Books of Enoch

[Wearynot]

Here is part of a segment:

Ena I ii
12. ...But you have changed your works,
13. [and have not done according to his command,
and tran]sgressed against him; (and have spoken)
haughty and harsh words, with your impure mouths,
14. [against his majesty, for your heart is hard].
You will have no peace.

Ena I iii

13. [They (the leaders) and all ... of them took
for themselves]
14. wives from all that they chose and
[they began to cohabit with them and to defile
themselves with them];
15. and to teach them sorcery and [spells and
the cutting of roots; and to acquaint them
with herbs.]
16. And they become pregnant by them and
bo[re (great) giants three thousand cubits high ...]

 

[SummaScriptura]

The Book of Enoch is considered by all Christians to be pseudepigraphical (not really what it claims to be), written much, much after Enoch to Jews. The author's purpose in calling himself Enoch was to make sure he was taken more seriously than he would be if it was called, "The Book of Obed" or something. However, it's very interesting that Jude 1:14-15 is actually taken from the Book of Enoch. Very curious.

One should be careful whenever saying, "all Christians believe" this or that. I can tell you one person who did not think it was pseudepigraphal... St. Jude. He quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 and says these are the prophetic words of Enoch, the 7th from Adam. He did not say, 'these are the interesting but don't put much stock in these words by Obed, the son of Schlebodkin.'

The Books of Enoch were NOT found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is a myth perpetrated by the authors of the books. There is no trace of these books existing prior to the 1960's. It is thought that they were originally written as a work of fiction which was then absorbed into literature posing as non-fiction.

I never cease to be amazed at the untruths people peddle about 1 Enoch. Its as if when the subject of 1 Enoch comes up people get inspired by a little birdie, "here's a subject you know nothing about. But what the heck, pontificate! Go ahead, pontificate!"

No offense, but I think this is kind of extreme. This proposition is a little unnecessarily fantastical. I mean, what's wrong with Jude quoting a piece of non-sacred literature such as Paul did? Paul put a lot of stock in secular writing (quoting Euripides, et al), and I suspect Jude did, as well. I have never heard anyone argue what you're proposing, simply because even the Jews of Jude's time did not believe in 1 & 2 Enoch's historicity.

Are you sure? Everything I've found indicates the contrary. Many Jews of Jesus day accepted 1 Enoch as historical. In fact, I've found no Jewish writer from the period of 2nd-Temple Judaism that contradicts it.

Actually, how can Jude then reference to the Book of Enoch if the book of Jude was written prior to the 1960s?

The books being published under the title The Books of Enoch are not the same book. They are not the ancient writings refered to in Jude. They were works of fiction that were written in modern times to simulate what those lost books might have been. The authors of the "Enoch books" have even stepped forward and said that they wrote them and never intended them to be taken as scripture, they were just trying to write and interesting version of what ancient literature might have been like. They said they didn't even try to follow scripture because neither of them was religious. They are both non-practicing Jews who were in their twenties back then, and looking for a way to jab or hoax the establishment. Lots of young people in the 60's did things like that. It was a time of rebellion against tradition and "the establishment." I can't remember their first names but their last names are Heisel and Friedman. This all came out about 20 or 30 years ago, but the younger generation is falling for the hoax all over again.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been used to verify that 1 Enoch or Ethiopic Enoch is essentially a faithful translation of the book from which Jude quoted. Your understadning of the facts concerning this are one-of-a-kind. I'm not saying you've fabricated them from whole cloth, but giving you the benefit of the doubt, its likely your memory of the facts have become blurred somehow, actually more than blurred, fictionally enhanced.

<snip>While I am not endorsing the following to be true, the possibility of 1 Enoch actually quoting Jude exists. Apparently 1 Enoch was written by several authors dating from about 200 B.C. until the latter part of the 1st century. Jude is probably c. A.D. 65 to c. A.D. 80. This at least allows that 1 Enoch could actually be quoting from Jude. It should be noted that in Jude 14, he is quoting Enoch himself, not necessarily the Book of Enoch.

1. Jude quotes the book
2. Jude says the person he is quoting is the real Enoch
3. The Aramaic fragments from the DSS verify we now have the book Jude quoted
4. The Bible teaches the book we now call 1 Enoch was written by Enoch the prophet, the 7th from Adam