Book of Moses Evidence: Enoch Clothed with Glory

In the Book of Moses, Enoch stated, “I beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with glory; And I saw the Lord; and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, even as a man talketh one with another, face to face; and he said unto me: Look, and I will show unto thee the world for the space of many generations” (Moses 7:3). 

This detail echoes the prominent theme of glory and transfiguration experienced by Moses several chapters earlier: “And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence” (Moses 1:2).1 From a literary perspective, God’s bestowal of transformative glory upon Moses and Enoch provides a notable counterpoint to the self-glorification of Satan and Cain (Moses 4:1–2; 5:31–33).2 Thus, Enoch’s transfiguration can be viewed as part of a sophisticated theme running throughout the Book of Moses.

However, the wording in relation to Enoch’s glorification is peculiar. The text states that he was “clothed upon with glory”—a detail not reported for other figures in the Book of Moses. Although the Bible contains several accounts of transfiguration and generically associates holy clothing with God’s glory or righteousness, the clothing of a specific individual, such as Enoch, is rare in scripture.3 Perhaps with the exception of the high priest Joshua in Zechariah 3:3–5, it doesn’t appear that other individual prophets or holy men are described as being clothed with glory or heavenly raiment in a setting of transfiguration or heavenly ascent. The same is true for the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants.4 It is therefore significant that this unusual detail is repeatedly and specifically associated with Enoch in a variety of extrabiblical sources.

Enoch Clothed with Glory 

One notable example comes from 2 Enoch:

And the LORD said to Michael, “Go, and extract Enoch from [his] earthly clothing. And anoint him with my delightful oil, and put him into the clothes of my glory.” And so Michael did, just as the LORD had said to him. He anointed me and he clothed me. And the appearance of that oil is greater than the greatest light, and its ointment is like sweet dew, and its fragrance myrrh; and it is like the rays of the glittering sun. And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of his glorious ones, and there was no observable difference. (2 Enoch 22:8–10)5

In addition to the explicit mention of Enoch being clothed in glory, this text also draws attention to Enoch being anointed with oil. As explained by Andrei Orlov, “The anointing with the oil causes the patriarch’s transformation from the garments of skin to the luminous garment of an immortal angelic being, one of the glorious ones.”6 Incidentally, this provides an interesting parallel with Moses 6:35: “And the Lord spake unto Enoch, and said unto him: Anoint thine eyes with clay, and wash them, and thou shalt see.” Although the anointing agent is different in each text (clay versus oil), the resemblance is hardly trivial. These details are also relevant to Latter-day Saint temple worship, which the Book of Moses is intimately connected with.7  

A description of Enoch being clothed in heavenly attire is also elaborated upon in 3 Enoch, where Enoch, in his glorified angelic state, is known as the angel Metatron:

R. Ishmael said: Metatron, Prince of the Divine Presence, said to me: Out of the love which he had for me, more than for all the denizens of the heights, the Holy One, blessed be he, fashioned for me a majestic robe, in which all kinds of luminaries were set, and he clothed me in it. He fashioned for me a glorious cloak in which brightness, brilliance, splendor, and luster of every kind were fixed, and he wrapped me in it. (3 Enoch 12:1–3)8

In Jewish mysticism, Enoch’s transformation into the angel Metatron became a template for others who desired to enter into God’s presence.9 As explained by Peter Schafer, the only angel who “is so close to God as to be dressed in similar clothes and sit on a similar throne is Metatron, the ‘lesser YHWH.’ This Metatron, however, is precisely not an angel like the others but the man Enoch transformed into an angel.”10 The combination of clothing and enthronement imagery is also significant, as it corresponds well with Enoch’s statement to the Lord in Moses 7:59: “thou hast made me, and given unto me a right to thy throne, and not of myself, but through thine own grace.”11 

Various other Jewish texts also mention Enoch being clothed in glory. According to Sidrey de-Shimmusha Rabba, “In the sixth palace is Enoch, clothed in a resplendent garment of light. He (i.e., God) changed his name and his body, and He re-named him Metatron, a name corresponding to that of his Lord.”12

