W H Boulton
Jude and the Book of Enoch
© The Testimony, July 1932 pp.214-218
The recent discovery in Egypt of a New Testament manuscript earlier in date
than any hitherto known, has raised once again questions concerning the nature
and status of the mysterious "Book of Enoch" because that book is
included in the manuscript in company with those familiar to the modern student
of scripture. The Book of Enoch, sometimes known as 1 Enoch, or alternatively
the Ethiopic Enoch (in contradistinction to the "Slavonic" Enoch, a
very different work) is perhaps the most important book of the obscure period
that elapsed between Old Testament times and New, and is certainly the most
important work of what is often known as "Jewish Apocalyptic". From
the purely literary point of view [1] Hebrew writing reached its greatest
development at the time of the Exile and Restoration.
[1. These
observations are not to be construed as meaning that the literary point of view
is the only, or the most important point of view, nor that there is no vital
difference between the books of the canon and the apocryphal writings. On the
best of authority, that of Jesus himself, we accept the books from Genesis to
Malachi. In the absence of evidence we cannot accept the extraordinary Jewish
apocalyptic as inspired. ]
It is to these
periods that most of the prophetic books of the Old Testament belong, and both
in their beauty of thought and grandeur of language they surpass the literature
of other times. But even in the times of the later minor prophets the political
and moral temper
of the people was changing, in that a spirit of rigid formalism was developing.
It was to reach its full development in Pharisaism in New Testament times.
Formalism was not favourable to the spirit of prophecy, and it was responsible
for two distinct literary tendencies. Those who would be moral reformers
delivered their messages more and more in the form of signs and visions, and began
to write anonymously. Even in the Old Testament these tendencies may be seen,
for parts of Zechariah are apocalyptic, and it is just possible that Malachi is
anonymous [2].
[2. "Malachi"
means "my messenger", a phrase which is used in the prophecy more
than once. In 2 Esdras (an apocryphal work of N.T. times) he is called
"Malachi, which also is called the angel of the Lord".]
After the close of
the Old Testament canon both tendencies became stronger, and the books that
were written were usually full of apocalyptic visions, and were ascribed to any
patriarch whose name the real author could use as a screen. Thus books are
extant in the names of Enoch, Melchizedek, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, and
others. The Book of Enoch is the most important, because the most influential,
of these pseudepigraphical writings. It was written partly in Hebrew and partly
in Aramaic, between about B.C. 200 and the beginning of the Christian era, but it
has been known principally through the Ethiopic version having been used very
extensively by the ancient church of Ethiopia. The book consists of five main
portions, which may, for the sake of brevity and clearness, be set out in tabular
form [3].
[3.This division
is taken from the translation and commentary by R. H. Charles, D.Litt., D.D. (2nd
Edition, 1912).]
(1) Chapters 1-36
:
Prophecies, often poetic in form, of doom upon the wicked, and a theory of the
origin of evil and violence in the world.
(2) Chapters 37-71
:
A series of visions, mostly in poetic form, of the manifestation of the Messiah
in glory, and of the punishment that should fall upon the wicked, both of
angels and men. An account of the translation of Enoch.
(3) Chapters
72-82. "The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries·" :
Λ treatise on the nature and movement of the sun, moon and stars, the sequence
of the seasons, and the calendar.
(4) Chapters
83-90. The Dream Visions :
A series of visions, of which the principal recounts the history of the
world from the creation to the messianic kingdom, which
was regarded as
then imminent. The symbology represents Israel as sheep, and gentile nations as
wild beasts.
(5) Chapters
91-104 :
A miscellaneous
collection of admonitions and prophecies concerning reward and punishment.
Three more
chapters, 105-108, consist of independent fragments.
It is obvious to
the most cursory reader that "Enoch" cannot be thought of as a single
book in the sense that the prophecy of Jeremiah or the book of Psalms can be,
for it is neither the work of a single individual nor a collection of works
similar in import or design. It is a collection of fragments which have been
grouped together, with little attempt at editorial arrangement, only because of
a traditional ascription to the patriarch Enoch.
When the great
esteem in which the book was held in New Testament times is realised, the
question inevitably arises whether it has not in fact the authority of
scripture. The only direct citation in the New Testament is that made in the
Epistle of Jude (Jude 14 cites 1 Enoch 1:9), but many expressions used by New
Testament writers are reminiscent of "Enoch''.
By the writers of other lesser known Jewish writings of the same period it was
regarded as inspired, and in the Epistle of Barnabas, the writings of Iraneaus,
Tertullian and other patristic literature the same recognition is given. It was
only in the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era, when the
millennium was ceasing to be the central hope of the church, that the book fell
completely into disrepute. In relation to the New Testament canon the choice of
books was a wise one. The question now is, was the church right in
rejecting"Enoch"?
