Extra-Biblical Books? Part 4G: “First Enoch”

Extra-Biblical Books? Part 4G: “First Enoch”
Friday, July 17, 2026 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Scripture discussion / Spiritual warfare / The church / Thought for Today

What do the last three sections of 1 Enoch teach? In the previous post we saw that the first two sections of 1 Enoch taught things that fell far outside the bounds of Scripture, including outright error and legendary accounts. We will look at the last three sections of 1 Enoch in turn.

3. The Astronomical Book

The Astronomical Book supposedly deals with the movement of the sun and moon. Both have multiple portals from which they may emerge. Depending on the portal they come out of the resulting weather can be either a blessing or destruction.

Chapter 78 discloses that the circumference of the sun and the moon are the same. A few verses in this section speak of judgment against sinners. Most of the section is flowery speculative verbiage

The section consists of various musings, musings that would not be uncommon for time that 1 Enoch was written. As with the first two sections, the third section is not biblical, not even remotely so.

4. The Book of Dream Visions

The Book of Dream Visions is an allegorical dream about sheep, sheep that portrays the history of Israel from before the exodus to the coming of the victorious Messiah.

All the evil nations, portrayed as various animals, end up being restored. Given the section’s language, it is tough to see it as a prophecy from Enoch. For someone who knows Israel’s history, the vision makes sense, but if someone didn’t know their Old Testament history, it likely would not. It is also very different from the prophetic precision one finds in the book of Daniel.

Once again, the section fails in terms of qualifying as Scripture.

5. The Epistle of Enoch

The Epistle of Enoch is supposedly Enoch’s words to Methusaleh, exhortations given to Methusaleh to live righteously. It includes many woes against the wicked, contrasted with hope for the righteous

Chapter 105 includes prophecies regarding Noah that Enoch gave to Methusaleh to pass on to Lamech just after Noah was born. Biblically, was that conversation even possible?

Genesis 5:20–29 gives the chronology. Enoch lived 300 years after the birth of Methusaleh. Methusaleh was 187 years old when he fathered Lamech, and Lamech was 182 years old when he fathered Noah. Thus, Noah was born 369 years after Enoch fathered Methusaleh. There is only one problem: Enoch was not alive on earth to prophesy at the time Noah was born as Noah was born 69 years after God had taken Enoch.

That chronology doesn’t work, does it? As with the other sections of 1 Enoch, we once again see that this last section of 1 Enoch does not qualify as Scripture.

All told, given what 1 Enoch claims, it is not a biblical book in any sense. It contains too many errors, it has key ideas that go against what Scripture directly state, and chronological impossibilities. But it does say what people want to hear: we are not responsible for our sin; the Watchers are. What is perhaps disconcerting, prominent Bible teachers often use it to teach about the Nephilim and the origin of demons.

We want answers to things that the Bible doesn’t tell us. We either want our pastors to fill in those blanks or we look to hidden books, books that have supposedly been deliberately repressed by the church, for those answers. Those books provide answers, but the answers often directly contradict Scripture. Indeed, one of the reasons the books are marketed as “truth” is precisely to turn us away from God’s revealed truth, found in Scripture alone.

Sadly, we are often no different from the early Gnostics. We want secret truth that no one else has. We want to know, but especially to know “the truth” that contradict what God declares in Scripture, that apart from faith in Jesus Christ, of accepting His death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, we will be separated from God for all eternity in hell.

We can heap up to ourselves teachers who will tell us what we want to hear, but doing so ultimately leads us only to our demise. It is far better to stick with Scripture, what God declares in the Bible. Wisdom is to reject books like the Gnostic Gospels, Jasher, Giants, Jubilees, and the three Enochs, books that purport to tell us “truth,” but instead contain biblical lies.

Hopefully, by God’s grace, we can lead those who have been ensnared by the words of these books, to the truth and freedom found in Jesus Christ.

Share This Blog: