Testing the Book of Enoch - 119 Ministries

[Music] [Music] hello and welcome to another teaching from 119 ministries our ministry believes that the whole Bible is still true and directly related to our lives today if you would like to know more about what we believe in teach please visit us and test everything net we hope that you enjoy studying and testing the following teaching [Music] often we are asked about our position on some of the books that are not included in this standard 66 books of the Bible how should we approach these extra biblical books are there additional books that should be considered and inspired by God and on the same level as the rest of the books contained in what we call Scripture we've already looked at a couple of these books such as the book of Jubilees and the book of Jasher you can learn more about our position on those particular books by watching our teachings testing the book of Jubilees and testing the book of Jasher in this teaching we'll be looking at arguably the most popular these extra biblical books the Book of Enoch this is a fascinating book for many reasons that we will get into but the most significant reason is that the early followers of Yeshua were aware of these writings before we dive in it's important to clarify what we mean by the Book of Enoch since there are actually three different books by that name scholars have named each of these three books as first Enoch second Enoch and thirty nock to differentiate them from one another first Enoch which is the proper title for the book is typically what everyone is referring to when they talk about the Book of Enoch to give some rather basic information about these other two books before we move on to the main topic here's what the anchor Yale Bible Dictionary has to say concerning second Enoch the origins of 2nd Enoch are unknown research has not reached any consensus about the time place or contents of its first published form the options range from Charles theory that the longer recension was written by alexandria Jew in the first century through belief that it was a Christian rewrite of first Enoch probably in Greek made anywhere from the second century AD to the 10th up to the denial that it is anything more than a homegrown product of Slavic religious culture in regard to 30 knock the anchor Yale Bible Dictionary states that it is a late Jewish apocalypse in Hebrew probably compiled in the 6th or 7th century while interesting on their own 2nd and 3rd Enoch are not really relevant to our current study like we said when people talk about the Book of Enoch typically they are referring to first Enoch the content of first Enoch is what most people are familiar with and curious about moreover they're righties that make up first Enoch are what the early believers in Yeshua we're familiar with so with that said who was Enoch what is the Book of Enoch what was the significance of this book to the early followers of Yeshua what is the significance of this book to believers today what can we learn from it if anything let's begin with that first question who was Enoch we don't have a lot of information on Enoch but here's what we know from Scripture he was the great great great great grandson of Adam and the great-grandfather of Noah he walked faithfully with God and then was mysteriously taken away by God Genesis chapter 5 verses 22 through 24 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah three hundred years and had other sons and daughters thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him the author of Hebrews elaborates on this event saying that Enoch did not experience death Hebrews 11:5 although eventually did die later Hebrews 11:13 he was known as a man of faith who lived a life pleasing to God most importantly in regards to our study he was not the author of the Book of Enoch that last point might shock those who haven't really studied this topic but it's a simple fact that the Enoch of the Bible could not have been the author of what we call the Book of Enoch why well there are a number of reasons first the Book of Enoch contains anachronisms for instance the Book of Enoch makes clear use of biblical passages from the prophets like Isaiah Zechariah in Ezekiel which are obviously written long after Enochs time places like mount sinai are even mentioned by name which of course that patriarch Enoch would have no knowledge of second scholars are able to determine historical setting and date of the knocking text by studying the grammar syntax and doctrine contents of those writings in light of other historical data anarchic scholar george w e nickel burg writes the anak accuse of pagan mythological motifs and its preachments against gentile oppression are clear marks of this text setting in the Hellenistic world and its complex interaction with the events and culture of that world so that brings us to our second question if the Book of Enoch is not some special revelation written by the patriarch Enoch himself what is it the Book of Enoch is what's known as pseudepigrapha which means it is falsely attributed text that is to say it is a text whose claimed author is not the true author the true author of the text attributed the work to a figure of the past in this case the patriarch Enoch these types of pseudepigrapha works were very common between 200 BCE to 200 CE now the fact that a book is pseudepigrapha does not mean it's worthless just the opposite in fact unlike the modern book of Jasher that's touted by some to be the lost biblical book of Jasher again see our teaching on that subject the pseudepigrapha literature is actually relevant to getting a better understanding of the Bible when understood and appreciated for what it is the pseudepigrapha can be very helpful in getting you full understanding of first century Judaism and historical context of the New Testament these writings are a treasure trove of primary sources they give a window into this social history ideas and internal debates between the different expressions of Jewish faith of that period the Book of Enoch was influential in the Second Temple period and has been suggested as some New Testament authors were perhaps even influenced by the content of these writings we'll talk more about how significant this book was to early