The Authority of 1 Enoch in Early Christianity

Explore how early Christians used 1 Enoch as scripture and as a source for theology, history, and religious practice.

60 min read

Early Christian Uses of 1 Enoch

1 Enoch as a Source for Christian Theology and History

For the first three centuries of Christianity and into the fourth, Christian authors drew on 1 Enoch and its traditions to explain the origins of evil, interpret scripture, and describe human history before the flood. The story of the Watchers, the angels who descended to earth and became involved with human women, supplied an accepted explanation of demons and the spread of forbidden knowledge. Its use appears across the leading centers of early Christianity, among writers whose works became part of the church's theological inheritance ^[1] ^[2].

For many of these writers, Enochic tradition belonged within the ordinary work of explaining Christian beliefs and the history behind them. Justin Martyr uses the fallen angels to explain the origins of pagan worship and the destructive powers active in human society, while Clement of Alexandria appeals to Enoch when interpreting a passage in the Psalms. Their arguments depend on the usefulness and reliability of the inherited account, whether or not they explicitly identify the whole book as scripture. In Clement's explanation, Enoch supplies ancient knowledge about the angels and the arts they taught humanity, which helps explain the knowledge attributed to demons ^[3] ^[4].

The historical and theological uses often occur within the same argument, because the account of what happened before the flood explains conditions that these authors describe in their own world. Tertullian connects the angels' teaching with practices of adornment and uses that history to instruct Christian women about their conduct. He also defends Enoch as scripture, although he acknowledges that some readers do not accept it. Enochic tradition thus had an accepted place in the teaching of numerous early Christian authors, although churches did not necessarily receive the same collection of Enochic writings or assign it the same authority ^[5] ^[6].

This pattern continued into the early fourth century, when Lactantius used the Watcher story to explain the origins of religious error in his Divine Institutes. Over time, however, interpretations of Genesis 6 that identified the sons of God as human descendants of Seth gained ground against the older angelic reading. Augustine rejected the Enochic account of the giants' parentage and denied canonical authority to the writings circulating under Enoch's name, even while acknowledging Jude's testimony to Enoch's prophecy. The decline involved both the standing of the book and the interpretation of the ancient history that earlier Christian authors had used in their teaching ^[7].

Enoch's loss of favor in much of Greek and Latin Christianity did not end its Christian reception, and the book retained a place in the Ethiopian biblical canon. Its later exclusion from most Christian Bibles therefore gives an incomplete picture of its earlier authority, when appeals to its prophecy and angelic history formed part of Christian interpretation and instruction ^[8]. The first example is Jude, whose appeal to Enoch's prophecy makes that ancient testimony part of a warning addressed to a Christian community.

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 87–88) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 149) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[3] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 45–46, 64–65) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 88, 90) Fortress Press, 2001
[5] Vanbeek, Lawrence H. The Letter of Jude's Use of 1 Enoch: The Book of the Watchers as Scripture (pp. 151–153) University of South Africa, 1997
[6] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 178–179, 196–197) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[7] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 84–87) Fortress Press, 1996
[8] McDonald, Lee Martin "The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity" in Charlesworth, James H., and Darrell L. Bock., ed. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (pp. 369) T&T Clark, 2013

Jude

Jude names Enoch as a prophet and applies his prophecy of judgment to opponents, while other passages refer to the imprisoned angels and wandering stars of Enochic tradition. Jude combines an explicit appeal to Enoch's prophetic authority with reliance on the wider narrative.

Jude Quotes Enoch as Prophecy

When Jude warns his community about people whose conduct threatens its faithfulness, he supports the warning with a prophecy attributed to Enoch, the ancestor who lived before the flood. The prophecy corresponds to the announcement of judgment in the opening chapter of 1 Enoch, a Jewish collection of revelations associated with that ancient figure. Jude names the prophet and applies his announcement to the people he is opposing ^[1].

1 Enoch 1:8-9

8 But with the righteous, He will establish peace. He will protect the chosen, and mercy will be upon them. They will all belong to God, prosper, and be blessed. He will aid them, and light will shine for them, and He will make peace with them. 9 Behold! He comes with tens of thousands of His holy ones to pass judgment upon all, to annihilate all the wicked, to convict every soul of all the godless deeds they have committed, and of all the harsh words that godless sinners have spoken against Him.

The announcement concerns both actions and speech, with the heavenly judge accompanied by holy ones and the wicked called to account for their offenses. Those details recur in Jude in the same sequence, so the connection involves a recognizable passage with a particular argument about judgment. The quotation gives Jude a precedent for condemning behavior within his own community, rather than merely supplying an impressive description of a distant future ^[2].

Jude 1:14-15

14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, even prophesied of them, saying, “Look! The Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict every person of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds that they have committed, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

The introduction establishes the kind of authority Jude claims for the passage. Enoch prophesied about people of this kind, and his announcement therefore provides testimony against Jude's opponents. The identification of Enoch as seventh from Adam also locates the speaker within the early history of humanity. Jude presents an ancient prophet whose testimony applies to the present dispute, rather than introducing an anonymous saying or an illustration with no claim to revelation ^[3] ^[4].

Prophetic authority and a formal list of scriptural books are different questions. Jude expressly affirms the prophecy he quotes, but the letter does not enumerate the contents of an Enochic collection or discuss the standing of every section now included in 1 Enoch. The immediate evidence concerns the authority of this passage. That evidence is substantial because Jude makes the prophecy part of his case against the people he condemns, without qualifying its truth or apologizing for the source ^[5].

The Christian use also gives the announcement a new application. Enoch's judgment language becomes a warning within a Christian community, and the identification of the coming judge with Jesus is one interpretation of Jude's adaptation of the passage ^[6]. The prophecy is therefore used in theological argument as well as quoted with explicit authority. Elsewhere in the same letter, Jude uses Enochic accounts of rebellious angels without repeating the prophet's name.

Citations

[1] Carson, D. A. "Jude" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (pp. 2429) Baker Academic, 2007
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 86) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] Piovanelli, Pierluigi A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission Oxford University Press, 2019
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 35–36) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 36) Fortress Press, 1996
[6] Charlesworth, James H. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha & the New Testament (pp. 73) Trinity Press International, 1998

Jude

Jude Refers to the Watchers and Wandering Stars

Jude's account of angels who abandoned their proper dwelling depends on a larger story than the brief notice about heavenly beings and human women in Genesis. In the opening part of 1 Enoch, called the Book of the Watchers, rebellious angels leave heaven, take wives, and disclose knowledge that spreads corruption. Their imprisonment supplies a precedent for the judgment Jude expects his opponents to face ^[1].

1 Enoch 12:3-5

3 And I, Enoch, was praising the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers called me - Enoch the scribe - and said to me: 4 'Enoch, you scribe of righteousness, go, tell the Watchers of heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have acted as the children of earth do, and have taken wives for themselves: 5 You have caused great destruction on the earth: and you shall have no peace or forgiveness of sin; and as much as they delight in their children,

Enoch is commissioned to address angels whose offense includes abandoning their heavenly place and behaving like earthly beings. Jude compresses this account into a reminder of angels who failed to maintain their position and are confined until judgment. The compression gives the passage the character of an accepted example: the writer supplies enough of the story to identify the offense and its consequence, without retelling the descent and its aftermath ^[2].

Jude 1:6

6 You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day.

The punishment is also recognizable in the Enochic narrative. God commands that Azazel, one of the rebellious angels, be bound and placed in darkness until the final judgment. Jude's warning uses the same combination of transgression, confinement, darkness, and a future reckoning. His argument assumes the usefulness of this angelic history as a warning to human beings, even though he does not introduce the reminder with the explicit prophetic formula used later in the letter ^[3] ^[4].

1 Enoch 10:4-6

4 And the Lord also said to Raphael: 'Bind Azâzêl hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: make a hole in the desert in Dûdâêl, and throw him in. 5 Place upon him rough and jagged rocks, cover him with darkness, and let him remain there forever, and cover his face so he may not see light. 6 On the day of great judgment he shall be thrown into the fire.

Jude returns to the association between heavenly disorder and punishment when he compares his opponents with wandering stars. In Enoch's journeys, stars can be living heavenly beings capable of disobedience, and the imprisoned stars have violated a divine command. This background gives the comparison a moral force beyond the appearance of an unpredictable light in the sky ^[5].

Jude 1:13

13 wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved.

These passages show another way Jude treats Enochic tradition as authoritative. Jude's explicit quotation identifies Enoch as a prophet, while his reminders and comparisons use Enochic traditions as reliable accounts of rebellion and punishment. The traditions supply premises for his argument about the community's conduct. They need not each be introduced as scripture for their theological function to be visible: the fate of disobedient heavenly beings explains why the human offenders should fear judgment ^[6].

Citations

[1] Hunt, Benjamin B. "Know Your Enemies": Rhetorical Semantics in the Epistle of Jude (pp. 96–97) McMaster Divinity College, 2014
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 63) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] Hunt, Benjamin B. "Know Your Enemies": Rhetorical Semantics in the Epistle of Jude (pp. 97) McMaster Divinity College, 2014
[4] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 86) Fortress Press, 2001
[5] Bautch, Kelley Coblentz A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: “No One Has Seen What I Have Seen.” (pp. 47) Brill, 2003
[6] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 35–36, 63) Fortress Press, 1996

Barnabas

The author of Barnabas introduces Enochic material with formulas used for scripture in discussions of approaching judgment and the temple. These passages connect Enoch's authority with the interpretation of Israel's history and expectations for its future.

Barnabas Cites Enoch in Prophecy and Temple History

The early Christian work known as the Epistle of Barnabas refers to Enochic material in discussions of both the approaching end and the fate of the temple. Its author introduces the material with formulas used for scripture, although the identification of the Enochic passage is more secure in some cases than in others. The authority claimed by the author and the identification of the source therefore need to be considered separately ^[1].

