Fallen Angels

      The book of Enoch contains a rather disturbing passage that suggests a paranormal or supernatural element is involved with the process of evolution.  Enoch says,

 

I saw a vision, and behold, I saw in the sky many stars falling and throwing themselves to the first star.  They became cows like other cows, and they grazed with them.  I looked again and behold, I saw all of them getting erect penises, and they started mounting the female cows.  They got pregnant, and gave birth to elephants, camels, and donkeys.[1] 

 

This passage is significant because it seems to convey the occurrence of what we today would call macro-evolution, that is, the evolution from one species into other entirely different species – in this case, cows becoming elephants, camels, and donkeys.  Enoch implies that evolution was catalyzed by interference from stars that fell from heaven, who effected an evolutionary change by breeding biologically.  Fallen stars are synonymous with fallen angels throughout ancient Jewish and Christian literature.

      What is the book of Enoch?  The book of Enoch is among the most important books found in the Bible of the Dead Sea Scrolls – the oldest Bible known to archaeology.  The ancient Essenes, who were contemporaries of Jesus, lived in the desert to the east of Jerusalem.  They copied books of the Bible onto scrolls, which were discovered in modern times, and are collectively known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They are the oldest copies of the Bible in the archaeological record.

      Twenty copies of Enoch are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.[2]  This is substantially more than the number of copies found for most books of the Bible, which on average are represented by only a dozen or fewer copies.  The fact that the Essenes laboriously hand copied Enoch more frequently than other books of the Bible means that they thought it was very important – most likely scripture.  This is not surprising, because there are several other differences between their Bible and our Bible today.  Jubilees, Tobit, Sirach, and the Letter of Jeremiah were included in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, but these are not in the 66 book-Bible most commonly used today.  Esther was rejected.  Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah were probably subordinated to a status less than scripture.[3]

 

Mix and Match

      In Jubilees, a sacred holy book of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we find mention that certain angels called watchers descended in the time of Enoch's father Jared.[4]  Jubilees records,

 

All flesh corrupted its way.  Humans, herd animals, wild animals, birds, and everything that walks on the earth – they all were corrupted from their natural order.[5] 

 

Corrupted from their natural order?  What does this mean except that animals were morphing into different species?  Jubilees also asserts that the Great Flood in the time of Noah happened because the angels had sex with both humans and animals, "sinning against beasts and birds and every other animate object on earth."[6]  Some may contend that angels are spirits, and are thus incapable of sex.  But Jubilees clearly indicates otherwise; it indicates that angels have penises, for they are "circumcised on the day they are created."[7] 

      Genesis also says that flesh had become "corrupt,"

 

The earth was full of violence.  God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth, so God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh is coming."[8]

 

      Interestingly, Jubilees states that there were 22 different kinds of animals in the beginning.[9]  This approximates the number of phyla that emerged in the Cambrian Explosion.

      Jubilees was very popular among the Essenes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Fifteen copies have been found, which is considerably more than many books of the Old Testament.  According to Abegg et al,

 

Jubilees was viewed and used as Scripture by the Qumran community… Jubilees is quoted in some of the non-Biblical scrolls, which indicates its authoritative status to the authors of such texts.[10]

 

      In another holy book of antiquity, Jasher, it is said that humans saw what the angels were doing, and tried to emulate it. 

 

In those days, the children of humans selected herd animals from the land, and wild animals from the outback, and birds of the air, and they practiced mixing different species of animals with each other…[11] 

 

The origins of the book of Jasher are uncertain, but there is a book of the same name which was written before the Bible was finalized.  We know this because the Bible itself quotes Jasher and references it as a source document for events that allegedly happened in the 13^th and 10^th centuries BCE.  From the 10^th century BCE, the Bible states,

 

David told them to teach the children of Judah how to use a bow.  Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.[12]

 

From the 13^th century BCE,

 

The sun stood still and the moon stopped, until the people had exacted vengeance upon their enemies.  Is this not written in the book of Jasher?[13]

 

Hence the Bible itself uses Jasher as a source document, and footnotes it as if it needed Jasher's authority to substantiate its claims.  Such a book must have been held in very high regard.  If the extant Jasher is related to the Jasher mentioned in the Bible, then we are dealing with an extremely archaic and time-honored tradition, which predates the Bible, and therefore may contain accurate information regarding matters of distant antiquity.

