Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch describes the condemnation of the angels who came down, revealed hidden secrets, and led humans into sin, with no single leader named. 2 Enoch reshapes this tradition to describe one prince, Satanail, or Satan, over the rebel angels.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 64:2
Pseudepigrapha
1 I saw other forms hidden in that place. 2 I heard the voice of the angel explaining: 'These are the angels who descended to the earth and revealed secrets to humans, leading them into sin.'
2 Enoch 18:3
Secrets of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha
1 The men took me on to the fifth heaven and placed me, and there I saw many and countless soldiers, called Grigori, of human appearance, and their size was greater than that of great giants and their faces withered, and the silence of their mouths perpetual, and there was no service on the fifth heaven, and I said to the men who were with me: 2 Why are these very withered and their faces melancholy, and their mouths silent, and why is there no service on this heaven? 3 And they said to me: These are the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail (Satan) rejected the Lord of light, and after them are those who are held in great darkness on the second heaven, and three of them went down on to earth from the Lord's throne, to the place Ermon, and broke through their vows on the shoulder of the hill Ermon and saw the daughters of men how good they are, and took to themselves wives, and befouled the earth with their deeds, who in all times of their age made lawlessness and mixing, and giants are born and marvelous big men and great enmity. 4 And therefore God judged them with great judgment, and they weep for their brethren and they will be punished on the Lord's great day.
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Notes and References
... One of the pieces of evidence that catches the eye here is the peculiar title “prince” by which the passage describes the leader of the incarcerated angels. Already Robert Henry Charles noticed that although the passage found in chapter 7 does not directly name Satanail as the leader of the rebellious angels, the reference to the fact that they “turned away with their prince” (Slav. с князем своим) invokes the similar terminology applied to Satanail later in chapter 18:3 which tells that the Watchers (Grigori) turned aside from the Lord together with their prince (Slav. с князем своим) Satanail. Charles’ suggestion appears to be plausible, and in light of the identical formulae attested in chapter 18 it is possible that the Satanail tradition is already present in 2 Enoch 7. If it is so, here for the first time in 2 Enoch the chief negative protagonist of the Adamic lore becomes identified as the leader of the fallen Watchers. ...
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