What Is the Book of Enoch? A Beginner’s Guide
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What is the Book of Enoch? It is an ancient Jewish writing, known today as 1 Enoch, that presents visions and teachings in the name of Enoch, the man in Genesis who "walked with God." It is really a collection of five shorter books gathered under one name, written over several centuries before and around the time of Jesus.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church include 1 Enoch in their Bible, and Beta Israel, the Jewish community of Ethiopia, also holds it as sacred. Rabbinic Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Bibles do not include it.
Many readers first meet the book through the New Testament letter of Jude, which quotes a prophecy from Enoch. This guide gives a short overview of each part of the story.
Who Is the Enoch Behind the Book?
Genesis 5 lists Enoch as the seventh generation from Adam, the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah. Genesis 5:24 says: "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."
That brief, unusual ending invited later readers to ask where Enoch went and what he saw. The Book of Enoch is one of the earliest and fullest answers that ancient Jewish writers gave to that question. The biblical figure himself is covered in more depth in a separate post on Enoch in the Bible.
What Are the Five Sections of 1 Enoch?
Scholars usually divide 1 Enoch into five main parts. The chapter numbers below follow R. H. Charles's English translation, which is widely available.
1. The Book of the Watchers (chapters 1-36). This section tells how heavenly beings called Watchers came down to earth, took human wives, and fathered giants. It also describes Enoch's journeys through heaven and earth with angelic guides.
2. The Parables, also called the Similitudes (chapters 37-71). These are three long visions about the final judgment and a heavenly figure called the Elect One and the Son of Man.
3. The Astronomical Book, also called the Book of the Luminaries (chapters 72-82). This section describes the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, and it supports a calendar of 364 days.
4. The Dream Visions (chapters 83-90). Enoch sees two dreams. The second, often called the Animal Apocalypse, retells Israel's history using animals as symbols for people and nations.
5. The Epistle of Enoch (chapters 91-108). This section gives moral teaching, warnings to the wicked, and encouragement to the righteous. It includes a short outline of history known as the Apocalypse of Weeks.
What Languages Does the Book of Enoch Survive In?
The book has an unusual history of survival. Most scholars think it was first written in Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew that was widely spoken by Jews in the centuries before Jesus.
Aramaic fragments of several sections were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in Cave 4 at Qumran, near the Dead Sea. These copies were published by J. T. Milik in 1976.
Greek portions also survive. One important Greek manuscript, found at Akhmim in Egypt, contains most of chapters 1-32.
The only complete form of the book is in Ge'ez, the classical language of Ethiopia. It was preserved for centuries by the Ethiopian church, which is why 1 Enoch is sometimes called Ethiopic Enoch.
When Was the Book of Enoch Written?
Dates for ancient texts are estimates, and scholars still debate some of them. The common ranges are these:
• The Book of the Watchers: about the 3rd century BC.
• The Astronomical Book: the 3rd century BC or earlier.
• The Dream Visions: about 165-160 BC.
• The Epistle of Enoch: the 2nd century BC.
• The Parables: late 1st century BC to 1st century AD.
The oldest Qumran copies were made about 200-150 BC. The Parables are the one major section not found at Qumran, which is part of why they are usually dated later. Authorship and dating are explored further in a separate post on who wrote the Book of Enoch, and when.
Why Does Jude Matter for the Book of Enoch?
The letter of Jude quotes a prophecy and attributes it to Enoch. Jude 14-15 reads:
"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To 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."
In R. H. Charles's translation, 1 Enoch 1:9 begins: "And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all." The two passages are very close in wording.
Readers have understood this connection in different ways. Some hold that Jude quoted 1 Enoch as a respected writing that he valued. Others suggest Jude and 1 Enoch both drew on a shared tradition about Enoch. Still others hold that Jude recognized a true prophecy from Enoch without treating the whole book as Scripture. Each view must account for the close wording and for the fact that Jude does not call the book Scripture. A separate post compares Jude and 1 Enoch in more detail.
Is the Book of Enoch in the Bible?
The answer depends on which Bible is meant. Different communities received different collections of books over time. A canon is the list of books a community accepts as Scripture.
As noted above, the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches include 1 Enoch. Most other Christian traditions and rabbinic Judaism do not. Some early Christian writers, such as Tertullian, spoke favorably of the book. Others, such as Augustine, were more cautious.
This history is covered in a separate post on why Enoch is included in some biblical traditions but not others.
Why Do People Still Study the Book of Enoch?
People come to 1 Enoch for several reasons.
Historians study it because it shows what some Jews believed about angels, judgment, and the end of the age in the centuries before Jesus. Bible readers study it because it helps explain passages such as Jude 14-15 and the angels in Jude 6 "which kept not their first estate." Members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches read it as part of their Scripture.
Studying a text is not the same as accepting it as Scripture. A reader can examine what 1 Enoch says, how it has been read, and how it relates to Genesis and the New Testament, and then reach a personal conclusion.
Questions to Keep Studying
1. How did the five sections of 1 Enoch come to be copied together as one book?
2. What role did the 364-day calendar of the Astronomical Book play in the communities that used it?
3. How did the Ethiopian church come to receive 1 Enoch, and when?
4. How does the "Son of Man" in the Parables compare with the use of that title in the Gospels?
The Book of Enoch is old, layered, and still read in different ways. Knowing its sections, languages, and dates gives a solid starting point. From there, each part can be read on its own terms and compared carefully with the Bible.
That kind of side-by-side reading is taught step by step in BIBL 101, Rightly Dividing the Word, where students set Genesis 6:1-4 beside 1 Enoch 6-7 and Jubilees 5 and record what the texts share, where they differ, and what each one adds.
At Enoch Ascension Christian University, we don't teach what to think. We awaken truth and walk in love. Explore our programs at enochascension.com.
Sources and Further Reading
• Genesis 5:18-24; Jude 6, 14-15 (King James Version).
• 1 Enoch 1:9, in R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912).
• J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976).
• George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012).
• James C. VanderKam, Enoch: A Man for All Generations (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995).
• James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983).
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