Barnabas 4:3

3 The final offense is near, about which Scripture speaks, as Enoch says. For this reason the Master has shortened the seasons and the days, so that His beloved may come quickly and inherit.

Here Enoch is named, and the announcement concerns a shortening of time so that the beloved figure can arrive and inherit. A possible connection appears in the astronomical traditions of 1 Enoch, where shortened years belong to the disorder associated with sinners. That resemblance is relevant, but it does not make the passage in Barnabas an exact quotation of the surviving Enochic text. The proposed connection has difficulties, which are distinct from the author's explicit appeal to Enoch's authority ^[2].

1 Enoch 80:2

2 In the days of the sinners, the years will be shortened, and their seed will be delayed on their lands and fields. All things on the earth will change and will not appear at their proper times; the rain will be withheld, and the heavens will keep it back.

The temple discussion offers a different application. In the symbolic history of 1 Enoch, Israel is represented by sheep, while the destruction of their tower and house depicts the ruin of their sanctuary. Barnabas uses the corresponding imagery to interpret the destruction of the city, temple, and people, introducing the announcement as scripture and declaring that the predicted event occurred ^[3] ^[4].

1 Enoch 89:67-68

67 I became very sorrowful over that tower because that house of the sheep was demolished, and afterward I was unable to see whether those sheep entered that house. 68 The shepherds and their associates handed those sheep over to all the wild beasts, to devour them, and each one of them received a fixed number in his time; the other recorded in a book how many each one of them destroyed.

Barnabas 16:5-6

5 Again, it was revealed how the city and the temple and the people of Israel would be handed over. For Scripture says: ‘And it will come to pass in the last days that the Lord will hand over the sheep of His pasture, and the fold, and their tower, to destruction.’ And it happened as the Lord said. 6 But let us ask whether there is any temple of God. Yes, there is—the place where He Himself undertakes to make and complete it. For it is written: ‘And it will come to pass, when the week is being completed, the temple of God will be built gloriously in the name of the Lord.’

The next passage turns from destruction to construction, with a temple to be built in glory as a week is completed. This has been connected with the sequence of symbolic weeks in 1 Enoch, where a house is built for the Great King. Barnabas thus applies Enochic imagery to both the destruction of the sanctuary and the expectation of a divinely established dwelling ^[5] ^[6].

The author does more than borrow images of sheep and buildings. He presents the material as testimony that can explain historical events and establish religious expectations, with citation formulas that make its scriptural function explicit. The passages also show that such authority could accompany adaptation: Enochic announcements are selected and applied to the author's own account of the temple and the Christian community ^[7].

Citations

[1] Reeves, John C. An Enochic Citation in Barnabas 4.3 and the Oracles of Hystaspes (pp. 261–277) Sheffield Academic Press, 1994
[2] Reeves, John C. An Enochic Citation in Barnabas 4.3 and the Oracles of Hystaspes (pp. 261–277) Sheffield Academic Press, 1994
[3] McDonald, Lee Martin Forgotten Scriptures: The Selection and Rejection of Early Religious Writings (pp. 136) Westminster John Knox Press, 2009
[4] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 87) Fortress Press, 2001
[5] Reeves, John C. An Enochic Citation in Barnabas 4.3 and the Oracles of Hystaspes (pp. 261–277) Sheffield Academic Press, 1994
[6] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 39–40) Fortress Press, 1996
[7] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 40) Fortress Press, 1996

Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus

Christian explanations of demons, idolatry, and the spread of forbidden knowledge often include the angels and giants described in 1 Enoch. Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus use these traditions in their arguments, although the passages differ in how closely they identify their source.

Justin Explains Demons and Idolatry Through the Watchers

Justin Martyr's Second Apology addresses the objection that Christians should not suffer oppression from wicked people if God helps them. His explanation begins with the angels appointed to oversee earthly affairs and continues with their corruption, their offspring, and their efforts to mislead humanity. The account refers to the Watcher tradition to explain the persistence of evil under divine government ^[1].

Justin Martyr, Second Apology 5:1-3

But if this idea take possession of some one, that if we acknowledge God as our helper, we should not, as we say, be oppressed and persecuted by the wicked; this, too, I will solve. God, when He had made the whole world, and subjected things earthly to man, and arranged the heavenly elements for the increase of fruits and rotation of the seasons, and appointed this divine law — for these things also He evidently made for man — committed the care of men and of all things under heaven to angels whom He appointed over them. But the angels transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of women, and begot children who are those that are called demons; and besides, they afterwards subdued the human race to themselves, partly by magical writings, and partly by fears and the punishments they occasioned, and partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices, and incense, and libations, of which things they stood in need after they were enslaved by lustful passions; and among men they sowed murders, wars, adulteries, intemperate deeds, and all wickedness.

Justin describes the angels' misconduct as a betrayal of their responsibility to protect humanity. They were entrusted with humanity's care, but desire for women led them away from their appointed task. Their descendants and their teachings then subjected human beings to fear, sacrifices, and other forms of religious dependence. Justin includes warfare and other human offenses among the consequences of this supernatural corruption ^[2].

The connection with 1 Enoch extends beyond the union of angels and women. Enoch's angelic guide describes spirits who lead people into the worship of demons as gods, joining the descent narrative to an explanation of false religion. Justin develops precisely this religious consequence when he identifies the powers behind pagan worship as hostile beings whose actions account for the immorality attributed to the gods ^[3].

1 Enoch 19:1

1 And Uriel said to me: 'Here shall stand the angels who have united with women, and their spirits, taking many different forms, are corrupting mankind and will lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods. Here they shall remain until the day of the great judgment when they will be judged and brought to an end.

Justin does not name Enoch or call the book scripture in this passage, so the evidence differs from Jude's named prophecy or Barnabas's citation formulas. His dependence is nevertheless substantive: the angelic history supplies an answer to the objection with which he begins. He presents the account as an explanation of real oppression and religious error, and the explanation requires the existence and activity of the beings he describes ^[4].

Direct use of a written form of the Book of the Watchers is a likely explanation of the detailed resemblance, although transmission through other writings or oral tradition cannot be excluded. The correspondence includes lust, offspring, corrupt teaching, and the establishment of false worship, making it more specific than a general belief in evil angels ^[5]. Justin also adapts the account by describing the demons as the angels' offspring without spelling out the process by which spirits emerge from dead giants. He treats the narrative as authoritative by using it to explain the origins of evil, even where the precise route by which he received it remains uncertain ^[6].

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 64–65) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 64–65) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 64–65) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 87–88) Fortress Press, 2001
[5] Chesnutt, Randall D. "The Descent of the Watchers and its Aftermath According to Justin Martyr" in Harkins, Angela Kim, et al. (eds.) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions (pp. 167–180) Fortress Press, 2014
[6] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 149) Cambridge University Press, 2005

Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus

Tatian Connects Demons With the Fall From Heaven

In his second-century Address to the Greeks, Tatian connects Christian rejection of demons with an account of beings expelled from heaven. His discussion concerns the proper response to healing and the human desire to recover a better condition, and the fallen beings form part of that explanation. The connection with the Watcher story is less explicit than Justin's account of angels, women, and their offspring ^[1].

Tatian, Address to the Greeks 1:20

THANKS ARE EVER DUE TO GOD. Even if you be healed by drugs (I grant you that point by courtesy), yet it behoves you to give testimony of the cure to God. For the world still draws us down, and through weakness I incline towards matter. For the wings of the soul were the perfect spirit, but, having cast this off through sin, it flutters like a nestling and falls to the ground. Having left the heavenly companionship, it hankers after communion with inferior things. The demons were driven forth to another abode; the first created human beings were expelled from their place: the one, indeed, were cast down from heaven; but the other were driven from earth, yet not out of this earth, but from a more excellent order of things than exists here now. And now it behoves us, yearning after that pristine state, to put aside everything that proves a hindrance. The heavens are not infinite, O man, but finite and bounded; and beyond them are the superior worlds which have not a change of seasons, by which various, diseases are produced, but, partaking of every happy temperature, have perpetual day, and light unapproachable by men below.

Tatian distinguishes the expulsion of demons from the loss suffered by the first human beings. The demons were cast out of heaven, while the humans were removed from a better earthly condition. This comparison places both groups within a history of disobedience and displacement, and Tatian refers to that history to explain why human beings should look for recovery through God rather than dependence on demonic powers ^[2].

The angelic descent in 1 Enoch supplies a possible background for the heavenly side of this comparison. The Watchers leave their appointed dwelling and become involved in human corruption, while their punishment prevents a return to their former condition. Tatian's description lacks the fuller sequence of marriages, giants, and forbidden arts, so the connection concerns an abbreviated account of fallen heavenly beings rather than a recognizable quotation.

1 Enoch 12:4-5

4 'Enoch, you scribe of righteousness, go, tell the Watchers of heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have acted as the children of earth do, and have taken wives for themselves: 5 You have caused great destruction on the earth: and you shall have no peace or forgiveness of sin; and as much as they delight in their children,

This difference limits what Tatian's account can show about his use of Enochic tradition. He accepts the expulsion of demons as part of the explanation he gives, but he does not name Enoch, quote a passage as scripture, or identify the written source of the account. The proposed Enochic connection rests on the identification of his demons with the fallen angels of the Watcher narrative ^[3]. It therefore belongs among qualified examples of accepted tradition, rather than among explicit endorsements of the book.

The practical setting remains important. Tatian acknowledges that drugs can produce a cure, but insists that gratitude belongs to God. His account of the demons helps establish why spiritual beings associated with a fall should not receive the trust owed to the creator. The contrast between human recovery and demonic displacement makes the narrative part of an argument about worship and dependence ^[4].

