Concerning the Genuineness of “The Prophecy of Enoch.”

Chapter III.—Concerning the Genuineness of “The Prophecy of Enoch.”¹⁰¹

I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch,¹⁰² which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either.  I suppose they did not think that, having been published before the deluge, it could have safely survived that world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things.  If that is the reason (for rejecting it), let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself;¹⁰³ and he, of course, had heard and remembered, from domestic renown¹⁰⁴ and hereditary tradition, concerning his own great-grandfather’s “grace in the sight of God,”¹⁰⁵ and concerning all his preachings;¹⁰⁶ since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity.  Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching; or, had the case been otherwise, he would not have been silent alike concerning the disposition (of things) made by God, his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory of his own house.

If (Noah) had not had this (conservative power) by so short a route, there would (still) be this (consideration) to warrant¹⁰⁷ our assertion of (the genuineness of) this Scripture:  he could equally have renewed it, under the Spirit’s inspiration,¹⁰⁸ after it had been destroyed by the violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document¹⁰⁹ of the Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra.

But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that “every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.”¹¹⁰  By the Jews it may now seem to have been rejected for that (very) reason, just like all the other (portions) nearly which tell of Christ.  Nor, of course, is this fact wonderful, that they did not receive some Scriptures which spake of Him whom even in person, speaking in their presence, they were not to receive.  To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude.¹¹¹