Wednesday, July 03, 2019

Did Jude Quote from Enoch Or from Other Non-Canonical Works?

Some of the books I've checked seem to argue that Jude possibly quotes from/alludes to 1 Enoch and The Assumption of Moses (verse 9) in his letter.

The work An Introduction to the New Testament by D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo points out that Jude "refers" to these non-canonical works. But Carson and Moo propose that Jude does not view either book as Scripture, although vs. 14 says Enoch "prophesied" about the Lord's coming. They believe: "Jude's reference to these texts implies nothing about his view of the books in which they are found" (694). Even if Jude reckons that some of the information in either Enoch or the Assumption is true, that does not mean he considers everything in either work to be true. He may be just using a familiar source (695).

In De Principiis III.2.1, Origen of Alexandria writes:

"We have now to notice, agreeably to the statements of Scripture, how the opposing powers, or the devil himself, contends with the human race, inciting and instigating men to sin. And in the first place, in the book of Genesis, the serpent is described as having seduced Eve; regarding whom, in the work entitled The Ascension of Moses (a little treatise, of which the Apostle Jude makes mention in his Epistle), the archangel Michael, when disputing with the devil regarding the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve’s transgression."

Origen believes that Jude invoked The Ascension of Moses/Assumption of Moses when he mentioned the Devil having a dispute with Michael over the body of Moses. He may be correct or incorrect, but in either case, Jude's potential use of any non-canonical works should not make us doubt the book's inspired status. As as F.F. Bruce notes about Paul's use of Aratus in Acts 17, the apostle's intent differs greatly from the pantheistic sentiments of Aratus. The employment of an uninspired source does not indicate approval of the source's entire contents.

2 comments:

JimSpace said...

I’m glad you brought this up, Edgar. As we know, usually people get uneasy over the concept that Jude would quote such a fanciful non-canonical book like 1 Enoch. However, such ones should know that the passage in 1 Enoch most similar to Jude 14-15, 1 Enoch 1:9, was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating to pre-Christian times.[1] This is actually a fascinating window into the views of the first-century Christians. As another scholar said: “We must be careful, however, to avoid saying that Jude necessarily agreed with everything found in 1 Enoch … A general appropriation of a tradition is not the same thing as accepting every detail of the tradition.”[2] It appears then that Jude and his audience found material in this book that harmonized with divine revelation.

Footnotes:
[1] See: http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/image/B-284648
http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/image/B-359527 http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/image/B-359528.
[2] Thomas Schreiner. The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (New American Commentary, 37). Holman Reference (2003). Page 450.

Edgar Foster said...

Thanks, Jim. The DSS seems to confirm that Jude likely quoted from 1 Enoch. While I'm not being dogmatic about this point, I don't see much difference between Jude quoting Enoch and Paul quoting a Stoic philosopher with the exception that Enoch was a prophet and widely respected in Jewish circles.