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About this book

1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 15

1 And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, you righteous man and scribe of righteousness: come closer and hear my voice. 2 And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent you to intercede for them:⁠ "You should be interceding for men, not men for you:" 3 Why have you left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves⁠ with the daughters of men, taken yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and fathered giants as your sons? 4 And though you were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women,⁠ and fathered children with the blood of flesh, and, like the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish. 5 Therefore I have given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be lacking to them on earth. 6 But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. 7 And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for the spiritual ones of heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.⁠ 8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and their dwelling shall be on the earth.⁠ 9 Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, and their beginning and primal origin is from the holy Watchers; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and they shall be called evil spirits. 10 As for the spirits of heaven, their dwelling shall be in heaven, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, their dwelling shall be on the earth. 11 And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses. 12 And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 15:19 and 1 Enoch 15:4

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch 15 refers to the “blood of women,” drawing on Leviticus 15, where menstrual impurity makes a person unclean. This makes the sin of the Watchers even worse, not only forbidden unions but also violations of ritual purity described in the Torah.

Passages

Leviticus 15:19

Hebrew Bible
18 As for a woman whom a man goes to bed with, then has a seminal emission, they must bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 19 “‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. 20 Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 22 Anyone who touches any furniture she sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

1 Enoch 15:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 Why have you left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men, taken yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and fathered giants as your sons? 4 And though you were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and fathered children with the blood of flesh, and, like the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish. 5 Therefore I have given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be lacking to them on earth.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... the phrase “blood of women” has another layer to it, one that has the Watchers violating their role as intercessors in a more nuanced way: Not only have the watchers polluted themselves through intercourse (verse 3; compare 7:1), they have slept with their wives during their menstrual period (verse 4; compare 10:11), which created a graver state of uncleanness according to Jewish ritual law (Leviticus 15:19–24) ..."
Michael S. Heiser, A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader's Commentary (Crane, MO: Defender, 2019), 1:145.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 15:19 and 1 Enoch 15:4

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