Did 1 Enoch Influence the New Testament?

1 Enoch is a composite text comprised of several writings, containing many genres, and written over a century or more. It includes:

• The Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)

• The Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71)

• The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72-73)

• The Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90)

• The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)

The dating of these books is disputed and impossible to be completely certain about. We are reliant on textual witnesses from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a few later Greek fragments, and medieval manuscripts in Ethiopic. Still, these writings are exemplary for getting a grip on Jewish apocalypticism, understanding Jewish sectarianism, and mapping hopes for the restoration of Israel from pagan domination.

We can say more confidently that 1 Enoch did influence certain parts of the NT.

Most clearly, in Jude, there is mention of angels who left their abode in heaven, to seek after “different flesh,” and are now imprisoned in Tartarus (Jude 5-7), which corresponds to various parts of 1 Enoch about the Watchers and their imprisonment. Also, to make it even clearer, there is an explicit quotation of 1 Enoch 1:9-10 in Jude 14-15: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: 'See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

So Jude is proof that 1 Enoch did influence parts of the New Testament!

But is there more?

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The biggest debate is over the date of the Parables or Similitudes of 1 Enoch and its possible influence upon the New Testament.

For a Bird’s Eye-View of the Parables of Enoch watch Michael Heiser’s video which is a good short overview.

Every book of 1 Enoch has fragments in the Dead Sea Scrolls … except for the Parables of 1 Enoch. Maybe its absence is because (1) The Qumranites did not like it for whatever reasons; (2) The Qumranites knew it, but it is now lost to us as we only have fragments of their collection of writings, or (3) It was not written yet.

Many scholars have argued that the Parables of Enoch were written in the early Herodian period (37-4 BC), perhaps shortly after the Parthian invasion of Judea in 40 BC, as the book makes mention of the Parthians and Medes who invade and trample upon the chosen ones. The problem is that the fear of barbarian hordes invading from the east is a pretty common trope in literature from Ezekiel to Horace to the Book of Revelation. It’s hardly a solid way to date a book!

That said, the fact that the Parables of Enoch have a messianic Son of Man figure, with various similarities to the New Testament, means that comparisons with the historical Jesus, the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Matthew, and the Book of Revelation have been commonplace. And there are many similarities to be found!

The problem is that analogy does not mean genealogy. Alas, it might be the case that the Parables of Enoch was simply part of a growing body of Jewish apocalyptic literature emerging besides John’s Revelation, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch which can be dated post-AD 70. The books with the closest similarities to the Parables of Enoch are dated post-70 and that is telling!

That said, the messianic Son of Man in the Gospels, the accounts of the final judgment in Matthew 24-25, and the depiction of Jesus on the throne in Revelation, do make for interesting comparisons with several scenes in the Parables of 1 Enoch.

So I’m not saying that some influence (either way) is impossible, but I am less sure now than I was ten years ago that the Parables of Enoch were an extant writing that were accessed or alluded to by Jesus, the apostles, the evangelists, or John the Seer.

I recommend people read the translation of 1 Enoch by George Nickelsburg and James Vanderkamm, and notice which parts of it remind them of the NT!