Likewise, in Otiyyot de Rabbi ʿAqiva, the Lord declared of Enoch, “I made his garment splendidly glorious and majestic and his covering cloak exalted and distinguished and strong. [I placed on his head] a circular royal crown measuring five hundred by five hundred parasangs, and I endowed him with some of My splendor, majesty, and luminescent glory which is on My Throne of Glory.”13

One Jewish text, known as Sefer Mishkan ha-ʿEdut, suggests that Enoch’s heightened state of bodily glory enabled him to see the spirits that God had created in a premortal context:

Before Adam the Protoplast had been introduced there, the Garden was not empty. And not only were the plants and the delightful things there, also there were all the souls destined to exist in the world, each of them endowed with the likeness, form, and appearance which they would have afterwards. Those waiting there are not visible to anyone corporeal, except to the one who is totally righteous. …

However, no one corporeal who is clothed in the vestment of this body can perceive those righteous (souls) who are there. (They are visible) only as something like birds standing on the top of and beside the outermost wall. Enoch did not notice (them) at first while he still remained in his normal (i.e., bodily) state, but after he had trained himself to be with God, he saw (them) and comprehended the whole subject, and he grasped the gist of all matters with complete certainty. All of this can be found in his book.14

This again compares well to the Book of Moses. Not only was Enoch “clothed in glory” (Moses 7:3), suggesting a bodily transformation or transfiguration, but the Lord also told him, “Anoint thine eyes with clay, and wash them, and thou shalt see. And he did so. And he beheld the spirits that God had created; and he beheld also things which were not visible to the natural eye” (Moses 6:35–36).15 

Another Jewish manuscript associates Enoch’s clothing with the secrets that he was learning in heaven:

For God, may He be forever blessed, out of His great love for Enoch, the son of Yared, revealed to him before He took him the secret of the upper and lower realms, and He taught him the secret of binding them together, which is the secret of the sacrifice with its specifications. He commanded him and said to him: Such and such secrets you can reveal to humanity, but such and such secrets will remain with you alone, for nothing (can be revealed) to the laypersons with you; “keep them hidden (lit. ‘suppressed’) under your clothing.”16

This may be connected to the sacred clothing-related truths revealed to initiates in both ancient and modern temple ceremonies.17 It may also relate to the garments of Adam and Eve described in the next section. 

Regaining Adam and Eve’s Lost Garments of Glory

Some texts view Adam and Eve as having been clothed with a heavenly garment in the Garden of Eden, which seems to correspond to the quality or nature of their paradisiacal bodies before their transgression. For instance, in the History of the Rechabites, unclothed angelic beings in a paradise setting explain that they are actually “covered with a stole of glory (similar to that) which clothed Adam and Eve before they sinned.”18 This may also play into the theme of Adam and Eve discovering their nakedness in Genesis 3:7–11.19 

With this backdrop in place, it is significant that several traditions describe Enoch as having regained the lost glory of Adam and Eve, sometimes in the context of Enoch being clothed in the light or glory that had departed from them. For instance, in an Armenian work known as The Words of Adam and Seth, we read:

“But he [Adam], not having observed the commandments, and having been stripped of the divine light, and having been thrown outside the Garden, became an equal of the dumb beasts.” And Enoch considered these things, and for forty days and for forty nights he did not eat at all. And after this he planted a luscious garden, and he planted in it fruit bearers. And he was in that garden for five hundred and forty-two years, and after that, in body, he was taken up to heaven, and was found worthy of the divine glory and light.20

As noted by Moshe Idel, “The statement that Adam resembled ‘dumb beasts’ is of a certain interest in light of a tradition about Enoch in MS Oxford 1947 [another Jewish text]: ‘He turned his flesh into fiery torches’—this teaches that it was as if he [Enoch] were stripped of the natural animal skin and were garbed in spiritual qualities.”21 A text from the Jewish Zohar Ḥadash, known as Midrash Ha-neʿelam to Shir ha-Shirim, likewise states: 

