Did the Apostles Accept the Book of Enoch as True?

 

The Book of Enoch is an apocryphal work which claims to be from the Enoch mentioned in the bible, who was taken up and never saw death. The earliest parts of it can be attested to in the 4th century B.C., but so far as I know all experts think that it was added to over time and did not take its final form for centuries. It is said to have been written before the flood of Noah and much of the book is warning of the flood and God's judgement. Since the flood was well before 400 B.C., it clearly wasn't written by Enoch, nor even a single person. It makes many fantastical claims, such as that the Nephilim were three-hundred feet tall. The book as a whole is not seen as canon by either Jews or Christians, except perhaps by one ancient sect of African Christianity. 

Nevertheless, the book has gotten more attention from American Christians and been more thoroughly  studied than many books of scripture which are canon. Part of it is no doubt its mysterious subject matter while at the same time the book doesn't demand anything of us. Quite the opposite, the flood seems to be brought on as a result of demons deciding that they want to be a part of the material world, whereas the text of Genesis pins the blame for the flood on Man and his works. 

The thing is, several passages of scripture seem to allude to the Book of Enoch. This makes the case that at least some of the apostles either thought at least parts of the book were inspired or that there were things that actually happened which are mentioned in the book, or at least the book was an elaborate exaggeration of things that happened. 

I'd like to go over these instances one by one.....

Jude

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Jude seems to cite the first chapter of the Book of Enoch. It is pretty much a word-for-word match of verse nine. Some have mentioned that the first segment, verse 14 of Jude, also sounds like Deuteronomy 33:2, but Jude is citing "Enoch, seventh from Adam". My personal theory here is that the first chapter of Enoch is inspired writing and that Deuteronomy 33:2 borrowed a phrase from it. If you read the Book of Enoch, the first chapter sounds completely separate from the second and succeeding chapter. Perhaps the first chapter of Enoch was lore for a long time and other men added to the original prophecy. If this were true then, while this word would be legitimately inspired by God, you could not rely on the book as inspired. It would be like someone taking a page out of scripture and using it as the first page in their own book.

The second verse sometimes attributed to the Book of Enoch is in First Peter:

First Peter 3:19

"in which He also went and preached to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the great patience of God was waiting in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark......

This doesn't really line up well with the Book of Enoch. Michael Heiser says that this verse describes Christ basically rubbing the fallen spirit's noses in it that He has saved man after all. That doesn't make any sense to me. They are in prison, why bother? It makes more sense that He was doing so to "set the captives free". In Matthew chapter eight the demons specifically ask Him if He is there to "torment them before the appointed time."  He doesn't, He just casts them out. I have another explanation for First Peter 3:19 in my book, but I'd rather not get on a rabbit trail here. The bottom line is, there really isn't much evidence that this verse is connected to the Book of Enoch. It is supposition. 

That isn't the case in the other reference that the Apostle Peter makes which has been connected to the Book of Enoch: 2nd Peter 2:4-7 

4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

The Book of Enoch has almost the exact same language. That is, Angels that sinned were bound and cast down into a place of darkness. So on the face of it, this looks like it could be a reference to the Book of Enoch. Does this mean that the Book of Enoch is true? No, but it means that something did happen which is similar to what is described in the book of Enoch. This passage isn't saying that angels mated with human women and produced the Nephilim, and it isn't saying that the fallen angels were responsible for corrupting mankind and bringing the flood (as the Book of Enoch claims while the text of Genesis says differently, that the sons of Adam themselves were to blame). But it does seem that at some point, probably associated with the flood because of the way verse seven is connected with verse six, that some angels did sin and they were confined to a place of darkness as punishment. 

We see near the end of Luke chapter eight that the demons in a possessed person begged Jesus not to command them to go "into the abyss". He granted their plea that they instead be allowed to go into a herd of swine. He granted them permission, and the whole herd went mad and plunged to their deaths into the water. In what is probably a different eye-witness to the same account in Matthew chapter eight the demons ask if He has "come to torment us before the appointed time?" So apparently there are "rules" even for demons, lines they are not allowed to cross. Most respond right away when caught by God's servants but others, of a different "kind", do not (Matthew 17:21). They seem "wilder", not recognizing the authority of the believer in the Name of Christ, but will push it until heaven acts. This is much like some criminals on earth will back away when you tell them you are calling 911 if they don't leave but others will push things until the call is made and the police sirens are closing in. 

