Jovial (14 June 2015)
"The Various Books of Enoch - Are Any Legit?"

When someone discusses the "Book of Enoch", one of the first things I have to ask is "Which one?"  Because there is one quoted by Jude, but various books called "Enoch" in various preserved languages.  Some of these are definitely imposters, with some severe factual errors , including numbers that don't even add up right.  And for many centuries, until 1947, we did not have a copy in the original Hebrew until the discovery of the Dead Sea SCrolls.

Around the 2nd-4th century AD, the Catholic Church began destroying all copies of the Book of Enoch. They considered it heritical because they disagreed with its assertion that demons (fallen angels) could have taken a any kind of human form and procreated with female women.  They succeeded in wiping out most known copies and there were no known copies of Enoch until about the 19th century, when archeologists began finding several versions of the Book of Enoch in Slavick, Greek, and Ethiopian languages, but none in the original Hebrew and all dating from post-Christian time periods. 

With all of the imposters out there - books calling themselves "The book of Enoch" - how can we tell the original?  First off, we couldn't unless we find one that

If it has the quote from Jude, but doesn't pre-date Jude, it simply means someone gave consideration to that issue when they created their forgery.  But if we find one that pre-dates 30 AD, has the quote, and is in Hebrew, then we know we found the original text the ancients talked about.

After the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery in 1947 of an Essene community, we uncovered the writings of a group that considered the Book of Enoch to be scripture, lived by its calendar (based on the Constellations, and not the revolutions of the sun or the moon), and the world once again had manuscripts of the Book of Enoch in the Original Hebrew dating back to about the 2nd-3rd century BC - well before the Christian era and about as old as any manuscripts of anything that we have in existance. We don't have copies of the Book of Chronicles this old!!!

This discovery gave us the following...

So the DSS version of Enoch dates to the 2nd-3rd century BC with the passage quoted in Jude, and we can therefore prove that the quote was in Enoch before Jude was written. 

Even more important is that Enoch has apologetic value in witnessing to Jewish unbelievers.  This is why some people don't like Enoch, because some people will oppose anything that empowers witnessing to the Jewish community.

Why? Enoch says G-d has a SON!!! It uses the language of Daniel 7-9 to describe the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man in such a way that it proves that believers in Yeshua (Jesus) did not make up the whole thing in an vein attempt to explain why the Messiah they believed in died. At the end of this writing, I'll list a few quotes from Enoch that can go a long way towards proving that ancient Judaism believed in the concept that God had a Divine Son. I'd be careful about being too critical of the Book, because it does have apologetic value. I'd also be too careful about accepting a Book as cannon that doesn't have to be accepted.

Enoch 46:1-6 says

And there I saw One who was Ancient of Days, and His head was white like wool, and with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.

And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Ancient of Days? And he answered and said unto me:

This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness, with whom dwelleth righteousness, and who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden, because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, and whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever.

And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen shall raise up the kings and the mighty from their seats, [And the strong from their thrones] and shall loosen the reins of the strong, and break the teeth of the sinners.

[And he shall put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms] because they do not extol and praise Him, nor humbly acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them. and he shall put down the countenance of the strong, and shall fill them with shame.

Enoch 62:5-9 says

...And pain shall seize them, when they see that Son of Man Sitting on the throne of his glory. And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth shall bless and glorify and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden.

For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, and the Most High preserved him in the presence of His might, and revealed him to the elect. And the congregation of the elect and holy shall be sown, and all the elect shall stand before him on that day.

And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth shall fall down before him on their faces, and worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man, and petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.

Enoch 69:26-29

And there was great joy amongst them, and they blessed and glorified and extolled because the name of that Son of Man had been revealed unto them. And he sat on the throne of his glory, and the sum of judgement was given unto the Son of Man, and he caused the sinners to pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth, and those who have led the world astray. With chains shall they be bound, and in their assemblage-place of destruction shall they be imprisoned, and all their works vanish from the face of the earth. And from henceforth there shall be nothing corruptible; For that Son of Man has appeared, and has seated himself on the throne of his glory, and all evil shall pass away before his face, and the word of that Son of Man shall go forth

Enoch 71:14-16

And he [i.e. the angel] came to me [Enoch] and greeted me with His voice, and said unto me 'This is the Son of Man who is born unto righteousness, And righteousness abides over him, And the righteousness of the Ancient of Days forsakes him not.'

And he said unto me:

' He proclaims unto thee peace in the name of the world to come; For from hence has proceeded peace since the creation of the world, and so shall it be unto thee for ever and for ever and ever. And all shall walk in his ways since righteousness never forsaketh him: With him will be their dwelling-places, and with him their heritage, and they shall not be separated from him for ever and ever and ever.

And so there shall be length of days with that Son of Man, and the righteous shall have peace and an upright way In the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.'

Now I ask you, do these quotes sound like they were written by people bent on evil? Or decieved of the enemy? Or out to pollute the world with all kinds of strange notions? Will such writings cause people to end up in the clutches of the enemy if they read a book like this, holding its views critically against the traditionally accepted books of cannon? Now I'm not advocating the idea we should take up the Essene philosophy or add it to scripture, I'm just trying to get across the point that this is not an issue to go splitting a congregation over or ex-communicating people for or anything like that.  It is an ancient Jewish text that records a concept most modern Jewish rabbis try to avoid; evidence from Jewish history that Judaism once believed G-d has a Son!!!!

Lots of people have gotten very divided over this book, mostly because of the angelic thing.  But we should not be branding someone a heretic just because they think Enoch is worth reading, or have an even higher opinion such as thinking it was inspired, or whatever.

Shalom,

Joe