Cory D. Anderson’s journal article “Jude’s Use of the Pseudepigraphal Book of 1 Enoch” asks whether Jude’s quotation of 1 Enoch means more than illustration. Anderson’s answer is yes: Jude probably regarded 1 Enoch as inspired and authoritative, read it eschatologically and christologically, and applied its judgment scenes to Jesus. Anderson does not conclude that 1 Enoch is Scripture for the church. In a concluding note, he explicitly leaves open whether Jude’s belief was accurate and raises—without resolving—the possibility that God could inspire Jude’s canonical epistle even if Jude’s view of 1 Enoch were mistaken.
That makes the paper worth careful handling. It is not enough to say that quotation alone does not canonize a source, though that remains true. Anderson presses the harder question: what did Jude think he was doing when he quoted Enoch?
Anderson’s paper appeared in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and closes with a separate discussion of the Book of Moses and Joseph Smith Translation; this review focuses on his argument about Jude. He describes 1 Enoch as a pseudepigraphal book and treats it as important background for Jude’s use of the Watchers, their judgment, and the coming judgment of the ungodly. That historical value does not by itself make 1 Enoch canonical Scripture.
Five terms need to stay separate: a quotation is a verbal citation; literary dependence is sustained use of another text’s wording or themes; authority is weight in argument; inspiration is divine origin; canonization is reception into the church’s recognized Scriptures. Confusing these categories is where debates about Jude and 1 Enoch often go sideways.
Anderson’s Answer: Jude Probably Treated 1 Enoch as Inspired, but That Does Not Make 1 Enoch Canon
In the opening statement of purpose, Anderson writes:
“it is the aim of this paper to show that Jude’s belief in the inspiration and authority of the pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch played an influential role in the writing of the Epistle of Jude, in that it caused him to read 1 Enoch with an eschatological and christological hermeneutic.”
Later, in his formal thesis statement, he clarifies the boundary between Jude’s belief and the actual status of 1 Enoch:
“The thesis of this paper is that Jude’s belief in the inspiration and authority of the pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch was influential in causing him to read 1 Enoch with an eschatological and Christological hermeneutic. The question this paper does not directly address is whether Jude’s belief that 1 Enoch was inspired was accurate.”
Anderson’s position is therefore more precise than saying Jude quotes Enoch, so Enoch is Scripture. He argues that Jude likely treated 1 Enoch as inspired and authoritative, while Anderson himself remains willing to deny that 1 Enoch actually possesses canonical authority.
This is not my default position. Scripture alone is inspired, and non-canonical texts, including 1 Enoch, are valuable as background but do not carry doctrinal authority. The point here is to represent Anderson accurately and then ask how much his evidence proves.
| Category | Meaning in this review | Anderson’s use |
|---|---|---|
| Quotation | Verbal citation | Jude 14–15 cites language from 1 Enoch 1:9 |
| Literary dependence | Reuse of wording, themes, or structure | Anderson argues that Jude’s letter draws heavily on Enochic material |
| Authority | Weight in argument | Anderson argues that Jude treats 1 Enoch as serious support |
| Inspiration | Divine origin | Anderson argues that Jude likely believed 1 Enoch was inspired |
| Canonization | Recognition as Scripture for the church | Anderson does not claim Jude proves this for the church |
Anderson rejects several alternative explanations. Michael Green treats Jude’s use of 1 Enoch as illustrative, comparable to Paul citing pagan poets. Douglas J. Moo argues that a closed Jewish canon, combined with Jude’s lack of a formula like “it is written,” weighs against seeing 1 Enoch as inspired Scripture in Jude’s mind. J. Daryl Charles suggests Jude may be exploiting his readers’ or opponents’ devotion to Enochic literature, and Robert C. Newman raises an ad hominem possibility before questioning it. Anderson thinks these explanations underread Jude’s language and method.
Why Anderson Thinks Jude’s Quote Is More Than Illustration
Anderson first appeals to Jude’s citation formula in verse 14: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied. He argues that Jude is not merely borrowing a striking sentence, but attributing real prophetic speech to Enoch:
“The introduction, ‘and to these ones even Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying,’ shows that Jude considered the words of Jude 14, and the book of 1 Enoch from which they came, to be authoritative.”
The inference is suggestive, though not decisive. Jude’s formula does sound closer to prophetic attribution than casual illustration. Yet the debated question is how far the formula reaches. It clearly covers the saying Jude quotes. Anderson wants it to imply a broader view of the book from which the saying comes. That is plausible, but it remains an inference from Jude’s wording and use of the source.
