About every few months I get on Facebook and see that it is that time of year again when people start sharing about the Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch according to these Facebook posts is the book that Christians are scared of and it completely dismantles the Bible.
I do not hold these Facebook posts with much weight because they are shared by meme accounts and largely from pull of people I know who share these posts, are being shared by people who have little to no understanding of biblical history, translation theory, why we have the books we have in the Bible and so forth.
Many times when these Facebook posts start going around it is meant to be a “gotcha moment” to Christians.
As with the theme “Into the Fray” I am never scared to interact with works like the Book of Enoch.
So here is a breakdown of this “lost book” of the Bible.
Who is Enoch?
Enoch as a character is mentioned very briefly in the Bible.
When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. (Genesis 5:18-24 NIV)
Enoch here is mentioned in a genealogical list of names going from Adam to Noah. This lists starts off by telling us that mankind(Adam) was made in the likeness of God. Adam along with Eve, had sons and they passed this likeness down through the ages.
Enoch is a descendant of Adam through the line of Seth and Noah(from Noah and the ark) is the descendant of Enoch. Enoch has this very interesting line said about him though. Enoch is not given an age that he died. Instead it is said obscurely that “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away”(Genesis 5:24 NIV).
We then find Enoch mentioned again in 1 Chronicles 1:3 in another genealogical list as well as in Luke 3:37.
The only other time Enoch is mentioned in the Bible apart from genealogical lists is in Hebrews 11:5 which says:
By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.(CSB)
As well as Jude 1:14-15:
It was about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied: “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all the ungodly acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.”
According to Jewish tradition, this was interpreted to mean that Enoch was taken to heaven.
What is the Book of Enoch?
Our passage in Jude is a direct quote from the Book of Enoch. Which means, the book of Enoch was available and known to the people of the day. It is not considered a canonical book of the Bible but it is respected as a more supplementary or at the least interesting source outside of the Bible.
The book gets dated around the third to second century BC with parts of it being traced to around the time of Jesus and is not believed to have been written by the actual Enoch, though it did get wide received attention.
It is not uncommon in the ancient world for books to be written in the name of another person. Think of the book of Job. In regards to this specific challenge of the Book of Enoch not being written by the actual Enoch take a look at this quote from D.A. Carson that should help ease the concern.
A literary forgery is a work written or modified with the intent to deceive. All literary forgeries are pseudepigraphical, but not all pseudepigrapha are literary forgeries. There is a substantial class of pseudepigraphical writings that, in the course of their transmission, somehow became associated with some figure or other. These connections between a text and an ancient figure, however fallacious, were judgements made with the best will in the world.
D.A. Carson
Where the Gospel of Thomas is a known forgery, the Book of Enoch is in the realm of pseudepigraphacal in nature.
It was part of this group of literature within the Jewish community that may have not been considered to be the inspired word of God like our canonical books of the Bible(though some early church fathers did consider it Scripture) but it was well known and talked about as part of the ongoing commentary/theology of the day which is why books of the Bible like Jude mention it or in that case specifically directly quote from the book of Enoch.
Note: The book of Enoch is referred to by scholars as 1 Enoch.
What is 1 Enoch About?
1 Enoch places itself outside of the timeline of Scripture as this more apocalyptic view on the world. In the book you come across the Watchers, the Son of Man being bowed down to by the kings of the earth, creation and the fall of heavenly beings and a whole lot more that is more confusing to the average reader than helpful.
The part of the Book of Enoch that I want to dive into mainly is its discussion dealing with demonology.
Apparently according 1 Enoch there is this group called the Watchers. The Watchers have “left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women”(12:4).
We actually see a bit of this in our canonical books of the Bible specifically in Genesis 6:
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.(6:1-8 NIV)
Now, this may be rather confusing. This is confusing to many of us because even though Christianity is tied to Judaism, much of christian thought has been divorced from any of its Jewish heritage. We are divorced from the culture, the practices, the thought patterns of our ancestors and when we hear about these lost books speaking about demons and what not it can be scary for us. Fear not though, the writers of the Bible knew 1 Enoch and were not afraid, this is part of their culture and even if they did not hold 1 Enoch to the same level as the Exodus story, they knew it as part of their background.
So, this is where we need to get into the Elohim.
What is the Elohim?
Elohim is more of a general term referring to spiritual beings that we come across within the pages of Scripture. This list of spiritual beings contains, God, angels, demons, Satan, etc.
The Watchers would be included in this list of spiritual beings and are what many of us would refer to today as Satan and his demons. In regards to the question: is there only one God or are there many, the ancient Jews believed more in a traditional monotheism which assumed there were more gods than just one but that if you were a monotheist like the Jews then you only worshipped and put your trust in one God. It is not as if people who believed in Baal or Zeus were just believing in a statue they had just made. Give people more credit than that. Yes, those statues are man made but there are indeed spiritual beings in the unseen realm behind this idol worship. They are in that label “Elohim.”
I believe this quote from Michael Heiser will help clarify the Bible’s command to worship only one God.
