When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, the Nephilim, and the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed

By Brian Godawa

When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, The Nephilim, and the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed

3rd Edition

Copyright © 2014, 2021 Brian Godawa

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.

Warrior Poet Publishing

www.warriorpoetpublishing.com

ISBN: 9798710855850 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-0-9911434-4-3 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-9911434-5-0 (ebook)

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001, unless indicated NASB.

NASB Scripture quotations taken from New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents iv

Foreword By Dr. Michael S. Heiser 1

Preface 5

Chapter 1  The Book of Enoch:  Scripture, Heresy, or What? 7

Noah Primeval Appendices
Chapter 2  The Sons of God 36

Chapter 3 The Nephilim 62

Chapter 4 Leviathan 78

Chapter 5 Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography  in the Bible 88

Enoch Primordial Appendix
Chapter 6 Retelling Biblical Stories and the Mythic Imagination in Enoch Primordial 113

Gilgamesh Immortal Appendix
Chapter 7 Gilgamesh and the Bible 155

Abraham Allegiant Appendix
Chapter 8 Between the Lines:  In Defense of Ancient Traditions 181

Joshua Valiant Appendix
Chapter 9 Mythical Monsters in the Bible 199

Caleb Vigilant Appendix
Chapter 10 Canaanite Baal, Old Testament Storytelling Polemics 225

David Ascendant Appendix
Chapter 11 Goliath Was Not Alone 240

Jesus Triumphant Appendices
Chapter 12 Jesus and the Cosmic War 264

Chapter 13 The Geography of Hades 298

Get the Sequel to this book! 313

Great Offers By Brian Godawa 315

Foreword
By Dr. Michael S. Heiser

The believing Church is in crisis.

I’m not talking about the current socio-political hostility that is progressively marginalizing and even villainizing Christianity. I’m speaking of something more lethal—an internal predicament. The Church has historically held its ground against enemy attack and emerged stronger. But it’s the enemy from within that’s a greater concern. Christianity is in danger of morphing from the “pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15) to a shallow parody of itself or a meaningless amalgam of disconnected Bible verses and incoherent hokum. If it happens, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

I’ve been a Christian for over thirty years. I wear the hats of lay person, elder, scholar, professor, writer, novelist, speaker, and blogger. Everything I do and have done as a Christian has been oriented by that thing believers claim to consider inspired, divine revelation: the Bible. In more than three decades of personal engagement with the biblical text and observation of many versions of public, private, and celebrity Christianity, I’ve gained some perspective.

As a biblical studies professor, I’ve seen the current generation and the one to follow in my classrooms. There are glimmers of hope, but the view isn’t inspiring. As a scholar, I’ve had steady interaction with fellow academics in biblical studies and theology. Besides listening to themselves talk, scholars enjoy talking to other scholars. Academic societies are like country clubs for geeks. Sadly, few conversations are about specifically helping the person in the pew get better access to primary sources so they can sift through the intellectual rubbish they see on the internet or YouTube (or church). As a key content contributor to the nation’s largest and most successful Bible software company, I’ve learned a lot about the Christian consumer. I know what pastors and lay people read and don’t read, what is preached or not preached. God help us. Lastly, as someone whose fiction has vaulted him inside the fringe communities of religion, parapsychology, and the paranormal, I no  longer have to wonder what it would be like if Erich von Däniken led a Bible study, or if Billy Graham and Shirley MacLaine had children together.

I’ve spent some time in the past few years wondering about how it came to this and what to do about it. That’s where Brian Godawa and his work come in. He’s trying to be part of the remedy for some of what ails us. The present book, along with his Chronicles of the Nephilim  fantasy series from which its content derives, are demonstrations of the sincerity of his efforts. But before I explain why I whole-heartedly believe that’s the case, I need to give you the lay of the Christian land as I see it. You’ll only know Brian is part of the solution when you clearly grasp the problems.

Believing Christianity operates in three realms. I have friends and enemies in all of them. Let’s imagine them as three concentric circles.

In the outermost ring, the largest, we have what happens in church. This is where we find pastors and their congregations, the laity. Part of this ring is composed of folks with a long attachment to the faith. Church is where they go to hear about the Bible, to hear stories and truths from their childhood. It’s a familiar community. The rest of the population are seekers or newcomers. These are folks who are there due to intellectual curiosity, a personal relationship, or the need to redefine community.

Because this ring has the most people, one might expect to find the most engagement with the Bible. That simply isn’t true, especially today. Few read the Bible with regularity. That’s what church is for, isn’t it? One would also think the pastor’s primary distraction is fixing this problem of biblical illiteracy. Not so. Whether generational believers or seekers, the focus has become what is known in church growth circles as “felt needs.” Where biblical knowledge is not a felt need, where it fails to stimulate the intellect and the imagination, the Bible won’t be the priority. 

This is one crisis.

