Book of Enoch Examined Part 2: Testing the Book of Enoch by Scripture Alone

Based on Bible Mysteries Podcast episode 270: Book of Enoch Examined, Part 2 | Giants, Angels, and the Test of Scripture

The Word of God does not need correction, supplementation, or rescue from obscurity. Scripture testifies that the Lord preserves His words forever (Psalm 12:6–7), and that promise governs how every extra-biblical text must be handled. The Book of Enoch is often presented today as a lost key to Genesis 6, the Nephilim, and the fallen angels. It is historically interesting. It is widely discussed. But interest does not equal inspiration.

This study continues a careful examination of the Book of Enoch by comparing its claims to the plain testimony of Scripture. The question is not whether Enoch is ancient or provocative. The question is whether it bears the marks of God-breathed Scripture: consistency, preservation, and agreement with what God has already revealed.

The Standard for Scripture: Preservation and Consistency

Psalm 12 does not leave room for a missing, broken, or partially preserved Bible. If God promised to preserve His words, then those words must be identifiable, accessible, and consistent across time. The canon of Scripture did not emerge by accident. It was recognized because it bore the fingerprints of divine preservation.

The Book of Enoch, by contrast, survives in fragmented manuscript traditions and translations, lacks continuous Hebrew preservation, and was never received into the canon by the Jewish fathers. That alone demands caution. But the real test is comparison with Scripture itself.

Language That Does Not Match the Bible

“Orbits” and “Luminaries” vs. Biblical Language

In Enoch, creation is described using terms like orbits and luminaries. Those words do not appear in the Bible. Moses, when recording creation, used simple, direct language: “lights” to rule the day and the night, given for signs, seasons, days, and years (Genesis 1:14–18). The emphasis is not on celestial mechanics, but on God’s purpose for mankind.

Job, written much earlier than modern astronomy, still speaks in concrete, recognizable terms—Pleiades, Orion, ordinances of heaven (Job 38:31–33). Scripture names what God names and describes what God intends man to understand. The vocabulary of Enoch in these passages does not follow that pattern, and that raises a serious question about its origin and transmission. 

Eternal Life Has No Expiration Date

Another problem appears when Enoch speaks of the righteous “completing the number of the days of their life,” even while mentioning eternal joy. Scripture is unambiguous: eternal life is not a long life—it is life without end.

Jesus said, “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (John 6:51). John wrote that those who believe “have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Revelation closes with the saints reigning “for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). Eternal life is not counted in days. It is not completed. It does not expire.

When a text blurs that line, it is not a small theological slip. It strikes at the heart of the gospel itself.

The Problem of the Angels and Their Leader

Enoch names leaders of the angels who allegedly sinned, but the text itself is inconsistent—giving different names for the same leader within the same section. In Scripture, when God changes a name, He tells us why: Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, Simon is called Peter. The change is explained and purposeful. Enoch offers no such clarity, only confusion.

That kind of internal inconsistency is not how God speaks.

Mount Hermon and “Mutual Imprecations”

Enoch claims that Mount Hermon was named because the angels bound themselves by “mutual imprecations,” meaning a curse. The Bible tells a different story.

In Deuteronomy 3:8–9, the same mountain is known by different names among different peoples, each describing the mountain itself—its height, its snow-covered peak, its prominence. The Hebrew roots point to an abrupt, lofty, or snow-capped mountain, not to a curse. The biblical names describe geography, not an angelic oath.

If the name of the mountain came from a curse, Scripture would reflect that. It does not. The explanation offered by Enoch does not match the Hebrew testimony. 

Giants of Impossible Size

Enoch claims that the giants were 3,000 ells tall—roughly 4,500 feet. That is nearly a mile high. Scripture never describes anything remotely like this.

The Bible does record giants. It even records their measurements. Goliath was enormous by human standards, yet still within the realm of physical reality. A creature thousands of feet tall would leave evidence across the planet and would defy basic physical limits. More importantly, Genesis 6:4 speaks of “mighty men… men of renown,” not creatures of absurd, unmanageable scale.

Exaggeration of this magnitude does not clarify Scripture—it distorts it.

Why the Fathers Rejected It

The Jewish fathers did not reject books like Enoch out of ignorance or fear of difficult passages. They rejected them because they lacked the marks of divine preservation found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Even studies of textual structure and internal patterns—used by scribes to verify accurate transmission—do not appear in Enoch the way they do in the canonical books 

God’s Word bears God’s signature. Human religious literature does not.

What Scripture Keeps Central

From Genesis to Revelation, God’s focus is not on satisfying curiosity about angels. It is on His redemptive work through Jesus Christ. Angels appear in Scripture as servants and messengers, not as the center of the story. The cross is the center. The resurrection is the center. The promise of eternal life is the center.

A book that shifts that focus, introduces contradictions, and relies on unstable transmission does not belong on the same level as Scripture.

Conclusion: Test Everything by the Word of God

The Book of Enoch can be studied as historical or cultural material. It should not be treated as inspired Scripture. When tested against the Bible, it fails in language, doctrine, internal consistency, and agreement with what God has already revealed.

The standard remains simple and sufficient: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

God has preserved His Word. Our task is not to supplement it, but to believe it, study it, and stand on it.