Within this series, beginning with part 1, you will find info from The Gospel of Peter, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Epistle of Barnabas aka Pseudo-Barnabas, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Anatolius of Alexandria, Jerome plus Alfred Loisy. See my previous articles Did the prophet Enoch write the Book of Enoch? and 1, 2, 3 Books of Enoch and Methuselah.
May generic statements can be found online, may repeated again and again, which reference certain early church leaders with regards to the Book of Enoch. However, most do not provide quotations or citations and until such a time as I can track more references down these will make due.
In this segment we will consider The Epistle of Barnabas aka Pseudo-Barnabas and Irenaus.
EPISTLE OF BARNABAS aka PSEUDO-BARNABAS (80-120 AD):
4:3-4, 16:5-6,
The last offence is at hand, concerning which the scripture speaketh, as Enoch saith. “For to this end the Master hath cut the seasons and the days short, that His beloved might hasten and come to His inheritance. And the prophet also speaketh on this wise; Ten reigns shall reign upon the earth, and after them shall arise another king, who shall bring low three of the kings under one….
Again, it was revealed how the city and the temple and the people of Israel should be betrayed. For the scripture saith; “And it shall be in the last days, that the Lord shall deliver up the sheep of the pasture and the fold and the tower thereof to destruction.” And it came to pass as the Lord spake. But let us enquire whether there be any temple of God. There is; in the place where he himself undertakes to make and finish it. “For it is written And it shall come to pass, when the week is being accomplished, the temple of God shall be built gloriously in the name of the Lord.”
Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325 includes a section titled Ecclesiastical Literature of the Ante-Nicene Age, and Biographical Sketches of the Church-Fathers which includes the following:
The Epistle of Barnabas has considerable historical, doctrinal, and apologetic value…furnishes parallels to a number of passages in the Gospels, Pauline Epistles, First Peter, and the Apocalypse. His direct quotations from the Old Testament, especially the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and Isaiah, are numerous; but he quotes also IV. Esdras and the Book of Enoch.
Dead Sea Scroll 1 Book of Enoch fragment
IRENAEUS (130-202 AD)
In his work The Proof of the Apostolic Preaching 18, he records a condensed retelling of Enoch 6-8. He does this without directly citing the Book of Enoch, yet the quotation here is unmistakable:
And for a very long while wickedness extended and spread, and reached and laid hold upon the whole race of mankind, until a very small seed of righteousness remained among them: and illicit unions took place upon the earth, since angels were united with the daughters of the race of mankind; and they bore to them sons who for their exceeding greatness were called giants. And the angels brought as presents to their wives teachings of wickedness, in that they brought them the virtues of roots and herbs, dyeing in colours and cosmetics, the discovery of rare substances, love-potions, aversions, amours, concupiscence, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment, and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God; by the entry of which things into the world evil extended and spread, while righteousness was diminished and enfeebled.
In the next segment we will consider Tertullian and Origen.
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