Churches have become places with little tolerance for serious biblical content. That’s impractical, so the mantra goes—what felt need does it address? As time goes on, people become conditioned to expecting little from the Bible. Preaching gets reduced to Bible stories with adult illustrations. The Bible no longer surprises or stimulates. It is stripped of both its wonder and transformative power. In the absence of a divine revelation that holds our attention and motivates us as spiritual warriors, we’ve created an evangelical Gnosticism—we’re on our own for a spiritual buzz, and so we’ll get it where we can.

Moving inwardly, the next ring is occupied by those largely self-exiled from the outermost ring. The motivations vary, but boredom and intellectual atrophy are the most common. They want to learn Scripture in a serious way. They know that Bible reading isn’t Bible study. They’ve been going to church for a solid meal for years, and the intravenous drip they get isn’t cutting it. They’re starving for content. Who can blame them?

Those who emerge as teachers in this space know more than most anyone in the outermost ring, even most pastors. But they are not scholars, despite the fact that most who occupy this ring look at them that way, and they come to fancy themselves as such. Scholars are taught and tested by other scholars. The teachers in this realm are self taught and tested by no one. Neither they, nor the people who follow them, know what they don’t know.

Since these teachers occupy the top of the intellectual pecking order that emerges in this realm, they cannot know when they stray from sound method, teaching, and theology. If they have sufficient humility to desire such accountability, they may never find it, since most scholars have long detached themselves from such assistance. But the greater concern are those who are intoxicated by the idea of having a following. These are the theological hipsters and hucksters of the current generation. Their devotees are not equipped to challenge them, and have become accustomed to filter anything anyone else says through the wise sage that commands their attention. They can say anything to their pupils, no matter how outlandish or idiosyncratic and get away with it. 

That’s another crisis.

The final (and smallest) ring is the innermost—the domain of the scholars. Here we find the deepest engagement with Scripture and, as I hinted earlier, the farthest detachment from the people who need the fruit of their labors.

The irony is that, despite the greatest depth in scriptural knowledge, this ring has the most dysfunction when it comes to ministry—the other two rings. This is expected with respect to non-confessional scholars, but it’s also common within the evangelical ranks.

There are naturally exceptions, but all too often the brightest minds who have the most time and expertise for engaging Scripture cloister themselves and become fixated on reputation within the guild. They overwhelmingly view the nonsense absorbed (and taught) in the other two rings as simply not worth their time. Many who have discovered blogging and social media use it to debate among or congratulate themselves in cyberspace. The web is a just new way to avoid the biblically unwashed masses. 

This is also a crisis.

Brian Godawa offers a remedy to each crisis. The Chronicles of the Nephilim  does the impossible—it turns serious academic scholarship in ancient primary sources into engaging entertainment. Fiction and fantasy are tried-and-true vehicles for transmitting theological truths and biblical concepts. This is what reaches the masses.

Brian’s work also addresses what’s wrong with the other two realms. Each volume of The Chronicles of the Nephilim  contains resources and commentary for exploring the biblical text in its own context. When Giants Were Upon the Earth collects all that information and expands on it. It’s a biblical-theological feast.

But don’t mistake the feast for smorgasbord theology. As someone Brian has tapped as a resource, I can tell you his focus is on peer-reviewed biblical scholarship. His sources are not his own opinions. He’s not grinding axes and “solving” conspiracies. He’s not pretending questions are answers. He knows the difference between supernatural possibilities grounded in the biblical text and sanctified speculation. He’s not building a fiefdom—he wants you to learn what he’s learned. That’s the purpose of this book. It’s a blessing to recommend it to you.

Dr. Michael S. Heiser

PhD, Hebrew Bible and Semitic Studies

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Academic Editor, Logos Bible Software

Bellingham, WA

Preface

When I began writing Chronicles of the Nephilim, I never thought it would become such a vast enterprise that would change my life. It was like the opening of Elisha’s servant’s eyes to see the heavenly host I had been missing.

This book began when I decided to add some appendices onto the first volume Noah Primeval. I thought it might provide some interest for those who wanted to explore the Biblical and ancient historical foundation behind the fiction of the novel.

I’ve always been kind of “bipolar” in my love of both imagination and intellectual analysis. I was inspired by Michael Crichton novels because he used to provide an appendix at the end of each of his books explaining some of the real science behind his fictional morality tales about the dangers of unfettered science and technology. So I decided to mimic a master with my own appendices at the end of my novels. 

I didn’t realize what a strong and positive reaction I would get from that addition. A significant number of readers thanked me for providing the research I had done. Some even said they enjoyed the appendices as much as the novels. I thought I stumbled upon an effective helpful supplement, so I decided to do the same thing in every novel. I provided an appendix after each book that covered the Biblical and ancient Near Eastern research behind that particular story.

What I soon realized was that the appendices were not merely unconnected pieces of scholarship. They were much like the novels. They created a theological progression of the very same Cosmic War of the Seed storyline that my Biblical fantasy novels were offering.

I decided that I wanted to provide that more intellectual and theological development in a single unified volume for those who wanted to study the Biblical and ancient historical material exclusively.

