Have you ever heard of the ancient, religious, apocalyptic, but non-canonical (means not in our Bible) text called The Book of Enoch? Don’t be surprised if you haven’t. My guess is most people will live their entire lifetimes without knowing it exists. But it does. And I’m about to tell you it’s crazy history. However, before we begin, I should probably answer the question, “Why should we care about this book?”. I have three reasons: 1) it was well known around the time of Jesus and part of its text is actually quoted in the Bible (in Jude – more on that in a bit); 2) the Bible introduces us to the Nephilim but doesn’t really give us much detail about them. The Book of Enoch goes much deeper; 3) the book describes our history from Adam & Eve to Maccabean times (~160 BC) with Bible characters replaced by farm animals … yes it does, and who doesn’t think that sounds cool? But seriously, this book is incredibly unique and interesting.
So right off the bat, if it’s so great, why is it not canonized as part of the Bible? During the Council of Carthage in 397 AD (which established the Bible as we know it today), consensus said there were too many doctrinal inconsistencies in it to believe it was truly the inspired Word of God. [I say “fair enough” to that. There definitely are some statements that make you scratch your head.] But much debate occurred around it because of another book, The Book of Jude. Jude 1:14-15 quotes straight from The Book of Enoch, making it a mess for the early church fathers. Some said Enoch had to be placed in the Bible because Jude would be. Others said Jude had to be taken out because Enoch couldn’t’ be. Anyway, they landed with Jude in and Enoch out … although it’s often added to a collection of books we call the Apocrypha, which roughly translates to “cloudy”. One thing to note is, after the Council’s decision to leave out The Book of Enoch, it quickly fell out of favor. Within a few hundred years, almost all copies were lost to history. I say almost because fragments of it were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls a thousand plus years later. And through this crazy, twisting story you’re about to read, an entire copy was eventually discovered. So let’s finally get started!
We’ll begin around 650BC during the reign of King Manasseh of Judah (a reminder that Israel split into two nations after King Soloman – the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah). Manasseh was a bad dude who spilled a lot of innocent blood, leading many Jews to flee for their lives. One group went into neighboring Egypt. Then, after a short period of time, they continued on southward, following the Nile to its eastern headwater near Lake Tana, Ethiopia. This group of Israelites decided to settle right there and soon disappeared from the known world.
Now we fast forward 1,000 years. In the early 1600’s, King James commanded the Church of England to retranslate the Bible after complaints from the Puritans. With every document available to them—and a litany of thee’s, thou’s, and thus’s—the King James Version of the Bible was birthed. However, no one, at least in the Western world, knew what Jude was talking about when he referenced Enoch in Jude 1:14-15. No writings existed, meaning The Book of Enoch had been officially lost.
A hundred and seventy years now pass by. In 1773, Scottish explorer James Bruce wanted to discover the source of the Blue Nile (there’s two Niles—the White and the Blue—that come together to form the river that we know today). He traveled to Egypt, down the Red Sea, and eventually into Ethiopia. He made his way to the Lake Tana region and was amazed to find a tribe of Israelites living there (known as the Falashas today). They still followed their ancient Jewish religious practices and had with them entire manuscripts of The Book of Enoch written in their native Ge’ez language. James had just discovered a theological gold mine. He stayed there two years copying the books and gathering local medicinal herbs before trying to make it back to Europe. It was a difficult journey. He was held captive twice and barely escaped getting killed by tribesman. His camels all died at one point, forcing him to leave his precious books in the desert dunes. But James eventually retrieved all of his cargo and made his way home to a hero’s welcome. The books were soon translated into German, French, and English. But little fanfare announced their completion. The Book of Enoch was found to be way too extreme for the times.
Fast forwarding to modern days, most theologians now say the book was written around 200BC, by multiple different authors, and with none of them being Enoch. Personally, I have no idea. But I do like what the researcher Andy McCracken has to say on the topic:
“The standard academic view seems to be that some slightly demented religious fanatic wrote the book – not long before the earliest provable fragments, (200 or 300BC). I think it is impossible to support this view. Such an author would have to be able to write the entire book from the point of view of a person who knows nothing of countries with names, or religions with names. Then he goes on to describe the Angels as blond men, who ran away from Heaven in order to be promiscuous with women. I don’t believe this is the sort of world view that would have been well received or widely accepted anywhere in 200 BC. This plus the all too accurate prophecies are probably the reasons why it was ‘lost’ by the religions that used to regard it as holy. I concluded that the book is probably what it appears to be; well preserved, ancient and genuine. Enoch was the great-grandfather of Noah, and father of Methuselah, and his book gives a unique view of the world before the flood.”
Oh, and guess what, The Book of Enoch is biblical canon in Ethiopia. Not a huge surprise now, is it?