Asking about the Book of Enoch is allowed, and so is having read it. Churches speak differently about whether it counts as Scripture, and that is a separate matter from whether a person may open it. If you are curious, were warned off, have already read it, or are Ethiopian or Eritrean Orthodox and know Henok as your own Scripture, you are in good company. A reader on the Good Question blog in 2023 wrote, "I am reading Enoch currently and it is deeply spiritual and I hope so much that it holds water like the rest of the Bible," and asked, "Would God want me to read these ancient texts?"
If you only have a minute
For asking
James 1:5 treats not knowing as a reason to ask.
What it is
A Jewish collection attributed to Enoch, about 108 chapters.
Jude
Jude 14-15 closely matches 1 Enoch 1:9.
Churches
The Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedo churches count it as Scripture; most others do not.
One step
Choose an edition that names its translator.
James 1:5, for asking
James 1:5 sits in a letter that opens with trials and endurance, then turns to asking for wisdom. Just before it, James writes "knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." Then:
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
The King James Version:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
It treats not knowing as a reason to ask, and it describes the giving as generous and without reproach, which is the part a person afraid of being judged for their questions needs. Read it once, then hold one question: what is the clearest question you can bring to God right now? Bible verses for doubting God and what the Bible says about doubt read it further.
A table set for reading.
What the book is
1 Enoch is a composite Jewish apocalyptic collection attributed to Enoch, the ancestor of Noah, in five sections: the Book of Watchers (chapters 1 to 36), the Parables (37 to 71), the Astronomical Book (72 to 82), the Dream Visions (83 to 90) and the Epistle of Enoch (91 to 108), as Encyclopaedia Iranica lays them out. Scholars commonly date the Watchers and Astronomical Book to the third or second century BCE and the Dream Visions and Epistle to the second or first; the date of the Parables is disputed.
The complete text survives in Ge'ez, with earlier Aramaic fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek fragments such as the Akhmim codex. James Bruce brought Ge'ez manuscripts from Ethiopia in 1773, and Richard Laurence published the first English translation in 1821, per the Enoch Archive. It is a pseudepigraphon, a work written under the name of an ancient figure who is not its author. 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch are different books.
In it, Watchers descend, join with human women and father giants, and judgment follows. Other sections follow the sun, moon and a calendar, tell symbolic dreams, and describe heavenly judgment with a "Son of Man" figure; the Epistle closes with warnings and the Apocalypse of Weeks.
The Enoch of Genesis and the quotation in Jude
Genesis 5:24 says that Enoch walked with God, and in the King James it ends, "and he was not; for God took him." Hebrews 11:5 says Enoch "was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death." Jude 14-15 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, "prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all.”" R. H. Charles, in his 1917 translation, renders 1 Enoch 1:9 as "And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all."
Readers have drawn different conclusions. Tertullian (about 200) used Jude to defend the book's authority. Jerome reported that many rejected Jude for quoting Enoch, yet that by age and use the letter had gained authority. Augustine wrote "We cannot deny that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, left some divine writings," and also held that obscure apocryphal writings have no canonical authority; he read the "sons of God" in Genesis 6:1-4 as descendants of Seth, where 1 Enoch reads them as heavenly beings. Modern commentators say Jude quotes a known Jewish book, cites a genuine prophecy preserved in it without making the whole book canonical, or uses a familiar saying. The NET notes on Jude set 1 Peter 3:19-20, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 beside the imprisoned Watchers of 1 Enoch 6 to 16, and the Parables' disputed date leaves the direction of influence open.
Which churches count it as Scripture
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church lists Henok in its canon, and its canon page says "Among these books is the book of Enoch which throws so much light on Jewish thought on various points during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era." Roger Cowley, in a 1974 study, wrote that the Ethiopian canon is "generally called ‘the 81 books’" and that "The concept of canonicity is regarded more loosely than it is among most other churches."
Elsewhere it is outside the canon. The Catholic Catechism (paragraph 138) lists 73 books, and 1 Enoch is not among them. Athanasius listed the canon in AD 367 without it and warned about writings composed under ancient names. The Westminster Confession (1.3) calls the Apocrypha "of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings." These documents speak to whether a book is Scripture, which is a different question from whether a person may read it. Christianity.com says "reading it with a wise and discerning heart isn’t sinful," and the Good Question blog suggests reading such books "as edifying literature that has come down to us from within the tradition of our faith."
What you may have heard
Was it removed from the Bible? The Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedo traditions received it, while major Greek, Latin, Jewish, Catholic and Protestant lists omit it. Was it hidden? Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine and Athanasius all discuss it openly, with differing judgments. Is it in the King James Bible? Wikipedia's article on the King James Version counts 14 books of Apocrypha among the 80 books of the 1611 Bible, and Good Question notes that 1 Enoch is not part of the Apocrypha. Someone on Reddit's r/ChristianApologetics in 2026 asked, "Why exactly did Jude quote 1 Enoch?" Words like "banned" or "suppressed" belong to online talk.
Notes from a slow evening.
Where to read it
Charles's 1917 translation is free on Wikisource, with older texts at Sacred Texts. For study, look for Michael Knibb's The Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1978) and George Nickelsburg and James VanderKam's 1 Enoch: A New Translation (2004). Some popular editions carry outdated introductions, speculative notes or unmarked paraphrase, or do not separate 1 Enoch from 2 and 3 Enoch, so check which book an edition prints.
If the question will not let go
Some readers have been told "It's demonic" or "You are deceived for even asking." Wanting to know where a verse in Jude comes from is a good question, and the churches have answered it in more than one way. If you find yourself checking and rechecking whether reading was a sin, the International OCD Foundation describes scrupulosity as "a subtype of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) involving religious or moral obsessions," including "Fear of having committed a sin." The NHS says help matters when symptoms significantly affect daily life. Talk to a doctor.
Where to go next
Tonight, write down the one question you most want to ask, read James 1:5 once aloud, and, if you plan to read Enoch, choose an edition that names its translator and its notes.
If any night feels too heavy, whatever the reason, please reach a person. In the United States, call or text 988 for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8 at 988.ca. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Samaritans is on 116 123. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. Anywhere else, Find A Helpline lists lines by country.
Bible Nudge gives a person one passage with the story around it, and Find a passage is where to start.
Words that come up here
Tap a term to see what it means.
Pseudepigraphon. A work written under the name of an ancient figure who is not its historical author.