Rukka Nova wrote an article tiled The Book of Enoch: The Banned Bible Text That Blows Open the Truth About Fallen Angels and the Nephilim which is subtitled A Book So Dangerous, They Took It Out of the Bible.
Now, the questions that pop into my mind straight away is why it should be considered a Bible text, when was it banned, who banned it, who are, “They” and just how did God fail since, apparently, He inspired a text and meant for it to be in the canon but, apparently, mere humans defeated Him.
It’s noted, “most Christians have never read it” but I, for one, not only read it but wrote a book about it In Consideration of the Book(s) of Enoch—there are three and one of those claims he wrote over 300 books.
Nova tells us that it, “isn’t…in your Bible…it banned, buried, and forgotten…Because it tells a story that changes everything.”
Oddly, what follows is, “Who Was Enoch?…Enoch is a figure mentioned briefly in the Bible — in Genesis 5:24: ‘Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.’ Unlike anyone else in his lineage, Enoch didn’t die. He was taken. What does that mean? According to the Book of Enoch, it means he was shown the secrets of the heavens — and told to write everything down. The result? A wild, apocalyptic text that reads like Revelation meets Ancient Aliens.”
Yet, that’s referring to the Enoch of Gen 5 without first (nor later) elucidating why we should think he had anything to do with 1 Enoch (besides that such is what 1 Enoch asserts).
Apparently, what, “changes everything” is:
A group of 200 angels — called Watchers — were assigned to watch over Earth
They became obsessed with human women
They descended to Earth, took wives, and had children
These children were the Nephilim — giants with immense strength and unquenchable appetites
The Nephilim began devouring humanity, animals, and even turning on each other
I’m quite unsure how that changes anything since Gen 6 already told us virtually the same things:
A group of an unknown number of angels — called Watchers during the Second Temple Era (516 BC-70 AD)
They became obsessed with human women
They descended to Earth, took wives, and had children
These children were the Nephilim
As for, “giants” key questions are: what’s the usage of the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage and modern English word “giants” in English Bibles? What’s Nova’s usage? Do those two usages agree?
What Nova put as, “with immense strength and unquenchable appetites” Gen 6 has as, “mighty men of old, men of renown.”
So, the only additions to Gen 6 are the number 200, an aka for Angels, it does have Nephilim as being MILES tall which is great folklore but poor reality, and that they were very hungry.
Still unsure what that changes.
We’re then told, “The Flood Wasn’t Just About Humans…the Book of Enoch says otherwise: The flood was a divine purge — to wipe the Earth clean of Nephilim blood and seal away the Watchers who corrupted creation.”
Actually, 1 Enoch was Nephilim battling it out with each other and yet still, they didn’t physically make it past the flood.
Now, rather than telling us about why we should think it was banned, it’s asked and answered, “Why Was the Book of Enoch Banned?…The Book of Enoch wasn’t always forbidden,” note the insertion of the forbidden claim as a merely asserted positive affirmation and, “It was quoted in the Book of Jude in the New Testament: ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones…’ — Jude 1:14.”
BTW: 1 Enoch seems to have been paraphrasing Deut 33:2, “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.”
It’s also noted that, “Early Church Fathers like Tertullian and Justin Martyr referred to it much like Paul quotes/refers to Greek poets.
And, “It was included in the Bible canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which still honors it today” yet, that 1 Enoch is in the Ethiopian canon doesn’t make that one canon uniquely correct but rather, uniquely incorrect since 1 Enoch is Bible contradicting folklore from millennia after the Torah. In fact, that cannon also contains a text titled, “The Life of Adam and Eve” which claims that when God created Adam, God commanded the Angels to worship Adam.
As for, “why was it banned?” we only get guesses. Nova asserts that (an unknown number of unnamed, uncited, and unquoted):
Scholars believe it was:
Too mystical, too weird for mainstream doctrine
Incompatible with later theological structures
Dangerous because it linked human corruption directly to angels, not just mankind
Possibly suppressed to hide pre-Flood technology or knowledge
“Too mystical, too weird” are subjective assumptions.