So it is clear that there is a place of punishment for demons who go beyond some boundaries, but it is also clear that taking mortal bodies and mating with human women aren't the only crimes which would make them think that they would be due such a punishment. The demons which Jesus gave permission to enter the swine thought they were in danger of being so confined for doing a mass case of violent possession. 

The strongest verse in the bible to support the idea that the Book of Enoch is a true account, and that the demons were imprisoned for co-habiting with human women is also found in Jude. I will cite the surrounding verses as well:

4For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
6And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

One thing I get out of this passage is that perhaps Christians should not focus on demonology and railing against evil spirits. We don't understand their role in God's plan. Maybe we should focus on the work of Christ and what that means for how we should live! Of course it is always more fun to go off on the bad guys and brag about our authority than it is to put to death the flesh in us, but that's our calling. Yet verse six and verse seven have often been construed to be taken together rather than as separate examples and therefore imply that the angles which kept not their first estate (dominion) were those who took human wives and produced the Nephilim. 

The Greek in verse seven isn't as clear cut as advocates of this position would have you believe. The truth is that it is ambiguous as to whether it is saying that the demons participated in a like manner as Sodom and Gomorrah, or that the cities around them participated in a like manner. Going back to the Old Testament we see that the cities around them did indeed participate and were judged with them. 

Further, verse eight seems to be treating the three examples given in verses five, six, and seven separately. The third thing listed is "defiling the flesh" which was what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. In the middle it says they "despise dominion" which is "authority". This is what the angels did when they "kept not their first estate" and left their own habitation." They did not do their rightful duty. The last thing mentioned in verse eight is "speaking evil of dignitaries" or "glories" and this is what happened when the wicked Children of Israel in Numbers 26 when the earth swallowed up those who strove against Moses and Aaron, the "glories" mentioned. So the fact that verse eight lists three separate complaints and three examples are given previously which match well in reverse order indicates that verses seven and eight are not the same offense. They are separate examples, and the ungodly men which had crept in, mentioned in verse four, did all of these things. They were not going to escape the consequences for them any more than did the unbelieving Israelites, the angels who left behind their original dominions or jurisdiction, and those of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities. 

We don't know exactly what is meant by the angels leaving their first estate and original habitation, but Jude isn't connecting it to sexual sin. That's what the example of Sodom and Gomorrah is for. Compare also the Archangel Michael's behavior in verse nine of Jude with passage or chapter nine of The Book of Enoch. In Enoch 9 Michael does bring what pretty much sounds like a "railing accusation" against the head of the fallen angels. This makes me wonder if Jude was even paraphrasing from the book of Enoch for verse six. Would he then turn right around in verse nine and point out how Michael behaved differently than the Michael from Enoch 9? Jude verse six does describe something similar to what the Book of Enoch says happened to the angels in prison, but is this appealing to the Book of Enoch or was it appealing to a common tradition found in the book of Enoch?  

I would further note that when Jude does appear to quote Enoch from the Book of Enoch a bit further down (v14), he identifies the quote as being from Enoch, as if it were the first time he was introducing material from that source. And again, it is only from the first chapter of Enoch, and an extrapolation on Deuteronomy 33:2. So it could have been a legitimate prophecy which was lifted and put into an otherwise uninspired work.  

The bottom line is that the church fathers rightly did not include "The Book of Enoch" in the canon of scripture. Paul, who advised that we "pay no attention to Jewish fables", doesn't cite any of it. Nor does His associate Luke. Peter makes allusions which refer to what seems to be a common tradition regarding the fate of devils, but we don't need the book of Enoch for that. Luke chapter eight discusses evil spirits being confined to the abyss and it isn't citing Enoch. It is the demons themselves mentioning it as something they fear will happen to them in the present. Nor does Jude offer the support for the Enoch narrative that many have imagined. A close look at the text shows the passage isn't connecting the sin of the angels to Sodom and Gomorrah, but it is a separate example of a separate sin.

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