1 Enoch as Christian Scripture

“Western biblical scholarship has typically approached the Ethiopian book of Enoch with a predetermined and narrow set of interests: to understand the New Testament and unlock the origins of Christianity. First Enoch is thus reduced to an object of critical inquiry without any appreciation for the living African subjects that have harbored and practiced its traditions for centuries up until the present. In this regard, Bruk Asale’s study is a breath of fresh air that fills a gap still largely missing in Enochic studies even when it is attentive to reception history. Readers will greatly benefit from this book as they learn about the rich tapestry of Ethiopian Christianities and, dare I say, about 1 Enoch itself as they see this literary corpus come alive.”


—Isaac W. Oliver/de Oliveira, Bradley University





“This study on 1 Enoch by Dr. Bruk Ayele Asale is of particular importance because, as an Ethiopian scholar, he is particularly attentive to the Ethiopian appropriation of this work. The New Testament quotes it as Scripture and several parts of it have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahǝdo Church is the only present-day context in which the book is still ‘alive’ and part of the canon.”


—Paul B. Decock, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa





“Bruk Ayele has given us a fine study on the 1 Enoch in Jude and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, one of the ancient churches in the world. The book offers a rich treatment of 1 Enoch from a Protestant perspective, a masterful survey of modern scholarship, and a lucid exposition of the text in Ethiopian context. It is a remarkable achievement.”


—Samuel Yonas Deressa, Concordia University, St. Paul