The Book of Enoch has surged in popularity among Christians exploring ancient texts and the biblical world. Is it Scripture? Should Christians read it? The answer requires understanding what the Book of Enoch actually is and how it relates to the biblical canon.
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) is a collection of ancient Jewish texts attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah (Genesis 5:18-24). It was composed primarily between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD and is preserved most completely in the Ethiopian Orthodox canon, which includes it as Scripture. Fragments were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, confirming its antiquity and use in Second Temple Judaism.
1 Enoch is divided into five books: The Book of the Watchers (the fallen angels narrative), The Book of Parables, The Astronomical Book, The Book of Dream Visions, and The Epistle of Enoch. Its most famous section — the Watchers material — expands on Genesis 6's "sons of God" narrative, describing fallen angels who intermarried with human women and produced the Nephilim.
The Book of Enoch was not included in the Jewish canon finalized at Jamnia (c. 90 AD) and was subsequently excluded from the Protestant Old Testament. The reasons include: disputed authorship (it clearly was not written by the biblical Enoch, who lived thousands of years before the text was composed), theological inconsistencies with canonical Scripture in some sections, and the early church's general consensus against including it despite its use among some early Christian writers.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church does include 1 Enoch in its biblical canon — making it scripture for perhaps 50 million Ethiopian Christians. This is a genuine exception to the broader Christian canonical consensus, not a fringe position. See the GotQuestions thorough treatment of the Book of Enoch for the full theological context.
Jude 14-15 quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 directly: "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: 'See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone.'" This is the most significant point of contact between 1 Enoch and the New Testament. Does Jude's quotation mean 1 Enoch is inspired Scripture?
Not necessarily. Paul quotes Greek poets (Aratus in Acts 17:28, Epimenides in Titus 1:12, Menander in 1 Corinthians 15:33) without those works becoming Scripture. A New Testament author quoting a text establishes that the specific quote is true, not that the entire source document is inspired. Jude's quotation affirms the prophecy he cites; it does not canonize 1 Enoch. This is the mainstream evangelical position as articulated by scholars including Desiring God's treatment of the question.
Christians can read the Book of Enoch as historical-theological context — it illuminates the Jewish world in which Jesus and the apostles lived, explains some New Testament references that assume knowledge of this tradition (Jude, 2 Peter, parts of Revelation), and provides a window into Second Temple Jewish theology. Treating it as additional Scripture, however, goes beyond the historic Protestant and Catholic canonical consensus.
The surge of interest in 1 Enoch among Christians is partly healthy (genuine historical curiosity) and partly concerning (Hebrew Roots and fringe movements use it to rewrite evangelical theology). Christians engaging 1 Enoch should do so with a good study Bible, solid commentaries, and pastoral guidance. See our guide on What Is Christian Discernment? and our Is the Bible Reliable? guide for the canonical framework.
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