1 Enoch

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Chapter 7

1 And all the others together with them took wives for themselves, each choosing one for himself, and they began to unite with them and defiled themselves with them.⁠ They taught them sorcery, spells, and the art of extracting medicinal substances from plants.⁠ 2 The women became pregnant and gave birth to enormous giants,⁠ whose height was three thousand ells.⁠ 3 These giants consumed everything humans produced. 4 And when humans could no longer support them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.⁠ 5 They began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish, eating each other’s flesh and drinking the blood.⁠ 6 Then the earth brought charges against these lawbreakers.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 7:2 and Jubilees 7:22

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

Summary

Jubilees incorporates many details of the Watchers traditions from 1 Enoch in its retelling of Genesis and Exodus, describing how women bore giants who introduced widespread violence and injustice and then turned against mankind.

Passages

1 Enoch 7:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

1 And all the others together with them took wives for themselves, each choosing one for himself, and they began to unite with them and defiled themselves with them. They taught them sorcery, spells, and the art of extracting medicinal substances from plants. 2 The women became pregnant and gave birth to enormous giants, whose height was three thousand ells. 3 These giants consumed everything humans produced. 4 And when humans could no longer support them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.

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

Jubilees 7:22

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

21 For because of these three things the flood came upon the earth, namely, because of the sexual immorality in which the Watchers against the commandments prescribed for them pursued sexual relations with human women, and married whichever women they chose: and they began the practice of impurity. 22 And they fathered sons, the Nephilim, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants killed the Naphil, and the Naphil killed the Eljo, and the Eljo humanity, and one man another. 23 And everyone sold himself to do evil and to shed much blood, and the earth was filled with iniquity. 24 And after this they sinned against the wild animals and birds, and all that moves and walks on the earth: and much blood was shed on the earth, and all human thoughts and desires were directed toward what was worthless and evil continually.

170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

"... August Dillmann argued that Jubilees is dependent on 1 Enoch, although his dating of 1 Enoch to the first Century BCE led him to date Jubilees incorrectly to the first Century CE. VanderKam has maintained that Jubilees 4:16–25, and 7:22 indicate that the author had some sort of knowledge of the Enochic books. The comparison with the Book of Dreams (1 Enoch 83–90) is the most vital given the other points of reference for dating argued above. If the author was acquainted with the Book of Dreams, either in its present form or in a hypothetical earlier form, then the terminus post quem is either 172 (hypothetical earlier form) or 164 BCE. This view has been challenged by Jacques van Ruiten, who argues that no verbal parallels between Jubilees 4:16–25 and the Book of Dreams are to be found, although few more vague parallels can be discerned. Moreover Jubilees 7:22 is according to van Ruiten closer to the Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 7:2). According to him, the thematic parallels are best explained by common traditions behind the Enochic books and Jubilees. Thus, one should not use the Book of Dreams in dating Jubilees, since there is too little evidence to show that Jubilees was dependent on the text of Book of Dreams ..."

Topias K. E. Tanskanen, “Jacob, the Torah, and the Abrahamic Promise: Studies on the Use and Interpretation of the Jacob Story in the Book of Jubilees” (diss., Åbo Akademi University, 2023), 31.

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

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 7:2 and Jubilees 7:22

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 7:2

Jubilees 7:22

References

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