The Rebellion of the Watchers

Chapter 6

1 And when the population of humans had increased during those times, beautiful and attractive daughters were born to them.⁠ 2 And the angels, the children of heaven, saw them and desired them,⁠ and said to each other: 'Come, let us choose wives from among the humans and father children.'⁠ 3 And Semjâzâ, their leader, said to them: 'I fear that you will not actually agree to do this, and I alone will have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' 4 And they all replied to him and said: 'Let us all take an oath, and all bind ourselves with a solemn promise not to abandon this plan but to carry out this act.' 5 Then they all took an oath together and bound themselves with a solemn promise to do so. 6 And there were in total two hundred who descended on the summit of Mount Hermon⁠ in the days of Jared, and they named it Mount Hermon because they had taken an oath and bound themselves with solemn promises there. 7 And these are the names of their leaders:⁠ Samîazâz, their leader,⁠ Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.⁠ 8 These are their chiefs of tens.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 6:2 and Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 5.4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Early Christian

Summary

Eusebius, in his compilation of early Christian tradition, preserves the story from 1 Enoch where angels marry human women, showing how influential this Jewish tradition was in early Christian history and teaching.

Passages

1 Enoch 6:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

1 And when the population of humans had increased during those times, beautiful and attractive daughters were born to them. 2 And the angels, the children of heaven, saw them and desired them, and said to each other: 'Come, let us choose wives from among the humans and father children.' 3 And Semjâzâ, their leader, said to them: 'I fear that you will not actually agree to do this, and I alone will have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' 4 And they all replied to him and said: 'Let us all take an oath, and all bind ourselves with a solemn promise not to abandon this plan but to carry out this act.' 5 Then they all took an oath together and bound themselves with a solemn promise to do so.

300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 5.4

Early Christian

Plutarch confirms this argument still more where he says that the mythical narratives as if about gods are accounts about demons, and that the tales of giants and Titans sung among the Greeks are demonic narratives, so as to suggest a newer meaning. Perhaps, then, such were the things said in the divine Scripture about the giants before the flood, and about those who begot them, of whom it is said: "And the angels of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took wives for themselves of all whom they chose; from whom were born the giants, the renowned ones of old." For one might say that these are those beings, and that their spirits were deified by later men, and that their battles, their quarrels with one another, and their wars are what is told in myth as about gods.

313–324 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel Book 5

References

"... Origen initially accepted 1 Enoch as scripture, but later rejected the Enochic writings. The rejection implies that 1 Enoch was regularly read in some churches. Earlier, Origen calls the Enochic writings “scripture” (On First Principles 1.3; 4.35). After the death of Origen, orthodox writers seldom refer to 1 Enoch for more than two centuries, Lactantius and Eusebius being the primary exceptions. It is not precisely clear when the Enochic writings were specifically excluded by name. Generally speaking, however, after Origen there are few positive citations of the Enochic literature in subsequent Church literature, although the volume continued in the Ethiopian biblical canon ..."

Lee Martin McDonald, “The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity,” in Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift, ed. James H. Charlesworth and Darrell L. Bock, Jewish and Christian Texts in Context and Related Studies 11 (London: T&T Clark, 2013), 369.

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

The Rebellion of the Watchers

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 6:2 and Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 5.4

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 6:2

Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 5.4

References

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