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Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature
From the publisher:
In the Book of the Watchers, an Enochic apocalypse from the third century BCE, the "sons of God" of Gen 6:1-4 are accused of corrupting humankind through their teachings of metalworking, cosmetology, magic, and divination. By tracing the transformations of this motif in Second Temple, Rabbinic, and early medieval Judaism and early, late antique, and Byzantine Christianity, this book sheds light on the history of interpretation of Genesis, the changing status of Enochic literature, and the place of parabiblical texts and traditions in the interchange between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
In the Book of the Watchers, an Enochic apocalypse from the third century BCE, the "sons of God" of Gen 6:1-4 are accused of corrupting humankind through their teachings of metalworking, cosmetology, magic, and divination. By tracing the transformations of this motif in Second Temple, Rabbinic, and early medieval Judaism and early, late antique, and Byzantine Christianity, this book sheds light on the history of interpretation of Genesis, the changing status of Enochic literature, and the place of parabiblical texts and traditions in the interchange between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 2001
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About the author
Annette Yoshiko Reed
13 books9 followersAnnette Yoshiko Reed joined the Penn faculty in 2007. She is also a member of the Jewish Studies Program and the Graduate Group in Ancient History, and serves as a Faculty Fellow in Stouffer College House. Prof. Reed’s research spans Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, and Jewish/Christian relations in Late Antiquity. Publications include Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity (Cambridge 2005), Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions (ed. with Ra'anan Boustan; Cambridge 2004), and The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (ed. with Adam H. Becker; Mohr Siebeck 2003; Fortress 2007). She is currently working on two monographs: one on the origins of Jewish angelology and demonology, and the other on the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and the history of "Jewish-Christianity."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 27, 2010
The First Book of Enoch was fairly well known in the first century, and accepted by both Christians and Jews. It is a composite book, made of several books joined together, but all deal with the visions of Enoch, the great grandfather of Noah.
Book of the Watchers -- I Enoch 1-36 (BW)
Similitudes of Enoch -- I Enoch 37-71 (Sim)
Astronomical book -- I Enoch 71-82 (AB)
Book of Dreams -- I Enoch 83-90 (BD)
Epistle of Enoch -- I Enoch 91-105/6/7 (EE)
Apocalypse of Weeks -- I Enoch 93:1-10; 91:11-17) (AW)
Animal Apocalypse -- I Enoch 85-90 (AA)
This book deals with the oldest of these, The Book of Watchers. It is a scholarly text, and studies how the book was received by Jews and Christians at various times in their history.
When Christianity first appeared, its historical origin was in Second-Temple Judaism. The first temple was built by King Solomon, and was destroyed when the leading Jews were taken into exile in Babylon. When Babylon was conquered by Persia, Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem, and the temple was rebuilt under Ezra. This was the temple that Jesus and his disciples knew.
Second-Temple Judaism had many different schools and sects. The Pharisees and the Saducees, mentioned in the New Testament, were among the better-known. But the Second Temple was destroyed in AD 70, when the Romans put down a Jewish revolt, and the only Jewish Schools and sects that survived for a long time after that were Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
The Book of Watchers was generally accepted by the early Christians, and was quoted by the New Testament book of Jude. Among the Rabbinic Jews, however, it was rejected.
The Book of the Watchers is an apocalypse from the third century BC, which describes Enoch's ascension to heaven and what he saw there. It also describes the "Watchers" (egrigori), the "Sons of God" of Genesis 6:1-4, who are accused of corrupting humankind through their teachings of metalworking, cosmetology, magic, and divination.
These Watchers are fallen angels, who are led by Semihazah and Asael, and the book expands on the somewhat cryptic references in Genesis 6:1-4.
The later parts of I Enoch, however, have a different emphasis. They concentrate on the sexual sins of the angels, rather than their teaching illicit and corrupting knowledge. They lusted after the daughters of men, and breeding with them to produce a race of giants, the Nephilim. It is unclear whether these all perished in the Flood, but the spirits of those that did perish remained on the earth, and became the demons that plague the human race.
Rabbinic Judaism rejected this view, and gradually adopted the view that the "Sons of God" of Genesis 6:1-4 were purely human, and one interpretation was that they were children of Seth rather than children of Cain, and the stories were told to discourage intermarriage. Later Christian interpreters tended to adopt the Rabbinic Jewish interpretation, though in the medival period some Jews returned to the idea of the "Sons of God" as angels, described in 3 Enoch, a much later work.
That's a very inadequate summary of 277 pages of text, and not being an expert on ancient texts, it would be foolish of me to try to give a scholarly review of it.
What I find interesting are some of the ideas that the book promotes or preserves, and the way it was used by 2nd-century Christian apologists, like Justin Martyr. He developed an interesting theology of religion, which modern "theologians of religion" don't talk about much, but which would have made a great deal of sense to Christian converts from Greco-Roman paganism in the 2nd century.
