Jude and the Book of Enoch
In the epistle of Jude we find the following statement:
Jude 1:14 To these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
Jude 1:15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
According to many, this is a direct quote from the "Book of Enoch", and from this many argue that we should accept the entire "Book of Enoch" as part of the Bible "canon". Thus, it is claimed that the "Book of Enoch" is one of the so-called "Lost Books of the Bible". But is this really true? Is the "Book of Enoch", overall, inspired of God, or is it a spurious book of Jewish fables that does not belong as part of God's Word?
We do find in the "Book of Enoch" the statement: "And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (1 Enoch 1:9) This is almost the same that we read in to Jude 1:14,15. Evidently, at least this part of the Book of Enoch contains the true words of Enoch; it does not follow that the entire Book of Enoch, as we have it, is true.
The Ethiopic Book of Enoch (also referred to as Enoch I), as we have it, was probably assembled in present form *after* Jude wrote his letter. As far as we have been able to determine, no Septuagint Version of the Bible has the "Book of Enoch". Evidently, Much of this book reflects later apostate Jewish teachings adopted and adapted from Hellenistic mythology, and not the Bible. Obviously, the Book of Enoch was not written by the real Enoch who lived and died before the flood. The book tells of Enoch's allegedly speaking with God and angels, and of events related to the days of Noah and the flood, etc. Evidently, the writer of the book allegedly received these messages from Enoch, who, according to this tradition, instead of being actually dead, was taken by God to heaven (the scriptures never say anything about Enoch going to heaven.). In reality, -- God took Enoch, translated him into the realm of death without his seeing, experiencing, the process of dying (Hebrews 11:5,13) -- and, thus having died (Hebrews 11:13), he was not able to say anything to anyone.** (Ecclesiastes 9:10) Therefore, Enoch could not have possibly revealed to anyone anything from the oblivious realm of death in which condition one cannot praise or give thanks to Yahweh. (Psalm 6:5; Isaiah 38:18) Rather than seeking messages from the dead, we should go to the Law (The Old Testament) and the Testimony (of the New Testament), that which God has revealed through his holy spirit. (Isaiah 8:19,20; see also Leviticus 20:6; 1 Chronicles 10:13) While Jude was evidently quoting Enoch from some source, it does not follow that he necessarily quoted from the "Book of Enoch" as we now have it.
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* See:
Is Enoch Still Alive?
http://reslight.net/enochalive.html
** See:
Life After Death
http://reslight.net/l-life.html
The "Book of Enoch" appears to have been written by different authors, possibly from the time period extending from about 168 BC to about 200 AD. It is an assembled collection of extravagant, unhistorical, Hellenistic-Jewish mythology, evidently the product of exegetical elaborations on the brief Genesis reference to Enoch. Neither Enoch nor Raphael are said to come in the name of Yahweh, or to speak for Yahweh, which leads me to think that if there was a revelation from some spirits, that these spirits were actually demons appearing as "angels of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14,15), and not the loyal angels of God. If one should do a search on the internet, one can see that this book has great appeal to occultists, angel-worshipers, witches, etc.
Nevertheless, much of the "Book of Enoch" repeats, although often with different words, much of the prophecies given by various prophets in the Bible. Of course, many non-canonical books do this same thing.
Evidently the words recorded in 1 Enoch 1:9 are Enoch's words, and indeed could have come from some ancient writings of Enoch that we no longer have. Jude could have quoted from that same source. Or it could be that the author of
the earlier part of the Book of Enoch, believed by some to have been written, or at least assembled into its present form, toward the end of or after the first century AD, in making a collection of sayings traditionally attributed to Enoch, simply quoted from Jude.
Nevertheless, the Book of Enoch contains much that gives evidence of Hellenistic mythological influence, such as the description of Hades. Except for Jesus' parabolic rebuke of the Pharisees (these Pharisees evidently had adapted the Hellenistic philosophy concerning hades), there is nothing in the Bible that speaks of sheol/hades in the terms described in the Book of Enoch. This description directly contradicts the Bible's description in Ecclesiastes 9:10, and elsewhere.
See the studies (much is still in preparation):
What Does the Bible Actually Say About Hell?
http://reslight.net/biblehell.html
That the Book of Enoch is given to fanciful extremes can be seen by the height it gives to the offspring of the angels mentioned in Genesis 6: "three thousand ells". (1 Enoch 7:1) According to the calculations obtained from the "Science Made Simple" website*, 3,000 ells means that the claim is that these giants grew to be 11,250 feet tall! To illustrate how tall this is, let us assume that a floor of a building is each 12.5 feet high, this would mean that these giants were equivalent in height to a 900-story building! For comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet in height with 102 floors. The Book of Enoch would have these giants almost *nine times* -- note this -- almost nine times taller than the Empire State Building! Is this really credible? What a gigantic human-like skelton that would make for an archeological find! -- Titus 1:14.
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*http://www.sciencemadesimple.net/length2.php
We recommend that one read what was published by the Christian Separatist Church through Herrell Brothers Publishing House. This can be found online at:
http://www.christianseparatist.org/briefs/sb2.12.html
December 4, 2005.
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