29.6

Use of Apocryphal Writings in Jude (Box 29.1)

The Letter of Jude draws on Jewish writings that are not considered to be canonical Scripture by either Jews or Christians.

• Jude alludes to a story found in 1 Enoch, according to which the angels that mated with earth women to produce a race of giants (reported in Gen. 6:1–4) were imprisoned by God for the day of judgment (v. 6; cf. 1 Enoch 6–8).
• Jude quotes from 1 Enoch in a way that indicates he regards the book’s prophecies as reliable and true (vv. 14–15; cf. 1 Enoch 1:9).
• Jude refers to a story in which the archangel Michael had a dispute with the devil over who should take possession of the body of Moses (v. 9).

The book of 1 Enoch is an apocalyptic Jewish writing from the third century BCE; its contents may also be assumed by 1 Peter 3:18–20. The tale about the body of Moses is not recorded in any literature available to us, but Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150–215) and a number of other early Christian scholars maintain that it was reported in a Jewish work called the Assumption of Moses, which was extant in their day. Most contemporary scholars think that this writing was probably part of a Jewish work known to us as the Testament of Moses; our manuscripts of the latter work are incomplete, and the story to which Jude refers may have been contained in the portion that is missing.

Neither 1 Enoch nor the Assumption of Moses belongs to the Old Testament, nor are they part of the collection of books that Protestants call the Apocrypha, some of which are regarded as a secondary canon by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Today, Jude’s reliance on these books usually is viewed as a curious holdover from a time when the concept of canon was still in flux.