Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch 6 follows the language and structure of Genesis 6, expanding on the story of the sons of God and human women. This suggests that the author of 1 Enoch was not following oral traditions but working with the written Genesis narrative.
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Genesis 6:1
Hebrew Bible
1 When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. 3 So the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God would sleep with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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1 Enoch 6:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 And it came to pass 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.'
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 1 Enoch 6:1-2 agrees with Genesis 6:1-2 in many details, the first of which is vocabulary and the second is context. The amount of verbal correspondences is seen in the heavy underlining of the texts adjacent to one another in the section heading above. There is no doubt, due to the high density of correspondence, that the Enochic author is here basing his narrative about the “sons of heaven” on his understanding and interpretation of the Genesis text and tradition. The fact that so many words are taken almost exactly from Genesis in this passage and several following it argues that the author of 1 Enoch 6 was aware of the text of Genesis, not just simply the tradition that is presumably behind it ..."
* 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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