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The Christian theologian Origen describes a tradition in which warm springs are linked to an underground place of punishment for fallen angels, a view matching the scene in 1 Enoch where shifting spring temperatures highlight the angels’ judgment.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 67:11
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
10 The judgment upon them comes because they indulge the desires of their body and deny the Spirit of the Lord. 11 These waters will change in those days; when those angels are punished in these waters, the springs will shift in temperature, and when the angels rise, the water of the springs will turn cold. 12 I heard Michael say: 'This judgment on the angels serves as a testament to the kings and the mighty who possess the earth.' 13 These waters of judgment contribute to the healing of the kings' bodies and the indulgence of their bodily desires; thus, they will not recognize nor believe that these waters will transform into an eternal fire.'
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Origen, Contra Celsum 5.52
Against Celsus
Early Christian
But the statement of Celsus which we wish to examine at present is the following: Let us then pass over the refutations which might be adduced against the claims of their teacher, and let him be regarded as really an angel. But is he the first and only one who came (to men), or were there others before him? If they should say that he is the only one, they would be convicted of telling lies against themselves. For they assert that on many occasions others came, and sixty or seventy of them together, and that these became wicked, and were cast under the earth and punished with chains, and that from this source originate the warm springs, which are their tears; and, moreover, that there came an angel to the tomb of this said being — according to some, indeed, one, but according to others, two — who answered the women that he had arisen. For the Son of God could not himself, as it seems, open the tomb, but needed the help of another to roll away the stone. And again, on account of the pregnancy of Mary, there came an angel to the carpenter, and once more another angel, in order that they might take up the young Child and flee away (into Egypt). But what need is there to particularize everything, or to count up the number of angels said to have been sent to Moses, and others among them? If, then, others were sent, it is manifest that he also came from the same God. But he may be supposed to have the appearance of announcing something of greater importance (than those who preceded him), as if the Jews had been committing sin, or corrupting their religion, or doing deeds of impiety; for these things are obscurely hinted at.
Date: 248 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Origen (Cels. 5.52-55) appears to refer to the present passage or the tradition from which it derives, when he states that Celsus associated certain warm springs with the subterranean place of punishment for fallen angels ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 290.
* 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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