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About this book

1 Enoch

About this book

The Book of the Watchers

Chapter 1

1 The words of Enoch's blessing, with which he blessed the chosen and righteous,⁠ who will live through the days of tribulation when all the wicked and godless will be removed. 2 He began his parable⁠ and said, Enoch, a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me. I heard everything from them, and from them I understood what I saw, not for this generation, but for a distant one yet to come. 3 Regarding the chosen I spoke, and took up my parable about them: The Holy Great One will emerge from His dwelling,⁠ 4 And the eternal God will walk upon the earth, even on Mount Sinai, and appear from His camp and reveal His might from the heavens above.⁠ 5 Everyone will be struck with fear and the Watchers will tremble, and great fear and trembling will grip them to the ends of the earth.⁠ 6 The high mountains will shake, the hills will be leveled, and they will melt like wax before the fire⁠ 7 The earth will be completely torn apart, and everything on it will perish, and there will be judgment upon all people. 8 But with the righteous, He will establish peace. He will protect the chosen, and mercy will be upon them. They will all belong to God, prosper, and be blessed. He will aid them, and light will shine for them,⁠ and He will make peace with them.⁠ 9 Look! He comes with tens of thousands of His holy ones⁠ to pass judgment upon all,⁠ to annihilate all the wicked,⁠ to convict every soul of all the godless deeds they have committed,⁠ and of all the harsh words that godless sinners have spoken against Him.⁠

Texts in conversation

How Jude Authoritatively Quotes 1 Enoch in the New Testament

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Jude quotes 1 Enoch by name as prophecy, naming Enoch as the one who spoke it, reading a text outside the Hebrew canon as authoritative scripture. The passage he cites reshapes Deuteronomy 33 into a scene of final judgment.
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Passages

1 Enoch 1:9

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
6 The high mountains will shake, the hills will be leveled, and they will melt like wax before the fire 7 The earth will be completely torn apart, and everything on it will perish, and there will be judgment upon all people. 8 But with the righteous, He will establish peace. He will protect the chosen, and mercy will be upon them. They will all belong to God, prosper, and be blessed. He will aid them, and light will shine for them, and He will make peace with them. 9 Look! He comes with tens of thousands of His holy ones to pass judgment upon all, to annihilate all the wicked, to convict every soul of all the godless deeds they have committed, and of all the harsh words that godless sinners have spoken against Him.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Jude 1:14

New Testament
14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, even prophesied of them, saying, “Look! The Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict every person of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds that they have committed, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and fault-finders who go wherever their desires lead them, and they give bombastic speeches, enchanting folks for their own gain. 17 But you, dear friends—recall the predictions foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 For they said to you, “At the end of time there will come scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people are divisive, worldly, devoid of the Spirit.
60–80 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jude

References

"... The longest and only unambiguous quotation in the Epistle of Jude is not from an Old Testament book but rather from 1 Enoch. There are a couple of Old Testament allusions in the Jude text. Enoch is acknowledged to be “seventh from Adam” (14), and, according to the Old Testament, counting inclusively, he is. The image of God coming with his angelic hosts (14) is drawn from Deuteronomy 33:2 ... This is a colorful metaphorical description of the theophany at Sinai. The “holy ones” probably are angels, though this is less than certain because “holy ones” in the ensuing verse (33:3) clearly refers to God’s people. Nevertheless, the language is picked up by 1 Enoch 1:9 and then cited here in Jude to conjure up the divine court coming for final judgment ..."
D. A. Carson, "Jude" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 2429.
"... in the quotation of 1 Enoch in Jude, the text is altered to clarify that it refers to Jesus and that the prophecy is to be seen as fulfilled ... These comparisons are enlightening and impressive. First, the indefinite 'he' in the Ethiopic, which referred back to God and his future coming, is paralleled by kurios in the Greek. The alteration is clearly by the Christian Jews; as most interpolations and alterations by Christians of early Jewish writings, the alteration is caused by Christology ..."
James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament: Prolegomena for the Study of Christian Origins (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998), 73.
"... To judge from early Christian witnesses to the work, Enoch got off to a promising start. In the epistle of pseudo-Barnabas, for example, the work is cited using a formula usually reserved for sacred scripture: περὶ οὗ γέγραπται, ὡς Ἐνὼχ λέγει ("concerning which scripture says, as Enoch says"). What further boosted its standing was a quotation from the work, prefaced with the words “Enoch prophesied,” in the New Testament epistle of Jude 14 ..."
Pierluigi Piovanelli, “Greek,” in A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission, ed. Alexander Kulik, Gabriele Boccaccini, Lorenzo DiTommaso, David Hamidović, and Michael E. Stone (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 7–22.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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  • Is it true Enoch received a prophecy that the flood would come at the time of the death of his son Methuselah?

    Rossa, July 15, 2023

  • Love these powerful quotes from the New and Old Testament of Orthodox Christians. D.A. Carson's statement doesn't make sense, since faithful believers before Jesus obviously embraced Enoch as Old Testament book that was miraculously translated by 6 trusted Jewish scholars of each of the 12 tribes wh ...

    Anthony, August 5, 2023

  • If you read Michael Heiser's book or video, called The Unseen Realm by Dr. Michael Heiser, it will open up your understanding of the WHOLE message of the Bible!! 😌🙏😊Watch it prayerfully!

    Stephanie, August 23, 2023

  • I need to find the original Book of Enoch, as I'm already studying the King James Holy Bible. Can you help me find a hardback copy of it? Thank you for your help and the research you've done. It's deeply appreciated.

    Patricia Anderson, April 7, 2024

  • Thank you for this interesting article! Very useful information.

    Anonymous, December 7, 2025

  • The book of Jude says Enoch prophesied not that it is written, and how did his writings survive the flood?

    Linford, January 30, 2026

1 Enoch 1:9 and Jude 1:14

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