 

Sons of the Elohim

      That's great, but where in our modern-day Bible are these sexually perverted angels mentioned?  They are mentioned in Genesis 6: 

 

And it came to pass, when Adam began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of the elohim saw the daughters of Adam that they were pretty, and they took whatever wives for themselves they wanted.  Yahweh said, "My spirit will not abide with Adam, for they are mortal.  They shall live 120 years."  The nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of the elohim had sex with the daughters of Adam, and the children they had with them were the ancient heroes, who were Enosh with a reputation.[14]

 

      Who are the "sons of the elohim?" Elohim is a Hebrew word which can mean either "God" in the singular or "gods" in the plural, depending on the verb and the context.  Thus, the "sons of the elohim" are either "sons of God" or "sons of the gods." 

      Regardless of which meaning is intended here, we can deduce from other scriptures and from archaeology that the phrase "sons of the elohim" cannot possibly refer to mortal humans, but instead refers to a certain group of supernatural or paranormal entities.  The archaeological excavation of Ugarit, a pre-Israelite city with a language and religion very similar to the ancient Hebrews and Canaanites, mentions these "sons of the gods" and the "congress of gods" to which they belonged, and indicates that the term refers to the sons of a Father-God named El.[15]  The Bible has this to say about the sons of the elohim: 

 

The sons of the elohim came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan was among them.[16] 

 

When Elyon divided the nations, when He separated the children of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of elohim.[17]

 

Elohim (God singular) is the president of El's Congress.  He judges among the elohim (gods plural)… (He says) "You are gods.  You are all sons of Elyon.  But like Enosh (mortal humans) you will die, and like the other rulers you will fall."  Arise, Elohim (God singular), and judge the earth, for you will inherit all nations.[18]

 

Remember our friend Enosh from the Adam and Eve story?[19]  He was the son of Seth who did not look like his father, because Seth procreated with a mortal cave woman.  In the quote above, the president of the gods is warning the other gods that they will die like Enosh.  He is, in effect, denouncing them because they have contaminated their blood lines with mortals.  For this, the president of the gods will gain the other gods' inheritance, that is, the president will take over the nations they currently rule.  But who is Elyon?  And who is El?  And what is this congress of gods?  We will discuss these passages more thoroughly later on. 

 

 

 

Watchers and Nephilim

      In Jubilees we also find mention of certain heavenly entities called "watchers" who appear to be synonymous with the "sons of the elohim."

 

Enoch spoke of the watchers, who sinned with the daughters of humans.  They were starting to get down and dirty with the daughters of humans, and Enoch testified against all of them.[20] 

 

Enoch confirms this by saying,

 

The watchers instructed me, "Enoch, you righteous scribe, go tell the watchers of heaven who departed from the higher heaven of everlasting holiness, who became filthy with women… that their children will take pleasure in the murder of their loved ones."[21]

 

Jubilees also implies that the "watchers" and the "sons of the elohim" are synonymous with "angels,"

 

The angels of God saw women on a certain year of this jubilee.  They happily oogled them, and so they took wives for themselves, all that they chose, and they gave birth to sons who were giants.[22]

 

Giants?  Really?  The Hebrew word in Genesis is nephilim, which probably comes from the root naphal, meaning "cast outs."  The interpretation that these cast outs were giants is also found in the Septuagint's rendition of Genesis.  The Septuagint is the Greek Bible, which was translated from the Hebrew between 250 BCE and just before the start of the Common Era.  Josephus also believed the nephilim were giants.[23]  Researcher David Icke adds that certain ancient Arab and British legends pass down that giants were responsible for large rock monuments such as Stonehenge.[24]

