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 Protoevangelium of James 14

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Early Christian

Summary

The Protoevangelium of James references the story in 1 Enoch where heavenly beings take human wives and father children. It uses this detail to explain why Joseph, in the Protoevangelium, initially suspects that Mary’s pregnancy involves an angel.

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.'

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

Protoevangelium of James 14

Early Christian · Gospel of James

14 Joseph was deeply afraid and withdrew from Mary, thinking about what he should do. He said to himself, “If I cover up her sin, I will be going against the law of the Lord; but if I expose her to the people of Israel, I fear that what’s inside her might be from an angel, and I’ll be responsible for condemning innocent blood to death. What should I do? I’ll quietly divorce her.” As night fell, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Don’t be afraid because of this girl, for what’s conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you will name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Joseph woke from his dream, glorifying the God of Israel for the grace he had been given, and he watched over her.

150–200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Protoevangelium of James

References

"... the addition of the “holy” Spirit to the birth narrative tradition in a form that would eventually be adapted in the gospels suggests that the role of an angel in the annunciation to Joseph and Mary, respectively, was not, in contrast to stories known from the Hebrew Bible, found adequate enough to underscore the singularity of Jesus’ significance. Indeed, the involvement of the “holy” Spirit moves the spotlight of the story away from the role of the angel himself; moreover, we have seen that in Luke 1, the role of the Spirit functions as a way of marking out Jesus as superior to John the Baptizer. However, there is more to be said: the addition of the holy Spirit would have functioned as a corrective against a probable misconception that ancient readers and hearers familiar with Jewish apocalyptic traditions may have had some basis for inferring: namely, that the angel himself might have been involved in some way with the impregnation of Mary ... This is indeed the suspicion attributed to Joseph about what happened to Mary in the much later Protoevangelium of James 14–15 ..."

Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 159.

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 Protoevangelium of James 14

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 6:2

Protoevangelium of James 14

References

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