The Book of Enoch.

[Hart60]

Why isn't the book of Enoch included as part of the biblical canon ?

Thanks,
Dan.

[Kira]

There was a great deal of controversy regarding which books should be in the "canon" and which should be left out.

It had to do with the level of Divine inspiration among other criteria.

Some of the ones that were controversial are Song of Songs (content), Kohelet / Ecclesiastes (too depressing), Ezekiel (sometimes appears to contradict Halacha).

Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus?), a book similar to Proverbs, is quoted a number of times in the Talmud even though it didn't make it in.

Books like Maccabis, Enoch, the Will of Reuven, and so on, were judged to be just plain writing, and not divinely inspired or particularly valuable.

I've seen some of them, they're ... meh. Interesting, but it's not the real thing. There was a trend back then to write "pseudepigrapha", - books written by a contemporary author as if he were a Biblical character - not too different from historical novels in our days, and with similar accuracy and effect.

-Kira

[Hart60]

Thanks Kira, I've just finished reading RH Charles' translation of The book of Enoch and came to the same conclusion as yourself.Although it was interesting (specially the book of watchers) Maybe it was the translation but nothing seemed to fit properly and I got the impression it was written later than the 300 BC it is attributed to.

[aries]

Oh goody. I get to write my Book of Enoch stuff again.

1. It is not in the Jewish canon because the Rabbis didn't think it authentic or had too much mystical content.
2. It is not in the Catholic canon (the catholics have the 24 jewish books and 12 apocrapha). It is fortunate they included Macabees I and 2 which is a very good source for the story of Channukah.
3. They did not include the book of enoch and they destroyed all copies they could get their hands on. By the 13th century, the book was lost.
4. Price-Jones was a British explorer in the mid 19th century. He traveled to Ethiopia and drove the Ethiopians nuts looking for the lost ark which the Ethiopians had no intention of showing him. Finally they gave him some manuscripts in Geez which turned out to be the book of Enoch. He presented a copy to each of the royal families of Europe.
5. Some one got the idea to look somewhere else where the catholic church couldn't burn the books. The Bosnians were Christians who believed in one god. The Catholics starting burning them so they became moslems. However, they kept the old books and there was a copy of the book of enoch in Serbo Croatian which didn't match up with the Geez.
6. However several portions of Enoch were found in the dead sea scrolls in the 1950s and they corresponded with the Geez.
If the book was in the dead sea scroll library, a date of 200 B.C.E. is quite reasonable.

[Hart60]

Thanks for the info. Aryeh and I'm pleased I gave the opportunity to post it.