      The tradition about giants also comes from a more ancient source – the Biblical account of Moses and the Exodus, which states,

 

We saw the nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the nephilim, and we were like grasshoppers both in our own eyes and in theirs.[25]

 

      Enoch, Jasher, Jubilees, Josephus, and other holy books of antiquity no doubt include many traditions that had been passed down for centuries.  These traditions about angels breeding with mortals can be traced to the very beginnings of the Bible and of the Hebrew nation.  The antiquity of these traditions is unassailable. 

 

Enoch and the Apostles

      All the stories above are from the Old Testament and its apocrypha.  But should New Testament Christianity embrace them?  Yes, it should.  In particular, Jesus Christ and his Apostles believed Enoch was a genuine Prophet, and they considered the book of Enoch to be divinely inspired.  One strong piece of evidence for this comes from Jude the brother of Jesus, who quotes Enoch and calls him a Prophet:

 

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these, saying, "Behold!  The Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

 

This passage occurs in the New Testament book of Jude verses 14-15, and it is a quote from Enoch 1:9.  Notice that Jude 14-15 above is very similar to Enoch 1:9 below: 

 

Behold!  He is coming with ten thousand of his holy ones.  He will carry out judgment against everyone, destroy all the ungodly, and convict all flesh of every ungodly thing they do, every ungodly act they commit, and all the blasphemy that ungodly sinners speak against him.

 

      John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," also implicitly endorsed Enoch as a Prophet, because some of John's apocalyptic visions in the book of Revelation mirror those in Enoch.  Below are some close parallels between Enoch and Revelation.  The first describes the Great Tribulation, the second describes the Final Judgment, and the third describes the Regeneration: 

 

Enoch 100:3-4 – The horse will wade through the blood of sinners, and it will come up to their chest.  The chariots will be completely submerged [in blood].

compare with

Revelation 14:20 – Blood came out of the winepress and came up to the horse’s bridles for a distance of sixteen hundred stadiums.

 

Enoch 81:2 – I read the tablet that recorded all the works of everyone born of human flesh, everyone who lived on the face of the earth throughout all ages. 

Enoch 51:1 – The grave will give back everything it has received, and hell will pay back all of its debts.

Enoch 108:3 – (The transgressors') names will be blotted out of the Book of Life.

compare with

Revelation 20:12-15 – Books were opened.  And another book was opened, the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged by what things are recorded in the books, according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead that were in them… and anyone who was not written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

 

Enoch 91:16-17 – The first heaven will pass away, and a new heaven will appear, which will shine seven times more billiant forever.

compare with

Revelation 21:1 – And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

     

      Considering the fact that Revelation draws its metaphors from Old Testament books – from Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Exodus – then it logically follows that Revelation draws from Enoch because its author believed Enoch was also part of the Old Testament.  Therefore, if one accepts the book of Revelation as divinely inspired, it is difficult to exclude Enoch, for Revelation implies that Enoch is likewise inspired.

      Jesus Christ himself also shares a motif in common with Enoch.  Both Jesus and Enoch denounce unjust wealthy people in a series of curses called "woes."

 

Enoch 94:6-8 – Woe to those who cause tyranny and injustice… Woe to those who accumulate assets sinfully…  Woe to you wealthy people.

compare with

Luke 6:24-26 – Woe to you who are wealthy… Woe to you who are full… Woe to you who laugh now… Woe to you when all people speak well of you.

Revelation 8:13 – I heard an angel flying in the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe!"

