June 15, 2025

    The book of Enoch is part of the pseudepigrapha, these are books written during the intertestamental period and attributed to Jewish patriarchs. Often these books seek to explain or otherwise amplify texts from scripture which people may be curious about but which do not get a great deal of attention by inspired authors. We might compare this today to fan fiction, which seeks to flesh out minor incidents that a favourite novel only alludes to. 

     Specifically, the book of Enoch starts from Genesis 5:21-24 and 6:1-4. In this text we read 

“ When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

     This description stands out because unlike everyone else in the chapter Enoch is not said to have died. This becomes a matter of considerable discussion for Jewish interpreters. Enoch is also seventh from Adam a number often believed to have special theological significance. Because we have more information about Enoch than most others in the chapter, he seems to be a character of some significance and yet we know relatively little about him. The book of Enoch takes advantage of this lack of detail and uses it as an opportunity to fill in the blanks with elaborate fictitious content. 

     The work we are discussing is rightly called 1^st Enoch as differentiated from 2^nd and 3^rd Enoch which are different books with different focuses. Furthermore it should be pointed out that even 1^st Enoch is widely acknowledged to be a conglomeration of several different sources. 

     The historical Enoch lived before the flood, The book of Enoch appears to have been written thousands of years later during the intertestamental period. So the man mentioned in Genesis five can’t be the actual author. We do find the book among the dead sea scrolls which says something about it’s age and popularity in the years leading up to the life of Christ. 

~ Kevin Cleary