followers of Yeshua a little later for now let's give a summary of the Book of Enoch as we already mentioned it is part of the pseudepigraph or literature according to scholars it was written by numerous authors and pieced together over the last few centuries BCE nickelsburg writes first Enoch is a collection of apocalyptic texts that were composed between the late 4th century BCE and the turn of the era the size of the collection the diverse of its contents and its many implications for the study of ancient Judaism and Christian origins make it arguably the most important Jewish writing that has survived from the greco-roman period the Book of Enoch was originally written in Aramaic but the entire collection of the writings is preserved and only late manuscripts written in an ancient Ethiopian known as guess which were translated from a Greek translation of Aramaic originals aside from those late Ethiopian manuscripts we have only parts of the collection an earlier Greek and Aramaic fragments nickelsburg explains the components of first Enoch were composed of Aramaic and then translated into Greek and from Greek into ancient Ethiopia the entire collection is extent only in manuscripts of the Ethiopia of which this text is a part approximately 90 such manuscripts from the 15th to the 20th centuries are available to scholars in the West roughly 25% of first Enoch has survived in two Greek manuscripts from the 4th and 5th / 6th centuries and a few fragments of other parts eleven manuscripts from Qumran contain substantial as well as tiny fragments of the Aramaic of parts of chapters 1 through 36 72 through 80 to 85 through 90 and 91 through hundred and seven a fragment of a sixth seventh century Coptic manuscript and extracted a ninth century latin manuscript and a 12th century Syriac excerpt have also survived to go on a quick rabbit trail it's worth mentioning that the translations of the Book of Enoch we have today are derived primarily from these late Ethiopia manuscripts from the 15th to the 20th century seee while scholars and translators consult a few fragments from earlier Greek and Aramaic manuscripts they don't really have a lot to work with this not to impact how much weight we put on the version of the Book of Enoch we have today when considering how it might fit into the first century that is to say we should proceed with caution and not blindly assume at the version of Enoch we have today is 100% accurate representation of the version of Enoch that they had in the first century for instance if a significant chunk of Enoch has been preserved only manuscripts from the 15th century or later we can now be confident that the content contained in those later manuscripts were not edited or added too much later than the first century contrast this with a new Testament which has nearly 6,000 complete Greek manuscripts that have catalogued in addition to over 20,000 ancient translations and other languages which makes it by far the most attested literature of the ancient world moreover many of the New Testament manuscripts are quite early scholar and theologian dr. Matt Waymire explains we currently possess as many as a dozen manuscripts from this second century 64 from the third century and 48 from the 4th century for a total of 124 manuscripts within 300 years of the composition of the New Testament the earliest New Testament fragment is separated from the original by only 50 years the earliest books are separated by only 100 years and the earliest complete New Testament is separated by only 225 years by way of comparison only 10 manuscripts of Thucydides history that Peloponnesian War exists only 8 manuscripts of Herodotus history exists in only 2 manuscripts of Tacitus histories and analysis issed the unparalleled number and early date of biblical manuscripts makes it clear that the New Testament is easily the most remarkably preserved book of the ancient world the incredible abundance of the New Testament manuscripts that we have some going back very early is extremely valuable in textual criticism that is the process of ascertaining the original wording of a text the fewer the manuscripts and the later dates of those manuscripts the more difficult it is to be confident that we've reconstructed the original it is worth keeping that in mind as we read the modern translations of the Book of Enoch unfortunately much of it is derived from only a limited amount of manuscripts which are not only translations of translations but also over 8,000 years separated from the original moving Ford the actual content of the Book of Enoch is composed of 108 chapters that are divided into five sections followed by two short appendices nickelsburg summarizes the teaching of the Book of Enoch as such the section represents developing stages of the knocking tradition each one building on the earlier ones though not in the order in which they presently stand in the collection overall they express a common worldview that characterizes this present world in age as evil and unjust and in need of divine adjudication and renewal with the possible exception of the book of the luminaries their focus on that common concern and expectation that a coming divine judgment will eradicate evil and injustice from the earth and will return the world to God's created intention their authority lies in their claim that they transmit divine revelation which the patriarch Enoch received in primordial times and which is made public in the last times to constitute the eschatological community of the chosen so basically the authors of this composite work claimed to have received this special revelation from the patriarch Enoch as we'll learn a little later it's taught that Enoch ascended into heaven and was shown these heavenly secrets he then descended from heaven to transmit this revelation which is now written in the Book of Enoch the sectarian community that wrote and followed these teachings claims that this revelation was made public in their time long after the patriarch Enoch why so that they could establish an end times community and proclaim these special teachings the goal was to prepare the righteous chosen ie the sectarian community who followed these teachings for God soon coming judgment that they believed was upon them here's what the