The Book of Enoch
Page 4
2:2
Desire milk
8
Do not desire food
1:24
Flesh as grass
9
Breath that passes
Faith tested
Spirits tested
1:7
Found praiseworthy
9
Found pure
3:9
Bless, blessing
9-10
Bless, blessing
3:16; 4:4, 16
Reproach, insult, abuse
7, 10
Reproach, insult, abuse
2:9
Blessing by contrast
10
Blessing by contrast
2:9
Summoned from darkness to light
11
Summoned from darkness to light
5:4, 6
Exaltation
12
Exaltation
1:17; 2:23
Righteous Judgment
13
Righteous Judgment
The Book of Enoch for Christians Today
1 Enoch is a fascinating ancient manuscript with a long historical pedigree of value and respect within Judaism and Christianity. It is the only known source text explicitly attributed in Scripture that we possess with some manuscript certainty. It provides a helpful look into Second Temple Judaism and the development of Intertestamental interpretations that have influenced the New Testament doctrines of Messiah and his kingdom, the Son of Man, demons, resurrection, final judgment, and other eschatological imagery.
Evangelical Christians who uphold a high view of Scripture and its inspiration are uncomfortable with 1 Enoch because of its controversial ideas like the Watchers/Giants storyline and its astronomy based on ancient cosmology. Because the book is divided into five “books” or sections that were redacted over several centuries, skepticism of its contents is understandable.
But the preponderance of evidence shows that not only does the New Testament letter of Jude quote directly from 1 Enoch 1 (Book of the Watchers), but the entire letter and its alternate version in 2 Peter, show signs of literary and theological dependency on the rest of the Book of the Watchers (Chaps. 1-36), as well as chapter 80 (Book of Luminaries), chapter 46 (Book of Parables), and chapter 100 (Epistle of Enoch). 2 Peter shows evidence of structural and thematic dependency on 1 Enoch 17-22 and 108 (Additional Books). But the fact is, the entire New Testament shows such a multitude of allusions and linguistic echoes of the entire corpus of 1 Enoch, that one can safely say, the book and its basic interpretations may not be Scripture, but are surely legitimated by the Bible and are therefore worthy of study and high regard by the Christian Church.
This article originally appeared as a chapter in the book, When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, The Nephilim and the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed by Brian Godawa. Available on Amazon.com.
Brian Godawa is the screenwriter of To End All Wars and the author of Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment (InterVarsity Press) and Chronicles of the Nephilim, a Biblical Fantasy series of novels that explores the Enochian themes of the Nephilim and the Watchers throughout the entire Bible. www.ChroniclesOfTheNephilim.com
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This lecture by Brian Godawa will be an introduction to the ancient book of 1Enoch, its content, its history, its affirmation in the New Testament, and its acceptance and rejection by the Christian Church. What is the Book of Enoch? Where did it come from? Why isn't it in the Bible? How does the Book of Enoch compare with the Bible?
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[1] Most Bible passages quoted in this article are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001). Variations are from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).
[2] Claus Westermann, A Continental Commentary: Genesis 1–11 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994), 358.
[3] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, vol. 1, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 128.
[4] James Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research, With a Supplement (Septuagint and Cognate Studies Series, No. 7) (United Kingdom, Scholars Press, 1981), p 25.
[5] Duane A. Garrett, Rethinking Genesis: The Sources and Authorship of the First Book of the Pentateuch (Grand Rapids, Baker Bookhouse, 1991). Richard Elliott Friedman, “Torah (Pentateuch),” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 618.
[6] Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “The Epistle of Enoch: Genre and Authorial Presentation,” Dead Sea Discoveries 17 (2010) 395-96.
[7] J. H. Charlesworth, “Introduction for the General Reader,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983), xxv.
[8] See James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Vol. 1. And Vol. 2. (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983) for the largest collection of these writings in one volume.
[9] Francis I. Andersen, “Enoch, Second Book Of,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 516–517. Philip S. Alexander, “Enoch, Third Book Of,” AYBD, 524.
[10] George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: a Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, ed. Klaus Baltzer, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2001), 1, 9.
[11] John J. Collins, “The Jewish Apocalypses,” ed. John Joseph Collins, Semeia 14 (1979): 22.
[12] John J. Collins, “Apocalypses and Apocalypticism: Early Jewish Apocalypticism),” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 283.
[13] Most ancient written texts are preceded by many years of oral tradition. So the date of composition or even the date of the latest manuscript is not indicative of the true age of the text, which is probably much older. In other words, they didn’t just make up a book of Enoch around 300 to 200 B.C., they were transcribing oral traditions and maybe even written sources that were much more ancient.
[14] Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: a Commentary, 7. Also, E. Isaac, “A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983), 7.
[15] Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: a Commentary, 7.
[16] George W. E. Nickelsburg, “Son of Man,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 139.
[17] Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: a Commentary, 7.
[18] James C. VanderKam and Peter W. Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity, 1st ed. (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002), 196.
[19] Devorah Dimant, “The Biography of Enoch and the Books of Enoch,” Vetus Testamentum, 33:1 (1983), 16; Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “The Early Traditions Related To 1 Enoch From The Dead Sea Scrolls:An Overview And Assessment,” The Early Enoch Literature: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Ed., Gabriele Boccaccini and John J. Collins (Boston: Brill, 2007) 59-63.
[20] Translations of the fragments and their summary can be found in Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 290-295.
[21] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (London: SPCK, 1985); F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Downers Grove: IL, InterVarsity Press, 1988).
[22] Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon, 111.
[23] Gleason Archer Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 3rd. ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 41.
[24] Richard J. Bauckham, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 50, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 96.
[25] Richard N. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI; Vancouver: W.B. Eerdmans; Regent College Pub., 1999), 45, 137.
[26] Bruce, Frederick Fyvie (2010-11-17). The Canon of Scripture (p. 43). Intervarsity Press - A. Kindle Edition.
[27] Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 799.
[28] Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon, 479-481
[29] Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: a Commentary, 71-82.
[30] Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 62.
[31] E. Isaac, “A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983), 8.
[32] Tertullian, “On the Apparel of Women,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 4 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 15.
[33] Justin Martyr, “The Second Apology of Justin,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol.
1 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 190.
[34] E. Isaac, “A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 8.
[35] Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: a Commentary, 102.
[36] Robert C. Newman, “The Ancient Exegesis Of Genesis 6:2, 4,” Grace Theological Journal 5,1 (1984) 26.
[37] The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and Exposition states, “We affirm that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human writers, gave us His Word.” http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html accessed Jan. 26, 2014.
[38] The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and Exposition: “Although the human writers' personalities were expressed in what they wrote, the words were divinely constituted,” and “We must pay the most careful attention to its claims and character as a human production.” http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html accessed Jan. 26, 2014.