 

      Saint Peter also makes reference to Enoch when he mentions that the condemnation of the evil angels was pronounced at the time of Noah's Flood.  Peter attained this information from Enoch chapter 10,

 

Enoch 10:2-3, 10:12-14 – The Flood is going to cover all the earth, and everything in it will be destroyed… bind them (the lustful angels) under the rocks of the earth for seventy generations, until their final judgment, the eternal judgment.  Then they will be led low into the fire, into torment, into prison, where they will be incarcerated forever.[26]

compare with

2^nd Peter 2:4-5 – For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be held until the judgment; and did not spare the old world, but saved Noah…

 

Notice how Peter's words in the New Testament assume familiarity with the Enochian legend.  Such evidence proves that Enoch was absolutely central to the worldview of the earliest Christians. 

      Paul the Apostle also infers angelic sexuality in Corinthians:

 

A woman should have a covering over her head for this reason:  because of the angels.[27] 

 

Notice that Paul took for granted the fact that angels are sexually attracted to human women, and therefore women should cover themselves during worship, so that they do not arouse the angels when they pray.  Paul mentions this in mere passing, as if everyone knew what it meant, agreed with the interpretation, and did not need any further explanation.  Thus, not only that Paul said it, but also the way he said, attests quite strongly for a very wide knowledge and acceptance of Enoch and related apocrypha in the early Christian community.  

      What Paul meant is explicitly confirmed by the comments of Tertullian, who said,

 

Next, we turn to the reasons for why the apostle said that the female ought to be veiled… for if it is on account of the angels, those, to wit, we have read about, who fell from God and from heaven because of their desire for the females.[28] 

 

Tertullian was a high ranking church official in the late 100's and early 200's AD.  Here, he identifies the meaning of Paul's statement.

 

Enoch as Scripture

      Moreover, Tertullian also wrote, "Enoch had come before… but why restate any more Scriptures as if the Holy Spirit’s word were not enough?"[29]  Here, we can plainly see that Tertullian explicitly calls Enoch "Scripture."  He was not the only one.

      In the early 200's AD, a professor of Christian studies named Origen wrote, "Perhaps someone will ask us if we can find a Scripture that supports our opinion on the subject… in Psalms, the prophet says… and also Enoch, who said in his book…"[30]  Origen explicitly called Enoch scripture, on par with the Biblical book of Psalms, and used its authority to prove an unrelated point.  This is de facto canonization of the book.

      In fact, all ancient Christian sources within 200 years of Jesus' life on earth, and who happened to mention Enoch, either expressly endorsed Enoch as scripture, or they allude to it as a source of truth.  Not until the middle of the 3^rd century did anyone question the book of Enoch.

      About 155 AD, the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr said,

 

The angels disrespected their lofty position.  They became infatuated with women, and so they had children who became those entities known as demons.  Moreover, after they did that, they lorded it over humanity by means of occult literature, fear, retributions, and also by teaching the offering of sacrifices… because the demons needed such things.[31]

 

From this, we may conclude that Justin Martyr had read and accepted Enoch, for Enoch tells the exact same story.  There is no other place Justin Martyr could have received this information – in particular, that the angels taught the women occult magic, that their children oppressed humanity, and that their children became incorporeal spirits, i.e. demons, after death – this information is only contained in Enoch, which corroborates Justin Martyr as follows:

 

The children of heaven, the angels, saw the women and wanted them, and said to each other, "Let’s take the humans’ daughters for our wives and have children…" And they taught them sorcery, chanting, divination, and making potions; then the women conceived and gave birth to large giants...  The giants ate the people's food until the people grew tired of feeding them… and they accused them for being tyrants.[32] 

 

The giants who are born from both spirit and flesh will be the evil spirits of the earth.  Evil spirits escaped their bodies.  From the first, when the holy ones fathered them, they became watchers… The spirits who dwell in heaven belong to heaven, but the spirits who were born on the earth belong to the earth, and they must dwell there.  The spirits of these giants… will bring distress.  They won’t eat or drink anything, nor are they visible.[33]

 

Hence, they are demons.

