14. And Enoch also. I rather think that this prophecy was unwritten,
than that it was taken from an apocryphal book; for it may have been delivered
down by memory to posterity by the ancients. Were any one to ask, that since
similar sentences occur in many parts of Scripture, why did he not quote a
testimony written by one of the prophets? the answer is obvious, that he wished
to repeat from the oldest antiquity what the Spirit had pronounced respecting
them: and this is what the words intimate; for he says expressly that he was
the seventh from Adam, in order to
commend the antiquity of the prophecy, because it existed in the world before
the flood.
But I have said that this
prophecy was known to the Jews by being reported; but if any one thinks
otherwise, I will not contend with him, nor, indeed, respecting the epistle
itself, whether it be that of Jude or of some other. In things doubtful, I only
follow what seems probable. (John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles [Bellingham, Wash.: Logos
Bible Software, 2010], 442–43)