So I offer this compilation of all the appendices of the Chronicles of the Nephilim. To add some value, I have included some extra material not in the original appendices, such as my analysis of the book of 1 Enoch. But I have also included the appendices for the last two Chronicles, David Ascendant and Jesus Triumphant before the release of those novels.

Of course, there will be some overlap of material in the chapters, but I kept them that way because each chapter provides a different context of the information that may shed new light the reader did not see in previous chapters.

Enjoy.

Imagine.

Believe.

Brian Godawa

Author, Chronicles of the Nephilim

March, 2014

Chapter 1
The Book of Enoch:
Scripture, Heresy, or What?

In recent years, there has been a rise of interest in the subject of giants called “Nephilim” and the Sons of God called “Watchers” in the Bible. Much of this interest swirls around the End Times crowd and involves speculation that approaches the absurd. Visions abound of an impending return to “the days of Noah,” with cloned Nephilim among us, the Antichrist coming in a UFO, and Watchers masquerading as alien saviors. It makes for fascinating and entertaining reading. But regardless of such flights of futuristic fanciful fantastique, the fact remains, the Bible does talk about a bizarre event in antediluvian days (before the Flood) that involves these strange Nephilim creatures – whatever they are. 

Genesis 6:1–4

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

There is an ongoing historical controversy over what exactly happened in those ancient days. Several views have been held by orthodox Christian Church fathers and later theologians. The most popular view in ancient Judaism and the early Church was that the Sons of God were supernatural angelic beings who mated with human woman and their offspring were giants. More recent scholarly views argue that the Sons of God were either tyrannical kings who claimed divinity in their royal lineage, or human descendants from the “righteous” line of Seth who violated holiness and intermarried with the “unrighteous” line of the daughters of Cain. In these modern views, the Nephilim tend to be understood merely as mighty warriors of an ancient era.

I will not be arguing for any of these views in this chapter, but rather, I will be addressing the ancient Book of Enoch because it has made a significant impact on the current Watchers/Nephilim controversy. The theological scandal is that the book includes a very clear supernatural interpretation of Genesis 6 with angelic Watchers mating with humans who birth giants that walk among us. But even more, it expands upon that view with a detailed story of how these Watchers influenced mankind with occultic revelations and how the patriarch Enoch condemned the Watchers and their giant offspring who had become violent bloodthirsty cannibals. 

If the book is a reliable source, it certainly adds to the controversial flames with this fantastic interpretation, but honest pursuers of truth should not discount any textual assessment because of a fear of undesired conclusions. We must follow the truth no matter where it leads us.

Many Christians are now quoting the Book of Enoch as if it were Scripture, or at least a true interpretation of Scripture in order to prove their supernatural view. Others are dismissing it as obvious fabricated legend without merit, or worse, heresy. Regardless of one’s interpretation, this esoteric ancient manuscript warrants an examination because of its popular and scholarly influence in its mysterious connection to the Bible.

Enoch in the Bible

The ancient patriarch Enoch is surely one of the most enigmatic characters in all of Bible history. Outside of genealogies, he is only mentioned in one brief sentence in the Old Testament. But that single sentence has drawn volumes of speculation because it is so fascinating and mysterious. 

In Genesis 4:17 we read about a son of Cain named Enoch, after whom, a city was built. But this is not our man. The Enoch we are looking at is the son of Jared, before the Flood, whose son was Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible (Gen. 5:19-21). The text says that Enoch only lived 365 years, compared to the much longer time spans of those around him, reaching as high as Adam’s 930 years and Jared’s 962 (Methuselah’s record was 969).

Whether these ages are literal or symbolic, Enoch was on earth for only a short time because, as the text says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). The phrase “walked with God” is used of Noah right after this and its context is righteousness and purity in a wicked generation filled with violence and corruption (Gen. 6:9-12). But it also carries the connotation of a direct and immediate relationship with God beyond mere obedience. Enoch had a holy intimacy with the Creator that separated him from the world around him.

This righteousness sheds light on the unique phrase that Enoch “was not, for God took him” (5:23). As Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham points out, the idea of  “was not” cannot merely be a poetic way of saying “died,” because every other reference to the death of the men in that same genealogy is “and he died” (eight times). In contrast, Enoch is the only one with this peculiar wording “and he was not.” But this reflects the same wording used of Elijah’s translation to heaven in a chariot of fire, thus avoiding death (2 Kgs 2:1-10).

The New Testament confirms this interpretation of translation to heaven in Hebrews 11:

Hebrews 11:5 

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 

The writer of Hebrews holds up Enoch as an example of the righteousness of faith under the Old Covenant. Even before Messiah came, even in the primeval era of humankind, faith was the expression of right standing before God. 

The only other reference to Enoch is in the epistle of Jude where Enoch is quoted as a righteous man condemning the wicked of his generation.

Jude 14–15

It was also about these [evil blasphemers] that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 

I will have more to say about this passage shortly, but for now, let me just make the point that the three Biblical passages about Enoch paint a picture of a righteous man, in holy communion with God, during a time of great evil before the Flood, who prophesied judgment upon evildoers, and as a result of his God pleasing faith, was translated into heaven by God before he could die.

