The Book of Enoch

[midnightanswer]

Hi all.

Does anyone know why the Book of Enoch was left out of the cannon? I'm asking because it is referred to in 1 Corinthains 11:10 and is quoted in Jude 14 and 15. Why would the Holy Spirit quote and reference uninspired text?

[wildboar]

Paul also quotes the Greek poet Aratus in Acts 17:28. The quotation of some particular part of a document does not make the whole document canon. The writers are merely saying that that thing which is said is true just as everything the apostles or Moses or whomever else said was not considered part of the canon. If Martin Luther had lived at the time of Paul and said that justification is by faith alone Paul could have quoted Martin Luther and said that this is very true but that would not have made all that he wrote sacred canon. There is even some dispute as to whether 1 Enoch is being quoted and where the additional information is coming from. Some say from The Ascension of Moses. There is never any quotation of an apocryphal book by Jesus or the apostles in which some prophecy is referred to and it is said that this prophecy has been fulfilled. There are certainly allusions to various pieces of Jewish apocolyptic literature throughout Revelation, sometimes the whole thing is turned on its head, but regardless the allusions do not make something canon.

[midnightanswer]

The quotation of some particular part of a document does not make the whole document canon.

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Thanks for answering my question! So how was it determined that only the things quoted were true? Why was the rest of the book disreguarded?

[wildboar]

It does not bear the mark of the Holy Spirit. There is a great deal of continuity throughout Scripture. I find it quite amazing that all these men wrote in their own particular style but how simple it is usually to tell the difference between the Scriptures and some man-made writing and the church has been able to recognize this as well. I agree with the Belgic Confession which states:

We receive all these books, and these only, as holy and canonical, for the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our faith; believing without any doubt, all things contained in them, not so much because the Church receives and approves them as such, but more especially because the Holy Ghost witnesseth in our hearts, that they are from God, whereof they carry the evidence in themselves. For the very blind are able to perceive that the things foretold in them are fulfilling.