A close reading of these passages in Deuteronomy and Isaiah shows … that the denials are not claiming that other אֱלֹהִ ים (elohim) do not exist, but that Yahweh has unique and incomparable qualities in relation to other gods: Yahweh’s pre-existence, his role as creator
-Michael Heisner(The Lexham Bible Dictionary)
of all things, including other elohim, his ability to save, and national deliverance. The focus is on Yahweh’s incomparable status and the impotence of the other gods. It would be empty praise to compare Yahweh to beings that did not exist. The biblical authors assume they do exist, but that they are “nothing” compared to Yahweh.
Let’s Talk About Satan
Now, Satan is more of a title. It literally means “the adversary”.
Our first interaction with “the adversary” is a mysterious figure in the early pages of Genesis where we get the first image of evil in the world.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”(Genesis 3:1 ESV)
This mysterious figure is often connected to be Satan in modern Christianity, but the ancient Jews never made that connection. The serpent is more of a figure of disorder, chaos, division, rebellion.
In the Book of Enoch we get a glimpse into figures like this serpent who are characters in Jewish tradition of rebellion, disorder, chaos and division.
And after this judgment I will terrify them, and make them tremble, for they have shown this to those who dwell upon the dry ground.”
And behold, the names of those Angels: – The first of them is Semyaza, and the second Artaqifa, and the third Armen, and the fourth Kokabiel, and the fifth Turiel, and the sixth Ramiel, and the seventh Daniel, and the eighth Nuqael, and the ninth Baraqiel, and the tenth Azazel, and the eleventh Armaros, the twelfth Batriel, the thirteenth Basasael, the fourteenth Ananel, the fifteenth Turiel, the sixteenth Samsiel, the seventeenth Yetarel, the eighteenth Tumiel, the nineteenth Turiel, the twentieth Rumiel, the twenty-first Azazel.
And these are the chiefs of their Angels, and the names of the leaders of hundreds, and their leaders of fifties, and their leaders of tens.
The name of the first is Yequn; this is the one who led astray all the children of the Holy Angels, and he brought them down onto the dry ground, and led them astray through the daughters of men.
And the name of the second is Asbeel; this one suggested an evil plan to the children of the Holy Angels, and led them astray, so that they corrupted their bodies with the daughters of men.
And the name of the third is Gadreel; this is the one that showed all the deadly blows to the sons of men. And he led astray Eve. And he showed the weapons of death to the children of men, the shield and the breastplate, and the sword for slaughter, and all the weapons of death to the sons of men.
And from his hand they have gone out against those who dwell the dry ground from that time and forever and ever.
And the name of the fourth is Penemue; this one showed the sons of men the bitter and the sweet and showed them all the secrets of their wisdom.
He taught men the art of writing with ink and paper, and through this many have gone astray, from eternity to eternity, and to this day.
For men were not created for this, that they should confirm their faith like this, with pen and ink.
For men were created no differently from the Angels, so that they might remain righteous and pure, and death, which destroys everything, would not have touched them; but through this knowledge of theirs they are being destroyed and through this power death consumes them.
And the name of the fifth is Kasdeyae; this one showed the sons of men all the evil blows of the spirits and of the demons, and the blows that attack the embryo in the womb so that it miscarries. And the blows that attack the soul: the bite of the serpent. And the blows that occur at midday, and the son of the serpent – who is strong.(Enoch 69:1-12)
If we can for a moment briefly run back to our introduction to the snake in Genesis we find that the word for snake there is “nakhash, נחש”. This snake is already an odd figure. If we take a step back and analyze this story of the snake in the garden, we all know he talks to Eve and deceives her into taking a bite of the fruit. But we often just run past the fact that this serpent can talk. That is an odd thing. Snake’s do not talk. This is not Dr. Doolittle. In ancient Mesopotamian culture, serpents represented something.
In the Gilgamesh Epic, after Gilgamesh acquires the magical plant that will rejuvenate him, it is stolen by a snake. In the story of Adapa, one of the guardians of Anna’s palace, where Adapa is offered the food of life, is serpent-shaped or accompanied by horned serpents, and he is the guardian of the demons who live in the netherworld. In Egypt, the serpent was associated with both death and wisdom. The Genesis account draws on both aspects in the wisdom dialogue between the serpent and Eve and with the introduction of death after the explosion from Eden.
John Walton(NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)
Later in the Genesis account after Eve and Adam consume the forbidden fruit, God pronounces a curse of the couple and the serpent.
For the serpent God says:
“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.”(Genesis 3:14 NIV)
I do not know the last time you were around a snake, but they do not talk and they definitely already crawl on their belly. So why would God’s curse on this serpent sound more like an acknowledgment of the state the snake is already in?
Possibly because the snake was not already crawling on its belly.
Let’s take a look at a possible creature mentioned in Isaiah:
Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”(Isaiah 6:2-3 ESV)
Seraphim is the Hebrew word for “venomous snake”.