It is easy to see why Enoch has captivated the imagination of believers through history with his mysterious introduction, cryptic behavior, and aura of holiness. And it is also easy to see why he captivated the imagination of ancient Jews writing extra-Biblical literature during the Second Temple period. 

The Books of Enoch

There are actually three “Books of Enoch.” They are numbered but also go by the names of the language they are written in. Thus 1 Enoch is referred to as Ethiopian Enoch, 2 Enoch is called Slavonic Enoch, and 3 Enoch is called Hebrew Enoch. They are all considered to be Pseudepigrapha. Though this word literally means “false writings,” or writings attributed to an author who did not write them, J.H. Charlesworth argues that “rather than being spurious the documents considered as belonging to the Pseudepigrapha are works written in honor of and inspired by Old Testament heroes.” 

This newer denotation illustrates the attempt to distance the literature from the notion of deliberate deception and to highlight its sacred value to the community of faith. One is reminded of how the Pentateuch is often attributed to Moses, yet it remains anonymous and shows distinct signs that argue against his sole authorship. 

Loren Stuckenbruck complains that the modern notion of “falseness” in Pseudepigraphal authorship is an anachronism that fails to capture the ancient acceptance of anonymous writers using “ideal” authorship as a means of uniting the ancient past with the present and future in sacred connection. “They presented themselves, in effect, as voices about the readers’ remote past out of the remote past… This, in turn, would make it possible for the audience to participate imaginatively in that world in order to re-imagine and gain perspective on the present.”

As Charlesworth explains, the Pseudepigrapha includes a large body of manuscripts from various locations and authors that were composed around the period from 200 B.C. to about A.D. 200. They are either Jewish or Christian in origin, they are often attributed to ideal figures in Israel’s past, and they usually claim to contain God’s message, building upon ideas and narratives of the Old Testament. Some of the other well known Pseudepigrapha include Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Psalms of Solomon, the Apocalypses of Ezra and Baruch and many others.

Though 2 and 3 Enoch also contain material about the patriarch Enoch and his alleged visions and experiences, they do not carry the weight or influence that 1 Enoch has had on ancient Judaism and Christianity. 2 and 3 Enoch are both written much later and are plagued by diverse traditions of manuscript variations. 2 Enoch was most likely written sometime in the 2nd century after Christ. 3 Enoch shows evidence of later Jewish mysticism and claims authorship by a Rabbi Ishmael relating his visions of Enoch written anywhere from the 3rd to the 6th century A.D.

But the book that is traditionally intended when referring to “the book of Enoch” is the Ethiopian 1 Enoch. Its oldest sections are considered to have been written as early as 300 B.C., but the only complete manuscript we have available is an Ethiopic translation from 400-500 A.D. Though early Church Fathers and the Ethiopian Church had been familiar with the text, it had been considered lost to Western scholarship until its rediscovery and introduction in the 1800s. The most recent discoveries in the 1950s of Enoch fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran suggest that the original language was Aramaic. 

What is the Book of 1 Enoch?

1Enoch belongs to the genre of literature called “apocalyptic” or “apocalypticism.” “Apocalypse” in Greek simply means “revelation” or “disclosure.” John Collins, an expert in apocalyptic literature defines it as a genre “with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.” Yarbro Collins adds a point of clarification to the definition that apocalyptic is “intended to interpret present, earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future, and to influence both the understanding and the behavior of the audience by means of divine authority.”

Apocalyptic literature has the common elements of 1) being written as comfort to people who are suffering contemporary oppression 2) by referring to God’s victory in history over oppressive forces 3) using fantastic imagery to express spiritual reality 4) in esoteric or symbolic terms in order to avoid outright suppression by the reigning powers in authority.

The well known books in the Bible of Daniel and Revelation are considered apocalyptic in their genre as Daniel and John are ushered into heaven and receive revelation about coming earthly historical events cloaked in poetic language to communicate the spiritual and theological meaning behind those events. They too are written as comfort to believers suffering persecution. They both contain symbolic fantastic imagery and are esoteric significations of governing authorities.

Most scholars believe that the Book of Enoch is really five different books that were written in different time periods and redacted together by editors until it became its current version before A.D. 100. But there is no manuscript evidence for this theory and the oldest version that we have of the books are fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls that indicate all five in one corpus.

