Why isn't the Book of Enoch in scripture?

[Spence06]

Hello, It was brought up on why the Book of Enoch was left out of scripture. With being talked about even in Jude, I was curious on how I should answer a non-catholic on why this book is not in the cannon? Thank you and God bless.

 

[Peggy_Frye]

The Book of Enoch is considered apocryphal, which means the literature was excluded from the canon, perhaps for one or more of the following reasons: "…of suspect origin and circulated by sects endeavoring to give an authoritative foundation to their teachings. Certain of them, however, are the results of the pious curiosity of readers who failed to find in the sacred books enough minute details on the persons and episodes of sacred history, wishing to complete them with material which rarely was from a good source but usually was the product of sheer fantasy. Some of these books written in good faith found credence among the faithful and the ecclesiastical writers.”

"The Old Testament Apocrypha, nearly always by Jewish authors, have a Messianic theme and have at times undergone Christian interpolations…Among the prophetic books, the Book of Henoch, to which the Apostle Jude probably refers in his Letter (5:14 f.), is well known. It is made up of various Jewish writings of the first and second centuries B.C., and is important for the knowledge of the first religious ideas of the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus. In it the Messias is called “Son of Man.”
*Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology * (Parente 1951, 15,16)

For more information on this subject I recommend the following articles:

• The Book of Henoch
• Apocrypha
• Epistle of Jude