Saturday, October 31, 2015

Tertullian on the Reliability of the Book of Enoch in 198CE

I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch… is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not think that, having been published before the deluge, it could have safely survived that world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things. If that is the reason (for rejecting it), let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself.

And he, of course, had heard and remembered from domestic renown and hereditary tradition concerning his own great-grandfather’s “grace in the sight of God,” and concerning all his preachings; since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity. Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching; or, had the case been otherwise, he would not have been similarly silent concerning the disposition (of things) made by God, his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory of his own house. …

But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that “every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.” By the Jews it may now seem to have been rejected for that (very) reason, just like all the other (portions) nearly which tell of Christ. … To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude.

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