Is it possible that early Christians added to the book of Enoch?
Question:
Is it possible that early Christians added to the book of Enoch? or was it a work relying heavily upon the book of Daniel where the physical description of the throne and the Messiah are strikingly similar. i.e. "Hair on his head was like pure wool" (Daniel 7:9). I have been reading the book of Enoch, especially those passages about the Messiah. Something about them seems fishy. It seems to contain a more developed concept of the Messiah that's closer to the early Churches concept of him which wasn't so clearly defined as we find so many different interpretations expressed by The Jews towards Jesus' ministry in the gospel accounts. The Jews were certainly not in agreement on the nature of the Messiah. I get the impression that Christians may have taken the original book of Enoch and added to it. I don't know why but many of the Messianic Jews are embracing the book of Enoch as scripture. Why is that?
Answer:
Since we don't have an early copy of the entire book of Enoch, it is possible that the text currently referred to as the book of Enoch was altered. We only have small fragments of the document that dates from before Christ. The oldest complete copy dates from A.D. 1773.
The similarity of the document to passages in the Old Testament, such as Daniel 7:9, is actually a frequent observation among the false writings. The authors know they are forging true books, so to give their writings the proper tone, they borrow catchphrases from the Bible to make theirs appear more authentic. The Book of Mormon and the Q'ran do the same. God mentions this, ""Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who steal My words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who use their tongues and say, 'He says.' Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," says the LORD, "and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:30-32).
Along with this, the book of Enoch is disjoint which indicates multiple authors have been involved in its creation. As my sermon outline points out, the book has inconsistencies internally which again is a mark against it being inspired and a mark against it being the work of one person.
As to why the book is finding popularity again today, that is actually simple: it is a vague book that is difficult to understand. This makes it useful to false teachers because they can cite it as "proof" with few to argue that they don't know what they are talking about.
