An Influential Book with Different Canons

First Enoch was read, used, and defended in early Christian settings. Tertullian's attention to it is one sign of that importance. Its influence cannot be measured simply by whether it appears in a later printed Bible.

Its canonical status also differs among traditions. The Ethiopian Orthodox tradition receives Enoch as Scripture. The Catholic Church does not. That difference should be stated plainly when the book's authority becomes part of an argument.

For this inquiry, Catholic noncanonicity establishes how Enoch will be used. It is a major witness to ancient interpretation and religious imagination. It can illuminate the setting of New Testament passages and the history of reading Genesis without becoming the standard by which the Catholic canon is revised.

The distinction allows us to avoid dismissing Enoch as unimportant or presenting it as a lost solution to every biblical difficulty. Its actual place in reception is more interesting than either of those shortcuts.