Anderson’s second argument is literary. Jude draws from Israel’s wilderness judgment, angelic rebellion, Sodom, the dispute over Moses’ body, and Enoch’s prophecy without pausing to rank those materials. Anderson describes Jude’s method this way:
“the evidence suggests that Jude does not distinguish between his use of the Old Testament and his use of 1 Enoch. In this short epistle, Jude masterfully weaves together a midrashic treatment of various texts, never making a qualitative distinction between the pseudepigraphic and what is inspired and authoritative.”
That is one of the stronger observations in the paper. Jude’s argument does not sound embarrassed by 1 Enoch. He does not introduce it as an outside illustration or distance himself from it. He places the Enoch quotation inside his warning as a prophetic witness against the ungodly.
The limit is that absence of distinction is still not the same thing as explicit identification. A writer can use sources of different status without announcing every difference. Anderson’s case gains force from the density of Jude’s Enochic language, not from silence alone.
Newman’s observation matters here because it undercuts the purely tactical reading:
“Yet there is no hint in the context that Jude in any way distances himself from these citations.”
Arguments from silence are never airtight. Jude may have assumed a distinction that he did not state. But if someone argues that Jude privately rejected 1 Enoch while publicly using it against opponents, the burden shifts: where in the text does Jude signal that distance? Anderson’s answer is that he does not.
Jude’s Eschatological Reading: Enoch’s Judgment and Jude’s Generation
Anderson argues that Jude reads 1 Enoch as prophecy about a remote generation and identifies that generation with his own crisis. He starts from 1 Enoch 1:2, where Enoch’s vision concerns not his own generation but a distant one. He then notes Jude 4, where the intruders are described as long beforehand marked out for condemnation, and Jude’s repeated use of ungodly language in verses 4, 15, and 18.
In the Greek forms of 1 Enoch, Anderson says the word for ungodly clusters densely in 1 Enoch 1:9, the verse Jude quotes. He takes this as a deliberate identification of Jude’s false teachers with Enoch’s condemned ungodly. He also compares Jude’s greeting to Enochic language about the elect, mercy, peace, and preservation. He writes:
“With such strong similarities it seems probable that Jude was not only dependent on 1 Enoch, but also understood the elect and righteous whom he addresses to be a fulfillment of 1 Enoch.”
This is where Anderson’s comparison to pesher-style interpretation becomes useful. At Qumran, biblical texts could be read as mysteries now fulfilled in the interpreter’s own community. Jude does not use the formal Qumran formula, but his logic may be similar: Enoch spoke long ago; the ungodly are now here; therefore Enoch’s warning lands on Jude’s opponents.
That reading fits Jude’s urgency. It also fits Second Temple Jewish habits of reading ancient prophecy as immediately relevant to present conflict. Still, the pesher analogy should not be overworked. Jude’s explicit quotation proves that he regarded one Enochic judgment oracle as applicable to his situation. It does not automatically prove that he regarded every section of 1 Enoch as equally predictive or equally authoritative.
Jude’s Christological Reading: The Watchers, Judgment, and Jesus
Anderson’s most intricate move concerns Jude’s christology. He argues that Jude applies to Jesus roles and judgments that 1 Enoch attributes to God, especially in Jude 5–6 and Jude 14–15.
The hinge is Jude 5. Anderson discusses the textual difficulty over whether the saving and destroying actor is identified as God, the Lord, Jesus, or possibly Joshua, since Jesus and Joshua are the same name in Greek. In verse 6, the same context speaks of the angels who did not keep their proper domain but are kept in eternal bonds until judgment. Anderson argues that the Lord in Jude should be read christologically, since he says the same Greek word is used elsewhere in Jude in reference to Jesus.
That reading is contested. Green, Moo, and J. N. D. Kelly prefer to understand the Lord in Jude 5–6 as God rather than Jesus, partly because the implications are so large: it would mean Jude attributes the exodus judgment and the imprisonment of the rebellious angels to Christ. Anderson answers that the New Testament can read Christ back into Israel’s history, as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 10.
He then connects Jude 6 with 1 Enoch 10 and 12, where the Watchers are bound and imprisoned until the day of judgment:
“In comparison to these texts in 1 Enoch, Jude 6 reads, ‘And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.’ The similarities between Jude and 1 Enoch are too great to be mere coincidence. Jude is clearly dependent upon 1 Enoch and is reading the story of the Watchers christologically.”
If Anderson is right about the Lord in Jude 5–6, this is not merely a claim about Jude’s sources. It is a claim about early high christology: Jude may be taking a judgment scene associated with God and placing Christ within it as the divine actor. That would make Jude’s use of 1 Enoch theologically significant even if 1 Enoch remains non-canonical.
