The Book of Enoch Read online

  Enoch and Jude. The strongest cases for New Testament literary dependence upon Enochic texts are the epistles of Jude, and 1 and 2 Peter.[51] Of all three of these passages, Jude is the most explicit in that the apostle literally quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 when he writes,

  Jude 14–15

  It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

  Here is the original text of 1 Enoch being quoted:

  1 Enoch 1:9

  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.[52]

  While most Biblical scholars accept Jude’s quotation as being the prophecy from 1 Enoch, some deny this by arguing that Jude is merely quoting from a common source of 1 Enoch. This approach to interpretation hints at artful ad hoc dodging by pushing back the source into a “safe” past of unretrievable sources. But more importantly, it wouldn’t be consistently applied to other New Testament quotations. For instance, those same exegetes would surely not claim that Matthew’s quotation in Matt. 2:5-6 of a “prophet” that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem was from a further removed “common source” with Isaiah rather than from Isaiah himself. The list of these New Testament examples would of course be manifold.

  Another approach to denying the influence of 1 Enoch on Jude is typified by Douglas Moo’s commentary on Jude. He writes, “To be sure, Jude claims that Enoch ‘prophesied.’ But this word need not mean ‘wrote an inspired prophetic book’; it could well mean simply ‘uttered in this instance a prophecy.’”[53]

  On the face of it, this is a logical option, but not a probable one, unless one is willing to maintain a hermeneutical double standard. Yet again, applying this standard consistently forces one to conclude that Matthew was not affirming the total book of Isaiah when he quoted the prophecies, but only specific instances of prophecies from Isaiah. Something of which Moo would not want to be found guilty.

  Of course, there are cases where apostles quote a saying as a singular cultural reference without connection to the rest of the source. Paul quotes the Stoic Aratus on Mars Hill this way (Acts 17:28), as well as Epimenedes of Crete (Titus 1:12), and Menander (1 Cor. 15:33). But the difference here is that Jude does not merely quote a verse from the book of 1 Enoch. He also follows the content patterns of 1 Enoch along with allusions and echoes of its phrases and language throughout his epistle.

  Greeting. To start with, Jude’s greeting reflects the same exact greeting as 1 Enoch in appealing to the preservation of the elect, followed by God’s mercy or kindness and the multiplication of blessings (see chart below for comparison verses).

  Theme. Jude also echoes 1 Enoch in its primary apocalyptic theme of the punishment of the ungodly. Both texts are addressing the evil of their day as an unveiling or fulfillment of past prophetic proclamation. They both appeal to ancient examples of judgment as the promise of judgment upon the present ungodly. In 1 Enoch’s case, it was the angelic Watchers corrupting humanity with occultic teaching that was probably an analogy with the ungodly corruption of Hellenism on Judaism.[54] In Jude’s case, he refers to those same angels as an analogy with the ungodly corruption of antinomian false teachers (Jude 4).

  Memes. Jude uses what commentator Richard Bauckham calls “midrash” in his exegesis. That is, he weaves together quotations, allusions, reminiscences and catchwords of other older texts to apply it to his contemporary situation.[55] Thus specific phrases or memes become anchor points of connection between the ancient text (1 Enoch) and the present dilemma (Jude’s 1st century Church).

  Some of those memes are referred to later in the letter when describing the nature of the ungodly. Jude seems to follow Enoch’s descriptions of these wicked sinners point for point. Carroll Osburn concludes that Jude must have used Enoch 80:2-8 as the “essential framework for Jude’s metaphorical construction” because Jude warns of the impending punishment of the ungodly and then follows the precise order of Enoch’s description of them as first waterless clouds (Jude 12; 1 En. 80:2); second, unfruitful trees (Jude 12; 1 En. 80:3); and fourth, wandering stars (Jude 13; 1 En. 80:6). The third metaphor of turbulent waters is found in 1 Enoch 67:5-7.[56]

  When Jude introduces Enoch as “the seventh from Adam,” this is not merely a number attained by adding up the lineage from the genealogy of Genesis 5:3-19. The phrase “seventh from Adam” is a common identifier used outside the Old Testament in Second Temple literature starting with 1 En. 60:6 and 93:3.[57]

  The Fallen Watchers. Another Enochian motif that finds a strong presence in Jude is the Book of the Watchers storyline of 1 Enoch 1-36. The “wandering stars” that Jude later condemns in v. 13 is a common ancient Jewish idiom in both the Old Testament and the Pseudepigrapha for divine celestial beings. In the ancient world, the stars were called the “host of heaven” and were equated with deities.[58] In the Old Testament, the stars of heaven are also called “heavenly host” and are likened to the pagan deities (Deut. 4:19), as well as the angelic Sons of God around his throne (Psa. 89:5-7, Job 38:7). So it is within this tradition that 1 Enoch also likens the fallen angelic Watchers to imprisoned stars.

