Is the Book of Enoch Scripture?

Anyone who has read any of the Book of Enoch might at first glance wonder if it is some out-of-this-world fantasy. If so, then anyone who reads the God-inspired book of Revelation of Jesus Christ should wonder the same thing! And much of the book of Daniel and other biblical prophets for that matter. Is it possible that the Book of Enoch is also inspired of God?

I am referring only to “1 Enoch” throughout this page. I will not here-in discuss the other spurious books using Enoch’s name that were written well into the early centuries after Jesus was born. Much of the record from the book of Enoch was found among the Dead Seas Scrolls that were paleographically dated to 200–150 BC. 

Enoch was born to Jared 1,247 years after Adam was created. Enoch fathered Methuselah at age 65. He walked with God another 300 years. So, it appears he wrote the book of Enoch within 1,612 years after Adam was created. You can easily do that math from Genesis 5.

Enoch Didn’t Die?

In verses 23-24 of Genesis 5 it is made plain that Enoch didn’t die, like all the rest of the genealogy from Adam to Noah. “So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” All the others, “died”. (He’s not the only one who didn’t die. Neither did Elijah. See 2 Kings 2:11) Enoch was Noah’s great-grandfather. You will find discussions recorded between the two about the coming flood in the Book of Enoch chapter 65 and 66.

Hebrews 11:5 verifies the fact that Enoch didn’t die, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for before he was taken up, he was attested to have been pleasing to God.”

If Enoch walked with God for several centuries and was taken by God without dying, perhaps we should expect something significant recorded by him.

Is the Book of Enoch Scripture?

As we begin to open-mindedly consider whether the Book of Enoch is the inspired word of God, we should first notice that Jesus told the Sadducees, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:29-30, Mark 12:24-25, and Luke 20:35) There are no other “scriptures” that discuss this, except Enoch 15:7! (God speaking to fallen angels) “I have not appointed wives for you.” There is no text considered “scripture” that Jesus was referring to other than the Book of Enoch. He specifically called it “scripture”.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church considers 1 Enoch as authoritative, canonical scripture. It has been part of their biblical canon for centuries, likely since before the 5th century AD, following the Council of Chalcedon. The book of Enoch repeatedly reinforces biblical truths, predating all of what we now call “scripture”.

Jude Quoted Enoch

Jude says in verses 14-15 that he is quoting Enoch, “…prophecying, saying, Behold, the Lord has come with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Notice how closely Jude quoted what Enoch 1:9 says, ”And 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.”  (Translation by R.H. Charles 1917)

Jude’s short, canonized letter refers to several topics he pulled directly from the Book of Enoch. For example, Jude 1:6 refers to “angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day”. This alludes to the imprisonment of the fallen “Watchers” discussed in 1 Enoch chapters 6 and10.

In the Book of Enoch the chapters 1-36 are all about the Watcher fallen angels. In Jude there are other parallels to the Book of Enoch. (Again, 1 Enoch, in which there are 108 mostly short chapters.) These “watchers” are discussed in the book of Daniel (3:17), written hundreds of years after the Book of Enoch.

A New Paraphrase and Commentary

At this point, I should highly recommend a new book by Johnny Enlow called The Book of Enoch- Paraphrase and Commentary. At the time of this writing, October 2025, the soft version is held up in its second printing. The hardback version is available. The soft copy will be available again soon. 

Found in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Among the Dead sea scrolls in Cave 4 were found fragments of The Book of Enoch. Again, these fragments found in 1952 are dated paleographically to 200–150 BCE. They confirmed the book's antiquity and its use by the Qumran community.

Enoch Spoke of the Son of Man

Way in advance the authentic Book of Enoch solidifies and validates the major topics, including the Savior, throughout the books we call the Bible. Enoch referred to the coming Savior as “the son of man”. Jesus called Himself, the Son of man. During the time between, the fallen angels must have anxiously worried what that simple term meant.

Enoch was inspired to use that term as code language that only Jesus would reveal. The demons fell for the pre-planned prophecy of Jesus’s crucifixion that has now saved the souls of men! 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 “…a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers (my note: fallen angels) of this age, who are passing away;  but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…”

Twenty-three complete Ethiopic manuscripts of The Book of Enoch are known and form the basis for the standard edition by R.H. Charles (1912). Charles collated them to reconstruct the full text. These are medieval Ge'ez copies and represent the only surviving complete versions of the book of Enoch.  Earlier Aramaic and Greek findings are fragmentary.

There is an online 1917 translation of 1 Enoch by R,H, Charles called The Book of Enoch: https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/index.htm. The paraphrase with commentary by Johnny Enlow is a much easier read.

We also should consider that Moses, who wrote Genesis, recorded that “Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he fathered Methuselah”. Enoch’s writings from all that time spent walking with God have been discovered after being previously hidden!

When we read any of these strange sounding prophetic scriptures, we should consider that the One who inspired them isn’t relegated to what humans consider “normal” event descriptions. It was He who also inspired King Solomon’s words in Proverbs 25:2 “God conceals the revelation of his word in the hiding place of his glory. But the honor of kings is revealed by how they thoroughly search out the deeper meaning of all that God says.” (TPT: The Passion Translation)

Wonderous Hidden Secrets

Enoch declared openly in his writings that his God-given “words of righteousness” would become maligned and hidden until the latter days. See chapter 104:10-13 of the Book of Enoch. He stated there, “When they write down all my words truthfully in their languages, and do not change or omit any of my words but write them down truthfully-all that I first testified concerning them. Then I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to produce joy, righteousness, and much wisdom. To them, the books will be given, and they will believe them and rejoice over them; Then will all the righteous who have learned from the paths of uprightness be recompensed.” (The Book of Enoch, Paraphrase and Commentary, by Johnny Enlow)

When you read the Book of Enoch, especially with a little guidance to see how they support the context of what we call the Bible, you will experience “joy, righteousness, and much wisdom”! Look at the following scriptures in the Bible that we have had for many centuries. These prophecies seem to look forward to what Enoch prophesied in 104:10-13 above.

Jeremiah 33:2-4 “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.’” (Exact quote from the Amplified Bible. Many translations use words like, fenced in and hidden, incomprehensible things, wondrous secrets, great and hidden things, important secrets, secret things, mysterious things, wonderful and marvelous things, inaccessible things, remarkable secrets, mysterious secrets, unsearchable things, fenced things.)

Isa 43:19 prophecies, “Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?” (NIV)

And, Isaiah 48:6 “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them.” (NIV)

When we admit that we do not know as much as we thought we did, when we ask humbly of Him, He will make us “hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them.” When you read and begin to grasp the Book of Enoch, a whole world of wonderful secrets opens up to you.

I want to know previously hidden marvelous and remarkable secrets that we have not known. Lord, show us the Great Mysteries from many ages ago.

I will close this page with one of my favorite scriptures from The Passion Translation. Ephesians 3:20 “Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.”

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