Is the Book of Enoch in the Bible?
For most Christians and Jews, no. It is closely tied to the Bible, and the New Testament quotes it, but only the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches and Ethiopian Jews keep it as scripture.
“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”GENESIS 5:24 KJV
Enoch the man
Genesis gives him four verses. Luke lists him in the family line of Jesus, Hebrews 11 praises his faith, and Jude calls him “the seventh from Adam.”
The Book of Enoch
Part of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Bibles. Not in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant Bibles, and not in the Hebrew Bible.
Its influence
Jude 14–15 quotes it almost word for word. Copies sat among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and some early Christian writers treated it as scripture.
Who counts it as scripture today
It isn't in the Apocrypha of Protestant Bibles or in the extra books of Catholic Bibles either. It sits outside both.
One book made of five
“1 Enoch” is really a collection written by different unnamed authors over about three centuries. The chapter order is not the order they were written: the second section came last. The blue line marks Jude, about AD 60–90.
Where the Bible quotes Enoch
This is the closest link between the two. Compare them yourself. The shaded words match closely.
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
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.
Does a quote make the whole book scripture?
Christians have long answered this in different ways. Most say that Jude affirms this one saying as true without endorsing the whole book. They point out that Paul quotes Greek poets in Acts 17:28 and Titus 1:12, and no one treats those poets as scripture.
Others note that Jude uses a stronger word: Enoch “prophesied.” Ethiopian Orthodox Christians read the book as scripture, and Tertullian used this kind of argument around AD 200. The verse also caused trouble the other way. Jerome reports that many people doubted the letter of Jude itself because it quoted Enoch.
Things you'll hear about it
“It was removed from the Bible.”
The record doesn't support that. It was never in the Hebrew Bible, and no church council struck it out of an agreed Christian Bible. Some Christians valued it for a time, then church leaders increasingly rejected it. In most places, people simply stopped copying it.
“The Church banned it.”
Partly true. Leaders such as Athanasius warned against it, and Augustine explained why it had no authority. That pressure was real, but there was no single empire-wide ban that we can point to. Its disappearance from Europe was slow.
“Enoch himself wrote it.”
Scholars date it to about 300 BC and later, in Aramaic, using Enoch's name in a style common at the time. Tertullian thought Noah could have preserved it through the Flood, and Augustine doubted it was genuine for the same reason: it was too old to verify.
“Jesus quoted it.”
No Gospel records Jesus quoting it directly. There are real echoes. The “Son of Man” sitting on “the throne of his glory” appears in both Matthew 25:31 and 1 Enoch 62 and 69. Scholars debate whether that shows borrowing, since the section's date is uncertain and Daniel 7 lies behind both.
“It explains the Nephilim.”
It explains them its own way. Genesis 6:1–4 is brief and doesn't say who the “sons of God” were. Enoch expands it: 200 angels called Watchers came down on Mount Hermon, married women, and fathered giants. It's the oldest surviving detailed reading, but it is an interpretation.
“It teaches the same thing as the Bible.”
Often, but not everywhere. Enoch shares themes of God's judgment, justice for the poor and a coming Chosen One. But Genesis 3 traces sin to Adam and Eve, while Enoch's Watchers story blames fallen angels: “to him ascribe all sin” (1 Enoch 10:8). It also describes a 364-day calendar and tours of heaven unlike anything in Genesis.
“There are three Books of Enoch.”
True, and they get mixed up. This site covers 1 Enoch. 2 Enoch survives in Old Slavonic. 3 Enoch is a much later Jewish mystical work in Hebrew. They are separate books from different times and places.
“So should a Christian read it?”
Plenty do, as history. It shows what many Jews believed about angels, judgment and the Messiah just before Jesus, which helps explain lines in Jude and 1 and 2 Peter. Most churches would say to read it the way you'd read any ancient book: with interest, and without treating it as God's word.
Questions to talk over
- Read Genesis 5:21–24 and Hebrews 11:5 first. What does the Bible actually say about Enoch, before any other book adds to it?
- If an inspired writer quotes a book, what does that tell you about the book? Compare Jude 14–15 with Acts 17:28.
- What should decide which books belong in the Bible: age, use in the church, who wrote it, what it teaches?
- Ethiopian Christians have treated this book as scripture for many centuries. How should that weigh on the rest of us?
- Read Genesis 6:1–4, then 1 Enoch 6–7. Which details come from Genesis, and which did Enoch add?
- Does Enoch's account of where evil comes from change how you read Genesis 3?
What Enoch is remembered for
People argue about the book. The Bible's own word on the man is short and clear: he walked with God, and God was pleased.
“For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”HEBREWS 11:5–6 KJV
If that stirs something, the place to start is the Gospel of John. It's short, and it's about the One the whole story points to.
Read it yourself
Free, no ads, no accounts, no tracking. Bible text is the King James Version and 1 Enoch is R. H. Charles's translation, both public domain. Dates marked “c.” are estimates, and scholars debate many of them. This site reports what traditions and scholars hold. For questions of doctrine, talk with your own church.