The Book Of Enoch

Biblegems #268

Question: What do we know about the book of Enoch that was quoted by Jude?

Jude 14-15  Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 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.

Enoch was Cain’s first son, and also the name of the world’s first city, which Cain named after his son (Gen. 4:17). The prophecy of Enoch mentioned in Jude is found in First Enoch (the first book in a collection of five known today as Ethiopic Enoch).  While the writing of the existing manuscripts dates back to the 3^rd century to 1^st century B.C., the original content is presumed to extend all the way back to Enoch himself.

The Book of Enoch was widely read in Jewish and Christian circles in New Testament times, and portions of all but Book Two have been found among the other ancient Dead Sea scrolls in the Qumran caves. First Enoch, or “The Book Of The Watchers,” quoted by Jude builds on the account in Genesis 6:1-4 of the “sons of God” uniting with the “daughters of men,” resulting in the offspring of giants. The “sons of God” are identified in Enoch as a band of angels (called “Watchers”) who are captured by angels sent from God and imprisoned until the Final Judgment. Jude’s quote from First Enoch (see above) refers to the Day of the Lord and the outpouring of His wrath upon rebellious mankind prior to that Final Judgment Day.

While the Book of Enoch is not inspired Scripture, God in His sovereign wisdom did inspire Jude to quote from it. God used a book that was popular among Christians in the first century, including the apostles, to convey certain truths about the End Times. That does not validate everything written in the Book of Enoch. On the other hand, the New Testament does refer to a specific group of angels who:

Jude 6  …did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day…

And of—

         1Pet. 3:19b-20a  …imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

And…

         2Pet. 2:4   For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell (Lit., “Tartarus,” which means “pits”) and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

This descriptive language borrowed directly from First Enoch compares Enoch with the crucified and risen Christ. Enoch had been sent to the rebellious, imprisoned angels to pronounce God’s judgment. When they asked Enoch to beg God’s mercy on their behalf, God responded with the same declaration of judgment. In 1 Peter 3:19, Jesus, crucified but made alive by the Spirit, “preached” (Lit., “made a proclamation”) to these imprisoned spirits: He is the true Enoch (by comparison) who walks with God, and has overcome sin, death and all the demonic powers of evil. In the words of the apostle Paul:

         Phil. 2:10   …that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth…

“The Dead Sea Scrolls And Jesus”

Biblegems #204

Question: What are the Dead Sea scrolls, and how does their existence have anything to do with Jesus?

Over the centuries there have always been skeptics who argued that the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus were actually altered by Jesus’ followers to make the Old Testament conform to the historical facts of Jesus’ life and death.  This argument was widely used because everyone admitted that the probability of one human being fulfilling all the Old Testament messianic prophecies — as the New Testament claims regarding Jesus — was statistically impossible. 

Skeptics argued their belief that the biblical text was “fixed” on the grounds that our oldest existing Old Testament manuscripts (the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, or LXX) dated back only a far as 360 A.D.

While it was known that the LXX was first translated from the Hebrew into Greek between 285-247 B.C., the oldest surviving copies date back over three hundred years after Jesus. And the oldest Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testament in existence dated back to only 1000 A.D. — nearly a thousand years after the life of Jesus! This gave the skeptics lots of ammunition (not evidence) for their claim of altered documents.

Everything changed, however, with the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947 by a shepherd boy looking for a stray goat in an area littered with caves near the Dead Sea. These caves were used as a repository of safe keeping by a community of Jews known as the Essenes. They preserved copies of their own writings, and copies of the Hebrew Old Testament, in earthenware jars. These manuscripts have been dated by archeologists as originating between 150 and 100 A.D. — more than one hundred years before Jesus’ birth.

What is most astounding — and most exciting for those who trust the authority of the Bible — is that these ancient Hebrew manuscripts predating Jesus are identical in wording to the Hebrew text we already had available to us, even after 1200 years of separation and 1000 years of Christianity. When comparing the Dead Sea scrolls to the 1000 A.D. texts there is only a discrepancy of 5%, and these differences are obvious spelling errors and minor scribal mistakes. Nothing of substance has changed over the span of 2200 years!

All the prophecies pointing to details of Jesus’ birth, his life, ministry, death and resurrection were original to the Old Testament as the Jewish people had available to them for centuries.

         Ps. 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

Revelation 8:13 Eagle Or Angel?

Bible Gems #89

Question: I use 2 Bible versions while at church. KJV (on my phone) & ESV. The KJV said angel(s) where ESV said eagle(s). It was in Revelation 8:13. Would you happen to know the reason for that? 

The most accurate reading is "eagle," not "angel." Here's why: 


One of the most daunting tasks Bible translators face is that of looking at the hundreds of ancient manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments and deciding which manuscript is the most accurate—especially when there are minor differences in word choices between them. I recommend reading Bible Gems #59 & #60, which deal with the translation process and the reliability of modern versions of the Bible.

Deciding between the wording of different ancient manuscripts is the case here, in Revelation 8:13. Some manuscripts of the Greek New Testament have the word “aetos” (“eagle” or “vulture”), while others use the word “angelos” (“angel”). If you were a Greek New Testament scholar and Bible translator, one of the guidelines you would use to help determine accuracy would be the age of the manuscript. Typically, the closer a manuscript is in time to the original, the more likely it is to accurately reflect the original.

The oldest Greek manuscript available to the translators of the King James Bible dated from about 900 AD (over 800 years after the New Testament was completed). One such manuscript is called Codex Porphyrianus, which includes the book of Revelation, and uses the word “angelos” (angel) instead of “aetos” (“eagle” or “vulture”).

Since the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947, Bible Translators now have Greek New Testament manuscripts dating much closer to the original writings of the apostles. Some of these (Codex Sinaiticus, etc) have become the standards of accuracy by which later manuscripts are judged. These older manuscripts use the word “aetos” (“eagle” or “vulture”) in Revelation 8:13.

“So why did later manuscripts change from eagle to angel?”

No one knows for certain. But Bible translator Bruce Metzger suggests that some scribes who were making fresh copies of Revelation from older manuscripts thought they were making a needed correction. Before Revelation 8, announcements from heaven were made by angels. So they changed the word “eagle” to “angel” “to harmonize what is done by the eagle into line with what is ascribed to angels elsewhere” (Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament  [New York UBS, 1971], p. 743).

This demonstrates again the beauty of God’s Word. The Bible is without error, as originally given by God:

         2 Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…

Even when the Scriptures have been copied and recopied over thousands of years, translated into numerous languages, and updated into a variety of versions—still God’s Word remains faithful and true. The fallibility of man over the long centuries has resulted in only the smallest of inaccuracies, and none of those inaccuracies alter the truth or the message of God’s Word. In fact, as God has allowed archeologists to discover these very ancient Bible manuscripts, the farther away we get from them in time, the closer we are getting to their original form. To God be the glory!