      The traditions of Enoch permeate early Christian literature.  Below are some more examples.  Irenaeus, the Catholic bishop of Lyons, claimed angelic sexuality and the resulting violent offspring were the reason for Noah's Flood:

 

In Noah’s day, [God] justly brought on the Flood so that a most notorious breed of people might be destroyed.  These people were incapable of doing anything good for God, because the sinful angels had commingled with them. God did this to bring an end to these people’s transgressions, but still preserve a proto-type of Adam.[34] 

 

Contemporary with Irenaeus, about 175 AD, the philosopher Christian Athenagoras wrote,

 

Just as men have free moral agency… so do the angels… but some of them grieved their original nature… and they succumbed to lust for virgins.  They were conquered by the flesh, and they abused the authority that had been granted to them.  Becoming evil and negligent, they were sex partners with virgins.  Thus, they fathered those known as giants.[35]

 

About 190 AD, the prolific early Christian author Clement of Alexandria wrote,

 

For example, the angels who renounced the beauty of God for a beauty that fades…[36]

 

Commodianus, a late 3^rd century Christian from Palestine likewise left a record saying,

 

When [angels] were sent down, they hated [God’s] laws.  The loveliness of women distracted them.  Then they could not return to heaven, since they were now unclean.  Being rebels from God, they blasphemed Him.  Then the Highest declared His judgment against them.  Giants are said to have been born from them.  They taught the earth skills, such as the dyeing of wool, and all other things that are done.  When they died, humans built idols to them.  But they were the offspring of evil, so the Almighty did not allow for them to come back to life once they were dead.  So now they wander around and possess various bodies, and these are the gods that you (pagans) worship and pray to.[37]

 

Another early Christian named Cassiodorus wrote,

 

But the angels… since they vowed to lust, cannot be redeemed… Enoch, the seventh from Adam, as Jude says, also prophesied about these…[38] 

 

Lactantius, another early Christian leader, wrote,

 

The deceitful ruler of the earth used his association with them to gradually entice (the angels) to commit crimes, and to pollute themselves by having sex with women… Those who were born from these were not admitted into the underworld, just as their fathers were not admitted into heaven, for they were a mixture of angel and human.  So there came to be two types of demons – one from heaven and the other from earth.[39]

 

      It is impossible for modern-day Christians to truly emulate the most ancient and purely genuine apostolic church without understanding and accepting the book of Enoch, for that book's traditions were the basis for very central and unquestioned doctrines of the early Christians.

 

The Essene Connection

      As mentioned above, the Essene community which wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, accepted Enoch and Jubilees as scripture.  This is important, because many scholars have asserted that Jesus was an Essene.  If this is true, then it stands to reason that Jesus very likely also accepted Enoch and Jubilees as scripture, because his Essene affiliates did.  We cannot know for sure if Jesus was an Essene, but there are several hints that he shared certain opinions with them, and that he had friends among them.  For one thing, of the three dominant sects of Judaism at the time – Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes[40] – he only criticized the first two.  He never criticized the Essenes.  For another, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain a text called The Resurrection Scroll which asserts that the Messiah will,

 

Liberate captives, make the blind see, make the crippled stand straight… heal the injured, raise up the dead, and preach good news to the poor.[41]

 

This is essentially the same as Jesus' own messianic expectations:

 

Men from John the Baptist came and asked Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"  Jesus answered, "Go tell John what you see and hear:  The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them."[42]

 

Notice how Jesus echoed the messianic expectation of the Dead Sea Scrolls almost word for word.  Jesus essentially quoted the Dead Sea Scrolls here.  Moreover, this particular passage is part of Gospel Source Quelle, which is believed by scholars to be the earliest and most authentic collection of Jesus' words save perhaps Mark.  This is a big hint that Jesus was familiar with the Essene community living by the Dead Sea, and that he shared their particular expectations about the Messiah. 

