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The Christian theologian Tertullian connects Paul’s statement about women covering their heads in 1 Corinthians to the story in 1 Enoch of angels who desired human women and took them as wives, demonstrating how he used it as a source of theology.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 6:2
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And when the population of humans had increased during those times, beautiful and attractive daughters were born to them. 2 And the angels, the children of heaven, saw them and desired them, and said to each other: 'Come, let us choose wives from among the humans and father children.' 3 And Semjâzâ, their leader, said to them: 'I fear that you will not actually agree to do this, and I alone will have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' 4 And they all replied to him and said: 'Let us all take an oath, and all bind ourselves with a solemn promise not to abandon this plan but to carry out this act.' 5 Then they all took an oath together and bound themselves with a solemn promise to do so.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.18
Early Christian
For He had not forbidden the tasting of that little tree so that they should not become gods, but so that they should not die of the transgression. Nor will “the spiritual forces of wickedness” mean the Creator because he added “in the heavenly places.” For the apostle knew that spiritual forces of wickedness had worked in the heavenly places, the angels who were drawn into sin by the daughters of men. And what sort of thing would it be for him to censure the Creator through ambiguities and riddles of some kind, he who, already placed in chains [for the freedom of his preaching], was surely showing the church the boldness to make known the mystery in the opening of his mouth, which he asked them to ask God for him?
Date: 207–208 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Latin church father Tertullian associates 1 Corinthians 11:10 with the tradition of the fall of the Watchers from Genesis 6. The veil was to designate them as married women and therefore unavailable, for the unveiled heads of virgins he considered particularly enticing to the angels. (There are similar references in Corona 14:2; Against Marcion 5.8.2; and On Prayer 22.5-6) ..."
Scott M. Lewis, “‘Because of the Angels’: Paul and the Enochic Traditions,” in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Angela Kim Harkins et al. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 81–90.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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