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 6:7 and 4Q201 1 iii 5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings

Summary

Fragments of 1 Enoch from Qumran, including scroll 4Q201, recount the unions of heavenly beings and women that produced giants and spread forbidden knowledge. These show that 1 Enoch was already being copied before the Dead Sea Scrolls community used it.

Passages

1 Enoch 6:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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.

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

4Q201 1 iii 5

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · The Enoch Scroll

5 they swore and bound [one another] by a curse on it. And these are [the names of their chiefs:] 6 Shemihazah, who [was their head; Arataqoph,] second to him; Ramtael, [third] 7 to him; Kokabel, [fourth to him; … fifth] to him; Ramael, [sixth to him;] 8 Daniel, seventh [to him; Ziqiel, eighth] to him; Baraqel, ninth [to him;] 9 Asael, tenth [to him; Hermoni, eleventh] to him; Matarel, twelfth [to him;] 10 Ananel, thirteenth [to him;] Shatawel, fourteenth to him; Shamshiel, [fifteenth] 11 to him; Shahriel, sixteenth to him; Tummiel, seventeenth [to him;] 12 Turiel, eighteenth to him; Yomiel, nineteenth to him; [Yehaddiel, twentieth to him.] 13 These are the chiefs of the chiefs of tens. They [and their chiefs all took for themselves]

160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q201

References

"... On the basis of literary dependence and thematic similarity, scholars consider Genesis 6:1–2, 4 as the source text especially for 1 Enoch 6:1–2 and 7:1–2, where the only major departure from the biblical text is the presentation of sexual intercourse between the sons of God and mortal women as sinful. Then, it is claimed, creative reinterpretation of the primeval story attested in Genesis 6–11 generated the rest of 1 Enoch 6–11. Through the lens of its relationship to the biblical primeval story, the myth is understood as an etiological explanation of evil and violence on the earth caused by the rebellion of the angelic beings, who by mating with the women transgressed the divinely established order inherent in the created world. Józef T. Milik, the editor of the Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch from Qumran, reverses the direction of dependence between the two texts and claims that the Genesis mythological account, which literally repeats two or three phrases from 4Q201 and 4Q202, abbreviates chapters 6–7 of 1 Enoch. Thus, the abridged and allusive formulation of Genesis 6:1–4 deliberately refers back to the Enochic document. Some scholars have accepted Milik’s proposal but stress the possibility that the relationship stems from a common source ..."

Henryk Drawnel, “The Reception of Genesis 6:1–4 in 1 Enoch 6–7,” in Stones, Tablets, and Scrolls: Periods of the Formation of the Bible, ed. Peter Dubovský and Federico Giuntoli (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 461–483.

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 6:7 and 4Q201 1 iii 5

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 6:7

4Q201 1 iii 5

References

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