introduction of the first verse in the Book of Enoch says the words of the blessing with which Enoch bless the righteous chosen who will be present on the day of tribulation to remove all the enemies and the righteous will be saved perhaps a good modern analogy to the Book of Enoch would be the Book of Mormon according to Mormonism Joseph Smith claimed that an angel by the name of Mora and I visited him and directed him to find golden plates containing special revelation from God which he then translated into the Book of Mormon the sectarian community that from these teachings believed to this day that they are part of an end times community the Latter day Saints commissioned with the task of proclaiming the teachings of Mormonism the difference is that the writers of the Book of Enoch claim to have received their revelation from an actual biblical character the patriarch Enoch Joseph Smith claims that a character Moroni which is only revealed in the Mormon literature was the one who directed him to the Mormon revelation in either case both books claim special revelation that has been made public to a chosen few in order to establish an end times community around particular doctrines let's move forward now we're going to give a summary of each section of the Book of Enoch the book of the Watchers first Enoch chapters 1 through 36 this section is bullied to have been composed in the 3rd century BCE is primarily an elaborate interpretation of Genesis 6 it tells this story the rebellion of angels who are called Watchers which led to God judging the earth by sending the flood in Genesis 6 according to the narrative fallen angels lost it after woman on earth took them as wives and had children who became Giants the fallen angels then teach humans about magic and how to make weapons and jewelry promoting violence and promiscuity among the people of the earth when the sons of men had multiplied in those days beautiful and comely daughters were born to them and the Watchers the sons of heaven saw them and desired them and they said to one another come let us choose for ourselves watch from the daughters of men and let us be get children for ourselves and they began to go into them and to defile themselves through them and to teach them sorcery and charms and to reveal to them the cutting of roots and plants and they concede from them and bore to them great Giants as we continue through this story we see that God coming as the Archangel Michael that capture the fallen angels and bind them for 70 generations after which they'll be judged and to Michael he said go Michael by and shemyaza and the others with him we have mated with the daughters of men so that they were defiled by them in their uncleanness and when their sons perish and they see the destruction of their beloved ones bind them for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth until the day of their judgement and consummation until the everlasting judgement is consummated as the narrative continues we read about how Enoch had ascended into heaven there the Angels tell him that he must go proclaim God's judgment against the fallen angels who had married human women so Enoch goes to speak to the fallen angels and they ask him to write a petition on their behalf pleading for mercy and that God would spare them Enoch agrees to write the petition for them as he's reciting the petition he had just written he falls asleep and receives a vision from God and the vision Enoch goes before the throne of Yahweh and he tells them to tell the fallen angels that he has denied their petition God also told them that their children the Giants would become evil spirits on earth and the spirits of the Giants lead astray do violence make desolate an attack and wrestle and hurl upon the earth and cause illnesses they eat nothing but abstain from food and are thirsty and smite these spirits will rise up against the sons of men and against the women for they have come forth from them the rest of the book of Watchers tells how Enoch is then accompanied by interpreting angels and taking on a journey where heavenly secrets are revealed to him chapter 22 describes what the afterlife is supposedly like and where the souls of the Dead go which is a mountain with four hollow chambers depending on how righteous or wicked a person was during their life time will determine which chamber their soul will gather to on this journey Enoch has also taken to the mountain of God and the Tree of Life in a New Jerusalem as well as two primordial Eden where he has shown the tree of knowledge of good and evil the section concludes with a Knox journey to the ends of the earth where he encounters great beasts observed gates in the heavens from which the stars emerge and sees other gates that serve as sources of rain and wind on earth the book of parables chapters 37 through 71 this section is believed to have been composed in the 1st century BCE it can see three parables that were allegedly given to he knock and the first parable he's shown more heavenly secrets as to how the elements of the weather on earth originated in the heavens and the second parable Enoch has shown how a chosen one will sit on a throne of glory and judge the deeds of the wicked people who have rejected God afterward he will come to earth to dwell with their righteous people then according to chapter 46 Enoch sees a figure referred to as the Son of Man an angel explains the Enoch that this son of man reveals secret treasures to the righteous people of the Lord and I asked the angel piece who went with me and showed me all the hidden things about that son of man who he was and whence he was and why he went with the head of days and he answered me and said to me this is the son of man who has righteousness and righteousness dwells with him and all the Treasuries of what is hidden he will reveal for the Lord of spirits has chosen him and his lot has prevailed through truth and the presence of the Lord of spirits forever it's apparent from the text and the titles chosen one and son of man both referred to the same end times figure the book of parables goes on to describe how this son of man or / chosen one will destroy sinners and strike down kings and rulers because they do not praise God it says that he was named before the