According to Justin, the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon were these very Watchers, fallen angels.
The tales told in pagan mythology about the Olympian and other gods having sexual relations with humans are, according to Justin, also derived from the stories told in the Book of the Watchers.
One thing I thought was rather a pity is that, apart from a passing reference in a footnote, there was no mention of the reference to "Sons of God" in Deut 32:8 or Job 38:7, and no reference at all to Psalm 82.
A thing that I found interesting was that the fallen angels promoted the cosmetics industry, the arms industry, and magic and divination, and these led to the earth being filled with violence, which in turn led to the Flood.
And something I found interesting about this was that back in 1993, when I worked in the Editorial Department of the University of South Africa, we organised tutorials on distance teaching methods led by one Fred Lockwoood, of the Open University in the UK, as part of our contribution to "transfomation" - changing Unisa from an apartheid indoctrination machine into a real university. The "old guard" at Unisa were furious with us for doing this.
But when Fred Lockwood came, it was clear that he despised the humanities, and regarded them as useless, and for his examples of teaching methods chose a subject he regarded as more useful -- which happened to be Cosmetology. It wasn't a subject that was taught at Unisa, and if looking for a subject of more practical use than the humanities, perhaps food production might have been better. But no, he chose a subject that, according to the Book of the Watchers, was first taught by fallen angels.
I was also interested to learn that the Greek name for Watchers -- egrigori was the origin of the word "egregores", which has been used by some to mean a group that takes on its own character, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. So a collective entity like a nation can have a "national spirit", which in this sense is an egregore, and the Orthodox ikon of the Tower of Babel shows these national spirits, the angels of the nations, "sons of gods" of Deuteronomy 32:8, the egregores, or egrigori, the principalities and powers of Ephesians 6:10-12.
Book of the Watchers -- I Enoch 1-36 (BW)
Similitudes of Enoch -- I Enoch 37-71 (Sim)
Astronomical book -- I Enoch 71-82 (AB)
Book of Dreams -- I Enoch 83-90 (BD)
Epistle of Enoch -- I Enoch 91-105/6/7 (EE)
Apocalypse of Weeks -- I Enoch 93:1-10; 91:11-17) (AW)
Animal Apocalypse -- I Enoch 85-90 (AA)
This book deals with the oldest of these, The Book of Watchers. It is a scholarly text, and studies how the book was received by Jews and Christians at various times in their history.
When Christianity first appeared, its historical origin was in Second-Temple Judaism. The first temple was built by King Solomon, and was destroyed when the leading Jews were taken into exile in Babylon. When Babylon was conquered by Persia, Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem, and the temple was rebuilt under Ezra. This was the temple that Jesus and his disciples knew.
Second-Temple Judaism had many different schools and sects. The Pharisees and the Saducees, mentioned in the New Testament, were among the better-known. But the Second Temple was destroyed in AD 70, when the Romans put down a Jewish revolt, and the only Jewish Schools and sects that survived for a long time after that were Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
The Book of Watchers was generally accepted by the early Christians, and was quoted by the New Testament book of Jude. Among the Rabbinic Jews, however, it was rejected.
The Book of the Watchers is an apocalypse from the third century BC, which describes Enoch's ascension to heaven and what he saw there. It also describes the "Watchers" (egrigori), the "Sons of God" of Genesis 6:1-4, who are accused of corrupting humankind through their teachings of metalworking, cosmetology, magic, and divination.
These Watchers are fallen angels, who are led by Semihazah and Asael, and the book expands on the somewhat cryptic references in Genesis 6:1-4.
The later parts of I Enoch, however, have a different emphasis. They concentrate on the sexual sins of the angels, rather than their teaching illicit and corrupting knowledge. They lusted after the daughters of men, and breeding with them to produce a race of giants, the Nephilim. It is unclear whether these all perished in the Flood, but the spirits of those that did perish remained on the earth, and became the demons that plague the human race.
Rabbinic Judaism rejected this view, and gradually adopted the view that the "Sons of God" of Genesis 6:1-4 were purely human, and one interpretation was that they were children of Seth rather than children of Cain, and the stories were told to discourage intermarriage. Later Christian interpreters tended to adopt the Rabbinic Jewish interpretation, though in the medival period some Jews returned to the idea of the "Sons of God" as angels, described in 3 Enoch, a much later work.
That's a very inadequate summary of 277 pages of text, and not being an expert on ancient texts, it would be foolish of me to try to give a scholarly review of it.
