And the way in which the prophecy is introduced makes us still more clear as to the source from which St. Jude derived it: "Enoch, _the seventh_ from Adam, prophesied." Nowhere in the Old Testament, and nowhere else in the New, is Enoch said to be "the seventh from Adam." But he is called "the seventh" in the _Book of Enoch_, where he is made to say, "I have been born the seventh in the first week" (xcii. 4), although in order to make seven both Adam and Enoch have to be counted (xxxvii. 1). The number seven is possibly symbolical, indicating perfection. Thus Dr. Westcott takes Enoch to be "a type of perfected humanity" (_Dict. of the Bible_). Yet it is also possible that he is called "the seventh" in the _Book of Enoch_, and consequently by St. Jude, in order to mark the extreme antiquity of the prophecy, or to distinguish him from other persons of the same name (Gen. xxv. 4; xlvi. 9).
But a careful comparison of the passage in question, as quoted by St. Jude, and as it stands in the translation of the _Book of Enoch_, is the chief means of determining the source of the quotation. This, however, cannot be made satisfactorily until we can place the Greek, of which the Ethiopic version of the _Book of Enoch_ is a translation, side by side with St. Jude's Greek.
Behold, He cometh with ten Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of His holy ones, to thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon them, execute judgment upon all, and to destroy the ungodly and to convict all the ungodly and reprove all the carnal [or, of their works of ungodliness and will destroy and convict which they have ungodly wrought, the ungodly with all flesh], _and of all the hard things which_ for everything which the ungodly sinners _have spoken sinners and the ungodly have against Him_ (vv. 14, 15). done and committed against Him (chap. ii.).
It will be observed that there is nothing in the _Book of Enoch_ to correspond with the saying about "the hard things which sinners have spoken against God." This in itself is almost conclusive against the hypothesis, which on other grounds is not very probable, that some later writer copied the prophecy as given by St. Jude, and inserted it into the _Book of Enoch_. If so, why did he not copy it exactly? Why did he not only slightly vary the wording, but omit a rather important clause? The passage is very short, and a writer who was anxious to make St. Jude agree with the reputed prophecy would be likely to make the agreement exact. On the other hand, if St. Jude is quoting loosely from memory, or from a Greek or Aramaic original, of which the text varied somewhat from the Ethiopic translation which has come down to us, everything is explained. He would be tenacious of the clause about "hard things spoken against God," as a warning to those who "set at nought dominion and rail at dignities." It is of course possible that both the author of this book and St. Jude independently make use of a traditional saying attributed to Enoch. But seeing that the work was in existence when St. Jude wrote, was probably well known to his readers, and contains most of the passage which he quotes; and seeing that elsewhere in his Epistle he seems to refer to other parts of the book, far the more reasonable view is that he quotes directly from it. The case therefore is parallel to that of the reference to _The Assumption of Moses_ in ver. 9. St. Jude probably believed the prophecy to be a genuine prophecy of Enoch, and the writing in which it occurs to be a genuine revelation respecting the visible and invisible world; but even if he knew its apocryphal character, its appositeness to the subject of which he is so full might easily lead him to quote it to persons who would be familiar with it. We have no right to prejudge the question of fitness, and say that inspiration would certainly preserve its instruments from wittingly or unwittingly making use of a fictitious apocalypse. Our business, as reverent and therefore honest students, is to ascertain whether this writer does derive some of his material from the document which, after the lapse of so many centuries, was given back to us about a hundred and twenty years ago. If on critical grounds we find ourselves compelled to believe that this document is the source from which St. Jude draws, then let us beware of setting our own preconceptions above the wisdom of God, who in this case, as in many more, has been pleased to employ an unexpected instrument, and has made a human fiction the means of proclaiming a Divine truth.