world was created and that he will be a light to the nation's he will be worshipped by all who dwell on the earth and in his name the righteous will have salvation and the wisdom of the Lord of spirits has revealed him to the holy and the righteous for he has preserved a lot of the righteous for they have hated and despised this age of unrighteousness indeed all its deeds and its ways they have hated in the name of the Lord of spirits for in his name they are saved and he is the Vindicator of their lives and again the book of parables goes on to describe that this chosen one / son of man will sit on God's throne and judge between the righteous and the wicked in those days the earth will back what has been entrusted to it and she'll will give back what has been entrusted to it and destruction will restore what it owes for in those days my chosen one will arise and choose their righteous and holy from among them for the day on which they will be saved has drawn near and the chosen one in those days will sit upon my throne and all the secrets of wisdom will go forth from the counsel of his mouth for the Lord of spirits has given them to him and glorify Him several chapters later we read a concluding summary of this end times judgment the Son of Man is revealed to the chosen community of righteous believers he sits on his throne destroys the wicked and ushers in an era of peace and they had great joy and they blessed and glorified and exalted because the name of that son of man had been revealed to them and he sat on the throne of his glory and the whole judgment was given to the son of man and he will make sinners vanish and perish from the face of the earth and those who led the world astray will be bound in chains and in an assembly place of their destruction they will be shut up and all their works will vanish from the face of the earth and from then on there will be nothing that is corruptible for that son of man has appeared and he has sat down on the throne of his glory and all evil will vanish from his presence and the word of that son of man will go forth and will prevail in the presence of the Lord of spirits this is the third parable of Enoch so the author of this book of parables is clearly drawing upon messianic prophecies from the Tanakh to describe this chosen one or son of man figure at the end of the book of parables Enoch is taken up again to heaven and the presence of the angels and the Lord of spirits then Michael the Archangel reveals to Enoch more heavenly secrets finally Enoch is taken to the heaven of heavens where he sees a fiery heavenly Palace there Enoch is greeted by God the four Archangels and innumerable other angels surprisingly Enoch is greeted as this son of man figure and the head of days came with Michael and Raphael and Gabriel fan UL and thousands and tens of thousands of angels without number and he came to me and greeted me with his voice and said to me you are that son of man who is born for righteousness and righteousness dwells on you and the righteousness of the head of days will not forsake you will impact the significance of enoch being identified as this son of man figure a little later for now let's continue the book of the luminaries this section of the Book of Enoch is believed to have been composed in a third century BCE and is likely the earliest of anaka texts it describes Enochs journey through the heavens with the guidance of an interpreting angel Uriel this section is focused almost exclusively on explaining the astronomical laws governing the solar calendar that was favored by the sectarian community who produced and followed the Book of Enoch this calendar was made up of 364 days 12 months of 30 days each with one extra day in the third sixth ninth and twelve months we'll unpack the implications of this section of Enoch as it relates to us as believers a little later the dream visions chapters 83 through 90 this section of the Book of Enoch is believed to have been composed in this 2nd century BCE in this section Enoch tells his son Methuselah about two dreams concerning future events the first dream is of the world's destruction in the flood of Noah the second dream is an allegorical telling of history of humanity from Adam to the final judgment which has come to be known as the animal apocalypse in the allegory humans are represented as animals the Fallen Angels are represented as fallen stars and the Archangels are represented as human beings the dream concludes with a final judgment and God assuring in a new world of peace the Epistle of Enoch chapters 91 through 105 this section is believed to have been composed in this 2nd century BCE is an exhortation from Enoch to his sons to remain righteous in their wicked generation he then lists a series of woes against the wicked because they oppressed the righteous this section concludes with a reference to Enochs books being given to the righteous during the end times the birth of Noah this section details the miraculous birth of Noah when Noah was born his face and hair are said to glow white he immediately stands up from the hands of the Midwife and praises the Lord this frightens know his father Lamech who assumes that Noah must be a child of one of the Fallen Angels so he begged his father Methuselah to speak with Enoch to learn the truth Enoch asurs Methuselah that Noah is in fact Lamech son and that Noah is just super holy hence his glowing and that he's called to preserve the human race another book by Enoch chapter 108 this final section of the Book of Enoch is an additional exhortation from Enoch to his son Methuselah regarding God's judgment in the end of days nickelsburg writes this other book that Enoch wrote is actually a summarizing and interpretive conclusion to the corpus which exhorts the righteous who live in the end of days to endure and their expectation because the judgment will soon vindicate them and eradicate sin and the sinners who have troubled and oppressed them what should we think about the Book of Enoch so now that we've given a summary of the content in the Book of Enoch we can move on to discuss what significance this book might have held to the early followers of Yeshua and after that we can explore what ways The Book of Enoch is useful and not useful to us today their first