Tatian's abbreviated presentation also limits what can be inferred about his reading. A writer can use a tradition as a premise without leaving enough detail to establish that he consulted a particular book. In this case, the accepted history of heavenly expulsion is visible, while the route from 1 Enoch to that history remains less certain. The result is a narrower form of evidence than the detailed identification of demons with the spirits of giants found in Athenagoras.

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65) Fortress Press, 1996

Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus

Athenagoras Identifies Demons as the Souls of Giants

Athenagoras explains the activity of demons through a distinction between the angels who sinned and the giants born from their unions with women. In his second-century Plea for the Christians, this account belongs to a defense of Christian belief addressed to imperial rulers. The Watcher tradition supplies an explanation of spiritual beings who act against the good order of creation ^[1].

Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 24:4-7

For this is the office of the angels — to exercise providence for God over the things created and ordered by Him; so that God may have the universal and general providence of the whole, while the particular parts are provided for by the angels appointed over them. Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice (for you would not either honour the good or punish the bad, unless vice and virtue were in their own power; and some are diligent in the matters entrusted to them by you, and others faithless), so is it among the angels. Some, free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which He had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them: namely, this ruler of matter and its various forms, and others of those who were placed about this first firmament (you know that we say nothing without witnesses, but state the things which have been declared by the prophets); these fell into impure love of virgins, and were subjugated by the flesh, and he became negligent and wicked in the management of the things entrusted to him. Of these lovers of virgins, therefore, were begotten those who are called giants.

The angels were created with responsibilities and the freedom to fulfill or betray them. Some continue in their appointed work, while others surrender to desire and neglect what was entrusted to them. Athenagoras makes the distinction comparable to human conduct, where praise and punishment depend on the possibility of choosing well or badly. Evil therefore results from the misuse of a created capacity, rather than from a power that exists independently of God ^[2].

When Athenagoras describes the offspring, the connection becomes more specific. He identifies the wandering demons as the souls of the giants, while distinguishing their activity from the desires of the fallen angels themselves. The Enochic narrative similarly describes evil spirits proceeding from the bodies of beings born from heavenly spirits and human flesh ^[3].

1 Enoch 15:8-11

8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. 9 Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. 10 As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling. 11 And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences.

Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 25:1

These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, the other (that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged.

This account answers a theological question about the nature of the hostile powers. The angels and the souls of the giants have different origins within the same history, and their conduct is explained through those origins. Athenagoras uses the story to identify the beings whose influence he associates with religious error. The giants are consequently part of his explanation of the present spiritual world, rather than figures confined to a remote legendary past ^[4].

Athenagoras also claims prophetic support while describing the angels' transgression, stating that his account has witnesses among the prophets. That assertion is stronger than the use of an unexplained literary image, but it does not name Enoch or expressly identify the book as scripture. The passage supports a claim that he considers the narrative religiously trustworthy, while the identification of his particular source comes from its detailed connection with the Enochic tradition ^[5].

His distinction between angels and giants also explains why a shared narrative need not produce identical Christian formulations. Justin describes the demonic offspring without the same account of disembodied souls, whereas Athenagoras makes that distinction explicit. Both use the tradition against pagan worship, but Athenagoras specifies how the destruction of the giants could leave hostile spirits active among human beings.

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65–66) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 88) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 65–66) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 41–42) Fortress Press, 1996

Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus

Irenaeus Uses Enoch for Theology and Primeval History

Irenaeus refers to the Watcher narrative in several different arguments, from the spread of evil before the flood to the righteousness of people who lived before Moses. His Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching includes the unions of angels and women within an account of humanity's early history, while Against Heresies applies features of the same tradition to judgment, religious error, and salvation ^[1].

Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 1:18

18 And for a very long while wickedness extended and spread, and reached and laid hold upon the whole race of mankind, until a very small seed of righteousness remained among them and illicit unions took place upon the earth, since angels were united with the daughters of the race of mankind; and they bore to them sons who for their exceeding greatness were called giants. And the angels brought as presents to their wives teachings of wickedness, in that they brought them the virtues of roots and herbs, dyeing in colors and cosmetics, the discovery of rare substances, love-potions, aversions, amours, concupiscence, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment, and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God; by the entry of which things into the world evil extended and spread, while righteousness was diminished and enfeebled.

The gifts given to the women include cosmetics, dyes, knowledge of roots, spells, and other practices associated with corruption. Their introduction explains how evil spread until righteousness survived only among a small remnant. This is a historical explanation within Irenaeus's account of divine dealings with humanity, and its detail exceeds the short account of heavenly beings and human women in Genesis ^[2].

In Against Heresies, Enoch himself becomes evidence for a different theological point. Irenaeus maintains that righteousness existed before circumcision and Sabbath observance, and includes Enoch among the people who pleased God without those practices. Enoch's assignment as a messenger to the angels supplies a detail familiar from the Book of the Watchers, where the righteous human is sent to announce judgment to the heavenly offenders ^[3] ^[4].

Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 4 16:2

2 And that man was not justified by these things, but that they were given as a sign to the people, this fact shows — that Abraham himself, without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths, believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Then, again, Lot, without circumcision, was brought out from Sodom, receiving salvation from God. So also did Noah, pleasing God, although he was uncircumcised, receive the dimensions [of the ark], of the world of the second race [of men]. Enoch, too, pleasing God, without circumcision, discharged the office of God's legate to the angels although he was a man, and was translated, and is preserved until now as a witness of the just judgment of God, because the angels when they had transgressed fell to the earth for judgment, but the man who pleased [God] was translated for salvation. Moreover, all the rest of the multitude of those righteous men who lived before Abraham, and of those patriarchs who preceded Moses, were justified independently of the things above mentioned, and without the law of Moses. As also Moses himself says to the people in Deuteronomy: The Lord your God formed a covenant in Horeb. The Lord formed not this covenant with your fathers, but for you.

Irenaeus contrasts the angels' fall with the preservation of the man who pleased God. The Enochic account thereby contributes to an argument about the conditions of righteousness, rather than simply adding information to a biography. In another passage, the union of sinful angels with humanity helps explain the judgment of the flood, while the confession of faith in the first book includes the future punishment of apostate angels ^[5].

Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 4 36:4

… and in the days of Noah He justly brought on the deluge for the purpose of extinguishing that most infamous race of men then existent, who could not bring forth fruit to God, since the angels that sinned had commingled with them, and [acted as He did] in order that He might put a check upon the sins of these men, but [that at the same time] He might preserve the archetype, the formation of Adam. …

The named figure Azazel also appears in a poem against the teacher Marcus that Irenaeus quotes approvingly in Against Heresies. Irenaeus reproduces an elder's poem, incorporating that writer's attack on Marcus into his own work. The poem connects magical activity with a fallen angel, applying the Enochic association between rebellion and forbidden knowledge to a Christian opponent ^[6].

None of these passages expressly declares the book of Enoch scripture. Their importance lies in the range of claims supported by its traditions: Irenaeus can explain the history of corruption, identify the source of dangerous arts, and defend the righteousness of an uncircumcised ancestor through the same body of material. Enoch's mission to the angels is accepted as part of the history on which that last argument depends.

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 66) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 88) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 66) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 158) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[5] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 42–43) Fortress Press, 1996
[6] Reed, Annette Yoshiko "Gendering Heavenly Secrets? Women, Angels, and the Problem of Misogyny and Magic" in Stratton, Kimberly B.and ‎Dayna S. Kalleres (eds.) Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in Antiquity (pp. 108–151) Oxford University Press, 2014

Clement of Alexandria

Clement names Enoch when he explains the knowledge of demons and uses the fallen angels in his account of the transmission of heavenly knowledge. In the commentary on Jude preserved among his fragments, the Enochic prophecy also receives explicit affirmation.

Clement Uses Enoch to Interpret Scripture and Heavenly Knowledge

Clement of Alexandria names Enoch while explaining the knowledge possessed by demons, in a passage concerned with the language of Psalm 19 about day and night communicating knowledge. The reference appears in Selections from the Prophets, where the teaching of astronomy, divination, and other arts by transgressing angels supplies information relevant to interpreting the psalm ^[1].

Clement of Alexandria, Selections from the Prophets 53:1

"... Day to day pours forth speech and night to night declares knowledge." ... "Night to Night": All the demons knew that it was the Lord who arose after the passion, for Enoch already said that the angels who transgressed taught humanity astronomy, divination, and the other arts.

The explanation assumes that Enoch provides knowledge of events before the Christian period. Clement's reference makes the connection more explicit than a resemblance between unnamed sources: he identifies the source and relies on its account to explain why demons possess information. The connection with the list of forbidden teachings in 1 Enoch is recognizable even though Clement summarizes the arts in broader categories rather than quoting the list ^[2] ^[3].

1 Enoch 8:1-2

1 And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates, and revealed to them the metals of the earth and how to work with them, as well as how to make bracelets, ornaments, and the use antimony, beautifying the eyelids, along with all kinds of precious stones and various dyes. 2 Widespread wickedness arose, and they engaged in fornication, were led astray, and corrupted all their ways.

A passage in the Stromata, Clement's collection of theological discussions, similarly connects the disclosure of heavenly secrets with angels who surrendered to pleasure. Knowledge is transmitted to women, while other angels preserve what they know. Clement then discusses the appearance of religious and philosophical understanding among the Greeks, making the angelic account part of an explanation of how knowledge could circulate beyond the people who first received revelation ^[4] ^[5].

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata Book 5 1:59-60

To which also we shall add, that the angels who had obtained the superior rank, having sunk into pleasures, told to the women the secrets which had come to their knowledge; while the rest of the angels concealed them, or rather, kept them against the coming of the Lord. Thence emanated the doctrine of providence, and the revelation of high things; and prophecy having already been imparted to the philosophers of the Greeks, the treatment of dogma arose among the philosophers, sometimes true when they hit the mark, and sometimes erroneous, when they comprehended not the secret of the prophetic allegory.