      Another hint is found in The War Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which carries a certain resemblance to the End Times prophecies that Jesus foretold on the Mount of Olives,

 

The congress of gods and the armies of men will battle.  They will cause a large amount of destruction… and there will be a time of great tribulation for those whom God will save.[43]

Compare this to Jesus' End Times prophecies:

Then they will deliver you up to be persecuted, and they will kill you… And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies… Then there will be great tribulation.[44]

 

      Apparently, the Essenes had prophet-like men who could make such predictions.  One example is an Essene named Simon, who correctly prophesied that Herod Archelaus would only reign in Judea ten years.[45]

      In addition to paraphrasing the Essene's messianic and prophetic literature, Jesus chose to be baptized by a man who displayed certain Essene habits.  John the Baptist ate locusts.[46]  The Dead Sea Scrolls actually contain cooking instructions for locusts.  They say you should baptize locusts in fire or in water before you eat them.[47]  Baptism by fire and water was a well known theme to John the Baptist, who said, "I baptize you with water… but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!"[48]  Thus, it seems John the Baptist may have shared a peculiar diet with the Essenes, and also the unique concept of baptism by fire and water. 

      Moreover, John was baptizing not too far from the desert community of the Essenes.  The Essenes were located at Qumran, which is on the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, situated close to the Jordan and just east of Jerusalem.  This is the Biblical place John is said to have been. 

      The Essenes also had customs similar to that of the early Christian church.  They held all their possessions in common, just as the early church in Jerusalem did.[49] 

      The Essenes refused to sacrifice any animals,[50] and they shunned the temple at Jerusalem.[51]  Jesus apparently held the same opinion, for he says in The Gospel of the Ebionites, also known as The Gospel of the Hebrews, "If you do not stop sacrificing, wrath against you will never abate."[52]  The Gospel of the Hebrews can be accepted as a witness of what Jesus said, because many in the ancient church accepted it.  The same people who accepted it were critically minded enough to reject several other books, but they accepted The Gospel of the Hebrews.[53]  Therefore, it appears Jesus agreed with the Essenes that animal sacrifice should not be practiced.  This was probably more a protest against the priests of Jerusalem than a prohibition against sacrifice in general.  The Essenes had been forced out of the priesthood by the Sadducees, and so they refused to sacrifice at Jerusalem because sacrificing there would legitimize their enemies.  This might also explain why James the brother of Jesus was a vegetarian.[54]  Under ancient Hebrew custom, one could not eat meat unless it was sacrificed.  But the only altar available in James' day was the temple of Jerusalem.  Therefore he did not eat meat.

      A second piece of evidence that links James the brother of Jesus to the Essenes is found at the conclusion of the apocryphal nativity gospel called Protevangelion, which tells us that James the brother of Jesus secluded himself in the desert – a behavior all too commonly associated with the Essenes. 

      That Jesus had brothers is explained by the fact that they were step brothers.  When Joseph was asked to marry Mary, he protested, "I already have sons.  I am well along in years.  Mary is so young that I'm afraid Israel will laugh at me."[55]  Therefore, Jesus' brothers were step brothers, who were born from Joseph before he married Mary.

 

Why Enoch Was Rejected

      Some may ask, if Enoch was such a great book, then why isn't it in the Bible today?  There must be a reason why the churches ultimately rejected it, right?

      Actually, Enoch still is in the Bible.  The Ethiopian Christians still hold Enoch sacred.  This is a crucial point, because Ethiopian Christianity traces its roots to apostolic times, and it was relatively free from the pagan influences which adulterated Christian tradition within the Roman Empire.  Since Ethiopia was never part of the Roman Empire, Constantine’s mixing of pagan sun worship with Christianity never had an impact on the development of the faith.  Therefore, Ethiopian Christianity is more trustworthy than Roman Christianity.  Ethiopia accepts Enoch, so Christians outside Ethiopia should accept Enoch too.

      Now, for why it was rejected:  The Old Testament in most modern-day Bibles contains the same scriptures as the Jewish Bible.  Although the books are arranged in different order, nothing is lacking in one that is in the other, so they may be considered essentially the same.  Why are they the same?  During the Protestant Reformation, Luther argued that no scripture should be permitted into the Old Testament unless the Jews included it in their Bible.  That is why the Jewish Bible and the Protestant Old Testament include the same books.