The five different “books” are subdivided with their approximate dates thus:

1. The Book of the Watchers (Chapters 1–36) 3rd century B.C.

2. The Book of Parables (37–71) 1st century B.C.

3. The Book of Heavenly Luminaries (72–82) 3rd century B.C.

4. The Book of Dream Visions (83–90) 2nd century B.C.

5. The Book of the Epistle of Enoch (91–107) 2nd century B.C.

1. The Book of the Watchers (Chaps. 1-36). This is the book that carries the most amount of interest for our examination. It most likely predates the Hellenistic period, being completed by the middle of the 3rd century B.C. It is announced as an oracle of judgment by Enoch. It tells a detailed narrative of two hundred heavenly Watchers who rebel against God in heaven led by Semyaza and Azazel. They come to earth on Mount Hermon, mate with human women, and produce bloodthirsty hybrid giants as their progeny, leading to the Great Flood. It contains details about the Watchers and their names, along with the occultic secrets they reveal to mankind that violate the holy separation of heaven and earth. It describes Enoch’s heavenly commission as a prophet and accounts of his cosmic journeys into heaven to proclaim judgment upon these foes of God.

2. The Book of Parables (Chaps. 37-71). This appears to be the latest portion of Enochic texts, dating to about the end of the 1st century B.C. It is a recounting of Enoch’s cosmic journey and vision of judgment upon the fallen angels and their wicked human counterparts, juxtaposed against the elevation of “the holy, the righteous, the elect.” It also includes descriptions of astronomical phenomena such as the source of the wind and rain. The unique and important contribution of these chapters is the vision of God’s throne room drawn from the book of Isaiah and Daniel 7 that depicts the “Ancient of Days,” the heavenly host that surrounds the throne, and the “Son of Man” as vice regent, also referred to as the Elect One, the Righteous One, and the Messiah (Anointed One). Scholars point to this book as influential in the development of the doctrine of the Son of Man leading to the New Testament Gospels.

3. The Book of Heavenly Luminaries (Chaps. 72-82). These are probably the earliest of Enochian texts with roots in the Persian period between 500 and 300 B.C. It describes Uriel the angel showing Enoch the astronomical, cosmological and calendrical laws that verify the authority of the solar calendar. 

4. The Book of Dream Visions (Chaps. 83-90). Enoch recounts two dreams he saw to his son Methuselah before his marriage. The first dream is a brief warning about the coming Flood. The second dream is a complex allegory using animals to represent the history of the world from Adam to the Hellenistic period they were in, with a projection into the future judgment. The date for this book is around 165 B.C., the time of the Maccabean revolt, which is roughly where the history allegory ends.

5. The Epistle of Enoch (Chaps. 92-105).  Composed sometime in the 2nd century B.C., this document records Enoch’s exhortation to his children to remain righteous in their wicked generation. He predicts woes of suffering, shame, misery, and judgment for the wicked who are rich, oppress the righteous, and worship idols. He predicts justice, comfort, eternal life, and glorification like the stars for those who remain pure.

6. Additional “Books” (Chaps. 106+). These last pieces are like appendices added onto the book of Enoch as additional chapters. Two chapters detail the miraculous birth narrative of Noah. The infant Noah’s face and hair are said to glow white. His father Lamech is frightened that he may be the offspring of a Watcher, but he is reassured by Enoch that this is not the case, but rather that Noah is pure and holy, called to be God’s remnant. Then one chapter, 108, is an additional exhortation by Enoch to Methuselah of the judgment of good and evil in the latter days. 

Lastly, is the Book of Giants. Until the 1950s, the Book of Giants was only known as a Manichean gnostic text from the late 3rd century A.D. But the discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in the 1950s uncovered fragments of an original Book of Giants in Aramaic from the 2nd century B.C. that was the basis for the Manichean expanded alterations. Enochian expert J.T. Milik argues that the Book of Giants should be considered part of the corpus of 1 Enoch texts, but scholars are divided over this conclusion.

Although we only have precious few fragments of this book, the story can be pieced together of the fall of the Watchers and their mating with humans, producing defiled giant offspring. But the unique aspect of this manuscript is its elaboration of the personal exploits of the giants from their perspective. Several giant sons of the Watchers named Ohya and Hahya (sons of Semyaza) and Mahway have dream visions of the Deluge. Interestingly, the Mesopotamian giant king Gilgamesh shows up in this tale as well, and he helps the giants seek out Enoch to discover the interpretation of their dreams. Enoch responds with a tablet declaring the great Flood to come as their judgment and his own challenge to them to pray for mercy.

The Book of Enoch and the Canon

The book of Enoch may be fascinating religious and spiritual storytelling. But there are a myriad of such texts from the Second Temple period of ancient Judaism. What makes Enoch special? Just how was the book of Enoch thought of by ancient Jews before Christ, or for that matter, by Christians after him? 

The canonization of the Old Testament is well documented in Jewish and Christian scholarship. Though claims have been made for the canonicity of 1 Enoch by some early Church Fathers, it was not considered to be Scripture by any of the ancient traditions. 

The traditional thirty-nine books that we now call the Old Testament, was referred to in the New Testament and other Second Temple literature as “the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). There is no manuscript or historical evidence that 1 Enoch was ever a part of this traditional threefold designation. 

The earliest manuscripts we have of Old Testament canonical writings are from 400-300 B.C. from the library of Qumran. But as Bauckham points out, the Enoch literature and other apocryphal works at Qumran were evidently valued as literary works by the Essene community but were not included in their canon of Scripture.

