Texts in Conversation
In 1 Enoch, angels who come down to earth teach people metalwork, magic, and astronomy, and people fall into sin. The Pseudo-Clementine Homilies echoes a similar tradition, but in its account the angels use these arts to win the women they desire.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 8:1
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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. 3 Semjâzâ taught spells and the cutting of roots, Armârôs taught how to break spells, Barâqîjâl taught astrology, Kôkabêl taught about the constellations, Êzêqêêl taught about the clouds, Araqiêl taught the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl taught the signs of the sun, and Sariêl taught the course of the moon. 4 And as men died, they cried out, and their cries ascended to heaven.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Pseudo Clementine Homilies 8.14
Clementine literature
Early Christian
13 But after assuming these forms and exposing the greed of those who stole them, they changed themselves into human beings. They intended to live holy lives and show that such a life was possible, so that they could subject the ungrateful to punishment. Yet having become human in every respect, they also shared in human lust, and under its power they began having sexual intercourse with women; and through their involvement with them they sank into impurity and were completely drained of their original power. They were unable to turn back to the original purity of their own nature, because their bodily parts had changed from their fiery substance: for the fire itself was extinguished by the weight of lust and changed into flesh, and they walked the irreverent path downward. For the bonds of flesh shackled them, confining and tightly binding them; so they have no longer been able to ascend into the heavens. 14 For after intercourse, they were asked to show what they had been before, but could no longer do so. Unable to do anything else after their defilement, yet wishing to please their mistresses, they showed the depths of the earth instead of their own former nature; I mean, the choice metals, gold, brass, silver, iron, and similar things, with all the most precious stones. And along with these charmed stones, they passed on the crafts associated with each and revealed the discovery of magic, and taught astronomy, and the powers of roots, and whatever the human mind could not discover; also the melting of gold and silver, and similar things, and the various ways of dyeing clothing. In short, these demons bound in flesh discovered everything used to adorn and delight women.
Date: 300–400 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The fifth and major text is Pseudo-Clementine Homilies 8.11-15. When humanity sinned, certain angels received permission from God to descend to earth to learn more specifically about human sin in order to convict sinners. They did so, among other ways, “by changing themselves into the nature of men, in order that by living piously and showing that one could so live, they might subject the ungrateful to punishment”. Having thus transformed themselves, however, the angels themselves became subject to human lust and had intercourse with women. Then, in order to please their beloved, they taught them about metals and metallurgy, precious stones, magic, astronomy, and the dyeing of garments. That this early Christian text knows 1 Enoch 8 is clear. Especially noteworthy is the list of revealed things, which corresponds to the whole of this chapter, including verse 3. Equally important is the part of the passage quoted above. The idea that the angels intended to set an example of godly conduct is reminiscent of Jubilees 4:15, where the angels descend to instruct humanity to act righteously (compare Jubilees 5:6) ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 196.
* 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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