In the commentary on Jude preserved among Clement's fragments, the authority of a particular Enochic prophecy receives more explicit affirmation. The explanation of wandering stars identifies them with beings who fell from angelic seats, and the commentary then interprets Jude's attribution of prophecy to Enoch as confirmation of that prophecy. The authority being affirmed is the announcement quoted by Jude, whose language the commentary is explaining.

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments 2:4

Woe unto them! he says, for they have gone in the way of Cain. For so also we lie under Adam's sin through similarity of sin. Clouds, he says, without water; who do not possess in themselves the divine and fruitful word. Wherefore, he says, men of this kind are carried about both by winds and violent blasts. Trees, he says, of autumn, without fruit,— unbelievers, that is, who bear no fruit of fidelity. Twice dead, he says: once, namely, when they sinned by transgressing, and a second time when delivered up to punishment, according to the predestined judgments of God; inasmuch as it is to be reckoned death, even when each one does not immediately deserve the inheritance. Waves, he says, of a raging sea. By these words he signifies the life of the Gentiles, whose end is abominable ambition. Wandering stars,— that is, he means those who err and are apostates are of that kind of stars which fell from the seats of the angels— to whom, for their apostasy, the blackness of darkness is reserved forever. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, he says, prophesied of these. In these words he verities the prophecy.

These uses differ in form while sharing an acceptance of Enochic material as theologically useful. In Selections, Clement names Enoch as an ancient source of reliable information for interpreting a psalm; in the Stromata, the fallen angels explain the disclosure of heavenly knowledge; in the Jude commentary, a prophecy is affirmed through its apostolic citation. The same commentary material also appears in the text transmitted under Cassiodorus's name, so its appearance under different authors' names needs to be considered in light of how the commentary was passed down ^[6].

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 45–46) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 45–46) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 90) Fortress Press, 2001
[4] Longhenry, Ethan R. The 1 Enoch Conundrum (pp. 1–5) University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016
[5] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 46–47) Fortress Press, 1996
[6] Bucur, Bogdan Gabriel Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses (pp. 90–91) Brill, 2009

Tertullian

Tertullian explicitly defends the Scripture of Enoch and uses its traditions in arguments about Christian conduct, idolatry, and resurrection. His defense also records disagreement over the book's reception, while his other works show how extensively its material could be used in Christian teaching.

Tertullian Defends Enoch as Inspired Scripture

Tertullian interrupts his discussion of women's adornment to defend the authority of the book on which his argument depends. In On the Apparel of Women, the fallen angels explain the origins of practices he condemns, and he anticipates an objection to his use of their story. His response explicitly calls the source the Scripture of Enoch ^[1].

Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Book 1 3:1-3

I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not think that, having been published before the deluge, it could have safely survived that world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things. If that is the reason (for rejecting it), let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself; and he, of course, had heard and remembered, from domestic renown and hereditary tradition, concerning his own great-grandfather"s grace in the sight of God, and concerning all his preachings; since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity.

The opening acknowledges disagreement over the book's reception, including its absence from the Jewish canon. Tertullian then addresses a question about its antiquity: a work attributed to someone who lived before the flood would require an explanation of how its contents survived. He proposes that Noah could have inherited knowledge of his ancestor's teaching through the family and preserved it for later generations ^[2].

Tertullian supplies an alternative explanation as well. Even if the written material had been destroyed, Noah could have restored it through inspiration, just as Tertullian understands Ezra to have restored Israel's writings after the Babylonian destruction. The purpose of these proposals is to defend the credibility of the book's attribution and transmission. They are Tertullian's explanations of how an ancient revelation could remain available, rather than independent evidence that either process occurred ^[3].

Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Book 1 3:5-6

If (Noah) had not had this (conservative power) by so short a route, there would (still) be this (consideration) to warrant our assertion of (the genuineness of) this Scripture: he could equally have renewed it, under the Spirit"s inspiration, after it had been destroyed by the violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document of the Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra. But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.

The defense joins authenticity to Christian relevance. Tertullian regards Enoch as speaking about Jesus, and he maintains that Christians should receive material that concerns them. He also attributes Jewish rejection to the book's Christian significance, a polemical explanation that belongs to his argument and should not be substituted for a historical account of Jewish decisions about scripture ^[4].

His final reason is Jude's testimony. Tertullian assumes the authority of Jude and uses its citation to support the authority of Enoch, so the Christian letter becomes evidence for the status of the older source. The reasoning is stronger than the claim that Jude happened to know an Enochic saying: the citation contributes to a defense of the book's inspiration ^[5].

Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Book 1 3:9

To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude.

This is an explicit scriptural endorsement by a named Christian author, accompanied by arguments for why the endorsement is justified. Its setting also explains why Tertullian needs the defense. The angelic account is about to support conclusions about everyday conduct, and the reliability of that account determines whether the conclusions have the authority he claims for them.

Citations

[1] Vanbeek, Lawrence H. The Letter of Jude's Use of 1 Enoch: The Book of the Watchers as Scripture (pp. 151–153) University of South Africa, 1997
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 51–52) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 196) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[4] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 196–197) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[5] Gallagher, Edmon L., and John D. Meade The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis (pp. 105–106) Oxford University Press, 2017

Tertullian

Tertullian Uses Enoch to Teach Against Idolatry

Tertullian's On Idolatry names Enoch when explaining how the created world became an object of religious worship. Demons and the spirits of fallen angels induce people to treat things in heaven, earth, and sea as gods, while the manufacture of images gives that error a material form. Enoch's account supplies a history of idolatry and a warning against participation in it ^[1].

Tertullian, On Idolatry 4:2

Enoch had preceded, predicting that the demons, and the spirits of the angelic apostates, would turn into idolatry all the elements, all the garniture of the universe, all things contained in the heaven, in the sea, in the earth, that they might be consecrated as God, in opposition to God. All things, therefore, does human error worship, except the Founder of all Himself. The images of those things are idols; the consecration of the images is idolatry.

The history resembles the explanation given by Enoch's angelic guide, who connects spirits associated with the fallen angels to the worship of demons as gods. Tertullian gives that explanation a practical consequence by extending responsibility from the person who worships an image to the craftsperson who makes it. The origin of the worship and the production of its objects belong to the same argument ^[2].

Tertullian, On Idolatry 4:3

Whatever guilt idolatry incurs, must necessarily be imputed to every artificer of every idol. In short, the same Enoch fore-condemns in general menace both idol-worshippers and idol-makers together. And again: I swear to you, sinners, that against the day of perdition of blood repentance is being prepared. You who serve stones, and you who make images of gold, and silver, and wood, and stones and clay, and serve phantoms, and demons, and spirits in fanes, and all errors not according to knowledge, shall find no help from them. But Isaiah says, You are witnesses whether there is a God except Me.

The named quotation concerns images of gold, silver, wood, stone, and clay, along with demons and spirits worshiped through them. The corresponding warning in 1 Enoch declares that such objects and powers cannot help those who serve them. Tertullian uses the warning to support an obligation that reaches beyond formal attendance at worship, encompassing work that makes the worship possible ^[3].

1 Enoch 99:6-7

6 And again I swear to you, sinners, that sin is prepared for a day of unceasing bloodshed. 7 And those who worship stones, and grave images of gold, silver, wood, stone, and clay, and those who worship impure spirits and demons, and all kinds of idols not according to knowledge, shall receive no help from them.

This use gives Enoch the role of a prophetic witness against both religious practice and economic participation. The source is named and its warning is treated as binding evidence, even though this passage does not repeat the full defense of inspiration found in On the Apparel of Women. The relation between those works shows why an author's practical uses and explicit claims about scripture belong together when assessing authority ^[4].

Tertullian also associates the angels' offspring with sacred writings in his Apology. There he explains the origin of a destructive demonic race through angels who fell by their own choice. The passage does not name Enoch individually, but its account belongs to the same tradition on which his named references depend ^[5].

Tertullian, Apology 22:8-10

We are instructed, moreover, by our sacred books how from certain angels, who fell of their own free-will, there sprang a more wicked demon-brood, condemned of God along with the authors of their race, and that chief we have referred to. It will for the present be enough, however, that some account is given of their work. Their great business is the ruin of mankind.

The classification is consequently more precise than either an unnamed parallel or a repeated formal endorsement of the whole book. On Idolatry expressly appeals to Enoch's prediction and warning, while the Apology places the angelic history within instruction received from sacred books. Both uses explain the source of religious error and identify the conduct Christians should avoid because of it ^[6].

Citations

[1] Bauckham, Richard The Fall of the Angels as the Source of Philosophy in Hermias and Clement of Alexandria (pp. 320) Vigiliae Christianae 39, 1985
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 48–49) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 89) Fortress Press, 2001
[4] Bauckham, Richard The Fall of the Angels as the Source of Philosophy in Hermias and Clement of Alexandria (pp. 320) Vigiliae Christianae 39, 1985
[5] Chesnutt, Randall D. "The Descent of the Watchers and its Aftermath According to Justin Martyr" in Harkins, Angela Kim, et al. (eds.) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions (pp. 167–180) Fortress Press, 2014
[6] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 49–50) Fortress Press, 1996

Tertullian

Tertullian Connects the Watchers With Dress and Head Coverings

The connection between the Watchers and women's adornment becomes a practical argument in Tertullian's On the Apparel of Women. He treats the angels' instruction in metalworking, dyes, and cosmetics as an account of how practices condemned by God entered human life. The history provides a reason for Christians to reject the practices, since their teachers were themselves judged for corruption ^[1].

1 Enoch 8:1-2

The list of arts in 1 Enoch includes weapons as well as adornment, but Tertullian selects the items relevant to the behavior he is regulating. Gold, precious stones, eyelid powder, and dyed wool become examples of desirable objects whose origins he considers morally compromised. The problem, as he presents it, is not simply that the materials were created, but that angels taught particular ways of using them and were condemned ^[2].

Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Book 2 10:2

But, if the self-same angels who disclosed both the material substances of this kind and their charms — of gold, I mean, and lustrous stones — and taught men how to work them, and by and by instructed them, among their other (instructions), in (the virtues of) eyelid-powder and the dyeings of fleeces, have been condemned by God, as Enoch tells us, how shall we please God while we joy in the things of those (angels) who, on these accounts, have provoked the anger and the vengeance of God? Now, granting that God did foresee these things; that God permitted them; that Esaias finds fault with no garment of purple, represses no coil, reprobates no crescent-shaped neck ornaments; still let us not, as the Gentiles do, flatter ourselves with thinking that God is merely a Creator, not likewise a Downlooker on His own creatures.

His appeal expressly identifies Enoch as the source of the judgment on the teachers. The conclusion about adornment depends on accepting that judgment as an event with continuing moral significance. This is a use of the book as reliable history within ethical instruction, supported by the explicit defense of its scriptural status elsewhere in the same work ^[3] ^[4].

In On Prayer, the angels' desire for women explains an instruction attributed to Paul. Tertullian reads the requirement for a head covering in connection with the heavenly beings who rebelled because of human women, then asks which women the instruction includes. His answer extends it to virgins, whose beauty he considers no less capable of attracting desire than that of married women ^[5].

Tertullian, On Prayer 22:5

As, then, in the masculine sex, under the name of man even the youth is forbidden to be veiled; so, too, in the feminine, under the name of woman, even the virgin is bidden to be veiled. Equally in each sex let the younger age follow the discipline of the elder; or else let the male virgins, too, be veiled, if the female virgins withal are not veiled, because they are not mentioned by name. Let man and youth be different, if woman and virgin are different. For indeed it is on account of the angels that he says women must be veiled, because on account of the daughters of men angels revolted from God. Who then, would contend that women alone— that is, such as were already wedded and had lost their virginity— were the objects of angelic concupiscence, unless virgins are incapable of excelling in beauty and finding lovers? Nay, let us see whether it were not virgins alone whom they lusted after; since Scriptures says the daughters of men; inasmuch as it might have named wives of men, or females, indifferently.

The Enochic history here supplies an explanation for Paul's compressed reference to angels, while Tertullian's own argument applies that explanation to a dispute about Christian practice. His reading establishes how an early Christian interpreter understood the passage; it does not by itself settle every question about Paul's original intention. The angelic story is accepted as a premise from which Tertullian derives a rule about participation in worship ^[6] ^[7].

The two uses concern different consequences of the same narrative. In the discussion of adornment, the fallen angels are teachers of corrupting practices; in the discussion of head coverings, they are beings whose desire produced rebellion. Tertullian uses both aspects to regulate conduct, presenting the ancient account as knowledge relevant to the choices of women in his own community.

Citations

[1] Vanbeek, Lawrence H. The Letter of Jude's Use of 1 Enoch: The Book of the Watchers as Scripture (pp. 151–153) University of South Africa, 1997
[2] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 178–179) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[3] Bauckham, Richard The Fall of the Angels as the Source of Philosophy in Hermias and Clement of Alexandria (pp. 320) Vigiliae Christianae 39, 1985
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 53) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] Heiser, Michael S. Angels: What the Bible Really Says about God’s Heavenly Host (pp. 126) Lexham Press, 2018
[6] Lewis, Scott M. "'Because of the Angels': Paul and the Enochic Traditions" in Harkins, Angela Kim, et al. (eds.) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions (pp. 81–90) Fortress Press, 2014
[7] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 178) Cambridge University Press, 2005

Tertullian

Tertullian Appeals to Scripture for Bodily Resurrection

Tertullian's defense of bodily resurrection includes the problem of people whose remains were consumed by animals rather than deposited in a tomb. In On the Resurrection of the Flesh, he introduces a promise that fish will surrender the bones they have eaten and that scattered bodily parts will be restored. He expressly presents the promise as scripture, although he does not name its source ^[1].

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 32:1-2

But, that you may not suppose that it is merely those bodies which are consigned to tombs whose resurrection is foretold, you have it declared in Scripture: And I will command the fishes of the sea, and they shall cast up the bones which they have devoured; and I will bring joint to joint, and bone to bone. You will ask, Will then the fishes and other animals and carnivorous birds be raised again, in order that they may vomit up what they have consumed, on the ground of your reading in the law of Moses, that blood is required of even all the beasts? Certainly not.

The promise answers a specific difficulty for bodily restoration. Ordinary burial leaves a recognizable location for remains, whereas consumption by fish or other animals seems to scatter them beyond recovery. In Tertullian's quotation, divine command can restore those scattered remains, so the condition of a body at death does not determine whether it can be raised ^[2].

The corresponding Enochic passage includes people destroyed in the wilderness, devoured by beasts, and eaten by fish. Their recovery belongs to the day of the Chosen One, and the announcement insists that such destruction does not put them beyond divine reach. The unusual inclusion of bodies consumed by animals makes the comparison more specific than a general expectation that the dead will rise ^[3].

1 Enoch 61:3-5

3 The angel who accompanied me said, 'These shall bring the measures of the righteous, and the ropes of the righteous to the righteous, that they may rely on the name of the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.' 4 The chosen will begin to dwell with the chosen, and these are the measures which shall be given to faith and which shall strengthen righteousness. 5 And these measures shall uncover all the secrets of the depths of the earth, and those who were destroyed in the wilderness, and those devoured by beasts, and those eaten by the fish of the sea, that they may return and rely on the day of the Chosen One; for none shall be destroyed before the Lord of Spirits, nor can any be destroyed.

The evidence has two different levels of certainty. Tertullian unquestionably introduces his quotation as scripture, because that is how he labels it. Its identification with 1 Enoch is a proposed source connection, and the language is not identical to the surviving Enochic passage. The association is therefore appropriately described as a possible further use of Enoch within his scriptural argument, rather than as another instance where he explicitly names the book ^[4].

Tertullian also clarifies what the promise implies about the resurrection of animals. The surrender of consumed bodies does not, in his explanation, require the fish and other animals themselves to be raised so that they can return what they swallowed. His interest is the restoration of human bodies, and he distinguishes that claim from an account of the particular mechanism by which their remains are recovered.

The passage expands the range of questions for which Enochic material could be useful. The earlier examples concern the origins of evil and practices associated with fallen angels; this one concerns the recovery of the dead and the continuity of the body through destruction. Its inclusion among scriptural testimonies makes the claimed authority explicit, even while the absence of Enoch's name leaves the source identification less secure than in Tertullian's arguments about adornment or idolatry.

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 53–54) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 53–54) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 53–54) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 54) Fortress Press, 1996

Origen and Anatolius

Origen cites Enoch as evidence in theological discussions of creation and the nature of matter, interpreting its language alongside other religious writings. Anatolius names the book as evidence in a discussion of the calendar, where its account of the sun supplies information for the dating of a Christian festival.

Origen Refers to Enoch to Explain Creation and Matter

Origen's On the First Principles uses Enoch in theological discussions about what God created and how the material world should be understood. These are substantive appeals to the book within his own explanations of creation, rather than a discussion limited to what other Christians thought about it. His use of Enoch in this work has accordingly been identified as part of its early Christian scriptural reception ^[1].

Origen, On the First Principles Book 1 3:3

… For even in that little treatise called The Pastor or Angel of Repentance, composed by Hermas, we have the following: First of all, believe that there is one God who created and arranged all things; who, when nothing formerly existed, caused all things to be; who Himself contains all things, but Himself is contained by none. And in the Book of Enoch also we have similar descriptions. …

The first passage concerns the claim that everything created derives its existence from God. Origen opposes the idea that matter or souls existed independently alongside God, and supports his account with religious writings. After referring to the Shepherd of Hermas, an early Christian work that describes God as creator of everything, he invokes similar descriptions in Enoch. The reference makes the book evidence for a theological proposition about the source of existence ^[2].

Origen then distinguishes created things from the Holy Spirit, for whose creation he says he has found no statement in holy scripture. Enoch's role belongs to the preceding argument about created existence, and the immediate context is an investigation of how scriptural testimony supports distinctions within Christian teaching. He does not merely mention the book as an object of antiquarian interest ^[3].

A second discussion concerns matter considered apart from its qualities. Origen first asks whether scripture supplies grounds for this understanding, then interprets language from the Psalms and from Enoch. He understands Enoch's journey to imperfection as a mental investigation of the material world's first condition, before the qualities that distinguish particular things are considered ^[4].

Origen, On the First Principles Book 4 2:8

… Enoch also, in his book, speaks as follows: I have walked on even to imperfection; which expression I consider may be understood in a similar manner, viz., that the mind of the prophet proceeded in its scrutiny and investigation of all visible things, until it arrived at that first beginning in which it beheld imperfect matter (existing) without qualities. For it is written in the same Book of Enoch, I beheld the whole of matter; which is so understood as if he had said: I have clearly seen all the divisions of matter which are broken up from one into each individual species either of men, or animals, or of the sky, or of the sun, or of all other things in this world. …

The interpretation makes a visionary account relevant to a philosophical question. Origen understands the language about matter as a disclosure of what underlies the different forms of the visible world, including human beings, animals, and heavenly bodies. His explanation proceeds from the language attributed to Enoch and places it beside a psalm in an argument introduced as a search for scriptural support ^[5].

The distinction between the two uses is useful. In the first, Enoch corroborates the belief that God created all things; in the second, Origen interprets Enoch's own language to explain the nature of matter. Both rely on the book as a source of theological knowledge, and the second gives its statements an expressly scriptural setting. The authority is visible in the reasoning for which Origen uses the text, not simply in a general expression of respect for an ancient author ^[6].

