1 – What is the Alien Gospel?
2 – Invasion by the Forces of Darkness
3 – Invasion by the Forces of Light? UFOs? Hybrids/Giants?
4 – Apocryphal Works: Old and New
5 – Reverse-Engineering/Embellishment of Artistic Works
6 – “As the Days of Noah. . . Seed of the Woman”
7 – Staying on Track
8 – Where to Draw the Line
APPENDIX 1: “Mingle themselves with seed of men” (Daniel 2:43)
APPENDIX 2: Why the Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch
APPENDIX 3: What’s wrong with the Book of Jasher? 
APPENDIX 4: How Canon Scripture Differs from Apocryphal Literature

APPENDIX 2: Why the Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch

There is no record in the Bible that Noah brought any writings of Enoch with him in the Ark. What is known now as the “Book of Enoch” (BOE) was written at a much later date. The Book contains several references to places and themes in both Old and New Testament, which betray the fact that the author could not have lived in pre-Flood days. These and other “missteps” should not have appeared if the writings were genuine and came from the pre-Flood patriarch. Following are a few examples:

1)       BOE 1:4 And the eternal God will tread upon the earth, (even) on Mount Sinai, [and appear from His camp] and appear in the strength of His might from the heaven of heavens. This statement contradicts the passage in Zechariah 14, “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof.” (14:4). In addition, it is highly unlikely that Mt. Sinai even existed in pre-Food days; or if it did exist, how would Enoch know to give it that name?

2)       BOE 1:7 And the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, and all that is upon the earth shall perish, and there shall be a judgment upon all (men). That the earth shall be “rent in sunder” goes along with what the Revelation Book reveals about plagues to come in the End Time which include “a mighty and great earthquake” so that “the cities of the nations fell.” (16:18-19) But to say “all that is upon the earth shall perish” does not go along with what Jesus stated in Matthew 24:22, “And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (ESV) Much of the human race will survive through the judgments of those days to live on into the Millennium; this is quite plain also from the Book of Revelation, chapter 20.

3)       BOE 2:3 Behold the summer and the winter, how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it. This statement contradicts what is stated in Genesis, chapter 2: “For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth… but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground” (verses 5-6). There was no rain then, so why would Enoch make the mistake of saying there was, or how could he have written about rain in the first place when he had not even seen it?

4)       BOE 10:1-4 Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech [Noah], and said to him: “Go to Noah and tell him in My name, ‘Sir, hide yourself away! Reveal the approaching end to him, a deluge will come suddenly upon the whole land and the whole land will be destroyed. Aye, the floods will obliterate all that is in the land. Now teach Noah how he may escape so that his seed might be preserved for all future families of the world.’” The genealogy in Genesis, chapter 5, plainly shows that Enoch left his earthly life 69 years before the birth of Noah. It seems odd then that Enoch was writing as if Noah was alive in his time. We may also wonder, how much, if anything, did God reveal to Enoch about the coming Deluge, which came a full 669 years after his passing. And then, how likely is it that God would inform Enoch that an angel was going to warn Noah, a man whose name he had never heard and who was to be born long after his death? It all seems a bit of a stretch.

5)       BOE 10:8-9 … And the whole Earth has been ruined by the teaching of the works of Azazel; and against him write: ALL SIN. The passage here gives the impression that the blame for Earth’s corruption rested on this one person. But Genesis 6:5 states, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” It is the “wickedness of man” rather than that of any one influential person (who may be nothing more than the product of someone’s imagination) that necessitated the judgment of the Deluge.

6)       BOE 13:7 And I went off and sat down at the waters of Dan, in the land of Dan, to the south of the west of Hermon… This is an unusual statement to make for a man who lived some 2,000-plus years before the “land of Dan” ever came into existence. The “Enoch” who wrote this passage not only names this land but even knows its exact location.

7)       BOE 13:10 … in Ubelseyael, which is between Lebanon and Senir. Again the passage shows geographical knowledge that the patriarch Enoch could not have had. “Lebabon” never came into existence until 1,000 or more years after Enoch’s time.

8)       The above two passages in BOE 13 are part of the fallen angels’ request to Enoch to intercede in prayer for them in view of God’s upcoming judgments on them. That such an event could take place at all sounds rather fantastic.

Overall, it seems improbable that such a detailed description from the pre-Flood Age could have been preserved from such a long time ago. In the Book of Genesis the record of the Flood and Noah’s work in preparation for it, and his life after the Flood, are quite sketchy by comparison. In addition, judging by the various “missteps” in the Book of Enoch, it seems obvious that it could not have been written by the ancient patriarch Enoch. 

The Book of Enoch is comparable to what we would call nowadays historical fiction. Nothing wrong with historical fiction, as long as we recognize it as entertainment and try to see how it can point us towards edifying principles and Biblical truths. Nowadays there are many such books and movies, based on historical themes, that are edifying and do point their readers and viewers in the right direction spiritually. And the Book of Enoch is also helpful in this way – in particular, because of several references to the coming of the Messiah – and is probably the reason why Jude used a quotation from it.

(NEXT)  APPENDIX 3: What’s wrong with the Book of Jasher?