What I find interesting are some of the ideas that the book promotes or preserves, and the way it was used by 2nd-century Christian apologists, like Justin Martyr. He developed an interesting theology of religion, which modern "theologians of religion" don't talk about much, but which would have made a great deal of sense to Christian converts from Greco-Roman paganism in the 2nd century.
According to Justin, the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon were these very Watchers, fallen angels.
Justin's understanding of these Enochic traditions, however, is informed by an innovative interpretation of the identity of the fallen angels and their sons. Reading the Book of Watchers' association between the spirits of the Giants and present-day demons through LXX Ps 95:5 ("all the gods of the nations are daimones"), Justin asserts that these figures are the very gods celebrated in Greek myths and worshipped by the Romans who ironically persecute Christians for their alleged atheism and impiety.
By equating fallen angels and demons with the pagan pantheon, Justin is able simultaneously to explain and to undermine Greco-Roman traditions about the gods by reading them through the lens of Enochic traditions about the Watchers (Reed 2005:164-165).
The tales told in pagan mythology about the Olympian and other gods having sexual relations with humans are, according to Justin, also derived from the stories told in the Book of the Watchers.
Justin not only recast the angelic descent myth to speak to the situation of Christian persecution, but he did so in terms that rendered it accessible to accessible to an audience of former pagans. He cites the Greek myths much as he uses the Jewish scriptures, claiming that the truth therein can only be exposed by a certain mode of reading. Just as his anti-Judaism is founded on the inversion of the Deuteronomistic approach to biblical history, so he offers a distinctively Christian variation on the euhemeristic and allegorical interpretation of Greek myths by learned Greeks and Romans: the tales about the impious deeds of gods and sons of gods actually attest the activities of the fallen angels and demons, and the legends about their divine deeds are really fictions that the demons invented about themselves in a petty imitation of the true prophecies about Christ.
Much the same can be said of Justin's approach to Greco-Roman religion: pagans already acknowledge the role that daimones play in the cosmos; what he tells them is that all daimones are evil (i.e. "demons" as in the Jewish and Christian understanding of this Greek term). Likewise, his denunciation of pagan sacrifice and idolatry echoes Greco-Roman philosophical critiques of popular religion, and his assertion of the fallen angels' role in transmitting corrupting skills and knowledge grounds its plausibility in myths about divine and semi-divine culture-heroes. When read through the lens of Justin's historiographical and demonological approach to the history of human culture, his retelling of the angelic descent myth resonates with the cultural expectations of Gentile Christians, even as it serves to confirm their choice to reject their pagan past -- a choice here elevated to the level of a decision to free themselves from demonic enslavement and ally themselves with Christ in the cosmic battle against evil (Reed 2005:186).
One thing I thought was rather a pity is that, apart from a passing reference in a footnote, there was no mention of the reference to "Sons of God" in Deut 32:8 or Job 38:7, and no reference at all to Psalm 82.
A thing that I found interesting was that the fallen angels promoted the cosmetics industry, the arms industry, and magic and divination, and these led to the earth being filled with violence, which in turn led to the Flood.
And something I found interesting about this was that back in 1993, when I worked in the Editorial Department of the University of South Africa, we organised tutorials on distance teaching methods led by one Fred Lockwoood, of the Open University in the UK, as part of our contribution to "transfomation" - changing Unisa from an apartheid indoctrination machine into a real university. The "old guard" at Unisa were furious with us for doing this.
But when Fred Lockwood came, it was clear that he despised the humanities, and regarded them as useless, and for his examples of teaching methods chose a subject he regarded as more useful -- which happened to be Cosmetology. It wasn't a subject that was taught at Unisa, and if looking for a subject of more practical use than the humanities, perhaps food production might have been better. But no, he chose a subject that, according to the Book of the Watchers, was first taught by fallen angels.
I was also interested to learn that the Greek name for Watchers -- egrigori was the origin of the word "egregores", which has been used by some to mean a group that takes on its own character, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. So a collective entity like a nation can have a "national spirit", which in this sense is an egregore, and the Orthodox ikon of the Tower of Babel shows these national spirits, the angels of the nations, "sons of gods" of Deuteronomy 32:8, the egregores, or egrigori, the principalities and powers of Ephesians 6:10-12.
May 22, 2024
The best book I've read on the Enochic literature. Reed looks in particular at the "Book of the Watchers", which is the first section of the work we know as "Enoch". She examines the theme of fallen angels in early Judaism and Christianity, and how this changed over time. One unique contribution of this work is Reed's focus on the theme of the fallen angels corrupting humanity by teaching them to do things against God's will. In a sense this leads to a view of human sin as having a supernatural origin, rather than something which resulted from Adam and Eve's (and our) poor choices. She notes that while the idea of fallen angels gets a lot of mileage in early Judaism and Christianity, the theme of these angels corrupting humanity by teaching them does not. She continues on through the later books of 2 & 3 Enoch, and ends with a chapter on how the Enoch tradition influenced Jewish mysticism. One of Reed's key points is that even in medieval times there was still interplay between Jewish and Christian traditions on Enoch. This is an erudite book indeed. If you study the Enochic writings you NEED this!
