Is Enoch Scripture?

Is the Book of Enoch Scripture? 

“Yes. The book of Enoch is real and is in the Bible,” my mom's friend excitedly told us as we listened to her. I anxiously searched the table of contents of the Bible we had, only to find that it was not there.  This was my introduction to a book called 1 Enoch. I have since studied for years to figure out if this book is scripture or not. The goal of this article is to help the person who, like me, was anxious about missing a piece of inspired writing, and answer the question, is Enoch inspired? First, a short introduction to the subject matter. (If you would like more on this subject matter, see this playlist) 

1 Enoch (also referred to as Ethiopian Enoch because the Ethiopian church is the only church that views the text as inspired, and we only have a full manuscript of it in Ge’ez), claims to be written by the biblical character of the same name (Gen 5:18-21, Jude 14-15, Heb 11: 5-7). The text of 1 Enoch is considered by scholars to date from 300 BC to 50 AD (Neal, 2016). It is also divided into five or six sections, which are The Book of the Watchers (ch 1-36), Parables of Enoch (37-71), Book of Luminaries (71-82), The Dream Visions (83-90), Epistle of Enoch (91-108). Sometimes chapters 106-108 are considered an epilogue from Noah. Each of these is thought to have been written by different authors. (Hiehle and Whitcomb, 2016). Themes and ideas of fallen angels, judgment, astronomy, and the Messiah are heavily present. With that said, why can we argue that the Book of Enoch is not scripture?

Firstly, the book of Enoch tells us that Enoch is the messiah. An Angel declares about Enoch “You are the son of man who was born to righteousness and righteousness remains over you and the righteousness of the Head of Days, will not leave you,” (Books of Enoch, 2010, 1 Enoch, 71.14). Here is some of the evidence that the phrase “you are the son of man” should be understood as “you are the messiah”. The parables of Enoch begin in chapter 37 and begin a long process of describing this divine figure who is referred to by multiple names (chosen one, messiah, anointed one, son of man, etc). Chapter 71 is the climatic finale of this discussion, which is indicated by the fact that all the angels, including Michael, Gabriel, etc. as well as God himself (the head of days) appear before Enoch to deliver this revelation (71.8-14). It should also be noted that the description of the son of man is reminiscent of what the text says about this figure earlier in the messianic parables (46.2-3). These facts have also been noted by scholars as well (Wilber, 2019). Some will point to R.H Charles' translation of the text which says “This is the son of man” (Williams, 1995)  rather than “You are the son of man”. This change Charles makes is rejected by the scholarly community at large (Wilber, 2019, see also Jones at 15:05-17:11).  As Manson (1949) put it, “Here we abandon Charles, who has rewritten the rest of the passage in accordance with his view of what Enoch ought to have said” (As cited in Wilber, 2019). 

Furthermore, I noted earlier that the book dates anywhere between 300 BC and about 50 AD and was probably put together by multiple authors over this period (Neal, 2016; Niehle and Whitcomb, 2016). Another scholar says the following: “A section known as the Animal Apocalypse (chapters 85-90) is an allegorical summary of Jewish history up to the Maccabean revolt (164-160 BCE, against the Seleucid Empire, the descendants of Alexander the Great)" (Long, 2022, p.97). This is important because if it is only recounting Jewish events up to the revolt then that suggests huge Jewish events like the coming of Jesus and especially the destruction of the temple have not happened yet. There are also several references to the Old Testament such as ideas and references to Daniel, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy (Long, 2022). Based on these and other considerations scholars do not date this text to where it would need to be to be considered authentic. As noted by Erho: “no scholar of early Judaism in the past forty years has ventured to date this document (the similitudes or parables of Enoch) outside of the period 50 b.c.e. to 100 c.e” (2011, Parenthesis added). This document cannot be what most Christians would mean by inspired if it does not date back to the supposed writer of the text. 

As we can see, because the book of Enoch disagrees with the Bible by saying Enoch is the son of man, and the book is pseudepigraphical (falsely attributed to one or more authors) it is not scripture. These are serious challenges for those who believe this text is from God. This book is an amazing mythology but terrible if one wants to try and make it fit with the canon. Christians should read this book but not see it as canonical or scripture. One ancient Christian rightly stated: “For though there is some truth in these apocryphal writings, yet they contain so many false statements, that they have no canonical authority” (Augustine, 426 AD).                                

References:

        Augustine. (426). City of God, book 15, chapter 23. Self-published https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120115.htm 

         Books of Enoch. (2010). University of London. http://www.markfoster.net/rn/Books_of_Enoch-All_Three.pdf

Erho, T. M. (2011). Historical-Allusional Dating and the Similitudes of Enoch. Journal of Biblical Literature, 130(3), 493-511. https://doi.org/10.2307/41304215 

Hiehle and Whitcomb. (2016). Enoch. In John D. Barry et al (Ed.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.

Jones, M. (2020, November). The book of Enoch examined. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=440hI9lnAlc

Long, P. (2022). The book of Enoch for beginners. Oakland: Rockridge press

Neal, D.A. (2016). Enoch. In John D. Barry et al (Ed.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.

Who is the Son of Man in 1 Enoch 71:14? (2019, July 3). David Wilber. https://davidwilber.com/articles/who-is-the-son-of-man-in-enoch

Williams, J. The book of Enoch, section ii. (1995). From   https://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/ENOCH_2.HTM

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