The same issue appears in Jude 14–15. Jude quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 about the Lord coming with his holy ones to execute judgment. In 1 Enoch’s setting, Anderson says the subject is God. He follows Richard Bauckham in seeing Jude’s wording as christological:
“In 1 Enoch the subject of the sentence is God, named in 1:4. Jude’s kurios, which has not support from the other versions, has no doubt been supplied by him, probably as a christological interpretation, in order to apply the verse to the Parousia of Jesus Christ.”
I find this one of Anderson’s most valuable contributions. The question is not only whether Jude quotes Enoch, but how Jude rereads Enoch in light of Jesus. Even if one remains cautious about Anderson’s broader inspiration claim, his christological point deserves attention.
Where the Case Helps—and Where It Reaches Beyond Jude’s Text
Near the end of the article, Anderson makes a broader hermeneutical point:
“Jude’s belief in the inspiration and authority of 1 Enoch influenced the way in which he read 1 Enoch, much like our reading of scripture today is influenced by the particular beliefs about inspiration and canon that are adopted in our various traditions.”
That is a fair warning for everyone in the debate. Jude apparently lived in a world where 1 Enoch could be treated by some Jews and Christians as a serious witness to God’s judgment, and possibly as inspired. Modern Protestant readers live with a received canon in which 1 Enoch is outside Scripture. Those starting points shape what readers expect a quotation to mean.
Anderson does not decide whether Jude’s belief about 1 Enoch’s inspiration was correct. In a concluding note, he asks whether a New Testament author could be wrong about the literature available to him and whether God could inspire Jude’s letter even if Jude depended fully on 1 Enoch. He presents these as open questions, not as his settled conclusion.
That possibility will not satisfy everyone. Some readers will resist the idea that a biblical author could mistakenly regard a non-inspired book as inspired while writing inspired Scripture; others may see it as one way to frame the evidence. But Anderson’s stated thesis stops short of deciding the issue. The essential distinction is between what Anderson thinks Jude believed and whether 1 Enoch actually has canonical status.
| Boundary question | Anderson’s leaning | Why it remains debated |
|---|---|---|
| Does prophesied cover all of 1 Enoch? | Anderson argues it points beyond the quoted line toward broader prophetic status | Moo restricts the force to Jude’s quoted saying |
| Is the Lord in Jude 5–6 Jesus? | Anderson argues yes, christologically | Green, Moo, and Kelly prefer God more generally |
| Did Jude know the Parables of 1 Enoch? | Anderson treats this as possible through proposed allusions | Bauckham doubts access; dating and Qumran evidence complicate it |
| Was the first-century canon closed? | Anderson argues no, especially regarding the Writings | Others stress growing canonical consciousness |
| Does Jude’s use of 1 Enoch make 1 Enoch canon for the church? | Anderson does not argue that it does | Anderson leaves the accuracy of Jude’s belief unresolved |
From a Scripture-first perspective, the safest conclusions are limited but important. Jude is inspired, authoritative, and canonical. Scripture does not teach that 1 Enoch is inspired or canonical. Jude 14–15 gives the church an inspired statement of the Lord’s coming judgment on the ungodly, using language also found in 1 Enoch 1:9. It does not, by itself, elevate the whole Enochic corpus to Scripture.
Anderson is right to push back against the thin claim that Jude’s quotation is only illustration. Jude’s dependence appears deeper than that. But the paper moves beyond what Jude directly states when it reconstructs Jude’s belief in the inspiration of the whole book. It then raises—but does not settle—the possibility that Jude’s belief could have been mistaken. The first claim is Anderson’s thesis; the second is an open question, and neither is an explicit biblical claim.
Conclusion
The takeaways are practical. Read Jude’s quotation of 1 Enoch as serious evidence, not as a throwaway literary flourish. Let Jude’s inspired epistle define the true judgment he cites, especially its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus. But do not build doctrine on 1 Enoch as though Jude had canonized the book. The canonical authority rests in Jude’s inspired epistle; 1 Enoch remains valuable background that must be tested by Scripture.
Jake Mooney is a lay researcher and the author of the novel The Descent of the Gods, with 25+ years studying Genesis 6. Chasing the Giants is where he brings Bible-first research together on the topic to help separate what we can really believe vs what is purely sensationalism.
This review worked from Anderson’s article, Jude’s text, and the relevant Second Temple background, while distinguishing direct biblical claims from scholarly reconstruction.
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