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April 20, 2022Amazon new $93, Amazon Kindle $82, Amazon Kindle Rental $31, Thrift Books $98. Whew! I was able to find an online copy of this book here...
https://ia802704.us.archive.org/0/ite...
September 5, 2024
Didn't realize when I bought it that this is very much a scholarly volume. It took me a long time to get through because I was ingesting only a few pages at a time. Not to criticize the book in any way, but if you're looking for a sensationalistic book on Enoch, this is not the one for you. Only serious readers need apply.
December 4, 2022
5.5 stars.
Dr. Reed has this book insanely well-researched and solid, it took me three weeks to finish reading book cover to cover. It works on the 1500 year hypothetical reception & transmittion history of the the Book of Watchers (BW; 1 En 1-37), with specific reference to the Fallen Angels tale (1 En 6-11)- itself very likely to be the oldest and independent tradtion related to 7th century BC Greek mythology about Prometheus and Zeus, reworked in the Hellenized 3rd century BC Jewish priestly-scribal mileue for what appears to us as a Wisdom-esoteric-apocalyptic work.
BW as a Wisdom-esoteric-apocalyptic work focuses on "things above and spatically distant", whereas its somewhat later Enochic counterparts appropriated its themes with an interest in "things later and temporally close". In place of the epistemological dimension of BW is the ethical dimension of later Enochic traditions, whereby the account of "fallen angels" were less and less in servce of "the etyology of wordly evil" (ie. "they introduced sins into we innocent human race") but more and more represented as the paradigmatic sinners already doomed and precedents for impending judgment of the Just Judge.
Early Christians were more or less offshoots of this larger Jewish apocalypticism, and the learned Christians only positively discussed anglic sins (e.g. , Jude) to exhort and to account for paganism/heresies (e.g. Justin the Martyr). It is hard to find any interest in superstition among them. Still, rabbinic Judaism and Talmudic Judaism were quite wary of any of these enochic apocalypses and their angelic references, and it is mostly likely that this attitude of theirs influenced post-Constantine western Christianity's marginalization of these corpuses.
The lore's continual cultivation exists in geographical spheres outside imperial Christianity, which is to say: Egypt, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia. It is generally from this scheme we can trace and most plausibly account for the intertexual and manuscript evidence concerning this particular motif and its associating terminology- including its reappropriation by post-Talmudic & early medieval Jews, as well as by Muslims.
Dr. Reed has this book insanely well-researched and solid, it took me three weeks to finish reading book cover to cover. It works on the 1500 year hypothetical reception & transmittion history of the the Book of Watchers (BW; 1 En 1-37), with specific reference to the Fallen Angels tale (1 En 6-11)- itself very likely to be the oldest and independent tradtion related to 7th century BC Greek mythology about Prometheus and Zeus, reworked in the Hellenized 3rd century BC Jewish priestly-scribal mileue for what appears to us as a Wisdom-esoteric-apocalyptic work.
BW as a Wisdom-esoteric-apocalyptic work focuses on "things above and spatically distant", whereas its somewhat later Enochic counterparts appropriated its themes with an interest in "things later and temporally close". In place of the epistemological dimension of BW is the ethical dimension of later Enochic traditions, whereby the account of "fallen angels" were less and less in servce of "the etyology of wordly evil" (ie. "they introduced sins into we innocent human race") but more and more represented as the paradigmatic sinners already doomed and precedents for impending judgment of the Just Judge.
Early Christians were more or less offshoots of this larger Jewish apocalypticism, and the learned Christians only positively discussed anglic sins (e.g. , Jude) to exhort and to account for paganism/heresies (e.g. Justin the Martyr). It is hard to find any interest in superstition among them. Still, rabbinic Judaism and Talmudic Judaism were quite wary of any of these enochic apocalypses and their angelic references, and it is mostly likely that this attitude of theirs influenced post-Constantine western Christianity's marginalization of these corpuses.
The lore's continual cultivation exists in geographical spheres outside imperial Christianity, which is to say: Egypt, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia. It is generally from this scheme we can trace and most plausibly account for the intertexual and manuscript evidence concerning this particular motif and its associating terminology- including its reappropriation by post-Talmudic & early medieval Jews, as well as by Muslims.
September 30, 2015
It's thorough and academic and perfect for a student taking a degree in Religion. My head hasn't been used this hard since I was a student myself. Perhaps not exactly the kind of read that I had had in mind when I initially picked it up, but one that is certainly well informed and thorough.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews