Texts in Conversation
The Christian theologian Tertullian uses the narrative in 1 Enoch where angels took human wives and shared forbidden knowledge with humanity, demonstrating how he used it as an authoritative source for teaching, theology, and practice.
Share:
1 Enoch 8:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 And Azâzal 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. Semjâzâ taught spells and the cutting of roots, Armârôs taught how to break spells, Barâqîjâl taught astrology, Kôkabîal taught about the constellations, Ezêqêal taught about the clouds, Araqiêal taught the signs of the earth, Shamsiêal taught the signs of the sun, and Sariêal taught the course of the moon. And as men died, they cried out, and their cries ascended to heaven.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Tertullian On the Apparel of Women 2.10
Early Christian
But, if the self-same angels who disclosed both the material substances of this kind and their charms — of gold, I mean, and lustrous stones — and taught men how to work them, and by and by instructed them, among their other (instructions), in (the virtues of) eyelid-powder and the dyeings of fleeces, have been condemned by God, as Enoch tells us, how shall we please God while we joy in the things of those (angels) who, on these accounts, have provoked the anger and the vengeance of God? Now, granting that God did foresee these things; that God permitted them; that Esaias finds fault with no garment of purple, represses no coil, reprobates no crescent-shaped neck ornaments; still let us not, as the Gentiles do, flatter ourselves with thinking that God is merely a Creator, not likewise a Downlooker on His own creatures.
Date: 200 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Search:
Notes and References
"... Whether Justin drew directly from the Book of the Watchers is impossible to say with certainty, but it seems most likely that he was dependent upon something closely akin to the work we know by that name. The book’s early composition and widespread circulation from the second century bce on (as documented in Qumran manuscripts), its early translation into Greek, its use as an authoritative source in some of the earliest Christian writings (Jude, 1 Peter, 2 Peter), and Tertullian’s express dependence on “the Scripture of Enoch” for the same traditions (On the Apparel of Women 2-3; see also Apology 22; On Idolatry 4) make it the most likely conduit of the Watchers myth to Justin. Dependence on oral transmission and written materials now lost except as embedded in the extant Enochic works cannot be excluded, but neither should it be privileged over a well-documented literary channel, especially in view of the detail and specificity with which Justin’s presentation of the myth parallels that in the Book of the Watchers ..."
Chesnutt, Randall D.
"The Descent of the Watchers and its Aftermath According to Justin Martyr" in Harkins, Angela Kim, et al. (eds.) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions
(pp. 167-180) Fortress Press, 2014
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.