It most certainly is, “Incompatible with” former and also, “later theological structures.”
As for, “it linked human corruption directly to angels, not just mankind” well, Job 38:7, as one example, shows us that “sons of God” can refer to non-human beings (which the LXX has as “Angeloi”: plural of “Angelos”) since they, at the very least, witnessed the creation of the Earth.
Jude and 2 Peter 2 combined refer to a sin of Angels, place that sin to pre-flood days and correlate it to sexual sin which occurred after the Angels, “left their first estate,” after which they were incarcerated, and there’s only a one-time fall/sin of Angels in the Bible.
The original, traditional, and majority view among the earliest Jewish and Christians commentators, starting in BC days, was the Angel view as I proved in my book, On the Genesis 6 Affair’s Sons of God: Angels or Not?: A Survey of Early Jewish and Christian Commentaries Including Notes on Giants and the Nephilim.
As for, “Possibly suppressed to hide pre-Flood technology or knowledge” another presupposition of suppressed (Possibly) because the text has Watchers teaching what Nova quotes as:
“Azazel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates… he showed them metals of the earth and how to work them…”— Book of Enoch, Chapter 8
Other Watchers taught:
Enchantments and root-cutting (witchcraft)
Astrology and celestial motion
The signs of the moon and sun
Cosmetics and seduction techniques
None of those things have been suppressed in the least bit.
So, again, what do these things change?
Nova adds that (an unknown number of unnamed, uncited, and unquoted), “researchers say yes — and suggest the Nephilim passed on even more advanced tech before they were destroyed” which is an argument from silence.
Next we’re told that, “Later sections of the Book of Enoch read like something out of” the sci-fi movie, “Interstellar” yet, also, “The promise of a future Messiah figure — long before Jesus was born” and that, “These prophecies were so accurate, some scholars believe parts of the Book of Enoch were deliberately hidden to avoid conflict with Christian doctrine.” So, the implication is clearly that it was some or another Jewish person or people who were the mysterious, “They.”
I’ll bypass the, “Was Enoch an Ancient Astronaut Encounter?” part since my focus is what the text actually is and Fallen Angels and the Nephilim.
Now, it’s noted that, “in 1947, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in Qumran. Among the thousands of fragments? Multiple scrolls of the Book of Enoch”—although the, “Multiple scrolls” claim is hyperbolic.
Nova’s take away is:
It was widely read by Jews before the time of Christ
It influenced New Testament writers
It was not a fringe document — it was central to early Biblical understanding
And yet, it remains missing from most modern Bibles.
Indeed, “It was widely read by Jews before the time of Christ.”
That, “It influenced New Testament writers” is also hyperbolic.
As for, “central to early Biblical understanding” again, that’s hyperbolic since, “Biblical” is a wide scope of texts, genres, subjects/topics, etc.
Indeed, “it remains missing from most modern Bibles” as any Bible contradicting folklore should.
There’s literally zero indication that it existed prior to a few centuries BC. The Old Testament lists 33 so called lost books but doesn’t mention anything by Enoch.
There’s zero indication that the Gen 5 Enoch wrote anything, much less a Bible contradicting text from millennia after his time on Earth.
Nova then oddly asks, “Final Thoughts: A Book Too Powerful to Publish?” no, it’s been published since BC days.
Also, “It’s a revolutionary reframe of the human story” in part since, “It explains the origin of evil” but it doesn’t: what it does is to sex up the Gen 6 affair but the origin of evil was prior to the Gen 6 timeline: it explains the origin of some evil—another styled fall, as it were, but not evil’s ontology.
So, overall I’m unsure who banned it, why we should think it was banned, what God thought of all that, why we should think that the Gen 5 Enoch wrote it, what it changes (especially in terms of, “everything”), etc., etc., etc.
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