The Septuagint (LXX) was considered the authoritative Greek translation from around 200-100 B.C. and was quoted or alluded to by Jesus and the apostles. The LXX did include additional apocryphal books along with the traditional threefold division, but 1 Enoch was not one of them.

The Hebrew Masoretic texts (MT), compiled between A.D. 500 and 900 by Jewish scribes, is considered by both Christians and Jews to be one of the most authoritative set of manuscripts reflecting the ancient Jewish canon. 1 Enoch was never a part of this set.

The only manuscript collection that does include 1 Enoch as canonical is the Ethiopic canon of the Coptic Church. But this designation was solidified sometime in the 13th century A.D. in response to Western pressure and under Muslim influence.

Outside the Canon. In his commentary on 1 Enoch, George Nickelsburg catalogues the widespread influence that the book of Enoch had on both Jewish and Christian literature. Though the Old Testament canon never included 1 Enoch, its Watchers/giants storyline was quoted as spiritually authoritative in other significant Second Temple Jewish literature such as the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira, the Genesis Apocryphon, Wisdom of Solomon, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, 2 and 3 Enoch, The Life of Adam and Eve, as well as some of the Targumim.

The book of Jubilees, a highly regarded Jewish text, written sometime in the 2nd century B.C., draws explicitly from 1 Enoch as Scripture under the claim that Enoch had received his vision from the angels of God:

Jubilees 4:17-22

[Enoch] wrote in a book the signs of the heaven… And he was therefore with the angels of God six jubilees of years. And they showed him everything which is on earth and in the heavens, the dominion of the sun. And he wrote everything, and bore witness to the Watchers, the ones who sinned with the daughters of men because they began to mingle themselves with the daughters of men so that they might be polluted. And Enoch bore witness against all of them.

Because the Christian Church arose within a milieu of Jewish apocalypticism, Enochic texts and traditions had much influence on Christian thought outside the New Testament. 1 Enoch translator E. Isaac writes, “1 Enoch played a significant role in the early Church; it was used by the authors of the Epistle of Barnabas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and a number of apologetic works. Many Church Fathers, including Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, and Clement of Alexandria, either knew 1 Enoch or were inspired by it. Among those who were familiar with 1 Enoch, Tertullian had an exceptionally high regard for it.”

Indeed, the epistle of Barnabas, young Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian all considered 1 Enoch to be Scripture. Tertullian wrote in “Concerning The Genuineness Of “The Prophecy Of Enoch,” “I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either…But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that “every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.”…To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude.”

Church father Justin Martyr quotes 1 Enoch’s angelic mating with women and their revelation of occultic arts to humans as an apologetic argument explaining the true origin of gods mating with women in pagan mythologies. 

Isaac concludes that starting in the 4th century, Enoch fell into disfavor in the West with the negative reviews of influential theologians like Julius Africanus, Augustine, Hilary, and Jerome. He then explains that it was the medieval mind that relegated 1 Enoch to virtual oblivion outside of Ethiopia before it was resurrected in 1773 by the discovery of Scottish explorer James Bruce, who returned to Europe with several manuscripts of the Ethiopic Enoch.

Though skepticism of 1 Enoch was surely warranted, Nickelsburg suggests that some skeptics were influenced by biases apart from Biblical arguments. For instance, the gnostic manipulation of Enochic texts by the Manichean heresy made both Jerome and Augustine uncomfortable with its popularity, leading them to dismiss it as apocryphal. Augustine, having a personal background in Manicheanism, displayed a tendency to react against the interpretation of angels with corporeal bodies because of its alleged affinity to his Gnostic past. With his singular influence on the Western Church, Augustine laid the foundation for the rejection of Enochian concepts within that tradition.

But we must learn our lesson from Augustine’s fallacy of guilt by association. Just because some aberrant sects or non-Christian cults may value 1 Enoch does not make it an unworthy text, especially since it has a long pedigree of acceptance within the historic orthodox Christian faith. After all, non-Christian cults of all kinds do the same thing with the Bible. Abuse of a text does not negate proper use.

The Book of Enoch and the New Testament

Though the book of 1 Enoch is not considered Scripture, this does not invalidate its claims to accuracy or reliable spiritual information. Orthodox Christian believers maintain that only the Old and New Testaments are the “God-breathed” or inspired Word of God (2Tim. 3:15-16). That is, they are the sole infallible authority of God’s revelation to humankind. But in our desire to affirm the absolute canonical truth value of God’s Word, we too often dismiss the contingent truth value of non-canonical works. We can become guilty of “dehumanizing” the authorship of Scriptures in our desire to maintain a priority of the authorship of God. The truth is that the authorship of Scripture, like the incarnation of Christ, is rooted in both human and divine origins. 

The doctrine of the Inspiration of Scripture is not like the claims of Islam. We do not believe that the human authors merely recorded the words of God like secretaries taking audible dictation. Nor does Inspiration mean that God magically controlled the hands of the authors to write what he alone wanted, like some kind of automatic writing from a spirit. Rather, God providentially breathed his intent into the words that men were writing in very human contexts, employing very human sources.