To answer this question reasonably and without prejudice, is a very difficult task
because of the complexity of its authorship. Parts are childish in the extreme*
parts are coarse, almost obscene, and most of the book is crude and unlovely by
comparison with the Old Testament. But there are portions that are written in
the grand tradition of the prophets, and which might have been taken from the
pages of, say Joel or Zechariah.
"And there shall stand up in that day
all the kings and the mighty
And the exalted and they that hold the
earth
And they shall see and recognise
How he sits in the throne of his glory
And righteousness is judged before him
And no lying word is spoken before him
Then shall pain come upon them as on a
woman in travail
And one portion of them shall look on the
other
And they shall be terrified
And they shall be downcast of countenance
And pain shall seize them
When they shall see that Son of Man
Sitting on the throne of his glory."
Yet the careful
consideration of such passages reveals nothing new. They need be inspired only
in the very limited sense that they are the poetic outpourings of a mind
steeped in the writings of the prophets, and living in earnest expectation of
the consummation. Further, there is a sustained vindictiveness in them which,
although perhaps not entirely absent from some parts of the scriptures, is in
"Enoch" quite unrelieved by any hint of the mercy and compassion of
theAlmighty such as temper the more familiar pictures of the coming of the
Messiah. In "Enoch" he is the invincible warrior, the Lord of Glory,
and his day is one of anguish and affliction, of cursing and chastisement, of
unceasing bloodshed.
The whole picture
is reminiscent rather of Isaiah 34, where the prophet sees the mountains melted
with the blood of the nations, rather than of chapter 32, "rivers of water
in a dry place, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land". One may
search "Enoch" in vain for anything approaching, either in spirit or
in beauty, the seventy-second Psalm. To assert the inspiration of
"Enoch", indeed, would be an insult to the intelligence. The section
called the "Book of the courses of the Heavenly Luminaries" for
example, will not stand even the examination which other contemporary systems
of astronomy will bear. The system of "celestial spheres" taught by
the Greeks was a definite attempt to explain the observed phenomena, but
"Enoch" can only give a curious and extraordinarily tedious
description of the various "portals" by which the sun, moon, and
stars enter and leave the world system on their diurnal courses, and of the
orders of angels who, under the general presidency of Uriel, propel them across
the face of the sky. Combined with this treatise is a thoroughly wrong-headed
attempt to compile a calendar giving a year of 364 days, apparently for no
better reason than because that number, being divisible by seven, is more
appropriate than 365. It is
particularly strange that this should be ascribed to Enoch, because owing to
the duration of his life of 365 years, he was popularly supposed by the Jews to
have been the discoverer of the true length of the year
[4. In contrasting
the books of both Old and New Testaments with apocryphal writings, whether Jewish
or Christian, it is interesting to notice the extent to which the science of a
bygone age is taught. Speaking generally, primitive science is present in the
scriptures as a background only, and the real message of the book is as true in
this age of stars and atoms as when it was first written. But the apocryphal
writings often become ludicrous by their insistence upon, and detailed
description of, things that are foolish in the light of the most elementary
knowledge of this scientific age. To anyone who questions the validity of the
canon, this fact is not without interest. ]
On the whole, an
impartial consideration confirms the judgment of the early church.
"Enoch" cannot be read as scripture. But it is unfortunate that the
book should have dropped so completely from the Christian library. Puerile,
coarse and vindictive as much of it is, there are parts that are well worthy of
attention for the light that they throw on some of the thoughts and expressions
of the New Testament. A good example of the illustration which the book affords
of New Testament expressions is contained in the quotation given above, for
referring to the manifestation of his kingdom, Jesus used identical words,
saying "when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory". It
is interesting to trace the use of the phrase "Son of Man". Its
meaning in "Enoch" finds its inspiration in Daniel 7, 13, where the
prophet saw one like a son of man, [5] who came "with the clouds of heaven
to the Ancient of Days".
[5. Not "the
son of man", see R.V. The words 'son of" do not always signify
descent, but rather kinship or likeness, thus "a son of Belial" or,
in name form, "Benjamin" (son of the right hand) or Barnabas (son of
consolation). In poetic literature it was used more for emphasis, "God is
not a man that he should lie, Nor a son of man that he should repent" (Num.
23, 19, and see Psalm 8, etc.). Thus "like a son of man" is an
emphatic way of saying "like a man" compare Dan. 3, 25, R.V.
"like a son of the gods"). The Son of Man is "The Man" in the
same definite sense that Jesus would say "I am he" and would be asked
"art thou he that should come?"]
