We ended in the last part with a little diversion on determinism in Hebrew thought, so now back to the path at hand. What benefit does the Book of Enoch
provide for us when it comes to our canon of Scripture? Well, the most
obviously answer comes from one of its primary uses by people today, and that
is its relationship to the ongoing debate into the true meaning of Genesis 6
and the sons of God taking daughters of man as wives.
The Book of Enoch obviously sees the sons of God as indeed angelic
entities procreating with human women and creating a hybrid race of giants.
This is the common view on Genesis 6 that the ancient Hebrews and early church
held, and the Book of Enoch is a key source for further promoting this
understanding.
When it comes to this book in general, some quote it as if it were
Scripture, while others condemn it as total myth and heresy. But if we find
that it has been influential on some biblical writers and has influenced them
in the writing of our canon of Scripture, then it would demand further
consideration, would it not?
Let’s start with a look at what little we know about the man Enoch
just from the Scriptures. Genesis 5 tells us Enoch is the son of Jared, that at
age 65 he had a son, Methuselah, and that he lived another 300 years after
fathering Methuselah, and at that time, at age 365, he “was not, for God took him.” So the fact that we are told that he
was no more after age 365, a lifespan
that pales in comparison to those of that time living hundreds of years longer,
this gives us a clue something is different here. We are told he “walked with
God” which carries the connotation of a direct and immediate relationship with
God. Enoch’s walk with God was different than those around him.
In Genesis 6:9, we are told that Noah similarly “walked with God,” and
we know how special he ended up being. And as special as Noah was, Enoch was
likewise special. Note that we are not told he died as all of those around him
in the genealogy verses are said to have done, but just that he “was not.” This
is the only time in this genealogy chapter that “was not” is used, and scholars
agree it cannot mean simply that he died. And of course we are told in the book
of Hebrews that he indeed had not died in this instance:
By faith Enoch
was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God
had taken him... (Hebrews 11:5 ESV)
Beyond that, the only other mentionable content about Enoch we have is
in the book of Jude, which we will deal with further in a bit. It states:
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." (Jude 14-15 ESV)
As mentioned, the Book of Enoch was held in high esteem in the early
Christian church, but translator E. Isaac concluded that the book fell into
disfavor around the 4th century in the West due to the negative reviews of it
by influential theologians like Julius Africanus, Augustine, Hilary and Jerome,
and that it was the medieval mind that was responsible for it becoming
virtually oblivious to the church until its rediscovery in 1773 by Scottish
explorer James Bruce.
Some believe it fell in disfavor because the text was at a time
manipulated by those in the Manichean heresy camp, and therefore Jerome and
Augustine outright dismissed it as apocryphal because of its popularity - not
on any scriptural basis though. It was Augustine, with his early background in
Manicheanism that was the most influential with his rejection, and he laid the
foundation for the modern church's continued rejection. Brian Godawa sums it up
well, stating:
But we must learn our lessons from
Augustine’s fallacy of guilt by association. Just because some aberrant sects
of non-Christian cults may value 1 Enoch does not make it an unworthy text,
especially since it has a long pedigree of acceptance within the historic
orthodox faith. After all, non-Christian cults of all kinds do the same thing
with the Bible. Abuse of a text does not negate proper use. (Brian Godawa - When Giants Were Upon the Earth, pg. 18)
Now while we are not saying that 1 Enoch is to be considered
Scripture, many people do not even realize just how influential it was on our
New Testament writers, some of whom appear to have used it directly as source
material for doctrines that they then injected into what we today hold as canon
of Scripture.
Say that the Book of Enoch as a non-canonical writing was a source of
historical and doctrinal truths is not
as odd of a thought as it may sound to some. Scholars note that there are well
over fifty references in the Scriptures to just over twenty non-canonical
source texts used by Biblical authors that are currently still lost to history.
These are non-Biblical texts that the writers of Scripture canon specifically
mention as being either the source of truths for the information they wrote in
Scripture, or are promoted as suggested reading for further truth and reference
for what they wrote in Scripture. A few examples of such mentioned works would
be:
The Book of the Wars of Yahweh (Num 21:14), the Book of Jasher (Joshua
10:13), the Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41), the Book of the Annals
of the Kings of Israel (1 Kings 14:19), the Book of the Annals of the Kings of
Judah (1 Kings 14:29), the Annals of Samuel the Seer (1 Chr. 29:29), the
History of Nathan the Prophet (2 Chr. 9:29), and many others, but you get the
gist of the point being made. Basically, with such evidence of an
acknowledgement of non-Biblical sources by the very writers of Scripture canon, we cannot simply dismiss
such influential texts as totally irrelevant of unworthy of inspection.
Unfortunately, at present all of these types of works remain lost,
except one, the Book of Enoch. And the fact is that this book was considered to
be one such source that contains information with both a direct and indirect
influence on our New Testament writings. The Book of Enoch would have been one
of those books that was probably wide read by the Jewish people of the first
century. It appears to be one that was obviously known by most people, as we find
in the New testament not only a direct quote here and there, but quite a large
amount of direct allusions to doctrines expressed within it.
