Jude 1:14-15 reads
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
But Genesis 5:24 reads 'Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.'
Hebrew 11:5 reads 'By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.'
Where did the prophecy come from? It is found nowhere in the scripture!
Its from Book of Enoch i.e. 1 Enoch 1:9!
You might have heard of this book somewhere in social media!
Jude relates a statement made by Enoch concerning the fate of the ungodly apostates.
Let's dive into learning what this book is all about.
As I read the Book of Enoch, I found these interesting stuffs:
Chapter 7 echoes Genesis 6:1-4
Chapter 8 tells us how heavenly beings taught various occult practices. [In my own personal thought, the worldwide stories of gods and goddesses coming down and giving revelations of great knowledge seems to line up with this account. Similar claims are also found in Eastern religions. I found even Sam Shamoun uses this argument.]
Chapter 9 mentions angels like Michael, Gabriel , Raphael etc. [In my personal thought, this chapter also seems to echo Hindu story of Cow crying for the divine aid when rakshas were spreading terrorism.]
Chapter 10 echoes the Great flood and 2 Peter 2:4 account of keeping angels in bound
Chapter 15 echoes Angels who didn't maintain their domain and stepped beyond their limits and sinned recorded in Jude 1:6. This chapter teaches Evil spirits came forth from giants.
Chapter 18 echoes Ancient Near Eastern cosmology
Chapter 20 names angels and their functions
Chapter 24 talks about a tree with smell but not accessible and will only be granted to elect (Tree of Life?)
Chapter 31 echoes Tree of knowledge - beautiful and delightful ! Hints Adam and Eve eating from it and expelled from the Garden.
Chapter 45 echoes New Jerusalem city and Lord as the light in it in Revelation 21:23
Chapter 47 echoes Ancient of days and Book of life
Chapter 48 echoes high veneration and worship of Son of Man
Chapter 62 echoes judgement on kings, sinners and their destruction
Chapter 69 identifies Gadreel as the fallen angel who deceived Eve, deviating from the traditional understanding of the serpent or Satan being the tempter.
Chapter 70 Son of man exalted
Chapter 71 angels see lord face to face (Matt. 18:10), Enoch is told to be the "Son of Man" (Heresy!)
Chapter 72 onwards tells about Sun and Moon
Chapter 75 echoes Genesis 1:14-18
Chapter 76 names Methuselah
Chapter 81 hints at a book dropped down from heaven (What book is that?)
Chapter 89 too long and more about sheep (More of a figurative language)
Chapter 93 echoes judgment upon angels (1 Cor. 6:3?), passing away of former heaven and advent of new one (Rev. 21:1)
Chapter 97 echoes records of our daily deeds
Chapter 106 Noah is said to resemble offspring from heaven? He is said not equal in nature like human but he and his three sons shall only be saved on great destruction on earth echoing the great flood.
My personal thoughts:
If the book is of later origin as the internal and external evidence suggests then the likely reason is that it is heavily influenced by several books of the Old Testament like Jeremiah, Daniel, Psalms, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Numbers, etc. Many stuffs here are too much weird even to read and highly mythical and apocalyptic in language. Meanwhile there are many things that also line up with the Bible. This seems to suggest a later addition as a result of oral tradition of old stories.
There is absolutely no reason to consider this book something of divinely inspired. The book merely echoes the Old Testament key events and highlights. However, certain stuffs seems to provide a supporting background for some weird passages recorded in Genesis 6 and also by Peter like angels in bound. But we aren't just sure of it.
Finally, the book is enjoyable to read and has somehow certain truths embedded in it. It rather has more embellishment with angelic interaction accounts and judgment prophecies of future.
Now, let's know about the book from scholarly perspective.
What the book is not...
- It is not inspired (Writers of Scripture often quoted from non-inspired texts for the sake of making a point (Titus 1:12), so this reference does not imply that Jude accepted The Book of Enoch as God's Word.)
- It was Not written by Enoch; no scholars believe the Book of Enoch to have truly been written by the Enoch in the Bible
- It was never accepted as a part of canon
What the book is...
- It is indeed a Pseudepigrapha, meaning, it is a fabricated book attributed falsely to someone's name.
- There’s a heavy emphasis on angelology and demonology, and a large portion of the book is devoted to filling in the backstory of Genesis 6:1–4.
- It came into existence very later as its content most likely matches the time period of 400 BC - 200 AD.
- It is probably a compilation of various writings from various authors later compiled together
- It was quoted by Jude. The words Jude quotes were genuinely something that Enoch prophesied—or the Bible would not attribute it to him: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men” (Jude 1:14). This saying of Enoch was somehow handed down through the generations and eventually recorded in the Book of Enoch. All it means is that particular passage of Enoch is true.
- It is indeed supplied with several passages that aligns with Bible
- The Angelic view of Genesis 6:1-4 comes from this particular book.
- It contains heresy where Enoch is identified with Son of Man.
- It has mythological elaborations on angelic interactions with humans
- It has too many accounts of visions and judgments, hope of future renewal of the world, and eradication of evil and injustice from the earth
- Much of the Book of Enoch is apocalyptic—it uses vivid imagery to predict doom and the final judgment of evil.
- Some fragments of it were found in Dead Sea scrolls
What does scholars, theologians and apologists have to say?
1. Sam Shamoun notes The very first thing is that the book is falsely attributed to Enoch who was taken away by God before the great flood. And as Jesus said, nobody has ascended to heaven and come down with all information but the book claims Enoch did. The fragments of facts in the book could be written down later through oral tradition. Maybe it was handed down by Moses. There are lots of possibilities.
