Jude, Enoch, and Canonicity

How could Jude treat a pseudepigraphical text like 1 Enoch as a sacred authority?

Image from Logos Bible Software

We read in Jude 14-16:

It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all the 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.” These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their lusts; their mouths utter bombastic nonsense, flattering people to their own advantage.

What is striking here is that Jude cites 1 Enoch 1.9, a text known as the Book of Watchers, which describes God coming in judgment against wicked angels called “watchers.”

Peter Davids comments on Jude’s citation of 1 Enoch:

Jude obviously believes that 1 Enoch is authoritative in that he cites it as a prophecy (“prophesied”). Given the frequency of prophecy in the OT and, for that matter, in the NT Jesus movement, such language indicates that Jude believes that this is divinely inspired speech. Furthermore, he introduces it with a quotation formula (legōn in Greek, sometimes translated as “saying,” but properly indicated in the NIV by means of the colon and quotation marks, which in English indicate that a direct quotation is beginning). That is how written sources, especially scripture, are cited in the NT. Did Jude, then, consider this scripture to be like Genesis or Isaiah? Certainly he did consider it authoritative, a true word from God. We cannot tell whether he ranked it alongside other prophetic books such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. From: Davids, P. H. (2006). The letters of 2 Peter and Jude (pp. 75–76). Eerdmans.

Does Jude think of The Book of Watchers as Scripture? If so, what does that tell us about ancient views of “inspiration” and “canon”?

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Most of the books (note the plural) from 1 Enoch are found at Qumran where it was treated as a sacred text. In addition, to this very day, 1 Enoch has canonical status in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s Tewahedo.

What that means is that 1 Enoch carried authority and weight in certain religious communities as it was embedded in certain religious traditions as sacred text.

A few things we need to remember:

First, the process of the canonisation of the Hebrew Bible for Jews, and the Old and New Testament (with Apocrypha) for Christians, was a gradual process and one that was only finalized in later centuries.

One should not anachronistically project later consciousness about a “canon” into the first century when those discussions were not happening.

The boundaries people drew between orthodoxy and heresy or between canon and spurious writings did not exist in the first century and we can’t expect first century authors to be aware of theological decisions made in subsequent centuries.

Second, we should differentiate “scripture” from “canon.” Scripture refers to a text that has sacred authority for a certain community, while a canon is an authoritative collective of sacred texts. While all Canon contains Scripture not all Scripture becomes Canon! Do you see the difference!!

Now some people reject that distinction, but I think it makes a valid point of differentation. Remember, in the early church, a lot of texts were called Scripture, including the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, Apocalypse of Peter, even 3 Corinthians! But none of those texts were put into the canon even though they were esteemed by some authors and some communities.

Strangely enough, I once had a book reviewer chastize me for alleging that Jude treated 1 Enoch as “scripture,” which I think he clearly did!

Third, there are a lot of non-canoncial materials quoted and referred to in the Bible as either the source for the author or else as something quoted to make a valid point.

For example, 1-2 Kings make constant reference to the “Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel,” which appears to be the main source for writing about the monarchs of the Northern and Southern kingdoms.

Similarly, Paul quotes from the pagan poet Aratus in Acts 17:28 with the words “we are his offspring,” so that all people are children of Zeus/Dios. Paul believes that this is a pagan way of making a valid Jewish point, all people, Jews, Greeks, and Romans, are children of their heavenly father. One God leads to a universal humanity.

Now, this can be a problem if you believe plenary verbal inspiration, so that every single word is inspired, as it would mean that God inspired the author of the Book of Watchers and Aratus to write what they said. That’s why I believe that inspiration is mainly conceptual rather than verbal, or else you end up going to some tricky places.

I once discussed Jude 14 with Wayne Grudem over breakfast at Tyndale House.

His view was that Enoch really did prophesy this way, so that 1 Enoch 1.9 contained an authentic account of this pre-flood prophecy, and Jude cited 1 Enoch the same way one might quote Isaiah because on this point 1 Enoch was a custodian of prophetic truth.

At one level, that is simply the logical outworking of a commitment to plenary verbal inspiration, you need to engineer a backstory to make it work. The problem is that I don’t think the backstory of pre-flood prophetic traditions passed on orally until they were written down by a pseudepigraphical author in the first century BC is all that convincing, so I have a different view of biblical inspiration (note, not a denial of inspiration, merely a different view of it).

Any ways, I hope that discussion was helpful.

Any questions about Jude, the Book of Watchers, inspiration, or canon?