Citations

[1] McDonald, Lee Martin "The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity" in Charlesworth, James H., and Darrell L. Bock., ed. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (pp. 369) T&T Clark, 2013
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 90) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 55) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 55–56) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] McDonald, Lee Martin "The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity" in Charlesworth, James H., and Darrell L. Bock., ed. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (pp. 369) T&T Clark, 2013
[6] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 197) Cambridge University Press, 2005

Origen and Anatolius

Anatolius Uses Enoch to Date Easter

Anatolius cites Enoch in a discussion of the date of the Paschal celebration, the Christian festival of Easter. The issue concerns the relation between the first month of the Hebrew year and the spring equinox, when day and night are approximately equal. His appeal comes from the astronomical material in 1 Enoch, rather than the story of the fallen angels ^[1].

Anatolius, The Paschal Canon 5:1-3

I am aware that very many other matters were discussed by them, some of them with considerable probability, and others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration, by which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be kept after the equinox. But I shall pass on without demanding such copious demonstrations (on subjects ) from which the veil of the Mosaic law has been removed; for now it remains for us with unveiled face to behold ever as in a glass Christ Himself and the doctrines and sufferings of Christ. But that the first month among the Hebrews is about the equinox, is clearly shown also by what is taught in the book of Enoch.

The passage follows a discussion of arguments for placing Passover and Unleavened Bread after the equinox. Anatolius does not repeat every argument, but identifies Enoch as additional evidence that the first Hebrew month belongs near that point in the solar year. Anatolius therefore uses the book to help determine when the festival should be observed ^[2].

The relevant section of 1 Enoch describes the movements of the heavenly bodies through a system of heavenly gates or portals. Uriel, the angel who guides Enoch, explains the sun's course and the changing proportions of day and night. The first month is associated with the sun's appearance through the fourth eastern portal, followed by a gradual lengthening of daylight.

1 Enoch 72:1-3

1 This book describes the courses of the heavenly bodies, detailing each according to their classes, control, seasons, names, origins, and months as shown to me by Uriel, the holy angel guiding me. He explained precisely all their laws and the eternal progression until a new creation is established forever. 2 The first rule of the luminaries: the Sun rises from the eastern portals of the heavens and sets in the western portals. 3 I observed six portals for the sun's rising and setting, and for the moon's rising and setting. The leaders of the stars and their groups also follow this path: six portals in the east and six in the west, all precisely aligned, with numerous windows on either side.

1 Enoch 72:6-10

6 Specifically, he rises from the fourth portal, one of the six eastern portals, in the first month. 7 From this fourth portal during the first month, twelve windows open to release flames when it is their season. 8 The Sun rises through this fourth portal for thirty consecutive mornings and sets precisely in the fourth portal in the western sky. 9 Over this period, the day progressively lengthens, and the night correspondingly shortens, until the thirtieth morning. 10 On that day, daylight lasts a ninth part longer than the night. The day measures exactly ten parts, and the night measures eight parts.

Anatolius's use has been connected with this account of the opening month and the seasonal balance of daylight and darkness. The astronomical description provides a basis for locating the month within the solar cycle, allowing an ancient account of the heavens to contribute to a Christian calendar dispute ^[3]. His interest in Enoch is consequently technical as well as religious: the information must help determine when the festival should take place.

The authority claimed here differs from Tertullian's explicit defense of inspiration. Anatolius names the book and says that its teaching demonstrates the point, but he does not call it scripture in this passage or explain its place in a collection of sacred books. This is an example of direct reliance on Enoch as a trustworthy source for a particular question, without an accompanying declaration about its full scriptural status ^[4].

The case also broadens the subject matter of Christian reception. Enoch could supply more than an account of demons, a warning of judgment, or an explanation of forbidden arts. Its description of the sun could be used in the regulation of the church's annual observance. The passage was itself preserved by Eusebius in his account of Anatolius, preserving this explicit appeal to Enoch beyond the original calendar discussion ^[5] ^[6].

Citations

[1] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (pp. 349) Fortress Press, 2012
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 92) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (pp. 349) Fortress Press, 2012
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 60) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (pp. 349) Fortress Press, 2012
[6] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 92) Fortress Press, 2001

Commodianus, Cyprian, and Lactantius

The fallen angels remain part of Christian explanations of idolatry and forbidden arts in Commodianus, Cyprian, and Lactantius. Their uses also show how Enochic traditions could pass through earlier Christian authors, so acceptance of the narrative does not always establish direct reading of the book.

Commodianus Identifies Pagan Gods With Fallen Angels

The Christian poet Commodianus uses the fallen angels to explain why the gods worshiped by his opponents should be understood as dangerous spirits. In On Christian Discipline, the account includes the angels' arrival, their desire for women, the birth of giants, the disclosure of arts, and the worship of images after death. The narrative explains the historical origins of the worship he rejects ^[1].

Commodianus, On Christian Discipline 3:1-4

When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born.

The beginning differs from the account of a conspiracy to descend in 1 Enoch. Commodianus presents the visit to earth as something God intended, and the angels become disobedient after their arrival. Their desire for women then contaminates them and prevents their return to heaven. The narrative preserves the fall and its consequences while giving the original descent a different explanation ^[2].

That difference shows that acceptance of an Enochic tradition did not require reproduction of every feature in the surviving book. Commodianus uses an adapted form of the history, one in which a mission begun under divine authority ends in rebellion. The change makes the angels responsible for betraying their task, while the subsequent account continues to connect their actions with corruption among human beings ^[3].

Commodianus, On Christian Discipline 3:5-7

By them arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that you this day worship and pray to as gods.

The disclosure of arts includes the dyeing of wool, a practice that also appears in the Enochic list of forbidden instruction and in Christian arguments about adornment. Commodianus then connects the dead beings with the images raised in their honor and the spirits that continue to trouble human bodies. His explanation reaches the worship practices of his own audience, making their gods the surviving agents of an ancient corruption ^[4].

1 Enoch 8:1-2

Commodianus does not name the book of Enoch or introduce its material as a scriptural quotation. The authority is expressed through the narrative's role as an account of what happened and why present worship is mistaken. His argument depends on a continuity between the beings described in the ancient story and the powers honored in contemporary religious practice.

The detail about images gives this use a particular emphasis. The tradition is made to explain how beings condemned by God could come to receive divine honors from human communities. Commodianus's warning thus concerns both mistaken identification and continuing harm: the beings people approach for help are, in his account, the spirits whose own rebellion and punishment explain their destructive activity ^[5].

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 82) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] VanderKam, James C. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 82) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 93) Fortress Press, 2001
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 82) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 93) Fortress Press, 2001

Commodianus, Cyprian, and Lactantius

Cyprian Uses Fallen Angels to Condemn Cosmetics and Jewelry

Cyprian's instructions on the dress of Christian virgins connect cosmetics, jewelry, and dyed clothing with angels who abandoned their heavenly condition. Writing as a bishop of Carthage in the third century, he uses the origin of these practices as a reason to reject them. The account closely resembles Tertullian's earlier argument about the arts taught by fallen angels ^[1].

Cyprian, Treatises 2:14

14 For God neither made the sheep scarlet or purple, nor taught the juices of herbs and shell-fish to dye and color wool, nor arranged necklaces with stones set in gold, and with pearls distributed in a woven series or numerous cluster, wherewith you would hide the neck which He made; that what God formed in man may be covered, and that may be seen upon it which the devil has invented in addition. Has God willed that wounds should be made in the ears, wherewith infancy, as yet innocent, and unconscious of worldly evil, may be put to pain, that subsequently from the scars and holes of the ears precious beads may hang, heavy, if not by their weight, still by the amount of their cost? All which things sinning and apostate angels put forth by their arts, when, lowered to the contagious of earth, they forsook their heavenly vigour. They taught them also to paint the eyes with blackness drawn round them in a circle, and to stain the cheeks with a deceitful red, and to change the hair with false colors, and to drive out all truth, both of face and head, by the assault of their own corruption.

Cyprian begins with the distinction between the body and materials as God made them and the alterations introduced through human craft. Sheep were not created with purple wool, and the neck was not created to be concealed by jewels. He then gives the objection a supernatural history: the angels taught practices that changed bodily appearance, including eye paint, coloring for the cheeks, and artificial hair color ^[2].

The connection with 1 Enoch concerns both the teachers and the content of their teaching. The Enochic list associates fallen angels with the discovery and working of metals, ornaments, precious stones, dyes, and the beautification of eyelids. Cyprian selects from the same range of practices to explain why adornment can represent participation in a corrupted form of knowledge ^[3].

1 Enoch 8:1

The accepted history supports a moral judgment about the present. Cyprian treats the angels' teaching as something that happened, and the origin of the practices contributes to his instruction about how Christian women should live. The passage does not identify Enoch by name or expressly call the book scripture, so it belongs to the category of reliance on an authoritative tradition rather than an explicit scriptural citation.

The route of transmission also matters. Cyprian's use of Tertullian's treatment of adornment is more secure than the claim that he independently read 1 Enoch. The evidence allows the tradition to have reached him through an earlier Christian author, and therefore does not justify counting the passage as an independent consultation of the Jewish book ^[4] ^[5].

That distinction does not remove the theological importance of the passage. A history received through another writer can still be accepted and used as a premise, and Cyprian's instruction relies on the same relation between angelic corruption and forbidden craft that Tertullian had developed. The form of authority has become part of Christian moral teaching, even though the source is no longer expressly identified.

Cyprian's emphasis is also narrower than an explanation of every form of evil. He concentrates on visible alterations to clothing and the body, presenting these practices as distortions of the appearance God created. The inherited angelic narrative gives his objections a history and supplies the condemned teachers whose arts he urges Christian women to abandon.