That same word in Hebrew is used in other passages:
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.(Numbers 21:6 NIV)
He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. (Deuteronomy 8:15 NIV)
And then lastly in the book of Isaiah we get this image of the ruler of Babylon being described as a flying snake:
Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.(Isaiah 14:29 ESV)
The chances that if you went to Babylon and found the ruler that you would see a flying fiery(venomous) snake would be slim to none. But here’s the point: there is a spiritual being(Elohim) called the “seraphim.” They look like venomous snakes. And they are in the throne room of God and they fly. According to the narrative of Scripture, this serpent we find in Genesis 3 is one of those Seraphim(a flying venomous snake from heaven) who rebeled against God and now decieves mankind.
What Can I Learn From This Information?
I believe what we can learn from just the brief bit we covered in the Book of Enoch is that there is an unseen realm to our reality today. What we see in this list of angels and specifically the chief’s of the one who led the group of holy angels astray is that they are these rebellious figures in the grand narrative of scripture.
They are not to be pitied. Kendrick Lamar in his song ‘Reincarnated’ at the end refers to himself as a reincarnation of the devil. In the song he tries to paint this narrative that the devil is this figure we should have empathy for and that really deserves forgiveness.
According to the narrative of Scripture the devil is not like that. In the Book of Enoch there is a moment early on where the watchers plead with Enoch to go to God and plead or make a petition of prayer on their behalf for their forgiveness and God responds with visions of their judgement to Enoch.
What this tells us is that these figures of rebellion in the unseen realm are not figures like me and you. Their role in bringing about evil on the planet is more cosmic and deadly than we can ever imagine and they will be punished for what they have done. They did not just cause a rebellion in the heavens to take place, they brought that rebellion down on us, lowly creatures.
The good news though is that God’s plan of salvation is for us.
Sons of God
In Genesis 6 we are told that the “sons of God” had sexual relations with the women on earth and they gave birth to these hybrid divine/human creatures called the Nephilim or giants.
Now, Michael Heiser in his book ‘Reversing Hermon’ explains the Sethite view of this passage which is the more common view in today’s evangelical world. This view is that the ‘sons of God’ refer to the lineage of Seth who are a godly family and that they had sexual relations with women who are outside of the worshippers of Yahweh. Thus, this is a break in holy matrimony and the people of God are poisoned with the people of the world.
The problem with this view is that as Hesier points out, no where in the text does it say Seth’s lineage was the only people who were worshipping Yahweh on the earth. It also does not explain why suddenly giants come from human on human sexual relations.
The Nephilim that we come across are different. They are referred to as these giants, but that is understatement. These giant creatures are part human part divine. They are the offspring of these spiritual beings who we would think of as “fallen angels” today having sex with human women. In the ancient world they were viewed as spiritual creatures living in human flesh but in a broken way compared to the incarnation of Jesus.
In Genesis we are given this image of Eden being the place where heaven and earth meet. It is a place like no other, a place where God and man dwell together walking through the garden in conversation and yet that union that exists there is broken by these serpent creatures who is also part of that ‘elohim’ category but whose mission is to sow division not unity.
As you follow through the next few chapters of Genesis you see the division, the discord being reaped on humankind because of this evil the serpent brought into the picture. And it culminates into these “fallen angels” not just sowing division, strife, anger, murder but also sexual perversion. When they do bring together human kind and the Elohim it is in a way that is wrong. These Nephilim are damned from the start.
Mount Zion vs. Mount Hermon
The Bible is full of beautiful imagery, comparing and contrasting.
In 1 Enoch 6:1-6 we see this image of the Watchers(these rebellious Elohim) coming down.
And it came to pass, when the sons of men had increased, that in those days there were born to them fair and beautiful daughters.
And the Angels, the sons of Heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another: “Come, let us choose for ourselves wives, from the children of men, and let us beget, for ourselves, children.” And Semyaza, who was their leader, said to them: “I fear that you may not wish this deed to be done and that I alone will pay for this great sin.”
And they all answered him, and said: “Let us all swear an oath, and bind one-another with curses, so not to alter this plan, but to carry out this plan effectively.”
Then they all swore together and all bound one another with curses to it. And they were, in all, two hundred and they came down on Ardis, which is the summit of Mount Hermon. And they called the mountain Hermon because on it they swore and bound one another with curses.
These angels, these Watchers, these sons of God or heaven descend onto Mount Hermon and here is where the rebellion of heaven meets earth.
I said before that the Garden of Eden was this place on earth where heaven and earth, God and man met. Mount Hermon is likewise the place where heavenly rebellion meets earth. The same way this heavenly rebellion spreads from Mount Hermon to the Garden of Eden and on down the line to Babylon; the people of God also spread. Where the heavenly rebellion takes its toll on the earth and inhabitants of it through sickness, death, and sin; Jesus is also on a mission.
Jesus comes in not just healing the sick or raising the dead, but reversing the curse. Where God constructs, Satan and his legion deconstruct. And when all hope seems lost, Jesus reconstructs. Sin is forgiven, mankind is set free. This is good news for you and me because as the Watchers in their rebellion went out across all the earth sowing division, the people of Jesus also go out in all the earth; bringing unity through diversity in community. By healing the sick, feeding the poor, caring for the widows and the orphans, and establishing healthy Jesus loving families that continue to produce more Jesus loving families.
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