question we'll look at is the question of canonicity what is believed about the Book of Enoch inspiration and authority today only the Ethiopian Church and interestingly enough the Mormon religion consider the anarchic writings to be authoritative aside from that most of Christianity has rejected the Book of Enoch as inspired or authoritative which is why it is not included in the Bible historically the writings that make up the Book of Enoch were never considered to be inspired in any Universal way while the writings were revered especially among some sectarian Jewish communities they were never considered to be part of Scripture for instance the books that make up the Tanakh are referred to in the New Testament and other Second Temple era Jewish literature has the Torah Nevi'im and Ketuvim that is the law the prophets and the Psalms one place we see a reference to this threefold designation of the scriptures is in the Gospel of Luke Luke chapter 24 then he said to them these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures but this threefold designation was used to define the Canon of Scripture long before the New Testament times for instance Ben Sira the author of the apocryphal book the wisdom of Sirach or ecclesiasticus had a grandson who translated his grandfather's writings into Greek around 130 BCE this translator wrote his own prologue to the translation which makes reference to the three parts of the Old Testament Canon in regards to this prologue scholar Roger T Beckwith writes it appears then that for this writer there are three groups of books which have a unique Authority and that his grandfather wrote only after gaining great familiarity with them as their interpreter not as their rival the translator explicitly distinguishes these things for example ecclesiasticus or uncanonical Hebrew compositions such as ecclesiasticus from the law itself and the prophecies and the rest of the books and not only does he state that in his day there was a three-fold Canon distinguished from all other writings in which even the ha geographer formed a closed collection of old books but he implies that such was the case and his grandfather's time also you'll notice that by the time of around 130 BCE when this prologue was written there was already an idea of a closed no scripture which was uniquely sacred and distinct from any additional writings such as the apocryphal writings and this idea they close Canon was apparently affirmed even earlier in been Sierra's time according to his grandson as far as we know there is no manuscript or historical evidence indicating that the anarchic writings were ever accepted as part of this threefold canon of Scripture neither the Greek Septuagint nor the Hebrew Masoretic text included in 'aqaq writings in their sets moreover the first century Jewish historian Josephus wrote that there was already a defined Hebrew canon in his time here's a passage from against opion which was written by Josephus in 90c II our books those which are justly believed are only twenty-two and contain the record of all time of these five are the books of Moses comprising the laws and traditional history from birth of man down to Moses death this period falls only a little short of 3,000 years from the death of Moses down to artaxerxes who followed Sirk sees the king of Persia the prophets after Moses wrote the events of their own time in 13 books the remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life from artaxerxes down to our own time the complete history has been written but has not been deemed worthy of like trust with the earlier records because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets we have given practical proof of our reverence for our own scriptures for although such long ages have now passed no one has ventured to add or to remove or to alter anything and it is an instinct with every Jew from the day of his birth to regard them as the decrees of God to abide by them and if need be cheerfully to die for them you'll notice that Josephus divides the scriptures into three categories the five books of Moses the books of the prophets after Moses and the books of the hymns to God and the precepts for the conduct of human life this of course is basically the same threefold designation of the scriptures that we see in the Gospels and other early Jewish literature perhaps the most interesting thing about this passage is that Josephus limits the inspired books to a certain number 22 this number of course is different than the number of books we have in our current Old Testament Canon which is 39 books but that's because Josephus's can and combine certain books that are separated in our current Canon for instance lamentations was likely attached to Jeremiah Ruth with judges and so on the point however is that this significant evidence from a primary source that by the 90c II there were a specific number of books that were already considered to be uniquely authoritative and according to Josephus all Jews accepted this while there is some debate over which books would have been included or excluded from Josephus's list no scholar believes that any book that's not already part of the Old Testament canon we have today would have been part of this first century canon but wait there's more even the Qumran community which certainly revered the Book of Enoch shockingly did not include it in their Canon of Scripture either to unpack all the evidence is beyond the scope of this teaching but Roger T Beckwith presents the evidence that proves that to be the case in his massive scholarly work the Old Testament canon of the New Testament church specifically in pages 358 to 366 to summarize only a few of his arguments number one and their own writings the Qumran community did not treat the pseudepigrapha the same way they treated Scripture Beckwith writes though the Qumran literature like other just literal its period quotes the canonical scripture with great frequency and uses conventional formulas for the purpose it only rarely quotes the essence pseudepigrapha never using such formulas or given any other clear indication that the works quoted were a prophetic or canonical authority number two according to this tour evidence the Kumaon community acknowledged that threefold Canon of