Who Were The Nephilim? Part 7 - The Peter, Jude, and Enoch Connection

This part of an ongoing series discussing who were the Nephilim, to start at the beginning click here.Who Were The Nephilim? Part One 

Now that we have established a definite link between Jude and the Book of Enoch, we are going to look at the second most easily identifiable link to Enoch found in the Christian Scriptures, 2 Peter chapter 2. Yes, the whole chapter, so I suggest you grab your Bibles and follow along as I will not be quoting every passage for the sake of brevity.

Let’s begin by looking at the connection between 2 Peter and Jude, from there we will see how this ties back to the Book of Enoch. If we read these passages together, the shared themes become obvious:

◦ false teachers and false prophets
◦ a focus on sensuality; Jude 4 and 2 Peter 2:2
◦ the denial of the “Master”; Jude 4 and 2 Peter 2:1
◦ angels kept in chains until judgment; Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4
◦ references to Sodom and Gomorrah; Jude 7 and 2 Peter 2:6
◦ slander against the glorious ones; Jude 8 and 2 Peter 2:10

Look at how closely these two passages mirror each other:

But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as a wage for their wrong doing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have trained their hearts in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed in the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrong doing…These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness is has been reserved. 2 Peter 2:12-15, 17

But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of Balaam’s error and perish in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds, swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the utter darkness has been reserved forever. Jude 10-13

Why is this important? Let’s think about for a moment. The Bible is a very compact and concise bit of work when we consider the sheer weight and significance of the truth contained within its pages. I believe that everything God chose to have included in it is there for a reason, and if he allows repetition then it is a pretty good indication we should listen up, there is something important about these concepts, and we need to figure what it is.

Another reason I think this is so important is that two passages affirm each other. It would be so easy to dismiss Jude allegorical or some esoteric work not meant to be understood by the masses, but, unlike Jude, we kind of know Peter. We have an idea of his character and personality. Peter is a salt of the earth kind of guy, he deals with the nuts and bolts, the tangibles. He’s practical and down to earth, right up until the supernatural smacks him in the face – then he’s in awe, but you have to prove it to him first. And knowing this about Peter lends a weight to his words and, by extension, to Jude’s and Enoch’s.

Additionally, the parallel passages give us greater insight into the words of the other. Consider these verses with what we find in Enoch:

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. 2 Peter 2:4

And the angels who did not stay within their own potion of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgement of the great day – Jude 6

And there my eyes saw how they had made instruments for them – iron chains of immeasurable weight. And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying, “These chain-instruments – for whom are they being prepared? And he said to me, These are being prepared for the host of Azazel, that they may take them and throw them into the lowest parts of Hell; and they will cover their jaws with rough stones, as the Lord of Spirits commanded. 1 Enoch 54:4, 5 

And throw upon him jagged and sharp stones, and cover him with darkness; and let him stay there forever, and cover his face so that he may not see the light, and that on that great day of judgement he may be hurled into the fire. 1 Enoch 10:5,6

When we put all of this together we get more complete picture. Peter tells us that the angels sinned, but Jude tells how they sinned, both tell us that they were kept in chains of gloomy darkness until the day of judgement. But it is Enoch who gives us the rest of the story, what happened when the angels left their position of authority and their proper dwelling, and why this such a bad thing that God would demand the angels’ imprisonment in chains.

If we only had Peter would just know the angels sinned. If we only had Jude we would think that angels coming to earth would be a bad thing, but we know from other events in the Bible that this is not always the case. So we need Enoch to flesh out the narrative for us. We do get a connection to the Genesis 6 with further reading in both Peter and Jude. We could even glean that the sins committed by the angels were sexual in nature, but the references to the imprisonment of the angels would make no sense if we only draw upon canonical sources because Enoch is the only place we find this information. Enoch is the one who explains why Peter and Jude both believe that Sons of God from Genesis 6 were imprisoned and how this imprisonment was accomplished.

Does this mean that we give the words of Enoch the same weight as canonical sources?  No, and I explain why in this post, Why Wasn't The Book Of Enoch Included In The Bible?. However, it is a useful tool to help us understand how the writers of the Christian Scriptures understood the events of Genesis 6. There is no doubt that Peter and Jude believed that Sons of God were what we call angels. They understood that these beings were supernatural, and their misconduct with human women had a profound impact on our reality. So much so that twice we are told of their deeds, God’s retribution against them, warned of following in their teaching and examples, and encouraged to rejoice in God’s triumph over them.

 I know this has been the long way around to answer what seems to be a simple question, but I don’t want to just give you pat answers. I want you to see for yourselves what the Bible has to say on this matter. And, hopefully, provide you with a few tools to go even deeper into your study of Scripture, to see how it is all tied together, and must be taken as whole to understand the individual components. We are just scratching the surface of the Peter-Enoch connection, and we will explore it further in the next post.