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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

Angels Who Do Not Marry in Mark 12:25 and 1 Enoch 15

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In Mark, Jesus says that those resurrected at the end of the age will not marry, following a Jewish apocalyptic tradition based on texts like 1 Enoch where heavenly beings are similarly described as unmarried.
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Passages

1 Enoch 15:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Mark 12:25

New Testament
24 Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived for this reason because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 Now as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
60–75 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mark

References

"... It is strange and even anachronistic to argue that Jesus or his apostles endorsed any biblical canon. In what follows, I will use the terms “canonical” and “noncanonical” to identify literature that did and did not eventually find a place in the current Hebrew Bible or Protestant Old Testament, but I am fully aware that these are anachronistic designations later imposed on the ancient religious texts that informed early Christianity. Such designations admittedly are imposed back on the religious writings that had no such designations in the time of Jesus. I use them in what follows for the sake of identifying the literature that now comprises the church’s Bible and the literature that was not later accepted as canonical literature in the churches. ... The following examples show other parallels in word and thought ... (Sirach 29:10-11 with Matthew 6:20; Sirach 51:23 with Matthew 11:28; Sirach 52:26-27 with Matthew 11:19; Wisdom of Solomon 6:18 with John 14:15; Psalms of Solomon 5:3 with Mark 3:27; 5:9-11 with Matthew 6:26; 1 Enoch 15:6-7 with Mark 12:25 - The similarity here is in thought rather than verbal parallels, namely angels do not marry and neither do those who go from this life to the next; 1 Enoch 16:1 with Matthew 13:39; 1 Enoch 22:9-10 with Luke 16:26 ...) ..."
Lee Martin McDonald, Before There Was a Bible: Authorities in Early Christianity (London: T&T Clark, 2023), 71–73.

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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1 Enoch 15:7 and Mark 12:25

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