It may surprise those who hold a high view of Scripture that some of the New Testament writers used the book of Enoch as source material. They may even bristle at the suggestion and seek to deny it or downplay it because of the implications they fear of connecting holy writ to human writ. But it is important to understand that the admitted use of non-canonical sources by writers of Scripture was an all too common activity of God.

There are well over fifty references in the Scriptures to just over twenty non-canonical source texts used by Biblical authors that are lost to history. These are non-Biblical sources that the writers of Scripture actually mention as being sources of information for their writing of Scripture. Noted scholar James Charlesworth lists a few of them in his examination of lost writings related to the Bible:

The Book of the Wars of Yahweh (Num. 21:14)

The Book of the Just [or Jasher] (Josh. 10:13, 2 Sam. 1:18)

The Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11:41)

The Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel

(1 Kgs. 14:19, 2 Chr. 33:18; cf. 2 Chr. 20:34)

The Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah 

(1 Kgs. 14:29, 15:7)

The Annals of Samuel the seer (1 Chr. 29:29)

The History of Nathan the prophet (2 Chr. 9:29)

The Annals of Shemaiah the prophet and of lddo the seer 

(2 Chr. 12:15)

The Annals of Jehu son of Hanani (2 Chr. 20:34)

An unknown and untitled writing of Isaiah (2 Chr. 26:22)

The Annals of Hozai (2 Chr. 33:18)

An unknown lament for Josiah by Jeremiah (2 Chr. 35:25).

With a repertoire of non-Biblical source texts like this acknowledged by the very writers of Scripture, Christians simply cannot afford to dismiss influential non-canonical texts as irrelevant or unworthy of studious respect. Especially those who proclaim sola scriptura, since the Scriptures themselves grant such explicit respect to their sources.

Unfortunately all of these sources are lost to history, except one: 1 Enoch. This book of Enoch is one such source whose direct and indirect influence can be seen on significant portions of the New Testament. As a matter of fact, 1 Enoch is quoted directly in the epistle of Jude. But before we examine that explicit example, let’s take a look at the implicit impact of Enoch on the New Testament.

Son of Man. Nickelsburg lays out evidence for the influence of 1 Enoch on the New Testament appropriation of  Son of Man Christology. Though Daniel 7 is clearly a source for Jesus’ self-designation as Son of Man, Nickelsburg argues that it cannot explain the totality of the Son of Man doctrine as portrayed in the Gospels, a doctrine that reveals development in the Intertestamental period through 1 Enoch in particular. 

Daniel 7 portrays a vision of the Son of Man on a cloud approaching the throne of the Ancient of Days, surrounded by ten thousands of his holy ones and receiving a kingdom of glory and dominion as vice regent of that throne. 

But Nickelsburg argues that the New Testament Son of Man engages in more judicial responsibilities than Daniel’s kingly ruler. For instance, in Daniel 7, the Son of Man is enthroned after judgment. But in passages such as Mark 8:38 and Matt. 10:32-33, the Son of Man comes in judgment, which is more like Enoch’s interpretation of Daniel 7 in the Parables of Enoch than simple dependence on Daniel 7. 

Mark 13:26-27 speaks of those who will see the Son of Man coming to gather his “chosen ones,” in a manner made familiar in the resurrection imagery of 1 Enoch 51; 61:2-5 and 62:14-15. 

The parable of the sheep and the goats told by Jesus in Matt. 25:31-46 speaks of the Son of Man coming in his glory with his angels before his throne. He then divides them up unto eternal life and eternal damnation. While this is surely reflective of the throne imagery in Daniel 7, what is not is the judgment of nations and their consignment by the angels to torment or glory based on their treatment of the “elect ones” we read about in 1 Enoch:

1 Enoch 62:5-15

One half portion of them shall glance at the other half; they shall be terrified and dejected; and pain shall seize them when they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory… But the Lord of the Spirits himself will cause them to be frantic, so that they shall rush and depart from his presence… So he will deliver them to the angels for punishments in order that vengeance shall be executed on them—oppressors of his children and his elect ones… The righteous and elect ones shall be saved on that day; and from thenceforth they shall never see the faces of the sinners and the oppressors. The Lord of the Spirits will abide over them; they shall eat and rest and rise with that Son of Man forever and ever. The righteous and elect ones shall rise from the earth and shall cease being of downcast face. They shall wear the garments of glory.

As Isaacs concludes, “There is little doubt that 1 Enoch was influential in molding New Testament doctrines concerning the nature of the Messiah, the Son of Man, the messianic kingdom, demonology, the future, resurrection, final judgment, the whole eschatological theater, and symbolism. No wonder, therefore, that the book was highly regarded by many of the earliest apostolic and Church Fathers.”

Enoch and the New Testament. R.H. Charles, one of the earliest experts on the Pseudepigrapha and Enoch, listed about sixty examples where the language of the New Testament reflected possible Enochian influence. He concluded, “1Enoch has had more influence on the New Testament than has any other apocryphal or pseudepigraphic work.

