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Many posts online say the Book of Enoch was “taken out” of the Bible, often at the Council of Nicaea in 325. A recent post, shared very widely, urged people to read the Book of Enoch. Others answered that Enoch was never mentioned at Nicaea. This study doesn't take sides on who said what. It opens the documents the council left behind and lets a group check the claim for itself.
The Creed of 325 is a statement of belief. It begins: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father…” (The printed translation's Greek and Latin notes are left out.) It goes on to the Son who “came down” and “was incarnate and was made man,” his suffering, resurrection and ascension, the coming judgment, and the Holy Ghost. It ends by condemning statements such as “there was a time when the Son of God was not.” Those were teachings linked to Arius, who is named in the council's letter (Section 4). The Creed does not name any books of the Bible.
The council also passed 20 canons, or church rules. Here is what they cover: Canon 1: who may serve as clergy if they have harmed their own bodies. Canon 2: not ordaining new converts too quickly. Canon 3: women living in clergy households. Canon 4: how bishops are appointed. Canon 5: how a ruling that shuts someone out of communion is respected in other regions. Canons 6 and 7: the rank of Alexandria over Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis, and the honor given to the bishop of Jerusalem. Canons 8 and 19: how to receive members of two other groups, the Cathari and the Paulianists. Canon 9: ordinations done without proper examination. Canons 10 to 12 and 14: people who denied the faith under persecution, and people preparing for baptism. Canon 13: communion for the dying. Canons 15 to 17: clergy moving between cities, and clergy lending money at interest. Canon 18: the place of deacons at the Lord's Supper. Canon 20: standing, not kneeling, to pray on Sundays and in the season of Pentecost. The word “Scripture” comes up once, in Canon 17, to support the rule against lending at interest. It is not a ruling on which books belong in the Bible. The word “Enoch” does not appear.
After the council, the bishops sent a letter to the church in Alexandria, in Egypt, reporting what they had decided. It covers the ruling against Arius, arrangements for Meletius, a bishop in Egypt, and the date of Easter: “We further proclaim to you the good news of the agreement concerning the holy Easter, that this particular also has through your prayers been rightly settled; so that all our brethren in the East who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans and yourselves…” Again, the letter gives no list of Old or New Testament books.
The letter of Jude, in the New Testament, quotes a prophecy it credits to Enoch: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14–15, KJV)
Here is 1 Enoch 1:9 in R.H. Charles's 1917 translation: “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones / To execute judgement upon all, / And to destroy all the ungodly: / And to convict all flesh / Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, / And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Charles's editorial brackets are left out.) Read the two passages side by side. Many of the words line up: “cometh,” “ten thousands,” “ungodly,” the line about executing judgment upon all, and what “ungodly sinners have spoken against” him. (The KJV spells it “judgment”; Charles spells it “judgement” and writes “Him” with a capital H.) A group can notice the match without deciding whether 1 Enoch is Scripture.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church includes 1 Enoch in its Bible. Its English website says: “The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 46 books of the Old Testament and 35 books of the New Testament that will bring the total of canonized books of the Bible to 81.” Enoch is number 14 on its Old Testament list. The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church also includes it. Most churches outside the Tewahedo tradition do not. This study only describes that difference. It doesn't judge which tradition is right.
None of the council's surviving documents from 325 sorts the books of the Bible. A later legend does: the bishops piled the books on an altar, and the ones that didn't belong fell to the floor. The French writer Voltaire retold that story in his Philosophical Dictionary, in the entry on councils. He credits it to a “supplement” to the Council of Nicaea and writes that the bishops put the books “all mixed together on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the ground” (our English rendering of his French). Roger Pearse, who publishes early Christian texts online, traces the altar story to the Synodicon Vetus, a Greek summary of church councils written after the year 887. That is more than 550 years after the council met. It is best read as later storytelling, not as a record of what happened in 325. For two more studies that read old texts closely, see Did Josephus Write About Jesus' Resurrection? and Revelation 12:11 Meaning: Blood of the Lamb and Testimony. MasteryLoopHQ, the site this study is published on, is built around explaining it back: after reading, your group can put the claim and the evidence into their own words.
The surviving records of the Council of Nicaea (325) never list the books of the Bible and never mention the Book of Enoch. So where did that story start? The council left a Creed, 20 church rules and a letter about Arius, Meletius and Easter. Jude 14–15 and 1 Enoch 1:9 share a real parallel that a group can read side by side. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches include Enoch in their Bibles, and most other churches do not. The story of Nicaea sorting books on an altar comes from much later writers, not from the council's own records.
In your own words: (1) Skim the Creed. What does it cover, and what does it never mention? (2) Pick three canons, such as 1, 6 and 20. In one sentence each, what problem does each one solve? (3) Read the Synodal Letter's Easter paragraph aloud. What “good news” does it announce? (4) Put Jude 14–15 next to 1 Enoch 1:9 and circle the shared words. What can you say without deciding whether 1 Enoch is Scripture? (5) Why is “removed at Nicaea” a hard claim to prove? (6) How would you explain the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible's 81 books without telling another church it is wrong? Answer key. (1) The Father; the Son, of one substance with the Father; his becoming human, suffering, resurrection and ascension; the Holy Ghost; and a condemnation of teachings linked to Arius. It never lists books of the Bible. (2) Canon 1: who may serve as clergy. Canon 6: which regions the bishop of Alexandria leads. Canon 20: standing, not kneeling, to pray on Sundays and at Pentecost. All three are about church order. (3) An agreement on the date of Easter, kept together with the church in Rome. It is not a book list. (4) Jude's words closely follow the Enoch passage. That shows Jude quoting or echoing it. It does not show that Nicaea later removed a book. (5) You can't show a book was removed using documents that never list the books or mention Enoch. (6) Describe it: their published list of 81 books includes Enoch, and other churches' lists are different.
Reading a good explanation feels like understanding it. Usually it isn't the same thing — and you don't find out which one you've got until someone asks you to explain it back.