Secondly, we don't find any trace of this book in the history of Jews to couple of years before Christ. Enoch was not explicitly mentioned to be a prophet. If the book was written by him, the Old Testament books should have mentioned it just like book of Jasher because Noah could have preserved it during the flood.
Thirdly, Jude quoted from the book because his audience believed it to be legit. Otherwise, it could be oral tradition works that has been passed down and recorded in the later fabricated book. Its just like Frank Turek writing a book Hollywood Heroes talking about all fictional characters to make a big point about the greatest love to the modern audience [My view]. Or, what about external sources that mentions Jesus' crucifixion? Should they be considered as scripture too [My view]?
Sam Shamoun gets it correct when he says this book is mythologizing an event because Myth isn't lie but embellishment added and exaggerated forms of actual stories that has religious, historical and cultural values.
2. Fourthly, Michael Jones notes that the Book of Enoch teach Heresy like equating Enoch with Messiah. Enoch is declared to be the Son of Man; who would return to be the Messiah. The case of Jude quoting Enoch is same as Acts 17 quoting Aratus, Paul sometimes quotes from Aristotle and Isaiah borrowed from the Baal's Cycle. Jude didn't necessarily believe the particular as historical except encouraging his audience to persevere in faith. He also admits that scholars agree on the relying of this book on earlier Old Testament scriptures. There are lots of striking similarities. The collection that later took a form of false book is however valuable to understand certain historical setting and cultural context of the Bible. No early Jews considered it authoritative scripture. It was neither in Greek Septuagint nor in Hebrew Masoretic text. Other Possible allusion to this book from New Testament are: 1 Cor. 13:1, Rev. 6:9-10, 2 Peter 2:4, 1 Cor. 2:7. The Biblical authors knew it was not inspired book but it had meaning for them and their audience.
Titus 1:2 also draws from Epimenides
Hebrew 1:2 draws from Wisdom of Solomon 7:26
Jude 1:9 is from Testament of Moses and so on.
3. Michael Heiser says that the book just get the name of Enoch to draw the attention since Enoch is the central figure of the book. According to him, the book is a good example of how Jews were thinking of Messiah prior to Jesus. The context of the book is second temple period. There are stuffs in the Gospel that directly traces back to Enoch. It has its fingerprints in lots of places. If there's one passage that is valuable for Christians is this one: 1 Enoch 48 which speaks about Son of Man. The task of this Son of Man really gets at the dawn of creation. So basically what he is saying is that the book itself already established a basic idea about the Messianic figure, even before Jesus came onto scene. To add more, even Sam Shamoun seems to argue that the book proves Jesu is God. Here, Jude was actually quoting about eternal God of Enoch and applying to Jesus.
Can Christians read this book?
Obviously, Lots of things in the book bear weightage or makes sense. It records angelic beings having sex with women and giving rise to giants. It also records these angelic beings teaching occult practices and maybe that's why we can see why God was harsh against occult practices in the Old Testament. Sam Shamoun seems to support this argument. It has stories of Adam and Eve, flood and many more.
Meanwhile the book does contain some fragments of historical truths that can be connected with both old and New Testament passages. It does talk about angelic rebellion, great flood, Adam and Eve expelled after eating from the Tree, peoples shall eat from Tree of life in future, book of life during judgment day and other few truths. This doesn't follow the book should be in the Bible. The book could merely be a kind of mixture book that inter-mix orally passed down historical truths with embellishment and mythological tales. This was usually the case with famous stories of ancient religions. We do have lots of such tales around the world associated with divine beings and giants in Greek, Hindu or other mythologies.
But it should not lead one in thinking that just because it has certain truths, it should be in the Bible. To understand this case, its like Sadhu Sundar Singh quoting Krishna's order to kill in his book 'In Search of Reality' just to make a point of Jesus' compassion, love and forgiving heart in comparison to a famous Hindu deity. Singh was not affirming Krishna nor was he accepting Bhagavad Gita. Or, its like someone quoting a script "You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but everyday I hear people crying for one," from the 2007 movie Superman Returns in his preaching to make a point that the world indeed cries for the one. This doesn't follow that the preacher was affirming Superman as something real.
Sources:
1. https://www.bibleref.com/Jude/1/Jude-1-14.html
2. https://www.gotquestions.org/book-of-Enoch.html
3. https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_1206.cfm
4. https://youtu.be/y40TNXwFoNk?si=6g3ymPN4nesYSHfE
5. https://youtu.be/AfYNLJOfJwg?si=v7ESLLaQDML6VB3d
6. https://youtu.be/QHKhgPsendE?si=CPmjPWLaqctKjR-6
7. https://youtu.be/AfYNLJOfJwg?si=0aRkICYZx_hO84qe
8. https://youtu.be/440hI9lnAlc?si=THbJgL8vgDnst7za
9. https://youtube.com/shorts/fhx-pZYDdPw?si=TuKf4ofY8bibdUCR
10. https://youtube.com/shorts/PxRLtuoubYg?si=BXg4xLixiPPyGDcY
11. https://youtu.be/f5ES1WJX49s?si=Q4XkPU5_ZkQpSYHK
12. https://youtu.be/KHPaRbV0f1k?si=92D0jLvnk0m_tNX_
13. https://youtu.be/l697cDYWVdc?si=fqrgwVFnWyOaK8RE
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