  1 Enoch 18:14-15

  the angel said (to me), “This place is the (ultimate) end of heaven and earth: it is the prison house for the stars and the powers of heaven… they are the ones which have transgressed the commandments of God.”[59]

  Next, Jude sets up these “wandering stars” as ungodly villains motivated by sensual immorality and denial of the Lord (v. 4), the exact same description in 1 Enoch 67:10 of those angels who “debauch their bodies” and “deny the Lord.” This repetitious theme of fleshly defilement and rejection of authority (v. 8) are all traits of the “angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode” (v. 6). But who are these angels, what is their proper abode, and what is their violation?

  Bauckham explains that “Jude’s reference is directly dependent on 1 Enoch 6–19, which is the earliest extant account of the fall of the Watchers…and he shows himself closely familiar with those chapters.”[60] Those Watchers “abandoned the high holy and eternal heaven and slept with women and defiled [themselves] with the daughters of the people, taking wives… and begetting giant sons.” (1 En. 15:3). As Jude says, these angelic beings who rebelled against God were put in “eternal bonds for the judgment of the great day” (v.6), or as 1 Enoch says, they were “bound underneath the rocks of the ground until the day of their judgment” (1 En. 10:12).

  It is acknowledged by most experts in Second Temple Jewish literature that the Enochian Book of the Watchers is an expansive interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 that led up to the Flood as God’s judgment. The Sons of God are the angelic Watchers who left their heavenly abode and mated with human women. Their offspring are the Nephilim, or giants that bring havoc on the earth.

  But the point being made here by Jude is the violation of the heavenly/earthly divide of created flesh. The “gross immorality” of Sodom and Gomorrah, the pursuit of “strange flesh” (v. 7) that Jude speaks about in this context, is not the traditional notion of homosexuality that most believers think of when they hear the term Sodom and Gomorrah. The sin of the men of Sodom was not that they were going after men, but that they were going after angels. They wanted to violate that heavenly earthly separation of flesh. They were seeking the same primeval sin of Genesis 6 that was partly responsible for bringing about the Flood.

  This connection of Sodom and Gomorrah to the Watchers’ sexual sin and the Noahic Flood is
a poetic doublet used by Jude that does not occur in the Old Testament. But it is a common occurrence in multiple Second Temple texts that draw from 1 Enoch.[61] Here are just a couple examples that illustrate the connection:[62]

  3 Maccabees 2:4-5

  Thou didst destroy those who aforetime did iniquity, among whom were giants trusting in their strength and boldness, bringing upon them a boundless flood of water. Thou didst burn up with fire and brimstone the men of Sodom, workers of arrogance, who had become known of all for their crimes, and didst make them an example to those who should come after. [63]

  Jubilees 20:4-5

  [L]et them not take to themselves wives from the daughters of Canaan; for the seed of Canaan will be rooted out of the land. And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and the judgment of the Sodomites, how they had been judged on account of their wickedness, and had died on account of their fornication, and uncleanness, and mutual corruption through fornication.[64]

  Jude’s linking of Sodom with the days of Noah and the sexual sin of the Watchers is a literary doublet that reinforces the Enochian Watcher paradigm. Combined with the other Enochian allusions, echoes, and linguistic memes in Jude this certainly provides a preponderance of evidence of the extensive dependency of Jude upon 1 Enoch far beyond the single quotation in verses 14-15.

  Enoch and 2 Peter. 2 Peter 2:4-11 is understood by Bible scholars as having literary dependence upon Jude so it repeats these same memes of the fallen angels “bound in chains,” and the Noah’s Flood/Sodom doublet along with judgment. The language is redundant with Jude, but Peter adds one element to the mix that further elucidates this Enochic connection. Lest anyone misunderstand Jude’s reference to the location of the binding of the angels, Peter locates it right in Sheol, as Enoch did. He writes that God “did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness” (v. 4). The word for “hell” in this passage is tartaroo, not gehenna, the traditional designation for the English translation of hell. Tartaroo is a Greek word that refers to Tartarus, the deepest location in Sheol,[65] where it was said in Greek lore that the gigantic Titans were chained.[66] Enoch however says this is where the fallen angels, the Watchers, were chained (1 En. 63:10-64:1).

