If we take the entirety of the Bible as a story, as if it were a novel with a complex plot, we would find that it is filled with the stories of characters that don’t have a complete character development. These characters float in and out of the overall story, often contributing something important, yet are treated as if they themselves are not important. We often know very little about them, making them somewhat like Melchizedek, who the writer of Hebrews says was “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days or end of life…” (Hebrews 7:3)
Such a one is Enoch, who we find mentioned in the genealogy of the Old Testament (Genesis 5:18-19) and then repeated in the genealogy of Jesus Himself in Luke 3:37. He was the father of Methuselah, who is recorded as living longer than anyone else (Genesis 5:21-26), so we at least know where he fits into history. But as to whom he really was or what he did, we know little else.
But what we do know is significant, making Enoch somewhat of an enigma. Enoch is one of only two people in the Bible who didn’t follow what it says in Hebrews 9:27; for he never died. That alone is enough to capture our attention and make him worthy of study.
Actually, there are two men with the name of Enoch mentioned in the Bible. The first of these was a son of Cain, who is famous for killing his brother. Cain memorialized this by building a city and naming it after his son (Genesis 4:17-18). But this is not the Enoch we are interested in. The one we are interested in comes a chapter later and from a different lineage, that of Adam and Eve’s third son, Enosh.
It appears, at first glance, looking there in Genesis, that Enoch’s life was unremarkable. But thinking that would be a mistake, as Genesis also says:
So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. – Genesis 5:23-24
“Enoch walked with God; and he was not” – what a curious phrase. One we find nowhere else in the Bible. It makes it sound like Enoch just disappeared, something that the Holy Spirit clarified as being an act of God, “for God took him.” That seems pretty clear that God took him by some other means than his death. While it doesn’t exactly say, it would seem that he left this world in bodily form.
Talk about a cliff-hanger! We are left with that being all that it says about him in the Old Testament. His name is mentioned in the genealogy written at the beginning of 1 Chronicles (1 Chronicles 1:3), but that’s it. Yet somehow he was known by at least some of the writers of the New Testament, two of whom have given us glimpses into his life. Interestingly enough, one of those was the writer of Hebrews, who included Enoch in the great “hall of faith” in Hebrews, chapter 11.
By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “And was not found, because God had taken him;” for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. – Hebrews 11:5
What a testimony! First it repeats what we saw back in Genesis, word for word; that’s a testimony in itself. But then it goes on to say that before he was taken away, he had the testimony that he pleased God. Wow! That explains why God took him from this earth, without him having to experience death.
One other clue that it gives us here about Enoch is that he was a man of faith. I think we could say “extreme faith.” Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been included in the hall of faith. It’s safe to say that his faith had something to do with his being taken to heaven by God.
Allow me to mention here that this hall of faith isn’t talking about faith as it is talked about by the Word of Faith movement, using your faith to get things from God. Rather, it talks about using your faith to serve and obey God. Each of the stories mentioned in this chapter is about someone who used their faith to do something remarkable in their service of God. Therefore, we can derive from that, that Enoch’s faith was such that it caused him to obey God in some remarkable way, even without the Bible telling us what it was.
The second thing we are told about Enoch here, is that “he pleased God.” That alone is a remarkable testimony about him. One of the basic messages of the Bible is that in our own strength we are unable to please God, while at the same time instructing us to strive to do just that. We need Christ as Savior because of our inability to please Him. Yet, somehow Enoch succeeded, where the rest of us failed.
Knowing this about Enoch, it is natural for us to wonder just what he did and just what he knew, which made it possible for him to live in a way that pleased God. If there were to be a book written by him, it would likely be a best seller amongst both Christians and Jews.
Does the Bible Mention a Book of Enoch?
There is no actual mention of a “Book of Enoch” by name in the Bible. Nevertheless, there is an indication that such a book existed at one time. We find this mentioned in one of the shortest books in the Bible, the Epistle of Jude. While Jude doesn’t actually mention a book of Enoch, he does quote a prophecy from it.
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” – Jude 1:14-15
It is clear that the Early Church knew this book of Enoch, as it was not only quoted here, but also by several of the most famous extra-biblical writings produced during the first couple of centuries of the church’s existence. Amongst these authors was St. Jerome in his “Apostolic Constructions,” as well as St. Augustine, Nicephoros and Athanasius.
Even so, this alone isn’t sufficient evidence for us to say that a Book of Enoch actually existed, or if it did exist, that it was authored by Enoch himself. We must accept, by faith, that what we have in our Bibles is what we need to have, as determined by the Holy Spirit.
The Canon of the Old Testament
What we know as the Old Testament was handed down to us from the Jews. The Scribe Ezra, author of the book which carries his name, is attributed to having established this canon. That makes sense, in a purely logical way, when we look at the history of Israel, especially the history around the time of Ezra.
The historic books of Ezra and Nehemiah are complementary works, along with the prophetic books of Haggai and Zechariah. Their combined story takes place after the Jewish exile and tells us about the rebuilding of the Temple and the wall around Jerusalem. The two prophets were a necessary part of this story, as they encouraged the people to fulfill this important work.
