John Adams on the Prophecy of Enoch

I am very familiar with John Adams' post-Presidential musings on religion. I am familiar with the prior period too; but in his post-Presidency, he seemed fascinated by theology and loved discussing the particulars with his intimate friends who would engage him. The problem is, he can be rambling and incoherent at times.

On the Prophesy of Enoch and how it relates to books in the biblical canon, I think he does good critical study of the Bible's texts. Or at least asks the right questions.

The Book of Enoch isn't part of the canon of Protestants, Roman Catholics or the standard Eastern Orthodox; it is part of the canon of "the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Church."

In canonical books, Enoch is mentioned as a character in general in a few places. The controversy -- which persisted from the days of the early church, throughout the ages -- is that in one, arguably two or more places in the canon, Enoch's prophesy that derives from the Book of Enoch is quoted as though what was being quoted is true (as sacred scripture).

So Enoch mentioned as a character by name in Genesis in a manner otherwise unrelated to the Book of Enoch isn't controversial. Enoch quoted in Jude, on the other hand, IS controversial because Jude invokes the Prophesy of Enoch which the Book of Enoch speaks of in more detail.

Of course, for those who want to thread the needle as to why there is good reason to accept the canon but exclude Enoch, there is an argument which we need not get into here. Another way of threading the needle is to conclude the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches got it right and that the Book of Enoch belongs in the canon.

John Adams didn't just reject the Book of Enoch, he also rejected the Prophesy of Enoch. (Hat tip to Bill Fortenberry for the reference.) As Adams wrote to F. Van der Kemp, Jan. 4, 1814:

That this Prophecy of Enoch was as gross a Forgery as the Gospell of the Infancy, which Some ascribed to St. Mathew and Some to St Thomas; or as the Acts of Paul and Thecle, I have no doubt. To call Such impious and execrable forgeries by the pious Epithet Apocryphal, is abominable.

But if not just the Book but the Prophesy of Enoch is false, what then of when this fake prophesy is invoked in books of the accepted canon as though it were true. In Jude and in the 2nd Peter, the Prophesy of Enoch is so mentioned.

So Adams asks his son John Quincy, who at that time was supposedly more orthodox in that he professed Calvinism, about whether he thought Jude (along with Song of Solomon and Apocalypse (Book of Revelation)) properly belonged in the canon. (The younger Adams basically confessed agnosticism on the matter.)

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated December 25, 1813, Adams asks:

Do you know any thing of the prophecy of Enoch ? Can you give me a comment on the 6th, the 9th, the 14th verses of the epistle of Jude?

And in a later letter to Jefferson, from February 1814, Adams reveals more when he mentions Priestley's treatment of the issue. There Adams faults Priestley for not tracing "the Prophecy of Enoch [to] India in which the fallen Angels make Such a figure."

As Adams quotes Priestley's treatment of the matter:

In his remarks on Mr Dupuis. p. 342. Priestley Says, “The History of the fallen Angels is another Circumstance, on which Mr Dupuis lays much Stress. ‘According to the Christians,’ he says, Vol. 1. p. 336, ‘there was from the beginning, a division among the Angels; Some remaining faithful to the light, and others taking the part of Darkness’ &c.17 But this Supposed history is not found in the Scriptures. It has only been inferred, from a wrong interpretation of one passage in the 2d Epistle of Peter, and a corresponding one in that of Jude, as has been Shewn by judicious Writers. That there is such a Person as The Devil is no part of my Faith, nor that of many other Christians; nor am I sure that it was the belief of any of the christian Writers. Neither do I believe the doctrine of demoniacal possessions, whether it was believed by the Sacred Writers or not; and yet my unbelief18 in these Articles does not affect my faith in the great facts of which the Evangelists were eye and ear Witnesses. They might not be competent Judges, in the one case, tho perfectly So, with respect to the other.”

(Again, the words in quotations are Priestley's not Adams'.)

Adams then discusses his opinion of Priestley's treatment:

I will19 ask Priestley, when I See him, Do you believe those Passages in Peter and Jude to be interpolations? If so; by whom made? and when? and where? and for what End? Was it to Support, or found the doctrine of The Fall of Man, Original Sin, the universal Corruption depravation and guilt of human nature and mankind; and the Subsequent Incarnation of God to make Attonement and Redemption!—Or do you think that Peter and Jude believed the Book of Enoch to have been written, by the 7th from Adam, and one of the Sacred cannonical Books of the Hebrew Prophets? Peter, 2. Ep. c. 2. v. 4, Says “For if God Spared not the Angels that Sinned, but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of Darkness, to be reserved unto Judgment.” Jude v. 6th Says “And the Angels which kept not their first Estate, but left their own habitations, he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness, unto the Judgment of the great day.”20 v. 14th “And Enoch also, the 7th from Adam, prophesied of these Saying, behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute Judgment upon all &c” Priestley Says “a wrong Interpretation” has been given to these Texts. I wish he had favoured Us with his right interpretation of them.

(Keep in mind Joseph Priestley died in 1804; this letter was written in 1814. Adams expects to see Priestley in the afterlife and discuss these issues with him.)

Again, Adams rejects both the Prophesy and Book of Enoch and there are at least two logical conclusions that flow therefrom: 1. the entire Books of Jude and Peter which reference the Prophesy are not inspired; or 2. those passages in Jude and Peter are "interpolations."

Given his premises, Adams asks the right questions. Priestley, alas didn't give Adams answers that satisfied him.