Go to Related Reading
About this book

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

About this book
Chapter 6

1 When the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and beautiful daughters were born to them.⁠ 2 The sons of the great ones saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, that they painted their eyes and put on rouge, and walked about with naked flesh. They conceived lustful thoughts,⁠ and they took wives to themselves from among all who pleased them.⁠ 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. 6 And the Lord regretted in his Memra that he had made man on earth, and he debated in his Memra about them. 7 Then the Lord said, 'I will wipe out from the face of the earth the men whom I created, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I regret in my Memra that I made them.' 8 But Noah, because he was a righteous man, found favor before the Lord. 9 This is the genealogy of the family of Noah. Noah was an innocent man, he was perfect in good works, in his age. Noah walked in the fear of the Lord. 10 Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth became corrupt because of its inhabitants, who strayed from the ways that are right before the Lord, and the earth was filled with acts of robbery. 12 The Lord saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, because all flesh, without exception, had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13 So the Lord said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come, for the earth is full of acts of robbery because of their evil deeds. Behold, I shall destroy them with the earth.' 14 Make yourself an ark of cedar wood; you shall make a hundred and fifty compartments for the ark on the left, and thirty-six in its breadth, and ten cabins in the middle in which food may be stored, and five reservoirs on the right and five on the left. And you shall plaster it inside and out with bitumen. 15 ... 16 Go to Pishon, and from there take a gem, and put it in the ark to give you light. You shall complete it to a cubit from the top. Put the door of the ark in its side. With lower, second, and third compartments shall you make it. 17 For my part, behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy all flesh under the heavens in which there is the breath of life; everything on earth shall perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 Of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take two of each into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 From birds according to their kinds, from the animals according to their kinds, from every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind, two of each shall come to you, brought by an angel that will catch them and bring them to you to keep them alive. 21 For your part, take of every food that is eaten, so that it may serve as food for you and for them. 22 Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

Texts in conversation

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

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Targum

Share:

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.

Your feedback

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

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library