Scripture and they are recorded as grouping the pseudepigrapha in a separate appendix to the Canon indicating that these additional writings were not part of the Canon as they saw it Beckwith writes the use by the therapeutic or the essence of the standard three divisions of the Canon and one of the standard counts of the canonical books and their grouping of their own pseudepigrapha in a separate appendix implied at that three sections and the standard count were already agreed and settled among to choose before the essence separated from the rest about 152 BC three of the books of first Enoch had been written by that time but the essence had evidently not attempted to include them in any of the three sections of the Canon or to number them in the count of the canonical books since they did nothing of the kind after the separation either with the suit of a groffo or subsequent pseudepigrapha number three the Qumran community which likely emerge from the very community that produced the anarchic writings viewed some of the pseudepigrapha like Enoch as divinely revealed but not on the same level as the scriptures themselves they viewed it as merely the correct interpretation of the scriptures back with rights it is now clear that the main purpose of some of the pseudepigrapha lately identified as essing or proto essing was to expound and maintain the sceen interpretation of the Pentateuch over against rival interpretations this is particularly clear in the case of the newly discovered Qumran temple scroll but it also applies to astronomical book and first Enoch to Jubilees and to an extensive section of the Aramaic Testament of Levi if this is true it means that the Essenes were not really meaning to add to Old Testament prophecy any more than to Old Testament law as regards to the Pentateuch what their pseudonymous legal writings offered was an interpretation of it a revealed interpretation certainly but not more than an interpretation as regards to Old Testament prophecy what their pseudonymous apocalyptic writings offer was again an interpretation of it supplemented perhaps but only from natural sources like arithmetic and astrology not from Supernatural this interpretation too was evidently held to be a revealed interpretation but an interpretation was all it aimed to be so historically we see that the Book of Enoch has never been considered Scripture in the Jewish world not even among the Qumran community which certainly held the NACA kryten's in high regard the Kumaon community's view on the Book of Enoch could perhaps be compared to some rabbinic views of the oral torah Orthodox Judaism claims for instance that at least portions of the oral torah were given to Moses on Mount Sinai and passed down from generation to generation the oral torah is therefore considered to have a divine authority in Orthodox Judaism but no Jew thinks of the Oral Torah as being the same as Scripture it's just the revealed interpretation of Scripture in the same way the Qumran community which in all likelihood was connected to the very community that produced the anarchic writings claim that the anarchic writings were divinely revealed to the patriarch Enoch this claim to divine authority was possibly an attempt to rival other Jewish communities who claimed that their own traditions and interpretations had divine authority it's kind of like saying oh you say your revelation goes back to Moses huh well ours goes all the way back to Enoch in either case there was a distinction between Scripture and the pseudepigrapha in the minds of the Qumran community even though they valued the pseudepigrapha as divinely revealed what can we infer from this it seems clear that the idea that the Book of Enoch ought to be part of the Bible is seriously lacking historical support not even the sectarian communities that produced and followed these writings considered them to be on the same level of Scripture therefore why should we view the Book of Enoch as Scripture we're not even though sectarian communities intended to be viewed that way but what about the early believers in Yeshua what did they think about the Book of Enoch and didn't Jew to quote Enoch in the New Testament wouldn't that indicate that these writings had some divine authority let's look at the passage from Jude Jude 14 through 15 it was also about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of his Holy Ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him now here is the passage from the Book of Enoch that Judas said to be quoting look he comes with a mere odds of Holy Ones to execute judgment on all and to destroy all the wicked and to convict all humanity for all the wicked deeds that they have done and the proud and hard words that wicked sinners spoke against him there are a couple things to point out here first some scholars insist that Judah was in fact quoting directly from the Book of Enoch but other scholars dispute this it's pointed out for example that Jude never mentions a book or scroll of Enoch he doesn't mention what is written only what is said or what Enoch said so rather than assuming that Jude quoted Enoch scholars argue that Jude and the Book of Enoch are actually referencing the same oral tradition in other words Jude was not relying on the eunuch writings for this saying of Enoch Jude and the author of that particular passage in the Book of Enoch where perhaps both relying on the widely held tradition of what the actual Enoch said however even if Jude did directly quote from the Book of Enoch there's still no reason to suggest that the Book of Enoch is inspired or should be part of the Bible the biblical authors quoted plenty of material that nobody would consider sacred or inspired of God Semitic scholar dr. Michael Heizer puts this point quite well just as preachers today quote commentaries journals news periodicals or even television shows to drive home or illustrate a point so the biblical writers use external material to draw attention and make a statement Paul quotes from pagan Greek poets the psalmist's and prophets borrow vocabulary and paraphrase material from ancient Egyptian Mesopotamian and Syrian literature Jude quotes a book from the pseudepigrapha ancient writings that falsely claimed authorship by biblical character the people