The Book of Enoch & the Bibleনমুনা

What Is The Book Of Enoch?

Jude, in his New Testament letter, quotes Enoch, a man who lived in the earliest generations of humanity. But where does this quote come from?

Much like the Bible, the Book of Enoch is a collection of different books combined to make one book. This extra-biblical work is not included in the Bible. However, the Book of Enoch was part of Jewish tradition until after the time of Jesus. Much of the New Testament assumes the reader knows the contents of the Book of Enoch.

So, who was Enoch, and why does he have a book? Jude tells us that Enoch prophesied, marking him as a prophet. Hebrews 11 tells us he was faithful, having pleased God, so God took Enoch alive into heaven. This man must have lived an incredible life!

But there’s a problem. We know almost nothing of Enoch’s life from scripture. We find several clues, but his account isn’t written out like many prophets in the Bible.

Noah was the great-grandson of Enoch, so we know Enoch was living in a pre-flood world growing more and more evil. Eventually, this evil overtook the whole planet, so God washed it clean with the flood and started over. That world of evil is the life of Enoch and his ministry.

The Book of Enoch is a collection of works covering what happened before Noah’s flood. It explains the downfall of humanity and the part the satanic forces had to play in those events. Many of the writings of Enoch describe the Son of Man who was with God before the creation of the world, giving hope to a dying pre-flood humanity of deliverance in the end. As such, much of the work also covers end-time prophecies and visions that parallel the book of Revelation.

When reading Enoch, beware of two ancient texts falsely claiming connection to Enoch. These hoax writings are the Slavonic Enoch called The Secrets of Enoch and the Hebrew Enoch called The Revelation of Metatron. Scholars labeled these post-New Testament works 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch for academic distinction, but this is confusing and creates the false impression that all three works are connected.

You won’t need a copy of Enoch for this study. If you want one you can trust, use the R. H. Charles version of 1 Enoch or The Book of Enoch MSV (which we will be using). Free online and PDF versions of the R. H. Charles translation can be found with a search engine.

The written works of Enoch are both strange and familiar. We’ll learn in what ways, next time.