Citations

[1] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (pp. 89) Fortress Press, 2001
[2] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 83) Fortress Press, 1996
[3] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 178–180) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[4] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (pp. 89) Fortress Press, 2001
[5] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 180) Cambridge University Press, 2005

Commodianus, Cyprian, and Lactantius

Lactantius Explains Religious Error Through the Watchers

Lactantius's Divine Institutes uses the Watcher story within an explanation of how religious error spread among human beings. His account begins with a divine attempt to protect humanity from the devil, followed by the corruption of the very angels appointed to provide that protection. The narrative is adapted to his defense of Christian belief, without an explicit identification of Enoch as its source ^[1].

Lactantius, Divine Institutes Book 2 15:1-5

When, therefore, the number of men had begun to increase, God in His forethought, lest the devil, to whom from the beginning He had given power over the earth, should by his subtlety either corrupt or destroy men, as he had done at first, sent angels for the protection and improvement of the human race; and inasmuch as He had given these a free will, He enjoined them above all things not to defile themselves with contamination from the earth, and thus lose the dignity of their heavenly nature. He plainly prohibited them from doing that which He knew that they would do, that they might entertain no hope of pardon. Therefore, while they abode among men, that most deceitful ruler of the earth, by his very association, gradually enticed them to vices, and polluted them by intercourse with women. Then, not being admitted into heaven on account of the sins into which they had plunged themselves, they fell to the earth. Thus from angels the devil makes them to become his satellites and attendants.

The angels receive a warning against contamination through earthly life, but their freedom permits them to disobey. The devil gradually entices them into the conduct that destroys their heavenly standing, so the failure of their mission becomes part of his campaign against humanity. Their union with women produces offspring of a mixed nature, and Lactantius distinguishes these beings from their angelic fathers ^[2].

Lactantius, Divine Institutes Book 2 15:6-8

But they who were born from these, because they were neither angels nor men, but bearing a kind of mixed nature, were not admitted into hell, as their fathers were not into heaven. Thus there came to be two kinds of demons; one of heaven, the other of the earth. The latter are the wicked spirits, the authors of all the evils which are done, and the same devil is their prince.

The distinction explains the presence of hostile spirits through a history of two generations. Fallen angels and their offspring become powers associated with deception and destruction, and Lactantius continues by describing how such beings desire human worship. Their former role as guardians becomes a pretext for the honors they now demand, even though their activity is directed against the people they were meant to protect ^[3].

This use develops the religious consequence already present in 1 Enoch, where spirits associated with the fallen angels lead humanity into worshiping demons as gods. Lactantius gives the devil a prominent role in the corruption of the angels and makes their original mission benevolent, adapting the narrative while retaining its explanation of false worship ^[4].

1 Enoch 19:1

The Epitome, his abbreviated presentation of the Divine Institutes, retains the same explanation. Angels sent to instruct and protect humanity become ministers of the devil after their contamination, then turn to harming those they had been sent to help. Keeping this account in the shorter work shows its importance to Lactantius's explanation of religious corruption.

Lactantius, Epitome of the Divine Institutes 27:1

But when God saw this, He sent His angels to instruct the race of men, and to protect them from all evil. He gave these a command to abstain from earthly things, lest, being polluted by any taint, they should be deprived of the honour of angels. But that wily accuser, while they tarried among men, allured these also to pleasures, so that they might defile themselves with women. Then, being condemned by the sentence of God, and cast forth on account of their sins, they lost both the name and substance of angels. Thus, having become ministers of the devil, that they might have a solace of their ruin, they betook themselves to the ruining of men, for whose protection they had come.

Neither passage calls Enoch scripture, and neither names the book. The evidence concerns the acceptance of its narrative tradition as an account of the origin and activity of hostile powers. For Lactantius, the history explains why apparently protective spirits can deceive their petitioners and why the worship they receive directs people away from God ^[5].

Citations

[1] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 33–101) Fortress Press, 1996
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 92–93) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 84–85) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 33–101) Fortress Press, 1996
[5] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 93) Fortress Press, 2001

Eusebius and Later Christian Transmission

Eusebius compares the giants and their spirits with the gods of Greek tradition, while the Pseudo-Clementine author develops the story of angels teaching forbidden arts. The commentary on Jude transmitted under Cassiodorus preserves an affirmation of Enoch's prophecy that also appears among Clement's fragments.

Eusebius Connects Giants and Demons With Greek Religion

Eusebius preserves Enochic material in more than one form. His account of Anatolius includes the named appeal to Enoch's astronomical teaching about the first month and the equinox, so an earlier Christian use of the book remains available through his historical writing ^[1]. In Preparation for the Gospel, Eusebius also develops a comparison between the giants of primeval history and the beings honored in Greek religion.

Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel Book 5 4:14-15

And this argument is still further confirmed by Plutarch, in the passage where he says that the mythical narratives told as concerning gods are certain tales about daemons, and the deeds of Giants and Titans celebrated in song among the Greeks are also stories about daemons, intended to suggest a new phase of thought. Of this kind then perhaps were the statements in the Sacred Scripture concerning the giants before the Mood, and those concerning their progenitors, of whom it is said, 'And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, they took unto them wives of all that they chose,' and of these were born 'the giants the men of renown which were of old.' For one might say that these daemons are those giants, and that their spirits have been deified by the subsequent generations of men, and that their battles, and their quarrels among themselves, and their wars are the subjects of these legends that are told as of gods.

The argument begins with an explanation attributed to Plutarch, in which stories about gods, giants, and Titans concern demons. Eusebius then proposes a connection with the giants before the flood and their angelic fathers. The spirits of those giants could, in this interpretation, be the beings later generations treated as gods, while stories of their conflicts became the narratives told about divine warfare ^[2].

His language is qualified: he presents a possible identification, rather than reporting a named quotation from Enoch. The explicit appeal to sacred scripture within the passage introduces the account of angels taking human wives found in the Greek Genesis tradition. It therefore cannot simply be counted as a statement that Enoch itself is scripture. The Enochic connection concerns the interpretation of the giants' spirits and their later religious activity ^[3].

1 Enoch 19:1

The comparison explains how a Christian writer could connect an inherited account of the earliest human world with the origins of Greek religious traditions. The beings described as gods are given a different identity, and the worship directed toward them is explained through the survival and activity of spirits. Eusebius belongs among the later Christian writers associated with the continued reception of Enochic material, but the form of that reception needs to be specified passage by passage ^[4].

A nearby discussion of demons in Preparation for the Gospel is more openly polemical. Eusebius uses pagan accounts of their desires and activities against the claim that they are good powers. References to heavenly beings abandoning their former life occur within this criticism, where he questions what benefit their behavior could have brought humanity. Such material should be distinguished from an independent retelling of Enoch's narrative.

Eusebius consequently offers both preservation and interpretation. The Anatolius passage transmits a named use of the book as calendar evidence, while his own comparison proposes a connection between giants, spirits, and Greek gods. The proposal gives Enochic tradition explanatory value without supplying an explicit endorsement of the book's scriptural status.

Citations

[1] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (pp. 349) Fortress Press, 2012
[2] Moscicke, Hans Eusebius's "Fall Narrative" in Demonstratio Evangelica 4.6–10: Demonic Removal of the National Angelic Boundaries and the Watchers Tradition (pp. 19) Journal of Early Christian Studies 26:1, 2018
[3] Moscicke, Hans Eusebius's "Fall Narrative" in Demonstratio Evangelica 4.6–10: Demonic Removal of the National Angelic Boundaries and the Watchers Tradition (pp. 19) Journal of Early Christian Studies 26:1, 2018
[4] McDonald, Lee Martin "The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity" in Charlesworth, James H., and Darrell L. Bock., ed. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (pp. 369) T&T Clark, 2013

Eusebius and Later Christian Transmission

The Pseudo-Clementine Author Explains the Origins of Forbidden Arts

The Pseudo-Clementine Homilies place teaching associated with Peter within a narrative about Clement of Rome's conversion and travels. The conventional name Pseudo-Clement distinguishes the author of this later Christian work from Clement himself. Its explanation of the fallen angels adapts the Enochic story to describe how beings who approached humanity with a religious purpose became subject to human desire ^[1].

Pseudo Clementine Homilies 8:13

But when, having assumed these forms, they convicted as covetous those who stole them, and changed themselves into the nature of men, in order that, living holily, and showing the possibility of so living, they might subject the ungrateful to punishment, yet having become in all respects men, they also partook of human lust, and being brought under its subjection they fell into cohabitation with women; and being involved with them, and sunk in defilement and altogether emptied of their first power, were unable to turn back to the first purity of their proper nature, their members turned away from their fiery substance: for the fire itself, being extinguished by the weight of lust, and changed into flesh, they trode the impious path downward. For they themselves, being fettered with the bonds of flesh, were constrained and strongly bound; wherefore they have no more been able to ascend into the heavens.

The angels become human in order to demonstrate that a holy life is possible and to expose the guilt of those who fail to live it. Taking on human nature also subjects them to human desire, and intercourse with women prevents their return to their former purity. Their confinement is described through the bonds of flesh and the loss of their earlier fiery condition ^[2].

The disclosure of forbidden arts follows from that failure. Asked to show what they had been before, the angels can no longer recover their original form. They instead offer knowledge of the earth's resources and the practices that make those resources desirable, wanting to please the women with whom they have become involved. Metals, stones, magic, astronomy, roots, and dyed clothing are all included ^[3].

Pseudo Clementine Homilies 8:14

For after the intercourse, being asked to show what they were before, and being no longer able to do so, on account of their being unable to do anything else after their defilement, yet wishing to please their mistresses, instead of themselves, they showed the bowels of the earth; I mean, the choice metals, gold, brass, silver, iron, and the like, with all the most precious stones. And along with these charmed stones, they delivered the arts of the things pertaining to each, and imparted the discovery of magic, and taught astronomy, and the powers of roots, and whatever was impossible to be found out by the human mind; also the melting of gold and silver, and the like, and the various dyeing of garments. And all things, in short, which are for the adornment and delight of women, are the discoveries of these demons bound in flesh.

