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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 8

1 And Azâzêl taught men⁠ to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates, and revealed to them the metals of the earth⁠ and how to work with them,⁠ as well as how to make bracelets, ornaments, and the use antimony, beautifying the eyelids, along with all kinds of precious stones and various dyes.⁠ 2 Widespread wickedness arose, and they engaged in fornication, were led astray, and corrupted all their ways. 3 Semjâzâ taught spells and the cutting of roots, Armârôs taught how to break spells, Barâqîjâl taught astrology,⁠ Kôkabêl taught about the constellations,⁠ Êzêqêêl taught about the clouds, Araqiêl taught the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl taught the signs of the sun, and Sariêl taught the course of the moon. 4 And as men died, they cried out, and their cries ascended to heaven.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 8:2 and Tertullian, Apology 35

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Early Christian

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Summary

The Christian theologian Tertullian draws on the narrative in 1 Enoch where angels taught humanity metalworking, how to make jewelry, and magic, connecting it to later traditions about jewelry and magic and basing them on the angelic rebellion.

Passages

1 Enoch 8:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates, and revealed to them the metals of the earth and how to work with them, as well as how to make bracelets, ornaments, and the use antimony, beautifying the eyelids, along with all kinds of precious stones and various dyes. 2 Widespread wickedness arose, and they engaged in fornication, were led astray, and corrupted all their ways. 3 Semjâzâ taught spells and the cutting of roots, Armârôs taught how to break spells, Barâqîjâl taught astrology, Kôkabêl taught about the constellations, Êzêqêêl taught about the clouds, Araqiêl taught the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl taught the signs of the sun, and Sariêl taught the course of the moon. 4 And as men died, they cried out, and their cries ascended to heaven.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Tertullian, Apology 35

Early Christian
And those too who are now daily being exposed as partners or applauders of the criminal faction, the gleaning left over after the vintage of parricides: with what fresh and leafy laurels they hedged their doorposts! with what lofty and brilliant lamps they clouded their porches with smoke! with what elegant and proud couches they divided the forum among themselves! not to celebrate public rejoicings, but to rehearse their own prayers already at another's festival, and to inaugurate the model and image of their hope, changing the emperor's name in their hearts. The same services are paid by those who consult astrologers and soothsayers and augurs and magicians about the life of the Caesars, arts which Christians, as revealed by the deserter angels and forbidden by God, do not use even in their own affairs. And who needs to inquire into Caesar's welfare except one who is plotting or wishing something against it, or hoping and waiting for something after it? For one does not consult about loved ones in the same spirit as about masters.
197 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Tertullian, Apology

References

"... Tertullian mentions 1 Enoch 15 in On the Apparel of Women 1.2; 1.3. In 1.2 Tertullian speaks at length of ornaments and makeup on women being traced back to the fallen angels' dealing with women in The Book of the Watchers. (There are other mentions of 1 Enoch in Tertullian's writings: A Speech to the Martyrs 12.5; On the Apparel of Women 7.1-4, but these two could also point to Genesis 6:1-4. Apology 35.12 also mentions 1 Enoch, but the references given in the text above clearly state Tertullian's position on 1 Enoch) ..."
Lawrence Henry Vanbeek, “The Letter of Jude's Use of 1 Enoch: The Book of the Watchers as Scripture” (ThD diss., University of South Africa, 1997), 151–152.

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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1 Enoch 8:2 and Tertullian, Apology 35

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