  The following chart is a helpful graphic summary of the content patterns and linguistic echoes of 1 Enoch that weave throughout Jude:[67]

  Jude

  1 Enoch

  1–2

  To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

  1:8

  And to all the righteous he will grant peace. He will preserve the elect, and kindness shall be upon them. They shall all belong to God and they shall prosper and be blessed; and the light of God shall shine unto them.

  4

  certain people…who long ago were designated for this condemnation

  108:7

  Things sealed in heaven… about to befall sinners

  4

  For certain people…designated for this condemnation, ungodly people

  1:9

  to destroy all the ungodly…

  the works of ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

  4

  who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ

  67:10; 48:10; 38:2

  they believe in the debauchery of their bodies and deny the spirit of the Lord.

  6

  And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode…

  6

  …went after strange flesh

  6

  He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness

  for the judgment of the great day

  12:4; 15:3

  the Watchers who have abandoned the high heaven, the holy eternal place…

  12:4; 15:3

  …and defiled themselves with women

  10:12

  bind [the Watchers] for seventy generations underneath the rocks of the ground until the day of their judgment.

  6 / 2 Peter 2:4

  …cast them into Tartarus.

  63:10

  …being cast into the oppressive Sheol.

  12

  …waterless clouds…

  100:11; 80:2

  … every cloud…rain shall be withheld

  12

  …fruitless trees…

  80:3

  …fruit of the trees shall be withheld…

  12

  …raging waters…

  67:5-7; 101:4

  … a great turbulence and the stirring of the waters…

  13

  …wandering stars…

  …the gloom of utter darkness has

  been reserved forever…

  80:6; 46:6

  …stars change their courses…

  …darkness shall be their dwelling… (46:6)

  14

  It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied…

  60:8

  wherein my grandfather [Enoch] was taken, the seventh from Adam.

  14–15

  Enoch…prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

  1:9

  Behold, he will arrive with ten million of the holy ones in order to execute judgment upon all. He will destroy the wicked ones and censure all flesh on account of everything that they have done, that which the sinners and the wicked ones committed against him.

  Enoch and 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3:18-20 is a controversial passage that is relevant to our discussion of Enochian influence on the New Testament.

  1 Peter 3:18-20

  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

  This is one of the most notoriously difficult passages in the New Testament to exegete, so we must proceed with caution and humility. Some scholars argue that this passage is poetically describing Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry of preaching the Gospel to the “spiritually imprisoned” on earth after he rose from the dead. But the reflections of the Enochian Watcher incident are too strong to ignore.

  The spirits to which Christ proclaims are not described as those humans living on earth, but rather as those spirits who are imprisoned or bound because of their disobedience in the days of Noah, not in the days of Christ. This again points to the disobedient angels before the Flood in 1 Enoch 10, who along with Azazel, are bound and imprisoned in Sheol, the Underworld, until their judgment.

  In this traditional understanding, Christ descends into Sheol or “hell” as the Apostle’s Creed calls it,[68] and proclaims his triumph to those angelic spirits, the Watchers, who had sought to defy God and establish their own kingdom of rebellion.

  As Nickelsburg points out, Christ’s journey to Sheol is a mirror image of Enoch’s own journey through Sheol in 1 Enoch 17-22, where he too sees the bound angels in prison awaiting their judgment.[69]

  1 Enoch 18:13; 19:1-2

  This place is the (ultimate) end of heaven and earth: it is the prison house for the stars [angels] and the powers of heaven…“Here shall stand in many different appearances the spirits of the angels which have united themselves with women. They have defiled the people and will lead them into error so that they will offer sacrifices to the demons as unto gods, until the great day of judgment”[70]

  But this single passage is
not the only place where 1 Peter reflects Enochian influence. Nickelsburg argues that the entire book of 1 Peter follows the language and structure of 1 Enoch 108, illustrating a strong likelihood of familiarity and respect if not dependence. Here is the chart he provides:[71]

  1 Peter

  1 Enoch 108

  3:12

  those who do evil

  2, 6, 10

  those who do evil

  1:23

  perishable seed

  3b

  seed will perish

  3:19-20

  spirits in prison

  3-6

  spirits punished

  3:20

  Noah, sons saved

  (106:16, 18)

  Noah, sons saved

  1:10-12

  Prophets, books, angels

  6-7

  Prophets, books, angels

  1:8

  Love Christ

  8, 10

  Love God, heaven

  1:7, 18

  Disdain silver, gold

  8

  Disdain silver, gold