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The Pseudo-Clementine Homilies allude to the tradition of divine beings marrying human women, found in Jubilees and 1 Enoch. Unlike 1 Enoch, the Homilies follow Jubilees in portraying their mission as initially benevolent, before their corruption.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 4:15
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
14 And at the close of the eighth jubilee [386-392] Kenan took Mûalêlêth his sister to be his wife, and she bore him a son in the ninth jubilee, in the first week in the third year of this week, [395] and he named him Mahalalel. 15 And in the second week of the tenth jubilee [449-55] Mahalalel married Dinah, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter of his father's brother, and she bore him a son in the third week in the sixth year, [461] and he named him Jared, for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the human beings, and that they should act justly and uprightly on the earth. 16 And in the eleventh jubilee [491-539] Jared married a woman named Baraka, the daughter of Râsûjâl, a daughter of his father's brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, [512-18] and she bore him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee [522], and he named him Enoch.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Pseudo Clementine Homilies 8.12
Clementine literature
Early Christian
12 For among the spirits who inhabit heaven, the angels who live in the lowest region were distressed by human ingratitude toward God and asked to enter human life and truly become human, so that through closer contact they could expose those who had acted ungratefully toward Him and subject everyone to appropriate punishment. When their request was granted, they transformed themselves into every kind of thing; for their more godlike substance allows them easily to assume any form. So they became precious stones, and fine pearl, and the most beautiful purple, and choice gold, and all the materials held in highest esteem. And they fell into the hands of some, and into the laps of others, and allowed themselves to be stolen by them. They also changed themselves into beasts and reptiles, and fishes and birds, and into whatever they pleased. Your own poets also sing of these things as they happened, because they feel no fear, attributing to one the many varied deeds of them all.
Date: 300–400 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Of these passages, drawn from a variety of sources, five attest the idea that the sexual sin of the angels was a result of their descent and not its purpose. Jubilees 4:15, Justin’s Apology, and it would seem Pseudo-Clementine Homilies indicate that the descent was for the purpose of instruction. Genesis 6:2 and Testament of Reuben 5 suggest that the women seduced the angels by means that 1 Enoch 8:2 attributes to angelic instruction. Taken together, this evidence indicates that the long reading of 1 Enoch 8:1 is not an accidental corruption but reflects very early tradition. Internal evidence corroborates this. Without the reference to the seduction of the watchers, the passage would have to imply a polemic against sexual seduction in general - a concern that is evident nowhere else in these chapters ..."
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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