My LORD’s BibleWhat Is the Book of Enoch?
The Book of Enoch is one of the most quoted, least understood books of the ancient world. It is not in most Bibles, yet the New Testament quotes it directly, and one church has always treated it as scripture. Here is what it actually is.
The short answer
The Book of Enoch — scholars call it 1 Enoch to distinguish it from later works — is a collection of Jewish religious writings attributed to Enoch, the man who in Genesis “walked with God; and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). Enoch himself did not write it. It was composed by several unknown Jewish authors over roughly three centuries, from about 300 BC to the first century BC.
The four verses in Genesis that the whole book is built on:
Genesis 5:21–24
Read in full chapter →21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
See also: Jubilees 4:17, Hebrews 11:5
22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
See also: Micah 6:8, 1 Thessalonians 2:12
23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
See also: Ecclesiastes 6:6
24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
See also: Psalms 1:1, Hebrews 11:5-6
What is in it
1 Enoch is really five books bound together. The Book of the Watchers (chapters 1–36) expands the strange story of Genesis 6, where “the sons of God” take human wives; in Enoch these are rebel angels who teach humanity forbidden knowledge and father the giants, and Enoch is sent to pronounce their judgement. The Book of Parables (37–71) describes a heavenly “Son of Man” who will judge the world. The Astronomical Book (72–82) lays out a 364-day solar calendar. The Book of Dreams (83–90) reviews the history of Israel as a vision of animals. The Epistle of Enoch (91–108) is a series of warnings and blessings.
The passage the Book of the Watchers sets out to explain:
Genesis 6:1–4
Read in full chapter →1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
See also: Matthew 24:37, 2 Kings 8:18
2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
See also: Job 31:1, Psalms 82:6-7
3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
See also: Nehemiah 9:30, Isaiah 63:10
4There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
See also: Numbers 13:33, Deuteronomy 3:11
Why it matters
For centuries 1 Enoch was known in the West only from quotations, until complete copies were found in Ethiopia in the 1700s and, much later, Aramaic fragments of it turned up among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran — proof that Jews were reading it in the time of Jesus. Its picture of fallen angels, chained spirits, a coming judgement, and a heavenly Son of Man runs underneath a great deal of the New Testament’s language.
The Letter of Jude quotes it by name as a genuine prophecy of Enoch:
Jude, quoting Enoch:
Jude 1:14–15
Read in full chapter →14And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
See also: 1 Enoch 1:9, Matthew 12:36
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.
See also: Hebrews 9:27, 1 Peter 4:18
Those words are 1 Enoch 1:9 almost verbatim:
1 Enoch 1:9
Read in full chapter →9And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
See also: Jude 1:14
Is it scripture?
It depends on the church. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has always counted 1 Enoch as part of its Old Testament and never stopped. Every other major tradition — Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant — left it outside the canon, though early Christian writers like Tertullian defended it and many others quoted it freely. For why it was excluded, see the companion article below.
Where to read it
This site carries all 108 chapters of 1 Enoch in R.H. Charles’s public-domain translation, cross-referenced against the canonical text, with the original Geʽez alongside the English where it survives.
Common questions
- Who wrote the Book of Enoch?
- Several unknown Jewish authors, writing between about 300 BC and the first century BC. It is attributed to the patriarch Enoch (Genesis 5) but he did not write it — that kind of attribution to an ancient hero was a common convention of the period.
- Is the Book of Enoch in the Bible?
- It is in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, which has always treated it as scripture. It is not in Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant Bibles.
- Does the New Testament quote the Book of Enoch?
- Yes. Jude 14–15 quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 directly and calls it a prophecy of Enoch. Several other New Testament passages echo its themes, especially 2 Peter and Jude on the angels who sinned.