Terms like “Son of Man,” for instance. Many will simply say this
terminology that Yeshua employs is harking back to its appearance in Daniel 7,
and there is no denying that there is an obvious connection. However, what
little we are told in Daniel regarding that designation does not directly
correlate to the extensive use we find throughout the New Testament. One scholarly
work argues that while Daniel 7 shows a vision of the Son of Man on a cloud
approaching the throne of the Ancient of Days and receiving a kingdom of glory
and dominion, the New Testament Son of Man engages in a more judicial office
that the one presented in Daniel.
In Daniel he is enthroned after judgment, but in places like Mark 8:38
and Matt. 10:32-33, the Son of Man comes in
judgment. This difference aligns much more closely to those teachings contained
in the Parables of Enoch. Mark 13:26-27 tells us:
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the
angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to
the ends of heaven. (Mark 13:26-27
ESV)
This Son of Man text goes beyond what Daniel 7 states, but aligns more
closely with the resurrection imagery contained in 1 Enoch 51, 61 and 62.
Another example we can look at is the parable of the sheep and the goats in
Matthew 25:31-46:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before
him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the
sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31-33 ESV)
He goes on to speak of those who did this, that and the other thing,
and those who did not do any of those things, and then concludes in verse 46 by
stating “And these will go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Now while Daniel
7 gives us a reference to a kingly throne idea, it does not present us with any
kind of real judgment of nations motif like we find here. However, this type of
motif is indeed reflective of what we are told in the Book of Enoch chapter 62
where we are told of the gathering of the people for judgment:
One half portion
of them shall glance at the other half; they shall be terrified and dejected;
and pain shall seize them when they see the Son of Man sitting on the throne of
his glory…
But the Lord of
the Spirits himself will cause them to be frantic, so that they shall rush and
depart from his presence…
So he will
deliver them to the angels for punishments in order that vengeance shall be executed
on them - oppressors of his children and his elect ones…
The righteous and
elect ones shall be saved on that day; and from thenceforth they shall never
see the faces of the sinners and the oppressors. The Lord of the Spirits will
abide over them; they shall eat and rest and rise with that Son of Man forever
and ever. The righteous and elect ones shall rise from the earth and cease
being of downcast face. They shall wear the garments of glory.
How about what we learn in John 5 about judgment and the Son:
The Father judges
no one, but has given all judgment to the Son... (John 5:22 ESV)
Sounds like almost a direct quote from Enoch 69:
And he sat on the
throne of his glory, and the sum of judgment was given to the Son of Man.
(Enoch 69:27)
Now, let’s take a look briefly at some from the Book of Revelation.
Let’s start with the discussion of the blood of the martyrs in Rev 6:
When he opened
the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for
the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud
voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge
and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Then they were each
given a white robe and told to rest a little longer... (Revelation 6:9-11 ESV)
Enoch had foretold this in
similar manner:
In those days the
prayer of the righteous shall have ascended, and the blood of the righteous
from the earth shall be before the Lord of spirits. In those days the holy ones
who dwell above in heavens shall unite with one voice and supplicate and pray
and praise, and give thanks and bless the name of the Lord of spirits on behalf
of the blood of the righteous which has been shed, that the prayer of the
righteous may not be in vain before the Lord of spirits, that they may have
justice, and that they may not have to wait forever. (1 Enoch 47:1-2)
And sure we are all familiar with what we are told in Rev. 20:
Then I saw a
great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and
sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was
opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written
in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who
were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were
judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades
were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown
into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:12-15 ESV)
Well, this correlates pretty closely with what we find in Enoch 47 and
51:
In those days I
saw the Head of Days when He seated himself on the throne of His glory, and the
books of the living were opened before Him; and all His host which is in heaven
above and His counselors stood before Him. And the hearts of the holy were
filled with joy because the number of the righteous had been offered, and the
prayer of the righteous had been heard, and the blood of the righteous not been
required before the Lord of spirits. (1 Enoch 47:3-4)
And in those days
shall the earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it, and Sheol
also shall give back that which is has received, and hell shall give back that
which is owes. For in those days the Elect One shall arise, and he shall choose
the righteous and holy from among them. For the day has drawn near that they
should be saved. (1 Enoch 51:1-2)
So, here is a question that hit me as I was studying this, and it is a
question worth pondering I think. If we accept the Book of Revelation as
inspired canon of Scripture - which we do; and if we understand it as prophecy
revealed beforehand to John - which we do; then what do we do when we find very
similar or identical “prophetic” scenarios in the Book of Enoch, written
hundreds of years earlier than Revelation, but that correlates with it? Just food
for thought.
More to come...
View the other parts of the topic
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Think out loud with me, and voice your position in a clean, charitable and well mannered way. Abusive posts will be deleted.