Reception of the book of Enoch in antiquity and Middle Ages

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls (ca 300 BC – ca 100 AD), in surviving documents of the Qumran community, Aramaic fragments of Enoch have been found, attesting to an early date of authorship.[4] In addition, the former chief editor of the official Dead Sea Scrolls editorial team, John Strugnell, claimed that a complete scroll of Enoch in Aramaic exists in private hands.[5]

Philo (b. ca. 25 BC), in a commentary of Gen. 6:1-5 found in On the Giants, uses Enoch’s teaching of demons being spirits of the air and the issue of angels that had adulterated with women before the Great Flood.[6]

Rabbinical tradition material that is unique to Enoch is used in old Jewish rabbinical interpretation of Gen. 6:1-5.[7] Classical rabbinic literature is characterized by near silence concerning Enoch. It seems plausible that rabbinic polemics against Enochic texts and traditions might have led to the loss of these books to Rabbinic Judaism.[8] The Book of Enoch plays an important role in the history of Jewish mysticism: the scholar Gershom Scholem wrote, "The main subjects of the later Merkabah mysticism already occupy a central position in the older esoteric literature, best represented by the Book of Enoch."[9] Particular attention is paid to the detailed description of the throne of God included in chapter 14 of 1 Enoch.[10]

Jude 14 quotes Enoch who as "the seventh from Adam, prophesied." “Seventh from Adam,” Enoch, identifies him as the author, Adam’s fifth great-grandson and thus Noah’s great-grandfather. “Prophesied” means that Jude is not simply quoting an historical fact, but that Enoch actually prophesied the material.

The Epistle of Barnabas (ca 70 AD – 132 AD), a primer used for teaching new Christian converts in the early church, names and quotes Enoch as "Scripture" and elsewhere cites it as Scripture with the formula "it is written."[13]

Justin Martyr (110 AD – 165 AD) accepts Enoch as Scripture and in his Second Apology discusses Enoch in depth and uses it to establish doctrine on fallen angels and the origin of demons from angels' adulteration with women.[14]

Melito's canon (ca. 170 AD), quoted by Eusebius, lists every book of the Jewish canon of Scripture except for Esther, thus leaving a gap for Enoch.[15]

Athenagoras (133 AD – 190 AD) in his Plea for the Christians uses Enoch to establish doctrine about Genesis 6:1-4, grouping it as one of the books of Prophets of the Old Testament: "you know that we say nothing without witnesses, but state the things which have been declared by the prophets."[16]

Irenaeus (d. 202 AD), the famous apologist, accepts Enoch as Scripture and, in Against Heresies, discusses the doctrine that Enoch was God's legate to fallen angels, which is unique to Enoch,[17] and that a group of fallen angels devised methods of sorcery to adulterate with women.[18] Also in Against Heresies, Book III, 21.2, Irenaeus treats the books of Chronicles and Ezra as a single book written by Ezra. That would reduce the tally of books in the canon from 22 to 21 unless Enoch was included as part of the canon, as Irenaeus does.

Clement of Alexandria (ca 150 AD – ca 215 AD) accepts Enoch as Scripture and writes that both Daniel and Enoch taught the same thing regarding the blessing of the faithful (Eclogue 2.1) and that the fallen angels were the source of the black arts (53.4).[19]

See also Clement's Homilies XI–XVI for great detail used from Enoch.

Tertullian (155 AD – 222 AD), the founder of Western theological scholarship, in On the Apparel of Women (Book I), names and cites Enoch as "Scripture," part of "the canon" and "divinely inspired." He names Enoch as its genuine, human author. He states that its quotation in Jude 14 is an attestation in the New Testament to its authenticity and that "some" had removed it from the closed canon.[20] In Book II, Tertullian uses Enoch to establish doctrine against the excessive ornamentation of women, attributing its origin to demons who cohabitated with them before the Great Flood.[21]

Within his Apologetic, in "On Idolatry", he uses Enoch to establish the doctrine that idolatry and astrology originated from demons[22] and that demons are the supernatural issue of fallen angels adulterating with women.[23]

Commodianus (ca 240) accepts Enoch as Scripture and, in his Instructions, uses information unique to Enoch to establish doctrine on the origin of demons from angels adulterating with women and on the wicked arts they taught. Thus, he shows that heathen gods were actually the same demons.[24]

Origen (185 AD – 254 AD), in De Principiis, names and quotes Enoch as "Holy Scripture" and notes that the church did not accept the several other books called "Enoch" were at all "divine" (Against Celsus). However, Enoch is missing in the quotation of a canonical list from Eusebius's Church History attributed to Origen.[25]

Anatolius (early 3rd c AD – July 3, 283 AD) cites Enoch to interpret the ancient Jewish calendar (in a reference to Enoch, Book of Starlight).[26]

Cassiodorus (ca 485 AD – ca 585 AD), authenticates Enoch as Scripture by quoting Jude 14 ("In these words he (Jude) verifies the prophecy") and that Enoch was inspired and was integral to the Old Testament. In the same Latin translation of comments on the First Epistle of Peter attributed to Clement of Alexandria (ca.150 – 211/216), Cassiodorus also uses Enoch to establish doctrine that fallen angels are apostates from God.[27]