Sermon Series: Banned Books of the Bible
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This summer on Sunday mornings beginning at 9:30 am, St. Barnabas will explore several ancient Jewish and Christian texts that were read, treasured, debated, quoted, or even treated as Scripture by some early communities of faith — but eventually stood outside the Bible as most Protestants know it today. Join us this summer as we open the books that stand just outside the Bible — and listen for what the Spirit may still be saying through them.
These books were not all “banned” in the dramatic sense. Some were deeply loved. Some influenced the New Testament. Some remain part of the Bible for Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Ethiopian Christians. Others were considered spiritually useful by the early Church, even though they were not finally included in the canon of Scripture.
Each Sunday, one of these texts will serve as our first reading, alongside New Testament readings that help us hear these ancient voices through the lens of Christ. Together, we will ask what these books reveal about faithfulness under pressure, the power of evil, the pursuit of wisdom, our relationship with money, spiritual identity, repentance, holiness, women’s authority, and the courage to follow God when faithfulness is costly.
After the service each Sunday, Fr. John will lead an adult formation class in the library for those who want to go deeper. These classes will explore the history, authorship, theology, influence, and controversies surrounding each book.
*The first Sunday of the series, July 12, will be replaced by an All-Parish Meeting.
The 1 Maccabees session has been rescheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 6:30pm on Zoom.
The series will include:
July 12 | 1 Maccabees rescheduled
the story of a Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes and the cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple.
*July 14 | 1 Maccabees rescheduled date - on Zoom
the story of a Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes and the cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple.
July 19 | The Book of Enoch:
an ancient apocalypse about the Watchers, the spread of evil, divine judgment, and the world to come.
July 26 | The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach
a Jewish wisdom book offering practical teaching on money, speech, friendship, generosity, and daily life.
August 2 | The Gospel of Thomas
a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, some familiar and some deeply strange.
August 9 | The Shepherd of Hermas
an early Christian book of visions, commandments, and parables about repentance and righteous living.
August 16 | The Acts of Paul and Thecla
the dramatic story of a woman disciple who defies family expectations, survives persecution, and is sent to teach the word of God.
Study Guide (updated July 15, 2026)
Study Guide: Banned Books of the Bible Session 2: The Book of First Enoch
Central interpretive lens:
Evil advances when desire refuses limits, people conspire to silence conscience, and knowledge becomes detached from wisdom and love.
Text:
1 Enoch 6:1–5
1. And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another, “Come, let us choose wives from among the children of men and beget children.”
3. And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: “I fear that you will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.”
4. And they all answered him and said, “Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.”
5. Then they swore all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
1 Enoch 8:1–2
1. And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all coloring tinctures.
2. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments and root-cuttings; Armârôs the resolving of enchantments; Barâqîjâl astrology; Kôkabêl the constellations; Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds; Araqiêl the signs of the earth; Shamsiêl the signs of the sun; and Sariêl the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven. . . .
Background
Genesis 5 introduces the mysterious figure of Enoch, who “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” Later Jewish readers understood Enoch to have been taken alive into the heavenly realm and therefore to possess knowledge of heavenly mysteries. A collection of apocalyptic writings was eventually composed in his name.
First Enoch is not a single work written by one author. It is a collection of several writings composed and edited over a period of centuries. In its complete Ethiopic form, it contains 108 chapters. The passage considered here comes from the first major section, usually called the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36), which was probably composed during the late third or early second century BCE.
The Book of the Watchers expands the brief and enigmatic story in Genesis 6:1–4 concerning the “sons of God,” human women, and the Nephilim. It interprets the “sons of God” as rebellious heavenly beings who violate the proper boundary between heaven and earth. They take human women, father violent giants, and disclose forms of forbidden or destructive knowledge. The result is violence, corruption, and suffering throughout creation.
Aramaic fragments of several Enochic writings were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls beginning in 1947, confirming that these texts circulated within Judaism before the emergence of Christianity. Most of First Enoch was probably composed in Aramaic, although its textual history is complex. Portions were transmitted in Greek, but the only complete surviving version is in Geʿez, preserved by Ethiopian Christianity.
First Enoch was not included in the rabbinic Jewish canon or in the Roman Catholic and Protestant canons. It is received as Scripture, however, by the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches. It exercised considerable influence upon early Jewish and Christian understandings of angels, demons, judgment, resurrection, and the end of the age. Jude 14–15 quotes 1 Enoch directly, while possible echoes appear elsewhere in the New Testament.
Key Themes for Interpretation
Ø Power that refuses limits: The Watchers are powerful heavenly beings who cross a boundary and treat human lives as objects to be possessed.
Ø The group and the silencing of conscience: Semyaza hesitates, but the Watchers bind themselves together. The group makes wrongdoing easier to normalize and harder to resist.
Ø Knowledge without wisdom: The text does not simply condemn knowledge. It warns about technical power severed from moral responsibility and directed toward domination, violence, or vanity.
Ø The spread of evil: The consequences move outward: desire becomes agreement, agreement becomes action, and private wrongdoing becomes communal devastation.
Ø The cry of the victims: The passage ends with the suffering of human beings rising to heaven. God hears the cry produced by misused power.
Questions for Discussion
· What sequence of events do you observe in this passage? What do the Watchers see, desire, fear, decide, and teach?
· Semyaza initially hesitates, but the angels bind themselves together by an oath. What does this suggest about the power of a group to normalize something that an individual conscience initially questions?
· The Watchers disclose military technology, magical practices, astrology, cosmetics, and other forms of knowledge. Is the text condemning knowledge itself, or knowledge and power detached from wisdom and moral responsibility?
· What boundaries are violated in this story—between heaven and earth, spiritual beings and human beings, power and vulnerability, knowledge and wisdom?
· The women do not initiate the Watchers’ plan; the powerful heavenly beings see, desire, take, and conspire. What might the story reveal about the misuse of power and the treatment of other lives as objects to be possessed?
· Whether the story is understood literally, symbolically, or both, what does it suggest about the way evil spreads from desire, to agreement, to action, and finally into wider systems of violence?
· Where do we see groups, institutions, or cultures giving people permission to ignore what they might otherwise recognize as wrong?
· How can we recognize destructive impulses or patterns while they are still small? What practices help us bring them honestly before God?
· The passage ends with human beings perishing and their cry rising to heaven. What does that detail tell us about God’s attention to victims and the moral consequences of misused power?
· Jesus says that a tree is known by its fruit. What fruit should Christians examine when evaluating a new technology, cultural practice, institution, spiritual teaching, or exercise of power?