Imagninging if the council of Laodicea (A.D. 364) was held now
Council: Right, so, the Book of Enoch you say?
Spokesperson for BoE: Yes, yes, marvelous apocalypticism, isn't it?
Council: And where did you say you found it?
Spokesperson: Egypt, thereabouts. Some in Ethiopia.
Council: Ok, great, ehm, some general questions... it's not very... conceptually coherent, is it?
Spokesperson: Well, it is a collection more or less of several smaller works. Besides, you could say the same about Isaiah.
Council: Mm, yeah, but this text tends to be quite incoherent within the same work, within the same paragraphs even. Kind of makes you question the writer/s state of mind. It's also quite repetitive.
Spokesperson: You want the message to get through.
Council: Of course, of course. It's just, it's not cohesive, within even the separate fragments. So, it would seem that the author struggled with things like names and numbers... and was possibly quite unfamiliar with the meaning of a 'parable', just more so liked the word. Wouldn't you say?
Spokesperson: Not sure I would.
Council: It's also a bit temporally confused. And poorly structured. As for the content...
Spokesperson: Breathtaking, isn't it?
Council: We were thinking more along the lines of redundant in the essential and as for the rest... the word 'unreadable' comes to mind.
Spokesperson: Different strokes and all that, it'll definitely be in the canon though, right? We all love it.
Council: Right... the thing is, it's not... compelling.
Spokesperson: I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
Council: It also declares that writing is a sin
Spokesperson: Your point being?
Council: Well, we're creating a canon of holy writ, you know what I mean?
Spokesperson: Nope, no, not sure that I do.
Council: Great, well, thanks for this meeting, we'll call you.
Spokesperson: I could wait around, if you want to make a decision now. I'm in no hurry.
Council (gestures for guards to come): We'll call you.
Spokesperson (being led away by guards): Really, it's no trouble. I'll be right outside!
Council: Burn it.
*end scene*
Long story short, The Book of Enoch is definitely interesting, and I could imagine reading it again from a research and comparison kind of perspective. But really, it's really brushing up against that border of being completely unreadable. It's just not... good. Which is a weird measurement to use for a text like this, because they have a very specific type of purpose and format which is more about message that literary quality, but as someone who reads the Bible quite a lot the structure and language of this is just... peculiar and slightly off putting. In short, I can see why it didn't make the cut. And it was a good call.