It is this manifestation that is developed
in the parables" of Enoch in which the title "Son of Man" is
used, and in the Jewish mind there was no misunderstanding of its meaning. It
referred to a supernatural being who should be revealed in glory in the day of
the final triumph. But his identity with God's suffering servant was not
understood, neither may have he always been identified with the human
Messiah, for while the disciples referred to Jesus as the Christ, and spoke of
his kingdom, none but he used of himself the title Son of Man. Indeed this use
puzzled his hearers, and when on one occasion he spoke of the Son of Man being
"lifted up", they asked, not "who is the Son of Man?", but
"who is this Son of Man?" as though the title was being applied
to another. They were not ready to understand that the greatness of Christ
rested not in outward majesty, but in the hidden things of the heart.
The Book of Enoch
contains an elaborate angelology. There is an angelic world, peopled not only
by good spirits, the servants of the Lord God, some of whom are described by
name, but also by a host of wicked angels who were responsible for much of the evil
that is in the world, and who are themselves subject to punishment at the hands
of the mightiest of the hierarchy of the heavens. These angels who sinned are
identified with the sons of God who "saw the daughters of men that they
were fair" (Gen. 6). Whatever may be understood by the modern
student by these obscure words, there cannot be the slightest question that
they were believed by the Jews to refer to a physical adultery between angels
and womankind- and it was popularly understood that it was the progeny of these
unnatural unions who filled the earth with violence and brought down the wrath
of the Almighty in the waters of the deluge. It seems reasonable to suppose that
the references made in the epistles of Peter and Jude to angels that kept not
their first estate, and that sinned, are to be explained in terms of this belief.
The phraseology of the contexts in which the words occur can be matched almost
exactly from "Enoch" and other apocryphal literature.
The punishment meted
out to the delinquent angels is always associated rather with darkness and gloom than with active torture.
Concerning the leader of the rebels the command is given to "bind him hand
and foot, and cast him into the darkness place upon him rough and jagged rocks
and cover him with darkness". Peter says that they were cast down to hell,
but the word is neither Hades or Gehenna, but Tartaros, which has the meaning
of a deep abyss. Another apocryphal work known as the "Book of the Secrets
of Enoch" contemporary with the New Testament, but reflecting more Greek influence
than our "Enoch", has a similar description of the rebel angel "hurled
from the heights with his angels, and he was flying in the air continually over
the abyss". The book also describes how these same angels led mankind into
ways of wickedness, and behind all the superstition and mythology there is a
very shrewd conception of the things that have been a curse to the world, for
the arts they taught were in brief, the use of weapons, cosmetics and dyes,
witchcraft and astrology. If all the evil that has come from these three
things, war, vanity, and magic, were gathered all together, it would surely be
no small part of the burden that has oppressed our race.
If it is felt
impossible in these days to give literal credence to any of these things, it
can only be assumed that the writers of the New Testament were ready to use
legend and folklore as Jesus was ready to use superstitious beliefs in the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and of the seven evil spirits who came to
make the last state of the man worse than the first. The most disturbing
feature which the book of Enoch presents to a student of scripture is the
extreme similarity between some of its language and imagery and that of the
book of Revelation. Time and time again the New Testament work seems to draw its ideas from the
apocryphal, and doubts spring to the mind as to the value of the symbolism of
the Apocalypse.
Careful thought,
however, shows the similarity to be only superficial, and a simple analogy
supplies the explanation. If it were to please the Most High to speak to us in
vision, surely He would speak in our own language, but this would not identify His
message with other English literature, although a foreigner might assert
a great similarity in grammatical construction. So in presenting to the exile in
Patmos visions of that which should shortly come to pass, the Spirit used an
ideology that was familiar to him and whose import he could not possibly misunderstand.
The similarity goes no farther. There is no portion of Enoch comparable in
sustained consistency, and it is certain that no portion has as yet been
demonstrated to be a prophecy in the same sense as Revelation. To sum up, the
book of Enoch comes to us as a valuable commentary on the mental background of
New Testament times, and its one hundred and eight chapters are full of
interest.
But any attempt to use
its theology or its ideology as a frame upon which to build up a conception of
the work of Christ is sure to lead to failure by distorting the picture of the
Master. Against this hotch-potch of national bigotry and superstition, with its
cosmos of heavenly luminaries floating serenely through the portals of the heavens,
and its anticipation of a consummation of universal slaughter, the personality
of Jesus stands in sharp contrast. Sometimes the language is the same, but the
message differs as the light from darkness. We read "Enoch" as
students, eager to penetrate the dark and tortuous passages through which the
developing thought of man has passed, but we sit at the feet of Jesus to hear
his word in reverence and humility.
W. H. Boulton 1932