Tom Davis provides an overview of the interesting but not-inspired apocryphal book written during the “silent years” between the Old and New Testaments.
Old Testament history ends with the post-exilic people of Judah returning to the land from Persia, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, and resuming ceremonies and sacrifices. The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, was written around 450–400 B.C. The period between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus is sometimes called “the silent years” because no prophetic writings were added to Scripture during that time. Yet this 400-year period was anything but silent: it included wars, political upheaval, and a large body of Jewish literature. One of those works is the Book of Enoch, also known as First Enoch.
The Book of Enoch is apocalyptic literature, like Revelation. Apocalyptic literature gives readers a “look behind the curtain” by revealing the spiritual realm, the defeat of evil, the restoration of humanity, and final judgment. The book is framed around Enoch, who appears in Genesis 4 and 5 and is also named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus. The Book of Enoch was written in stages between roughly 135 B.C. and 50 A.D., including the Book of the Watchers, the Book of Parables, the Book of Luminaries, the Book of Dreams, the Apocalypse of Weeks, and the Epistle of Enoch.
The Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches do not accept the Book of Enoch as part of the Bible. However, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does accept the Book of Enoch as a canonical book. For the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Book of Enoch connects Genesis to the prophetic books, links creation to the apocalypse, explains the origin of evil in the world, and complements Jubilees, an apocryphal book that retells the Genesis story and connects the Genesis narrative to the Jubilee year in the Old Testament. While the Book of Enoch is not authoritative Scripture for most Christians, reading it helps us understand how Second Temple Jews understood the origins of evil.
The Structure and Summary of the Book of Enoch
This overview argues that the Book of Enoch is valuable not because it carries biblical authority for most Christian traditions, but because it shows how some Second Temple Jews interpreted Genesis, evil, angels, judgment, and messianic hope before and during the time of the New Testament.
The Book of Enoch is commonly discussed in five major sections:
- The Book of the Watchers
- The Book of Parables
- The Book of the Luminaries
- The Book of Dreams
- The Epistle of Enoch
The Book of the Watchers (Chapters 1-36)
The Book of the Watchers begins with a statement that Enoch “took up a parable” and was blessed, and he saw “the Holy One in the heavens” (1 Enoch 1:2). Enoch is told to watch the heavens and see how God has organized them. God points out that He ordered the seasons and nature.
Chapters 6 through 11 discuss the fall of the angels. An angel named Semjaza leads the angels, known as the Watchers, as they decide to take human women as their wives. They descend at Mount Hermon and choose wives. The descendants of these marriages are giants, like Goliath, who later appear in the Old Testament. An angel named Azazel, who is mentioned in Leviticus 16 where one goat is sacrificed and another is sent into the desert (see ESV, NASB, and NET translations), teaches men how to make weapons of war and teaches women the use of cosmetics. First Enoch 6–16 expands Genesis 6:1–4, implying that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 are the angels described in First Enoch. First Enoch 15:8–12 states that when the giants, or Nephilim, died in the flood, their spirits became demons.
Four angels—Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel—see what the Watchers are doing and report it to God. God sends Michael and his angels to seize the Watchers, make a pit in the desert, and throw the Watchers into the pit. The sins of the Watchers are presented as worse than the sin of Adam.
The Watchers ask God if they can bring a petition before Him, but their request is denied. This section ends with God saying that He will cleanse the earth of the wickedness the Watchers created.
The term “watcher” is also found in Daniel 4, where a watcher appears in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that the dream means the Most High has passed judgment on him. This language shows a possible connection between Daniel’s use of “watcher” and the Watchers tradition in Enoch.
This section also influenced the thought of Jude and Peter. Jude 1:14–15 quotes First Enoch 1:9 in his epistle. Jude uses Enoch to show that people who behave like Cain, who killed his brother Abel, will be judged by God just as the Watchers are judged. While Peter does not quote the Book of Enoch directly, his language shares a common theme with Enoch. We can see this in 2 Peter 2:4, where Peter states that angels who sinned were cast into hell until judgment. This is not a direct quote, but Enoch says that the angels will be chained until the day of judgment (1 Enoch 10:11–13). The influence of Enoch on the thought of Peter and Jude is clear.
The Book of Parables (Chapters 37-71)
The Book of Parables introduces three figures: the Holy One, the Son of Man, and the Lord of Spirits. The Son of Man is presented as a human and heavenly figure who existed before the creation of the world. His role is to mediate knowledge and judgment. When Jesus uses the term “Son of Man,” He draws on Old Testament prophetic language from books such as Ezekiel and Daniel, as well as broader Jewish expectations that works like the Book of Enoch helped shape.
The Holy One defends the righteous from the wicked. This figure resembles the Holy One found in Isaiah, especially in the Servant Songs in chapters 40–55. The author of Enoch borrows from the Old Testament to show that the Holy One will protect Israel and defend God’s righteous people.
This section also refers to the Battle of Armageddon. Revelation has parallels to this battle with the main difference being the location of the battle. In Revelation the Battle of Armageddon is in Megiddo, while the location of the battle in the Book of Enoch is in Jerusalem.
The Book of Luminaries (Chapters 72-82)
The purpose of the Book of Luminaries is to show that time is not arbitrary. Time is set and controlled by God. Creation is divided into four quarters of ninety-one days. Each quarter includes three months of thirty days and a fourth month of thirty-one days. This pattern is considered sacred, and breaking from it is treated as a departure from God’s order. Living according to this pattern is considered living in harmony with God.
The Book of Dreams (Chapters 83-108)
In “The Book of Dreams,” Enoch sees a series of dreams that cover history from Adam to the end of the age. The vision symbolically presents creation, the period between the end of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messiah, the appearance of the new Adam, and the gathering of the heavenly assembly. The righteous are chosen and restored, while the Watchers are judged.
Together, these sections show why Enoch mattered to many ancient Jewish readers: it retells biblical themes through visions of cosmic order, angelic rebellion, judgment, and restoration.
Conclusion
The Book of Enoch is one of the most important books from the Second Temple period. As apocalyptic literature, it helps us understand the symbolic world that also appears in Revelation. New Testament authors were familiar with the Book of Enoch, especially in discussions of angelic sin, judgment, and the Son of Man. The Book of Enoch addresses the sin of the angels through its account of the fall of the Watchers (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, 14–15), and the Gospels’ references to Jesus as the Son of Man use language that overlaps with themes found in Enoch.
The Book of Enoch is not Scripture and is not authoritative. However, that does not mean reading it is useless. The Book of Enoch helps us understand how Old Testament ideas developed and how those ideas were later used in the New Testament. For that reason, the Book of Enoch remains important reading for biblical scholars.
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