Did Jude quote the Book of Enoch and other Apocryphal Works?
By Peter Salemi
Many people in the New Age movement and Authors like Billy Carson claim that the Book of Enoch should be included in the Biblical Canon. They believe Jude quoted the book and therefore should be part of the New Testament. Did Jude quote the book of Enoch and other works?
The Epistle of Jude was written to the church of God due to the fact that “ungodly men” crept into the church leading the church astray. Preaching and teaching to church members to rebel against God like the angels that sinned did-now are demons. Usurping the authority of Christ and submitting to them instead. Jude was preaching to, “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (v.3). Many of these people in the church were converted by the Apostles themselves and now they were being led astray.
During the festivals of God (Passover, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement etc…); these people were, “….spots in your feasts of charity [love], when they feast with you,” (v.12). Many of these ungodly men were speaking “evil” of Christ, “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, [license to sin]” (v.4).
Enoch Prophesied of these…
Of these men, Jude said, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh [Literally, “came [the] Lord,” Bullinger] with ten thousands of his saints…To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (vv.14, 15). Here many claim, “It is quoted from the apocryphal book of Enoch, directly, or from a tradition based upon it.” (Vincent Word Studies, emphasis added).
The passage in the book of Enoch is as follows:
“And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones
“To execute judgment upon all,
“And to destroy all the ungodly:
“And to convict all flesh
“Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed,
“And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (1 Enoch 1:9)
Now the “passages are similar but not exact” Some say Jude copied from Enoch because, Jude used the word “myrias.” This is the same word that occurs in Enoch 1:9 “That would seem to suggest that Jude copied Enoch…But that is not true. This becomes clear if we examine Jude 14-15 and Enoch 1:9 closely. [There] are some differences:” (quotes from Article: Did Jude Copy from the Book of Enoch? John Calahan, emphasis added).
Some also say that Jude calls Enoch, “the seventh from Adam.” This is also found in the book of Enoch, “where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created.” (1 Enoch 60:8-9). But this was common knowledge all one had to do is look into the scriptures to find this in the genealogies in Gen. 5:4–20, where the following descent is traced: Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, and Enoch. This makes Enoch the seventh in line, including Adam, according to a well-established ancient method called “inclusive reckoning” So whoever wrote the book of Enoch and Jude had the same source-the Bible!
Notice the differences between Jude and the book of Enoch:
1) Note that Jude says “the Lord came” but Enoch reads, “he will arrive” or “He cometh.” The Greek text of Jude says the “Lord” is performing a past event while Enoch a) does not refer to the Lord and b) refers to a future action. This is a major difference between the two quotes.
2) Second, Jude says the Lord will “execute judgment and to convict all the ungodly,” but Enoch says that “he” will “execute judgment upon all and to destroy all the ungodly. And to convict all flesh.” The reason for the difference is that Jude uses the Greek elencho for “convict,” but Enoch uses apolesei. This is another major difference between the two quotes.
3) Third, Enoch contains the phrase “destroy all the ungodly” which Jude does not include. The Greek word for “destroy” in Enoch is apolesei.
4) Fourth in Enoch we find the statement, “and censure all flesh” or convict all flesh.” But in Jude that statement is “and to convict all the ungodly.” The Greek word for “flesh” is sarka, but in Jude the word for “ungodly” is asebeis. Again, the Greek words are different-another major difference.
5) Fifth, Enoch contains the Greek word katelalesan, which means “slander,” but Jude does not include the word-again another major difference between the two passages.
“A comparison of the two passages reveals that the Greek text of Jude has 29 words but the text of Enoch…has 36 words. Other Greek texts include 45 words. The assumption that Jude quoted the book of Enoch [is false]…the passages have significant differences both in phrases, words, and length.” (ibid, emphasis added).
What is the truth?
Notice, Jude does not say, “the book of Enoch said” rather he said, “And Enoch…prophesied of these,” Enoch “prophesied” or preached under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jude was inspired-God records the correct wording of the prophet Enoch’s ancient prophecy. Jude records the prophecy accurately. We cannot trust the book of Enoch which is not inspired. “Jude accurately recorded Enoch’s prophecy. The book of Enoch is an inaccurate quote since it apparently depended upon oral traditions that had been handed down. It is understandable that the quote in Enoch would be inaccurate given the passage of time and the inaccuracies that can occur with the passage of time. But since God has promised to keep His Word accurate, we must conclude that Jude is accurate. The information in Enoch is inaccurate. Jude has the correct wording.” (ibid, emphasis added).
Added to this, Jude’s quote is the same as the inspired passage given to Moses in Deuteronomy 33:2 that says, “And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.” (see also Psalms 68:17). Here as in Jude the “Lord came” with “thousands of saints” This was inspired by God to Moses and to Jude as well. Many traditions grew out of the original prophecy by Enoch, and the Author of the book of Enoch quoted from these corrupt traditions. The Author of the book of Enoch also took from scripture; in fact many scholars believe that the passage in Enoch is a “midrash [interpretation] of Deuteronomy 33:2–3.” God is consistent with his message. He said it in Deuteronomy; before that he inspired Enoch, and then revealed it to Jude and Jude wrote down the actual quote from Enoch.
