Book of Enoch
Enoch was seventh generation of Adam of the lineage of Seth. He was Noah's Great-Grandfather. Do not confuse this Enoch with the son of Cain, who was also named Enoch.
Three apocryphal books are attributed to him:
[1] First book of Enoch
Written in Ge'ez (Ethiopian) - dated between 3BC-1AD
[2] Second book of Enoch
aka Book of the Secrets of Enoch, written in Old bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and other slavic languages.
[3] Third book of Enoch
Hebrew rabbinic text dated to 5AD
Enoch in Book of Giants
This is a pseudepigraphical Jewish work from 3BC and resembles the [1] Book of Enoch. At least six, and as many as eleven were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Septuagint
The third century translators who produced the Greek Septuagint rendered the phrase "God took him" with the Greek verb metatithemi meaning from one place to another.
Sirach 44:16 Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated, being an example of repentance to all generations.
New Testament
[1] Luk 3:37 Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,
Luke gives us the genealogy of Jesus which looks like this:
[1] Adam [2] Seth [3] Enos [4] Cainan [5] Maleleel [6] Jared [7] Enoch [8] Methuselah [9] Lamech [10] Noah... continuing on down to Jesus.
[2] Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was transferred [G3346 - metatithemi], so as not to be acquainted with death, and was not found, because God transfers him. For before his transference he is attested to have pleased God well.
[3] Jud 1:14-15 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to 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.
The Book of Enoch
The book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious writing. There are no original writings in existence. All copies were written by oral tradition passed from one generation to another.
The book is broken into five major sections:
[1] Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
[2] Book of the Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71)
[3] Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72-82)
[4] Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90)
[5] Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)
The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) are said to date from about 300BC. The later parts (book of parables) were probably dated to 1BC.
The books are regarded as interesting for their historical or theological interest but are not considered canonical by any religion other than the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
It is disregarded as canonical because of the detailed descriptions of "fallen angels" mating with human women which contradicts the rest of Scripture.
Throughout Scripture - angels were never created in a state in which they would "fall" and revolt against God. Neither Satan, nor his messengers were created in a glorious state and then decided to revolt against God. Secondly, no angel has reproductive organs as told to us distinctly by Jesus (for example, Mat 22:30).
The Hebrews rejected the canonization early on based on the above as illustrated by the comments of Trypho the Jew when debating Justin Martyr on this subject:
"The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God." (Dialogue 79)
The Ethiopian Church claims that it was first written in Ge'ez. Only Aramaic, Latin, and Greek fragments were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most scholars believe it was written in Aramaic or Hebrew or a combination of both (like Daniel).
Obviously, some of the New Testament writers were familiar with the writings of Enoch. A short section of 1 Enoch 1:9 is cited in Jude (see above).
1 Enoch 1:9 And behold! He cometh with then thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment 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.
There is discussion as to whether Jude was quoting directly from Enoch. He specifically mentions Enoch as an historical prophet however, there is still some question as to whether Jude was quoting directly from the source of Enoch, or that of the Jewish midrash (Deu 33:2-3).
There is also an allegation that Peter also made reference to Enoch's material (1 Pet 3:19-20; 2 Pet 2:4-5).
The Epistle of Barnabas also quotes Enoch as Scripture:
Barnabas 4:3 The last offence is at hand, concerning which the scripture speaketh, as Enoch saith. For to this end the Master hath cut the seasons and the days short, that His beloved might hasten and come to His inheritance.
Enochian Judaism
Three apocryphal books are attributed to him:
[1] First book of Enoch
Written in Ge'ez (Ethiopian) - dated between 3BC-1AD
[2] Second book of Enoch
aka Book of the Secrets of Enoch, written in Old bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and other slavic languages.
[3] Third book of Enoch
Hebrew rabbinic text dated to 5AD
Enoch in Book of Giants
This is a pseudepigraphical Jewish work from 3BC and resembles the [1] Book of Enoch. At least six, and as many as eleven were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Septuagint
The third century translators who produced the Greek Septuagint rendered the phrase "God took him" with the Greek verb metatithemi meaning from one place to another.