The list has a close connection with the instruction described in 1 Enoch, where the fallen angels reveal metalworking, adornment, spells, and knowledge of the heavens. The Homilies explain that the angels reveal this knowledge to compensate for their inability to show their former heavenly form. The tradition has been adapted into an explanation of both the knowledge transmitted and the circumstances that caused its transmission ^[4].

1 Enoch 8:1-2

The authority here is narrative and theological, without a formula declaring Enoch scripture. The author presents an account of how forbidden practices became available to humanity and gives it a place in Christian instruction. The detail of the list supports a connection with Enochic material, while the account of the angels' intended example of righteousness also resembles the benevolent descent tradition associated with Jubilees ^[5].

This combination is evidence of an active tradition of interpretation. The author accepts the history as explanatory while changing the account of the angels' original purpose and the reason they disclose their knowledge. The heavenly teachers become prisoners of the human condition they assumed, and the arts they reveal remain the lasting result of that failed mission ^[6].

Citations

[1] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (pp. 196) Fortress Press, 2001
[2] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 97) Fortress Press, 2001
[3] VanderKam, James C. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 77–78) Fortress Press, 1996
[4] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (pp. 196) Fortress Press, 2001
[5] Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (pp. 196) Fortress Press, 2001
[6] Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (pp. 97–98) Fortress Press, 2001

Eusebius and Later Christian Transmission

Enoch’s Prophecy in the Commentary Attributed to Cassiodorus

The commentary on Jude transmitted under Cassiodorus's name preserves an affirmation of Enoch's prophecy within an explanation of the letter's images. The discussion moves through clouds without water, fruitless trees, waves, and wandering stars before reaching Jude's named appeal to Enoch. Its subject is the meaning of the Christian letter, but its explanation also carries forward a judgment about the authority of the prophecy quoted there.

Cassiodorus, Comments on Jude 1:5-6

“Clouds,” he says, “without water; who do not possess in themselves the divine and fruitful word.” Wherefore, he says, “men of this kind are carried about both by winds and violent blasts.” “Trees,” he says, “of autumn, without fruit,”—unbelievers, that is, who bear no fruit of fidelity. “Twice dead,” he says: once, namely, when they sinned by transgressing, and a second time when delivered up to punishment, according to the predestined judgments of God; inasmuch as it is to be reckoned death, even when each one does not at once deserve the inheritance. “Waves,” he says, “of a raging sea.” By these words he signifies the life of the Gentiles, whose end is abominable ambition. “Wandering stars,”—that is, he means those who err and are apostates are of that kind of stars which fell from the seats of the angels—“to whom,” for their apostasy, “the blackness of darkness is reserved for ever. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,” he says, “prophesied of these.” In these words he verities the prophecy. “Those,” he says, “separating” the faithful from the unfaithful, be convicted according to their own unbelief.

The explanation connects wandering stars with beings who fell from angelic seats, giving Jude's image an angelic history. It then treats the statement that Enoch prophesied as verification of the prophecy. The immediate endorsement concerns the announcement Jude quotes, so it is an affirmation of prophetic authority mediated through the Christian letter rather than a separate argument for the standing of every part of 1 Enoch.

Such reasoning belongs to a longer history of Christian responses to Jude. Tertullian had used Jude's citation in defense of Enoch's inspiration ^[1], while Clement of Alexandria also commented on Jude and its imagery ^[2]. The authority of the Christian letter could therefore become a reason to affirm the older prophecy it preserved ^[3].

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments 2:4

The corresponding passage among Clement's fragments contains substantially the same explanation, including the interpretation of wandering stars and the affirmation of Enoch's prophecy. The shared material does not demonstrate that both authors independently read the book of Enoch. Its appearance under more than one author's name is evidence for the preservation of a commentary tradition, but the language alone cannot establish that each writer consulted Enoch independently ^[4].

This distinction is especially important because the prophecy can remain available through Jude even when the separate Jewish work is not being discussed. The commentary explains an accepted Christian text and affirms the prophetic testimony within it. It does not need to reproduce the original context in 1 Enoch or offer a general defense of its contents to preserve that affirmation.

The reception of Jude also shows why this relationship mattered. The same citation that Tertullian used to support Enoch could become a reason for others to question Jude, as the later report about doubts over the letter makes apparent ^[5]. The commentary preserved under Cassiodorus takes the affirmative route: Jude's identification of Enoch as a prophet confirms the testimony under discussion. Even where an independent reading of the older book cannot be established, its prophecy continues to be interpreted as a source of judgment within Christian teaching.

Citations

[1] Reed, Annette Yoshiko Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (pp. 196) Cambridge University Press, 2005
[2] Bucur, Bogdan Gabriel Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses (pp. 90) Brill, 2009
[3] Gallagher, Edmon L., and John D. Meade The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis (pp. 105–106) Oxford University Press, 2017
[4] Bucur, Bogdan Gabriel Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses (pp. 90–91) Brill, 2009
[5] Gallagher, Edmon L., and John D. Meade The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis (pp. 105–106) Oxford University Press, 2017

Bauckham, Richard. The Fall of the Angels as the Source of Philosophy in Hermias and Clement of Alexandria. Vigiliae Christianae 39, 1985.
Bautch, Kelley Coblentz. A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: “No One Has Seen What I Have Seen.”. Brill, 2003.
Bucur, Bogdan Gabriel. Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses. Brill, 2009.
Carson, D. A.. "Jude" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Baker Academic, 2007.
Charlesworth, James H.. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha & the New Testament. Trinity Press International, 1998.
Chesnutt, Randall D.. "The Descent of the Watchers and its Aftermath According to Justin Martyr" in Harkins, Angela Kim, et al. (eds.) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions. Fortress Press, 2014.
Gallagher, Edmon L., and John D. Meade. The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Heiser, Michael S.. Angels: What the Bible Really Says about God’s Heavenly Host. Lexham Press, 2018.
Hunt, Benjamin B.. "Know Your Enemies": Rhetorical Semantics in the Epistle of Jude. McMaster Divinity College, 2014.
Lewis, Scott M.. "'Because of the Angels': Paul and the Enochic Traditions" in Harkins, Angela Kim, et al. (eds.) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions. Fortress Press, 2014.
Longhenry, Ethan R.. The 1 Enoch Conundrum. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016.
McDonald, Lee Martin. "The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity" in Charlesworth, James H., and Darrell L. Bock., ed. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift. T&T Clark, 2013.
McDonald, Lee Martin. Forgotten Scriptures: The Selection and Rejection of Early Religious Writings. Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.
Moscicke, Hans. Eusebius's "Fall Narrative" in Demonstratio Evangelica 4.6–10: Demonic Removal of the National Angelic Boundaries and the Watchers Tradition. Journal of Early Christian Studies 26:1, 2018.
Nickelsburg, George W. E.. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108. Fortress Press, 2001.
Nickelsburg, George W. E.. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82. Fortress Press, 2012.
Nickelsburg, George W. E.. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108. Fortress Press, 2001.
Piovanelli, Pierluigi. A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Reed, Annette Yoshiko. Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Reed, Annette Yoshiko. "Gendering Heavenly Secrets? Women, Angels, and the Problem of Misogyny and Magic" in Stratton, Kimberly B.and ‎Dayna S. Kalleres (eds.) Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in Antiquity. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Reeves, John C.. An Enochic Citation in Barnabas 4.3 and the Oracles of Hystaspes. Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.
Vanbeek, Lawrence H.. The Letter of Jude's Use of 1 Enoch: The Book of the Watchers as Scripture. University of South Africa, 1997.
VanderKam, James C.. "1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature" in VanderKam, James C., and William Adler (eds.) The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity. Fortress Press, 1996.
VanderKam, James C.. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity. Fortress Press, 1996.

Early Christian Uses of 1 Enoch

Jude

Barnabas

Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus

Clement of Alexandria

Tertullian

Origen and Anatolius

Commodianus, Cyprian, and Lactantius

Eusebius and Later Christian Transmission

All Guides

Early Christian Uses of 1 Enoch

Jude

Barnabas

Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Irenaeus

Clement of Alexandria

Tertullian

Origen and Anatolius

Commodianus, Cyprian, and Lactantius

Eusebius and Later Christian Transmission

1 Enoch as a Source for Christian Theology and History

Citations

Jude Quotes Enoch as Prophecy

Citations

Jude Refers to the Watchers and Wandering Stars

Citations

Barnabas Cites Enoch in Prophecy and Temple History

Citations

Justin Explains Demons and Idolatry Through the Watchers

Citations

Tatian Connects Demons With the Fall From Heaven

Citations

Athenagoras Identifies Demons as the Souls of Giants

Citations

Irenaeus Uses Enoch for Theology and Primeval History

Citations

Clement Uses Enoch to Interpret Scripture and Heavenly Knowledge

Citations

Tertullian Defends Enoch as Inspired Scripture

Citations

Tertullian Uses Enoch to Teach Against Idolatry

Citations

Tertullian Connects the Watchers With Dress and Head Coverings

Citations

Tertullian Appeals to Scripture for Bodily Resurrection

Citations

Origen Refers to Enoch to Explain Creation and Matter

Citations

Anatolius Uses Enoch to Date Easter

Citations

Commodianus Identifies Pagan Gods With Fallen Angels

Citations

Cyprian Uses Fallen Angels to Condemn Cosmetics and Jewelry

Citations

Lactantius Explains Religious Error Through the Watchers

Citations

Eusebius Connects Giants and Demons With Greek Religion

Citations

The Pseudo-Clementine Author Explains the Origins of Forbidden Arts

Citations

Enoch’s Prophecy in the Commentary Attributed to Cassiodorus

Citations

Read More

Contents

Contents

Go to Intertext