What Scripture says
Jesus recognized the Hebrew Scriptures as “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44, ESV). 1 Enoch was never part of that collection. The New Testament quotes it once, in Jude (see 3.5), but never calls it Scripture or introduces it with “it is written”.
Genesis says Enoch lived before the flood (Genesis 5:18–24), many centuries before writing in Hebrew or Aramaic is known.
What the evidence says
Textual Criticism
When it was written
Scholars date the sections of 1 Enoch to roughly 300–100 BC, with the Book of Parables possibly as late as the 1st century AD (see 3.3). The evidence:
- Language. It was written in Aramaic, the language of the Persian and later periods, not in any language Enoch could have used.
- Concerns. It reflects the debates of its own era: calendar disputes, the Maccabean revolt (2nd century BC) and Greek rule.
- Manuscripts. The oldest fragments, from the Dead Sea Scrolls, date to the 3rd–2nd centuries BC, consistent with recent composition.
- Five different works. Its sections differ in style, concerns and date, showing several authors over two or three centuries.
Writing in a famous name
Writing under the name of an ancient hero was common in this period. Scholars call it pseudepigraphy. Books were attributed to Adam, Abraham, Moses, Baruch and Ezra, among others (see 3B.11–3B.13). The writers may have seen themselves as drawing on traditions about these figures, but the books weren’t written by them.
History
Judaism
The book was never included in the Hebrew Bible. The community behind the Dead Sea Scrolls valued it, along with other Enoch literature and Jubilees. Mainstream Judaism didn’t treat it as Scripture, and rabbinic writings largely ignore it.
The early church
Christian views were mixed at first:
- For it: The Epistle of Barnabas (c. AD 100) quotes it, and Tertullian (c. 200) defended it, arguing that Jude’s quotation gave it authority and that Jews rejected it because it spoke of Christ.
- Against it: Origen (3rd century) noted that the churches didn’t accept it. Augustine, in The City of God (c. 420), said it couldn’t be Scripture because of its doubtful origin: it was unknown to the Jewish keepers of Scripture, and it contained fabulous material. Jerome also rejected it.
By the 4th century, it had dropped out of use in most churches.
The Ethiopian exception
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the only church that includes 1 Enoch in its Bible today, along with Jubilees and some other books (see 3.11). Its preservation there is why we have the complete text at all.
| Community | Status of 1 Enoch |
|---|---|
| Mainstream Judaism | Never Scripture |
| Dead Sea Scrolls community | Valued, possibly authoritative |
| Most early and later churches | Not Scripture |
| Ethiopian Orthodox Church | Scripture |
Where they meet
The book’s late date and multiple authors explain why it never entered the Hebrew canon, which Jesus endorsed. Its absence isn’t a cover-up; it was read, weighed and set aside, openly, by Jewish and Christian communities.
What’s still open
- The exact dating of individual sections.
- Why the Ethiopian church kept it, which reflects its own history and translation tradition.
Bottom line
1 Enoch was written c. 300–100 BC by several authors, not by Enoch. It was never in the Hebrew canon, and only the Ethiopian Orthodox Church accepts it. These facts are agreed by scholars, so this is rated Settled.