Looking beneath the surface of the construction story, we find that this story also dealt with the reestablishment of the Jewish religion. The people of Israel and Judah had strayed away from God, causing first the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah to be taken captive; Israel by the Assyrians and Judah by the Babylonians. The story of reconstruction happened 70 years after Judah being taken into captivity, as some of the people of Judah returned to Jerusalem. As they had not been worshiping God while in captivity, they needed to be taught God’s Word once again.
In Nehemiah, chapter 8, the people of Jerusalem, both those who had returned and those who were there, had finished rebuilding the wall and setting the gates. Nehemiah, acting as governor, had the people gathered together in front of the Water Gate, where Ezra read the “Book of the Law of Moses” to them (Nehemiah 8:1-8). For most of them, this was the first time they had heard the Law of God.
When we talk about the Book of the Law, we’re talking about the first five books of the Bible, what the Jews call the Torah and the Church calls the Pentateuch. For the Jews, the Torah is the most sacred part of the scriptures, followed by the prophets. But even that doesn’t cover the entirety of the Old Testament as we know it. We have to add the history books and the books of wisdom (which some people refer to as the poetry books) to have the entirety of our Old Testament.
This wasn’t established and organized in the time of Ezra. The Jews had the scrolls of the various books we see included in the Old Testament, as well as other scrolls which aren’t included. It was Ezra who God chose to undertake this work and determine what should be included in what’s known as the canon of the Tanakh, the Jews name for their Scriptures, which became our Old Testament.
Are there books which were not included in this canon? We can be sure that there were. There are various places in scripture which make reference to ancient writings, which are not included in our Bible. This has happened in both the Old and New Testaments.
There are many criteria that we can say were part of that decision making process; but the truth is that there is no record of what criteria were actually used or how the decision making process went. One thing is for sure though; the scholars who made those decisions were seeking to do the best possible job of including what God had ordained, while at the same time excluding other religious writings which might not have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. As part of that, they would have been concerned with the authorship of the book, being sure that they knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who had written the book and that they were qualified to write it.
I feel that it is important to mention that there are a number of books included in the Catholic version of the Old Testament, which are not included in other translations. These books are considered part of the apocrypha by the rest of the Church. So, that raises the question of why those books weren’t included in our Bible, yet were included in the Catholic version. The simple answer is that they were written after the time of Ezra, so he couldn’t have included them. Apparently, when the Catholic church printed their first Bibles, they chose to include them, as they were stored with the scrolls of the Tanakh; but protestant scholars who were responsible for printing the earliest protestant Bibles left them out, because the Jews had not included them in their Tanakh.
But What About the Book of Enoch?
There is an actual book, referred to as the Book of Enoch, which exists today. It can be read online or purchased in print. Considering the testimony that Enoch had, and the potential interest in what he might have said, it seems logical that this book would have been added to our Bible. So, why wasn’t it?
It is fairly well established that the book we know today as the Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch himself. It isn’t old enough to have been written by him. Enoch lived more than 3,000 years ago; but the book that carries his name was written between one and three centuries before the birth of Christ. That quote which Jude makes reference to was probably spoken by him, as Jude references; but that doesn’t prove that the entire book was written by him. Rather, the Book of Enoch is a collection of sayings by a variety of different authors, collected together and put into one book, which carries Enoch’s name.
This sort of text is referred to as “pseudepigraphic texts.” They are collections of sayings which have come from a variety of authors and lumped together in one work. The name of some famous person is placed on the work, in an attempt to give credibility to the work, by attributing these other sayings to that famous person.
Even if everything that is contained within the Book of Enoch was inspired by the Holy Spirit, it still couldn’t be contained within the canon of the Old Testament, because it was compiled after Ezra determined the canon of the Tanakh, our Old Testament. At best, it could be considered a part of the apocrypha. That doesn’t give it the same stature as the books contained within the Bible.
Anyone who tries to add the Book of Enoch to scripture, either literally or figuratively (by saying that it is scriptural) is taking upon themselves the right to change the Bible, something that none of us has the right to do. In doing so, they might very well be adding something dangerous to our Bible, as there are teachings in the Book of Enoch, which are not included in the rest of the Bible.
One such teaching is that fallen angels (those which fell with Lucifer in the heavenly rebellion), had sexual relations with human women, creating the Nephilim, This was supposed to be a race of giants. While not actually referred to in the Bible by that name, some attribute various verses of the Bible to them, in an attempt to give them credence. There again, this interpretation, while popular, is based on a very flimsy foundation.
Considering these various problems with what is known as the Book of Enoch, it is clear that it does not belong in our Bible. While it would be great to have such a book and learn from his wisdom, God has decided that we don’t need it.
This brings up a wider question that we must address. The book of Enoch is not the only ancient religious text that is attributed to either the Jewish people or the early church. There are many others, some of which came from the same time period in which our New Testament was written and the canon compiled. But that doesn’t make them true, nor does it establish them as being from God. Rather, we must take into account that all through church history the devil has worked to infiltrate the church with false teachings. There are a number of ancient writings, from the first two centuries, which are Gnostic in origin and which pervert the true Gospel.
We must accept, as an article of faith, that the Bible we have is what the Holy Spirit has decided we need to have. While there might be a temptation to add to it, we mustn’t fall into that temptation. God has given us the Bible we have, knowing better than we do, exactly what we need.