of biblical times knew the quoted material was not inspired but it had meaning for them and their audience the same logic used to argue that we ought to view the Book of Enoch has inspired on the basis that is quoted in the Bible can also be applied to a pagan poem look at what Paul is recorded to have said in the book of Acts when addressing athenians Acts chapter 17 for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring these quotes are said to come from Greek poets writing about Zeus Paul took the quotes and applied them to the God of Israel obviously it would be absurd to say that a pagan poem should be in the Bible just because an apostle quotes it so why would it be different with the Book of Enoch some might argue that the passage from Jude indicates that the quote from Enoch must be authentic since it says that Enoch prophesied and it could certainly be argued that some of the original sayings of Enoch like what Jude quoted were preserved in the Book of Enoch but again even if Jude quoted directly from the Book of Enoch it still doesn't follow from that that the entire Book of Enoch is inspired or true only the part that Jude quoted and again Enoch was saying was perhaps a widely held oral tradition meaning it wasn't exclusive to the Book of Enoch thus it seems that the reasoning used to suggest that the Book of Enoch should be considered sacred scripture is severely underwhelming the Apostles didn't view it that way the smaller Jewish communities that followed the Book of Enoch didn't view it that way either there's simply no reason that we should now again that does not mean that the Book of Enoch is worthless far from it we just need to appreciate it for what it is namely pseudepigrapha literature that was popular in the first century and which had religious significance to certain sectarian communities in Judaism it's from this basis that we can then begin to see the significance that the Book of Enoch had to the New Testament authors contrary to the Qumran community the New Testament authors obviously didn't view the Book of Enoch as a source of divine revelation and authority why well one reason is that much of the teach in the Book of Enoch is directly contrary to the teaching in the New Testament we'll unpack the important differences between the Bible and the Book of Enoch a little later but right now here's how we would summarize the book of Enochs place within the various sects of the first century the first century Jews just like us read books go figure right and that everything they read was religiously significant to them like we pointed out earlier Paul was apparently familiar with the work of pagan poets obviously the Book of Enoch was a religious text that was meaningful to certain smaller sects of Judaism but that does not mean that the New Testament authors valued it as such the Book of Enoch was like a first century version of a popular movie it was well known in the ancient world even among people who didn't follow it religiously to use an analogy let's say it was like the first century Wizard of Oz so when Jude or another New Testament author references the Book of Enoch to illustrate a point it would be like if I passed her today reference The Wizard of Oz in a sermon he could say there's no place like home a popular quote for The Wizard of Oz in order to make a point about our eternal home with the Lord or whatever this obviously mean that the pastor believes everything in The Wizard of Oz is true it would just mean that within our culture and time everyone would be familiar with the reference just as jude's or Peters original audience in the first century would have been familiar with the Book of Enoch to take this analogy further we could even believe that some of the morals taught in The Wizard of Oz are true and meaningful courage love and wisdom are all important and biblical right but that does not mean that we believe in flying monkeys or that there's a magical world somewhere over the rainbow the same goes for the Book of Enoch the Apostle certainly could have alluded to or even quoted from the Book of Enoch emphasizing the parts of it that are true or relevant to their point without believing in all its teachings are considering it inspired and like we've mentioned earlier we know that the New Testament authors could not have considered the Book of Enoch inspired because it contradicts the Bible in some very significant ways one point of concern is that the Book of Enoch identifies Enoch not Yeshua as the messianic Son of Man figure in the section of the book of parables that we covered earlier Enoch has shown a vision of the Son of Man / chosen one who fulfills a bunch of Messianic prophecies from the Tanakh this figure is chosen by God to rule the world he sits on God's throne judges and receives worship and then as we saw the patriarch Enoch is the one who is identified as this figure and the head of Days came with Michael and Raphael and Gabriel and fan UL and thousands and tens of thousands of angels without number and he came to me and greeted me with his voice and said to me you are that son of man who was born for righteousness and righteousness dwells on you and the righteousness of the head of days will not forsake you obviously this push the claim is made in the Book of Enoch and direct conflict with the claims in the Bible the New Testament teaches that Yeshua is the Messianic son of man and chosen one who fulfills what Isaiah wrote the same passage by the way that the authors of Enoch draw upon to develop their son of man or chosen one figure the New Testament teaches that Yeshua is the one chosen to rule the world sit on God's throne judge and receive worship in the world to come Enoch and Yeshua can't both be the Messiah yet the Book of Enoch clearly presents Enoch as this messianic figure in contrast the authors of the New Testament presented Yeshua as ass messianic figure so who are we going to believe well since the New Testament is true concerning the Messiah the Book of Enoch therefore contains false teaching to be fair some scholars have disputed the fact that Enoch is the one identified as this messianic figure in fact some older English translations of first enoch 7114 have made changes to this verse in order to make it say this is the Son