Book of Enoch is Not Scripture
The book of Enoch was never referred to by Jesus or any of the New Testament writers as Scripture, and the book was not included in the New Testament by the apostles. It is commonly misunderstood that the content of the Bible evolved over time. But the New Testament clearly tells us that the apostles were identifying Scripture as it was being written (2 Peter 3:14-16; cf. 1 Timothy 5:18 and Luke 10:7 ). The New Testament books were being distributed by the apostles to the various churches to be read (Galatians 6:11; Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 3:14). By the time the apostles died, the New Testament had been written and its books were known. The Muratorian Fragment and several of the early fathers have left us a list of books that were identified as belonging to the New Testament. The book of Enoch was never included in the Roman Catholic or Protestant Bibles.
The Assumption of Moses?
What about Jude 1:9 that says, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Many claim that Jude quoted another source called “The Assumption of Moses,” also known as the “Testament of Moses” (Hebrew עליית משה Aliyah Mosheh) a 1st-century Jewish apocryphal work. Apparently it contains secret prophecies Moses revealed to Joshua before passing leadership of the Israelites to him. It is characterized as a “testament,” meaning the final speech of a dying person, Moses. Did Jude quote this source?
First, it does not say, “The book the Assumption of Moses says…” It says, “Yet Michael the archangel…” He is not quoting an uninspired source!
Three early church fathers say that Jude 9 refers to the Assumption of Moses.
The early church father Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 155–220) says that Jude referred to the Assumption of Moses when he wrote these words, “When Michael, the archangel, disputing with the devil, debated about the body of Moses. Here he confirms the assumption of Moses” (Clement of Alexandria, “Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. William Wilson, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 573).
Another early church father, Origen (A.D. 185—254), writes this about Jude’s statement in his De Principiis, “And in the first place, in the book of Genesis, the serpent is described as having seduced Eve; regarding whom, in the work entitled The Ascension of Moses (a little treatise, of which the Apostle Jude makes mention in his Epistle), the archangel Michael, when disputing with the devil regarding the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve’s transgression” (Origen, “De Principiis,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 328). Notice that Origen refers to the book as the “Ascension of Moses” and not the “Assumption of Moses.” It does appear, however, that these two names refer to the same book.
According to Edwin A. Blum, the early church father Didymus of Alexandria (A.D. 309/314–398) also states that Jude 9 referred to the Assumption of Moses in his book “In epistolas canonicas brevis enarratio.” However, this author does not have access to the reference. (Edwin A. Blum. Jude. Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 12. p. 391).
So three early church fathers state that Jude 9 and the Assumption of Moses refer to the same event. But it is important to notice that they wrote about one hundred years after Jude was written. Therefore, how did they conclude that Jude quoted the Assumption of Moses? Why not the Assumption of Moses quoted Jude? Which one came first? No reason or explanation is given. Barnes Notes writes, “…there can be no reasonable doubt that such a book as Origen refers to, under the title of ‘the Assumption of Moses,’ was extant in ‘his’ time, but that does not prove by any means that it was extant in the time of Jude, or that he quoted it.”
Additionally, we do not know if the early church fathers had personally read the Assumption of Moses or had even heard about it. The reason for this last statement is that the only edition today of the Assumption of Moses is missing any reference similar to Jude 9.
Evidence?
We have a single sixth-century incomplete manuscript in Latin that was discovered by Antonio Ceriani in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan in the mid-nineteenth century and published by him in 1861 (Fragmenta Assumptionis Mosis in Monumenta sacra et profana 1,1, Milano 1861 pag 55-66).
James H. Charlesworth, a leading authority on the Pseudepigrapha, states that the existing copy of the Assumption of Moses does not contain any such reference to Jude 9. Here is his comment, “Some influence by the Testament of Moses on a number of New Testament passages has been suggested… Jude 9 refers to the story of the dispute between Michael and Satan for the body of Moses, an account that does not appear in our text.” (James H Charlesworth. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Doubleday & Company. 1983. vol. 1, p. 924, emphasis added).
Others suggest the sources for Jude are:
· General Jewish traditions about Michael as a gravedigger for the just as in the Apocalypse of Moses
· The angel of the Lord rebuking Satan over the body of Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3.
Barnes Notes thoroughly disproves every one of these points.
“Some have supposed that the reference is to the passage in Zechariah… the objections to this are very obvious:
(1) There is no similarity between the two, except the expression, “the Lord rebuke thee.”
(2) The name Michael does not occur at all in the passage in Zechariah.
(3) There is no mention made of the “body of Moses” there, and no allusion to it whatever.
(4) There is no intimation that there was any such contention about his body. There is a mere mention that Satan resisted the angel of the Lord, as seen in the vision, but no intimation that the controversy had “any” reference to Moses in any way.
On, “The remaining supposition is, that Jude here refers to a prevalent ‘tradition’ among the Jews, and that he has adopted it as containing an important truth, and one which bore on the subject under discussion…Jude says not one word of this, and is in no way responsible for it. All that he says is that there was a contention or dispute (διακρινόμενος διελέγετο diakrinomenos dielegeto) respecting ‘his body.’ But when it was, or what was the occasion, or how it was conducted, he does ‘not’ state, and we have no right to ascribe to him sentiments which he has not expressed. If ever such a controversy of any kind existed respecting that body, it is all that Jude affirms, and is all for which he should be held responsible.” (ibid, emphasis added).
Even if Jude 9 and the Assumption of Moses refer to the same event, we can trust the book of Jude since it is the inspired Word of God. We must remember that the pseudepigraphal book called the Assumption of Moses is not inspired, but Jude 9 is inspired. We can trust Jude 9 to be accurate. 2 Peter 1:20-21 teaches that all Scripture was written by the Holy Spirit and 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states that all Scripture is inspired by God. Jude 9 can be trusted.
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