And when the Holy One, blessed be He, created Adam the Protoplast, He introduced him into the Garden of Eden (clothed) in a garment of glory that was consubstantial with the light of the Garden of Eden … [but he sinned] and those garments flew off of him, and the luminous soul which opened a window to what was above departed from him, and he was left stripped of all (these things) … and that luminosity of the supernal soul which flew away from him ascended upwards, and it was put away into a certain treasury which was the “Body” until the time that he engendered offspring and Enoch came into the world. When Enoch came, that supernal light—the holy soul—descended into him, and Enoch was invested with the supernal dignity which had left Adam, as scripture affirms: “And Enoch walked with God, etc.” (Gen 5:21).22

Another Zohar Ḥadash text, known as Terumah, reports:

… the perfection below was lacking since it had been lost through the transgression of Adam the Protoplast. He (i.e., Adam) descended below and hid himself among the trees of the garden. There he was stripped of all the aspects of the garden until Enoch b. Yared was born. After he had been born, he found himself near the Garden. That light began to shine within him. He was anointed with a holy anointment, and that sparkling light settled upon him. He entered the Garden of Eden and found there the Tree of Life, the branches and the fruits of the Tree. …

One day he went inside the Garden of Eden, and they showed him the secrets of the garden, and he left that book and everything that he had seen outside (the garden), and it remains guarded among the Companions. Afterwards he cloaked himself (with) that light inside that garment in order to show the supernal heights and by this (display) to bring shame on those who protested before their Lord that He should not create humanity in the world.23

Thus, we see that multiple texts draw attention to Enoch being clothed in the light or glory that Adam had apparently lost. Idel explains, “To the best of my knowledge, Enoch is the only living person for whom we learn that luminous garments, reminiscent of Adam’s lost garments of light, were made.”24 Whether or not this could truly be said of any other living person, Enoch is certainly in rare company in this regard. 

Although this specific tradition isn’t found in the Book of Moses, it is notable that the description of Enoch being “clothed upon with glory” (Moses 7:3) follows soon after an explanation of how Adam and Eve—and by extension, their posterity, including Enoch—learned how to become transformed by the Holy Ghost in order to reenter God’s presence (Moses 6:55–68). The specific details are obviously different. These Jewish traditions emphasize the loss of Adam and Eve’s glory while the Book of Moses focuses on their redemption. Nevertheless, the core concept of Enoch being clothed upon by a spiritual quality or essence that was first bestowed upon Adam and Eve remains intact.

Enoch Clothing Others in Glory

In 3 Enoch, we learn that Enoch also plays a role in clothing others in glory. The Lord explains:

“I appointed him”… over the glorious ophanim, to crown them with strength and honor, over the majestic cherubim, to clothe them with glory; over the bright sparks, to make them shine with brilliant radiance; over the flaming seraphim, to wrap them in majesty; over the hašmallim of light, to gird them with radiance every morning, so as to prepare for me a seat, when I sit upon my throne in honor and dignity, to increase my honor and my strength in the height. (3 Enoch 48C:4)25

This echoes the prominent theme in the Book of Moses, in which Enoch helps his people—designated as “Zion”—to experience the same heavenly ascent that he experienced (Moses 7:18–31, 47, 53, 62–69).26 As Hugh Nibley put it, “Enoch is the great initiate who becomes the great initiator.”27 This theme of Enoch clothing the righteous in heavenly raiment turns up in other Jewish sources as well. We read in Sidrey de-Shimmusha Rabba:

In the sixth palace is Enoch, clothed in a resplendent garment of light. He (i.e., God) changed his name and his body, and He re-named him Metatron, a name corresponding to that of his Lord. He bears His seal on his body. He is in charge of the sixth palace which is the guard station for all the souls which ascend from earth to the celestial height. They are purged, divested, and stripped of every foul bodily skin and then clothed with a body of radiant splendor which they had preserved and fashioned with the Glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is the Eternal Living One.28 