of Man rather than identifying Enoch as this figure but that translation is not reflective of what the verse actually says according to scholars the older translations took some interpretive Liberty in order to try to reconcile some apparent contradictions in the text but the wording and all the manuscripts that we have strongly supports the conclusion that Enoch is identified as the son of man figure which is why it's translated that way in the latest and most reliable English translations and most scholars accept this leslee w walk explains Charles solution was to amend the text of first enoch 7114 to the third person instead of the second person this Charles read this is the son of man rather than you are the son of man then he made the necessary changes in the rest of the text to bring it into harmony with the third person rendering he also suggested that a paragraph which revealed the identity of the son of man has been lost but this extensive emendation has no surviving textual basis in any of the manuscripts for this reason is to be rejected other suggestions have been opposed to try to get around the uncomfortable conclusion that the Book of Enoch identifies Enoch as this messianic figure one suggestion is that this son of man title using Enoch in first Enoch 7114 is distinct from the son of man title use of this figure referenced throughout the rest of the Book of Enoch in other words Enoch is a son of man that is a righteous person translated to heaven to reveal hidden secrets but not the son of man the chosen messianic figure who sits on God's throne the problem with this suggestion is that there's nothing in the entire Book of Enoch indicating that the term of Enoch is different from the term used of this messianic figure there's no reason to assume that it should be understood differently in this one case as Wolk explains the whole flow of the narrative points to Enochs dramatic identification as the son of man the attributes with which he has spoken of here cohere extremely well with the son of man of the visions he is bathed and righteousness born for it it abides with him and God's righteousness will not forsake him further God promises him peace and all the righteous will be eternally present with him these attributes all tend to underscore Enochs identification as the son of man not merely as one of the righteous humans who are already in heaven for their reader the identification of Enoch and the son of man is dramatic but it has been prepared for another suggestion is that the verse identifying Enoch as a son of man was added much later perhaps even in response to Christianity it's been suggested that it was added later in order to present Enoch as the Messiah instead of Yeshua so the original author maybe didn't identify Enoch as the Son of Man but someone else added the verse later while that's possible the problem with this suggestion is that there's no evidence for it the actual manuscript evidence that we have for this for is consistent and again scholars confirm that Enochs identification as a son of man makes perfect sense according to the flow of the narrative it's the logical conclusion of the entire story but even if the verse was added later we still have a problem the Book of Enoch we have today is still in conflict with the Bible as it concerns the Messiah and therefore it contains some pretty serious false doctrine another conflict between the Book of Enoch and the Bible is this same conflict that these early sectarian communities had with the rest of Judaism in the first century the calendar the sectarian communities that followed this solar calendar outlined in the Book of Enoch diverged from the rest of Judaism and calculated when the feast days should be kept but Yeshua and the Apostles did not follow the Enoch calendar they clearly followed this same calendar as their rest of mainstream Judaism keeping the feast days at the same times as we see throughout the New Testament out of all the debates between Yeshua and the Pharisees not once as they calendar ever brought up so obviously Yeshua and the Apostles wouldn't have agreed with a calendar system outlined in the Book of Enoch they followed God's calendar according to the Torah the way was interpreted in their day not according to these fringe sectarian communities in conclusion while the Book of Enoch is certainly valuable in some respects as it gives us a window into the different expressions of the Jewish faith in the first century it is not Scripture it was never considered Scripture even among the sectarian Jewish communities that produced and followed it and while some sectarian communities consider it to be a source of divine inspiration most Jews did not there's no reason to think that the followers of Yeshua thought of it in that way either in fact there are several reasons to think that they didn't sense it was in direct conflict with their own teachings if you'd like to study the Book of Enoch our recommendation for whatever it's worth is to simply appreciate it for what it is don't force the Book of Enoch to be more than what it is it's interesting if you want to learn about the ideas that some early Jewish communities held to but is simply not a reliable source of sound theology and doctrine the Bible alone is our final authority on all matters of faith and practice we pray that you've been blessed by this teaching and remember continue to test everything shallow [Music] it is because of you our generous supporters who make it possible to offer these high-quality teachings completely free of charge if you feel led to support 119 ministries so that we can continue this effort please visit to test everything dotnet and click on the support 119 tab learn how you can partner with us to take the whole Word of God to the nation's [Music]

Channel: 119Ministries

Views: 247,318

Rating: 4.3444209 out of 5

Keywords: 119Ministries, torah, bible, hebrew roots, Testing the Book of Enoch, studying extrabiblical books, the Enoch Calendar, is the Book of Enoch equal to the Bible?, is the Book of Enoch real?, can I trust the Book of Enoch?, enoch, apocrypha, apocryphal books, essenes, enoch calendar, solar calendar, fallen angels, nephilim, giants

Id: Mqhg4nr6Koc

Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2019