Sirach 44:16 Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated, being an example of repentance to all generations.
New Testament
[1] Luk 3:37 Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,
Luke gives us the genealogy of Jesus which looks like this:
[1] Adam [2] Seth [3] Enos [4] Cainan [5] Maleleel [6] Jared [7] Enoch [8] Methuselah [9] Lamech [10] Noah... continuing on down to Jesus.
[2] Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was transferred [G3346 - metatithemi], so as not to be acquainted with death, and was not found, because God transfers him. For before his transference he is attested to have pleased God well.
[3] Jud 1:14-15 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to 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.
The Book of Enoch
The book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious writing. There are no original writings in existence. All copies were written by oral tradition passed from one generation to another.
The book is broken into five major sections:
[1] Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
[2] Book of the Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71)
[3] Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72-82)
[4] Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90)
[5] Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)
The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) are said to date from about 300BC. The later parts (book of parables) were probably dated to 1BC.
The books are regarded as interesting for their historical or theological interest but are not considered canonical by any religion other than the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
It is disregarded as canonical because of the detailed descriptions of "fallen angels" mating with human women which contradicts the rest of Scripture.
Throughout Scripture - angels were never created in a state in which they would "fall" and revolt against God. Neither Satan, nor his messengers were created in a glorious state and then decided to revolt against God. Secondly, no angel has reproductive organs as told to us distinctly by Jesus (for example, Mat 22:30).
The Hebrews rejected the canonization early on based on the above as illustrated by the comments of Trypho the Jew when debating Justin Martyr on this subject:
"The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God." (Dialogue 79)
The Ethiopian Church claims that it was first written in Ge'ez. Only Aramaic, Latin, and Greek fragments were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most scholars believe it was written in Aramaic or Hebrew or a combination of both (like Daniel).
Obviously, some of the New Testament writers were familiar with the writings of Enoch. A short section of 1 Enoch 1:9 is cited in Jude (see above).
1 Enoch 1:9 And behold! He cometh with then thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment 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.
There is discussion as to whether Jude was quoting directly from Enoch. He specifically mentions Enoch as an historical prophet however, there is still some question as to whether Jude was quoting directly from the source of Enoch, or that of the Jewish midrash (Deu 33:2-3).
There is also an allegation that Peter also made reference to Enoch's material (1 Pet 3:19-20; 2 Pet 2:4-5).
The Epistle of Barnabas also quotes Enoch as Scripture:
Barnabas 4:3 The last offence is at hand, concerning which the scripture speaketh, as Enoch saith. For to this end the Master hath cut the seasons and the days short, that His beloved might hasten and come to His inheritance.
Enochian Judaism
Some scholars believe that some of the writers of the Qumran scrolls were descendant from an "Enochic" form of Judaism.
These carried views which contradict Scripture what we now know as Scripture such as the origin of evil is caused by those "fallen angels" who united with human women and they are ultimately responsible for the spread of evil on earth.
They also believed that wealthy people were sinners while the oppressed were just.
Conclusion
While parts of the writings of Enoch may agree with Scripture we must remember that no original writings have ever been found. Oral tradition as been passed down to men and those men were the writers of which they attributed to Enoch.
Men have been known to "add to" and "take away" from many writings in order to pass off, or validate, their own beliefs.
Enoch was obviously a just man and found favor with God. However, we have no idea what Enoch wrote down - if anything. There is no record of him actually writing anything down.
Scripture does not mention the "writings of Enoch"... they only mention Enoch. For example, there's no Scripture that says "have you not read in Enoch", etc. The New Testament writers only refer to Enoch himself.
Which is also the case of Jude... Jude does not specifically say that he's referencing a "book" or a "writing" of Enoch. Not to mention that at one time, Jude's writing was also considered as non-canonical.
If God had wanted to preserve a writing of Enoch - we would have it.
What we do have partially agrees with Scripture and some of it blatantly disagrees with what we consider Scripture now.
Especially - on the topic of the Nephilim... no angel has ever united with a human woman to produce a giant offspring hybrid.
The Nephilim story is grossly exaggerated from ancient fairy tales and is blasphemy against God.
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