Here is just a sampling of these many linguistic connections:

New Testament	1Enoch
1 John 1:7. ‘walk in the light’.	92:4. ‘walk in eternal light’.
2:8. ‘the darkness is past’.	58:5. ‘the darkness is past’.
15. ‘Love not the world nor the things that are in the world’.	108:8. ‘love … nor any of the good things which are in the world’.
Rev. 2:7. ‘the tree of life’. Cf. 22:2, 14, 19.	25:4–6. The tree of life.
3:5. ‘clothed in white raiment’.	90:31. ‘clothed in white’.
20. ‘I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me’.	62:14. ‘and with that Son of Man shall they (i.e. the righteous) eat and lie down and rise up’.
6:15. Compare the fear of the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, when they see ‘the face of him that sitteth on the throne’.	62:3. ‘the kings, and the mighty, and the exalted 5… shall be terrified… and pain shall seize them when they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory’.
15. ‘He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them’.	45:4. ‘I will cause Mine Elect One to dwell among them’.
9:1. ‘I saw a star from heaven fallen to the earth’.	86:1. ‘And I saw … and behold a star fell from heaven’.
20:13. ‘the sea gave up the dead …, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them’.	51:1. ‘in those days shall the earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it, and Sheol also shall give back … and hell shall give back …’.
20:15. ‘cast into the lake of fire’.	90:26. ‘cast into this fiery abyss’.
Rom. 8:38. ‘angels … principalities … powers’. Cf. Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16	61:10. ‘angels of power and … angels of principalities’.
1 Cor. 6:11. ‘justified in the name of the Lord Jesus’.	48:7. ‘in his (i.e. the Messiah’s) name they are saved’.
2 Cor. 4:6. ‘to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’.	38:4. ‘the Lord of Spirits has caused His light to appear (emended) on the face of the holy, righteous and elect’.
Col. 2:3. ‘in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’.	46:3. ‘the Son of Man … who reveals all the treasures of that which is hidden’.
1 Thess. 5:3. ‘then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child’.	62:4. ‘Then shall pain come upon them as on a woman in travail’.
1 Timothy. 6:15. ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’.	9:4. ‘Lord of lords … King of kings’.
Heb. 4:13. ‘there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do’.	9:5. ‘all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee’.
12:9. ‘Father of Spirits’.	37:2. ‘Lord of Spirits’ (and passim in Parables).
Acts 3:14. ‘the Righteous One’ (= Christ).	53:6. ‘the Righteous and Elect One’ (= Messiah).
John 5:22. ‘He hath committed all judgement unto the Son’.	69:27. ‘the sum of judgement was given unto the Son of Man’.
Luke 9:35. ‘This is My Son, the Elect One’.	40:5. ‘the Elect One’ (i.e. the Messiah). Cf. 45:3, 4 ‘Mine Elect One’; 49:2, 4.
Matt. 19:28. ‘when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory’.	62:5. ‘When they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory’.
‘ye also shall sit on twelve thrones’.	108:12. ‘I will seat each on the throne of his honour’.
25:41. ‘prepared for the devil and his angels’.	54:4, 5. ‘chains … prepared for the hosts of Azâzêl’.

The argument could be made that the examples of linguistic overlap between the book of Enoch and the New Testament are circumstantial or even cultural coincidence. After all, didn’t the Old Testament use terms like walking in light and darkness? Didn’t everyone of that time period use metaphors such as kingly gods sitting on their thrones? 

Not entirely. That is, as Charles points out, four titles appear for the first time in 1 Enoch’s Book of Parables applied to a personal Messiah. “Christ” or “The Anointed One” applies to priests or royalty in the Old Testament, but is transformed into the ideal Messianic King first in 1 Enoch 48:10 and 52:4 before the New Testament. “The Righteous One” and “the Elect One” likewise first appear with Messianic designation in 1 Enoch 38:2; 53:6; 40:5; 49:2 and others. As noted above, even the “Son of Man” was transformed in his identity from Old Testament king to New Testament judge by way of 1 Enoch.

As Charles argues, the notions of Sheol, resurrection, demonology and future life that are barely mentioned in the Old Testament, are expanded upon in 1 Enoch in a way that corresponds to the New Testament usage of the terms. The sheer volume and repetition of phrases and concepts between 1 Enoch and the New Testament may not prove absolute dependence, but certainly suggest a strong familiarity and interaction with that tradition of ideas – a tradition of Second Temple literature that all points back to its own dependence upon 1 Enoch. The preponderance of the evidence supports Charles’ claim that, “Doctrines in Enoch…had an undoubted share in moulding the corresponding New Testament doctrines, or are at all events necessary to the comprehension of the latter.”

Enoch and Jude. The strongest cases for New Testament literary dependence upon Enochic texts are the epistles of Jude, and 1 and 2 Peter. Of all three of these passages, Jude is the most explicit in that the apostle literally quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 when he writes…(get the book to see the rest)