Book of Enoch

About the Author

As noted, the book of Enoch is one of the most prominent pseudepigraphical books. Although it was ascribed to Enoch, it was most likely written by several unknown authors over a two-century period. The scrolls are traditionally identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, though some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests, Zadokites (Sadducees), or other unknown Jewish groups. The Essenes lived throughout Palestine in their own communities, and they are believed to have founded a small community in Khirbat Qumran, just off the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea. They are considered to be responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. The attribution of the book to Enoch at the time was likely intended to place the book within the patriarchal tradition and thus give it more credence and weight. The Enoch of the Bible supposedly lived approximately seven hundred years before the Flood, when, according to the Old Testament, most of earth’s physical features had not been formed—so the mention of mountains tends to disprove that Enoch wrote the book.

Nevertheless, the book is attributed to the Hebrew patriarch Enoch, whose biography is found in the Bible in Genesis 5:21–24. Enoch was the seventh descendant from Adam. His father was Jared, and at the age of sixty-five he became the father of Methuselah, the oldest man to live on earth. He was also the great-grandfather of Noah, the only man who lived among a wicked generation and was saved from the flood that destroyed the earth. Enoch lived on earth for 365 years and did not die like his predecessors but was taken up to heaven.

The story of Enoch in the Bible is very short, consisting of only three verses, but reference is made to him in two other books of the New Testament. In Hebrews 11:5 he is mentioned among the fathers of the faith, and he is quoted as referring to God’s judgment of “ungodly sinners” in the one-chapter book of Jude, verses 14–15. The question raised by this quotation is whether Enoch actually left a book behind or whether the quote is from some other source such as oral tradition. From the very short story of Enoch in the Bible and the tribute to him in Hebrews, it is understood that Enoch lived a righteous life and God rewarded him by taking him into heaven.