Enoch???

“Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”(Jude 14-15)

Jude targets these ungodly false leaders who are pretending to be something they definitely were not and who lead others astray through their many deceitful words and ways. But why did he quote from 1 Enoch 1:9, “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of ⌈His⌉ holy ones To execute judgement 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.”?

I am sure there are many theologians who may know the answer to this question!

Why did he quote from 1 Enoch when the quote itself can be found in different places across the Old Testament?

1. The book of Enoch is Pseudepigraphic. Meaning though it is titled Enoch and attributed to him it definitely was not written by Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, but probably a collection of authors. It never made it into the canon of Scripture because it wasn’t the real thing. These leaders Jude speaks against look like the real article but they are not. They are pseudo leaders.

= What might have an appearance doesn’t mean it is the truth.

• The book of Enoch was popular and maybe the false teachers were using it to peddle their agendas. To quote from their source would have been a really clever move to show them even their own resource speaks against them.

= Listen to what is being claimed and stated because within it you may find something you can use to counter the lies.

• The book of Enoch was not seen as inspired by God to make it into the Scriptures but that didn’t mean something could not be taken from it and used under the inspiration of the Spirit in a similar way to how the Apostle Paul did with the poets. This book was popular at the time and this section confirmed what Jude was saying in that the Lord will come and when He does He will judge the ungodly.

= Know the faith, history and the culture of people you are trying to reach with the gospel, be relevant and speak their language.