      But the Jewish Bible was not finalized until sixty years after Christ, at the Council of Jamnia about 90 AD.  Moreover, Jamnia was a council that was dominated by Pharisees – a sect which Jesus Christ did not particularly care for.  Consequently, there is no reason to assume that Jesus Christ would have agreed with the council's decision.  On the contrary, there is every reason to believe Jesus would have protested Jamnia, and therefore, Jesus would also protest the contents of the Old Testament if he were here today. 

      Prior to Jamnia, there was widespread disagreement among Jews about which books should be in the Bible.  The Sadducees only accepted the first five books.  The Pharisees of Palestine may have accepted a canon similar to the Old Testament of today.  The Greek speaking Jews of the Diaspora accepted a larger Old Testament called the Septuagint, which contained more books.  Some of these books made it into the deuterocanon, also called the apocrypha, which Catholic and Orthodox Christians accept but Protestants do not.  The Essenes, as we saw earlier, had still another canon, which contained Enoch and Jubilees.  Consequently, it is superfluous to argue that we cannot accept Enoch just because it is not in our Bible today.

      Which of these Bibles would Jesus have been most likely to accept?  Jesus had ties to the Essene community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls; therefore he would have been most likely to choose the Essene canon, thereby including Enoch and Jubilees in the Bible.  There is no reason to think he would accept the Catholic/Greek Old Testament, because Jesus was not a Greek Jew, and he never made any statements suggesting he favored Greek Judaism over Palestinian Judaism.  Neither would he have accepted the Protestant Old Testament, because it is based on the Council of Jamnia, which was a council of Pharisees.

      Besides this, the early Christians supported the canonization of Enoch despite Jewish rejection of it.  Early 3^rd century Christian writer Tertullian commented on the Jews rejection of Enoch as follows,

 

Since Enoch, in the same Scripture, also taught about the Lord, then it should not be rejected by us… but it appears that the Jews rejected it specifically for that reason, just like they do almost every other part that foretells Christ.[56] 

 

      According to this line of thinking, the Council of Jamnia was in error because it allowed an anti-Christian prejudice to influence the decision regarding Enoch’s canonicity.  If this is the case, then Luther was certainly wrong in allowing Jamnia to decide his Old Testament canon.

      Another reason for why Enoch was rejected from the canon is because later church leaders found the story of angels having sex with humans too fantastic.  Julius Africanus was one of the first to reinterpret Genesis 6 and thus cast a shadow over Enoch.  Around 245 AD, he said,

 

In my opinion, what the Spirit is trying to tell us is that the descendents of Seth are the sons of God because of the godly men and patriarchs who descended from them, all the way down to the Savior himself, and that the descendents of Cain are the spawn of men and have nothing from God in them.[57] 

 

At the beginning of the dark ages, this interpretation regarding the good sons of Seth versus the evil sons of Cain became quite popular, thanks to revisionist theologians like Jerome.  Popular literature such as The Life of Adam & Eve also promoted the sons of Seth versus the sons of Cain opinion.[58]  Although The Life of Adam & Eve may go back to the 1^st century BC, it is obviously fictional and contains so many variant readings between copies that it cannot be trusted.  No ancient Christian canon list included it. 

      The book of Enoch was ultimately rejected in 364 AD at the Council of Laodicea.  The fact that this act of betrayal against the earlier traditions happened in the church of Laodicea is stunningly prophetic, for the Prophet of Revelation has more harsh words for Laodicea than any other church in Asia,

 

I will spit you out of my mouth… You are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked… be zealous, therefore, and repent.[59]

 

Discontented by this critique of their town, Laodicea tried to remove Revelation from the Bible too, in addition to Enoch, but the Council of Carthage superceded them.  Should we allow these Laodicean heretics to have the final say on Enoch?  More and more Christians are saying No!