elioud, but says nothing about giants hundreds of feet tall.
More Than a Translation
Baty’s version is vivid and at times beautiful. It is also significant because of the apologetic material placed before and after the translation. There he offered a passionate defense of Enoch as a legitimate member of the body of Scripture.
The restored edition therefore serves two purposes: it rescues a worthy translation from obscurity, and it documents an important step in the modern revival of the Book of Enoch among Christians.