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1 Enoch

About this book

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 Genesis 6:4 and 1 Enoch 6:7 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 6:4

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Targum

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Summary

In Genesis the Nephilim are never personally identified. The Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan names them as Shamhazai and Azael, the two leaders of the Watchers in 1 Enoch 6 and has them fall from heaven.

Passages

Genesis 6:4

Hebrew Bible
3 So the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God would sleep with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men. 5 But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

1 Enoch 6:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 6:4

Targum
3 The Lord said in his Memra, 'None of the evil generations that are to arise (in the future) will be judged according to the order of judgment applied to the generation of the Flood, (that is) to be destroyed and wiped out from the world. Did I not put my holy spirit in them that they might perform good deeds? But behold, their deeds are evil. Behold, I gave them an extension of a hundred and twenty years that they might repent, but they have not done so.' 4 Shamhazai and Azael fell from heaven and were on earth in those days, and also after the sons of the great ones had gone in to the daughters of men, who bore them children; these are called the heroes of old, the men of renown. 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man increased on earth, and that every impulse of his heart's designs was nothing but evil every day.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

References

“... Another early (i.e., pre-Destruction) expression of the identity or equivalence of the beings termed Watchers and Nefilim occurs in the Qumran Damascus Document (CD 2.18): "by their proceeding in the stubbornness of their hearts the heavenly Watchers fell (naflu): they were ensnared by it for they did not observe the commandments of God." By its choice of verb, the Damascus Document here invites its reader/auditor to associate the Watchers with the "fallen ones" (i.e., the apparent semantic sense of the morpheme "Nefilim"), thereby exemplifying a popular interpretative encoding that recurs throughout late antique and medieval Jewish recountals of the legend. In addition to relying upon this learned wordplay, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to Gen 6:4 makes a bold identification of the "Nefilim" in Gen 6:4 with the two leaders of the Watchers who are named in 1 Enoch 6-11: "Shemhazai and 'Azael fell (naflu) from heaven and were on earth in those days." ...”
John C. Reeves, “Manichaeans as Ahl al-Kitab: A Study in Manichaean Scripturalism,” in Light Against Darkness: Dualism in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary World, ed. Armin Lange, Eric M. Meyers, Bennie H. Reynolds III, and Randall Styers, JAJSup 2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011), 263.

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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Genesis 6:4 and 1 Enoch 6:7 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 6:4

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