The book of Enoch is not in the Bible.
…So why bother with it?
Because many Christian groups, perhaps without even realising, still hold a belief in its story and what it teaches.
It is quoted and referenced by two new testament writers. Jude and Peter.
Jude and Peter both wrote to encourage believers to reject false teachers, myths and false doctrines, specifically those found in the book of Enoch about fallen angels.
The book of Enoch claims to be from the time before Noah and the flood. It goes like this:
“And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ And Shemihazah, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear you will not agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then they all swore together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred who descended on the earth in the days of Jared.” (Enoch 6:1-6)
It carries on that the wives then give birth to giants.
The arc angel Michael then accuses the 200 angels of their sin and has them bound for 70 generations in Tartarus.
The angels ask Enoch to mediate with God on their behalf, but Enoch’s requests are refused by God.
The giants also cause havoc on the earth, Michael appeals to God again, and they are drowned in the flood.
In another book, the Book of the Giants, these giant children of the angels, led by their leaders Ohiyah and Mahawi, also ask Enoch to mediate for them.
God decrees that the spirits of the giants shall survive to torment mankind and they become a new class of beings, the demons. The giants’ human mothers also survive and become Sirens.
This became a very popular story similar perhaps to something like the Da Vinci Code these days.
The book of Enoch is rejected as Gods word by most Jews and Christians today due to it’s major inconsistencies with the rest of scripture.
It claims Enoch was the 7th from Adam.
Adam
1 Seth
2 Enos
3 Cainan
4 Mahalaleel
5 Jared
6 Enoch… Not the 7th…
Inconstancies also appear in the fact that this book quotes from Moses despite claiming to be written before Moses time.
In truth this book takes a flight of fancy from one verse written by moses in Genesis.
Gen 6: 1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
The author of the book of Enoch has run with this idea and created a best selling book on fallen angels. Paul and Jude call it presumptuous, denying authority and slandering the dignities.
Why? Because this verse is not about angels.
When the phrase sons of God is used it is talking about the faithful descendants of Seth intermarrying with those who were “of men” rather than those “of God.”
This is something God tells Israel not to do in Nehemiah 13 and Ezra 10. And also Paul instructs the church not to be “yoked together with unbelievers.” 2Cor 6:14 as it leads to the diluting of Gods standards. It is recorded just two verses later in Genesis:
6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Note The hebrew word for “God” in “sons of God” is Elohim. This often refers to angels yet is also used to describe men and even wicked rulers on occasion. (Exodus 21:6 – judges)
Peter and Jude in the new testament are writing against the kind of mythical teaching presented in Enoch about fallen angels.
2 Peter 2 starts with A warning:
“there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you”
But Peter also encourages the faithful by saying that “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” – the false teachers will be judged and the godly delivered says Peter.
False teachers will come but God can judge and deliver.
Peter illustrates how God has saved Noah from the flood and Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah but he also ironically uses the Book of Enoch itself to prove the point saying “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” Peter shows that ironically the book of Enoch condemns the ungodly and it was written by the ungodly!
try reading 2 Peter 2:1-9 to see if this makes sense:
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
Note Peter introduces the Enoch story with an “if” to show how he doubts it’s validity but not the biblical accounts.
Think about it if Peter was writing to back up the idea that Angels fell from heaven why does he leave out the quote from Gen 6? Maybe because that verse is nothing to do with fallen Angels? Peter uses the reference from Enoch to show these false teachers will be judged by God as their own words say.
Peter then goes on to say these false teachers “despise authority” the authority of Gods scriptures, they are “presumptuous” about what Gods scriptures mean, (specifically Genesis 6), they are “self willed” about adding their own meaning to the scriptures and “not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”
They were not afraid to make up stories about angels wrongly saying they would intermarry with humans.
Jude backs this up by recounting what the arc angel Michael says to Gods opponents in Zechariah.
Instead of accusing the wrong doers (like the arc angel does in Enoch) he says “the LORD rebuke you” for “angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.”
Peter and Jude understand that the angels do not even judge others let alone sin thmselves.
They both then use language from the book of Enoch to condemn these teachings:
Jude 12 “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”
Jude then says the only people Enoch is prophesying to are the false teachers that teach from the book of Enoch itself ironically turning its teachings back on the very people that teach it:
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied to* these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15To 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.”
*most bibles read “of” taken from the Latin Bible translation yet the earlier original Greek reads “to”
Jude purposefully calls Enoch the 7th from Adam to have a subtle dig at it’s inaccuracy.
So what we have seen is that Peter and Jude write against the myths of Enoch and the fallen angels. They say such things are blaspheming the angels who won’t even accuse the wrong doers let alone consider sinning in such a way as Enoch portrays, instead we see them let the LORD rebuke them as Michael does in Zechariah.
These verses verify the integrity of angels as being sinless:
Matt 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”
Psalm 34:8The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Hebrews 1:14 Are they (the angels) not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
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It may be useful for you to read again 2 Peter 2 and Jude to see if this makes sense to you:
2 Peter 2
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. 15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds[b] carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped[d] from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,”and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
Jude
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied to 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.”
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Glory to God
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you[f] from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25 To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