According to ʾOtiyyot de R. ʿAqiva, the Lord proclaimed of Enoch:

I made him an attendant to the Throne of Glory. [I appointed him over] the palaces of ‘Araboth to open their doors; over the Throne of Glory to adorn and order it; … over the fiery seraphim to cloak them with majesty; over the glitters of light to gird them with luminescence each and every morning.29

In the Ascension of Isaiah, Isaiah sees the heavenly hosts arrayed in what he terms “robes of above.” It doesn’t seem coincidental that Enoch is the prophet mentioned immediately before this imagery is given, suggesting a connection between Enoch and those who attain these robes of glory:  

And he took me up into the seventh heaven, and there I saw a wonderful light, and also angels without number. And there I saw all the righteous from the time of Adam onwards. And there I saw the holy Abel and all the righteous. And there I saw Enoch and all who (were) with him, stripped of (their) robes of the flesh; and I saw them in their robes of above; and they were like the angels who stand there in great glory. (Ascension of Isaiah 9:6–9)30

Enoch the Inventor of Clothing

Interestingly, a number of Islamic texts actually attribute the invention of clothing to Enoch.31 One source declares, “After him his child Enoch arose, and he is (the same figure as) Idrīs the prophet, upon whom be peace! … He was the first to sew a seam and to stitch with a needle.”32 Another declares, “he (i.e., Enoch/Idrīs) was the first to weave (cloth) garments and wear them. Those who lived before his time wore animal skins.”33 Yet another explains, “He sustained himself by working with his hands: he became a tailor, and he was the first to sew garments. Whenever he would sew a seam, he would praise God Most High and sanctify Him.”34

Since many accounts also discuss Enoch as a heavenly scribe and the inventor of writing, this association could simply be due to scribal confusion over similar Arabic verbs (khaṭṭa “write” and khāṭa “sew”).35 Yet the connection may go deeper than that. As a figure whom many Jewish sources describe as being clothed in glory and who clothes others in glory and who inherited the glorious clothing that was lost to Adam and Eve (who, themselves, are sometimes credited with the creation of clothing), it is possible that Enoch’s role as the inventor of clothing originates, or was in some way influenced by, these various other clothing-related traditions.36

Conclusion

Although the general concept of transfiguration and heavenly raiment is not unique to the Book of Moses, the idea of a specific individual being “clothed upon with glory” is quite rare in biblical texts. There is very little information about Enoch in the Bible and none of it contains this detail. Moreover, it appears that in all of Joseph Smith’s revelations, Enoch is the only person described in this particular manner, despite numerous other individuals experiencing visions and encounters with God. Enoch’s clothing-related transfiguration is a significant outlier within the scriptural canon. 

At the same time, it seems highly unlikely that Joseph would have had access to any ancient or medieval texts which provide this detail. Before 1830, the primary Enochic source that would have any real likelihood of influence on his revelations would have been 1 Enoch. While the plausibility of Joseph accessing this specific text is an ongoing matter of debate among scholars, it is ultimately a moot point, since 1 Enoch doesn’t contain this detail.37 That leaves sources like 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch, and other obscure Jewish and Islamic texts that either weren’t discovered or hadn’t yet been translated into English in 1830.

All of this is to say that if Joseph Smith made up this peculiar description of Enoch, he unwittingly hit the nail squarely on the head. As demonstrated throughout this study, numerous Enochic traditions from ancient and medieval sources draw attention to Enoch being clothed upon with God’s glory in various contexts. In several cases, the descriptions in these sources are accompanied by other distinctive details—such as Enoch being anointed, placed on God’s throne, or being enabled to see invisible things—that also turn up in the Book of Moses, offering multiple levels of mutual corroboration. Overall, this subtle but striking parallel invites trust that the Book of Moses is truly an ancient document produced by the gift and power of God.