In Jude 1:14, the author of this epistle mentions the patriarch, Enoch, saying that he prophesied of these (i.e. as in verse-4, the wicked men who had secretly crept into the Church, having an agenda to lead the people away from Christ for their own profit) and then pointed to the coming of the Lord in judgment. Jude’s mention of Enoch has led many scholars to believe he was pointing to the Book of Enoch, which many of the church fathers of the second, third and fourth centuries AD believed to be inspired. However, Jude mentions only Enoch’s name, and he is probably quoting from an ancient tradition that had been handed down from generation to generation.[1] In fact, both Jude and the Book of Enoch, which we have today and which is a copy of an Ethiopic version from cir. 600 AD, may be quoting from a more ancient Enoch tradition. Or, the Book of Enoch, which we possess, may have quoted Jude, rather than Jude quoting it, as some Christian scholars have come to believe.
In any case, the Book of Enoch, which we have, today, is not an inspired work, and mentions many unbiblical matters, which many Christians have come to believe, but are simply not found in the Bible. It is, indeed, regrettable that so much emphasis has been placed upon this work in early Christian history. Nevertheless, the work we have today is definitely not the work to which Jude pointed in Jude 1:14, and there is absolutely no proof, extant, that he did.
Jude described Enoch as the seventh from Adam in the line of Seth (Genesis 5:1-18),[2] as opposed to the Enoch who was the third from Adam in the line of Cain (Genesis 4:17). He went on to say that Enoch prophesied that the Lord would come with ten thousand of his saints (hagios, G40) or holy ones, meaning angels (cp. Matthew 13:41, 49; 16:27; 24:30-31; 25:31). The word translated ten thousand (murias, G3461) refers to an innumerable company of angels, rather than a specific number (cp. Luke 12:1; Hebrews 12:22). Jude’s point is that Enoch prophesied of the Lord’s judgment of the antediluvian age with the Flood, which was a type of the Lord’s judgment, which would come at the end of the Jewish age or the age of the Law (Deuteronomy 31:28-29; 32:5; cp. 1Peter 3:20; 2Peter 2:5). Thus, in correctly predicting the coming of the Flood, Jude was able to quote Enoch to also predict the end of the false teachers of his day, as the end of the Old Covenant was approaching (Jude 1:15; cp. Hebrews 8:13), because all of God’s judgments against the wicked occur in a similar fashion. He comes in the clouds (Isaiah 19:1), probably referring to the clouds that poured out the rain upon the antediluvian era. So, the Lord’s judgment always involves clouds (cp. Matthew 26:64). One judgment of the wicked by the Lord is able to forecast his judgment upon all other wicked generations in which he intervenes to execute his will. Each may differ in actual events, but all have the same result—the wicked are destroyed and the righteous are saved.
The men Jude had in mind were grumblers who were always finding fault with how things were normally done. For they always had a better way of doing things and implemented their desires by promising better results for one’s labor. They hoped to succeed by tickling the ears of the wealthy and powerful in the Church, knowing, if they could corrupt them, they would have what they wanted (Jude 1:16). For this reason Jude warned his readers that they needed to “…earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3).
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[1] There were many legitimate Jewish traditions that had not made it into the cannon of Scripture. For example: the Book of Jasher (2Samuel 1:18); the Acts of Solomon (1Kings 11:41); the Book of Nathan the Prophet and Gad the Seer (1Chronicles 29:29); the Prophecy of Ahijah and the Visions of Iddo (2Chronicles 9:29); Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (2Chronicles 12:15); the Book of Jehu (2Chronicles 20:34); the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia (Esther 10:2) and others might be mentioned, as well. Nevertheless, the Book of Enoch, which is in existence today is not one of these ancient works, or at least not the entire version of what we have. It can be shown that the more modern version has had several authors.
[2] That is, Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahaleel, Jared and Enoch.
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