Book of Enoch

Relationship to the Bible

The Book of Enoch is not part of the Bible. Its direct point of contact with the biblical text is Jude 1:14-15. This passage states that "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam," prophesied, and it records his words that "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment" upon the ungodly. These words are nearly identical to 1 Enoch 1:9.

The figure of Enoch appears in Genesis 5:21-24. After begetting Methuselah, he walked with God, and the text records that "he was not; for God took him." Hebrews 11:5 likewise states that he "was translated that he should not see death." Because the Bible says so little about Enoch, later Judaism produced a number of writings attributed to him.

Background and Content

The term "Book of Enoch" usually refers to 1 Enoch. It is distinguished from 2 Enoch, preserved in Slavonic, and 3 Enoch, preserved in Hebrew. First Enoch is regarded as a compilation of writings composed at different times, and scholars generally divide it into five parts.

• The Book of the Watchers: Recounts how heavenly beings united with the daughters of men and fathered giants. It is an extended elaboration of the "sons of God" in Genesis 6:1-4.
• The Book of Parables (Similitudes): Concerns the final judgment and a figure called the "Son of Man."
• The Astronomical Book: Treats the movements of the sun and moon and the reckoning of the calendar.
• The Book of Dream Visions: Presented as Enoch recounting his visions to his son Methuselah.
• The Epistle of Enoch: An exhortation concerning the respective destinies of the righteous and the wicked.

The complete work survives only in ancient Ethiopic (Ge'ez) manuscripts. Aramaic fragments have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, although the Book of Parables has not been found at Qumran. The work is studied as an important source for the apocalyptic literature (writings that speak of the end times through visions and symbols) of Judaism in the intertestamental period.

Interpretation and Issues

The oldest point of debate concerns canonicity, that is, whether the book should be recognized as Scripture. Among the early church fathers, Tertullian is known to have cited the Book of Enoch favorably. Augustine, by contrast, did not accept it as canonical in The City of God.

The positions of churches today are as follows:

• Protestants and the Catholic Church do not include the Book of Enoch in the canon.
• Protestants classify it among the pseudepigrapha, noncanonical writings attributed to biblical figures.
• The Eastern Orthodox tradition likewise does not use it as canonical Scripture.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church includes the Book of Enoch in its Bible.

Interpretations of Jude's quotation also differ. Protestant commentators generally explain it as follows: just as the apostle Paul quoted the words of Greek poets (Acts 17:28), Jude simply borrowed a passage from a work familiar to his readers. Accordingly, they hold that the quotation does not imply recognition of the entire book as Scripture.

Some scholars see a connection between the Watchers tradition of 1 Enoch and the account of the angels that sinned in 2 Peter 2:4-5, as well as the "spirits in prison" of 1 Peter 3:19-20. This connection, however, depends on interpretation. The relationship between the "Son of Man" in the Book of Parables and the Son of Man title in the Gospels is also debated among scholars.

The account of giants born from the union of heavenly beings and humans comes from the Book of Enoch; the text of Genesis does not state this so explicitly. Several interpretations of the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 continue to coexist: that they were descendants of Seth, that they were kings or rulers, and that they were angels.

In the Korean Church

The major Protestant denominations in Korea do not recognize the Book of Enoch as canonical. It is not used as a preaching text and is mentioned, at most, as background when expounding the Epistle of Jude. On the internet and in popular media, the Book of Enoch is sometimes presented as a "book left out of the Bible." Such presentations should be understood alongside an explanation of how the canon was formed and what the pseudepigrapha are.