• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
The Origin of Evil and the End of the World
Lloyd D. Graham
To a large extent, Judaeo-Christian beliefs have shaped the values and morals of theWestern world. It is therefore somewhat surprising to find that the Old Testament lacksan account of the origin of evil, other than possibly attributing it to God (Isa 45:7), andthat neither it nor the New Testament provides a convincing reason for the fall of Satanand his cohorts from heaven. One possible allusion - the desire of Lucifer to exalt himself above God, resulting in his being cast down (Isa 14:12-15) - occurs in a context thatshows it to refer to the ambitions of a particular King of Babylon. So is there, then, noexplanation of evil that dates to Old Testament times? There is, and yet - despite its prominence in apocryphal literature and some scriptural allusions to it - the story remainslittle known. A passage in Genesis mentions it as follows:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, anddaughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men thatthey were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose ... There were giantsin the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto thedaughters of men, and bare children to them, the same became mighty men whichwere of old, men of renown. And God looked upon the earth ... [and said:] The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them ... (Gen6:1-13)
These profoundly important events are described in much greater detail in Old Testament pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, such as the Book of Enoch (1 En) and the Book of Jubilees (Jub). Such sources describe how two hundred heavenly beings, all drawn fromthe angelic order known as Watchers (Heb. 'irin, 'those who are awake'), ensured their own damnation by forsaking their heavenly estate in favour of sexual liaisons with mortalwomen:
And it came to pass, when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of theheaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: "Come, let us choosewives from among the children of men, and beget us children". And Semjaza, whowas their leader ... and all the others together with [him] took unto themselves wives,and ... they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and theytaught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and they made themacquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants ... whoconsumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them,the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. (1 En 6:1-7:6)
Thus the immediate consequences of this forbidden intercourse were twofold. Thefirst outcome was that the fallen angels imparted their heavenly knowledge of thesciences and the arts to mortals:
 
And Azazel taught men ... the metals of the earth and the art of working them ...Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings ... Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeelthe knowledge of the clouds... (1 En 8:1-3); ...[they] revealed the eternal secrets whichwere in heaven, which men were striving to learn (1 En 9:6-7). And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin. (1En 10:8-9).
Such enlightenment parallels the outcome of the well-known Genesis story (Gen 3:1-7)where Adam and Eve were induced to eat from the Tree of Knowledge by the Serpent (anentity later identified with Satan, as in Rev 12:9). In fact, the story of Eve succumbing tothe temptations of the diabolical and phallic serpent can be viewed as a prudishencryption of the Watcher legend that was moved to an earlier position in the Genesischronology in order to emphasise its singular importance. This view is supported by a passage (1 En 69:6) in which one of the fallen Watchers is credited with leading Eveastray, and also by the inclusion of Samsapeel as a leader of the Watchers (1 En 6:7). Thelatter is cognate with Samael, the angel of death who from the late Rabbinic periodonward provided Judaism with the major name for Satan; it is Samael who planted theforbidden Tree in the Garden of Eden (3 Baruch 4:9), who tempted Eve through theserpent, and who went on to seduce and impregnate her (
 Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer 
13 &21). If the view proposed in this paragraph is accepted, then the fall of the angels and thefall of man become two aspects of a single event.The second outcome of the fall of the angels was the giant and monstrous offspring(Heb.
nephilim
, 'fallen ones') born to Watcher fathers by human mothers, monsters thatturned against humanity and the other creatures of the Earth. A passage in Jubilees (Jub7:21-25) identifies the nephilim with the mighty men of renown (Heb.
 gibborim
) of Genesis 6:4. One of God's avenging archangels arranged the destruction of the nephilim by inciting them to battle each other; when the giants perished, their souls became theevil spirits and demons that have afflicted mankind ever since (1 En 15:8-16:1; Jub 10:5).The fallen Watchers - now the princes of evil - were imprisoned in torment until the Dayof Judgement, and God instigated the Flood in order to purge and purify the earth.
 Dates and Words
The earliest reference to the Watcher story is probably Gen 6:1-13,and it may date from as long ago as the eighth or ninth centuries BCE. Early copies of theSeptuagint translation of 270 BCE (where the Old Testament and related apocrypha wererendered into Greek) suggest that the Hebrew term
bene ha-elohim
, 'sons of God' or 'sonsof gods', in Gen 6:2 was translated from the outset as 'angels of God'. The Book of Enoch contains the earliest detailed account of the full story. It dates to the period 200-100 BCE, although 1 En 1-36 (the Book of the Watchers) may have been written in thethird century BCEThe term 'Watcher' (Heb.
'irin
) occurs mainly in the Old Testament pseudepigraphathat deal with the fallen angels, but it is also found in the Book of Daniel, a canonical book contemporary with 1 Enoch. There the phrase 'a watcher and an holy one' (Dan 4:13& 23) is used to denote a particular class of angel, and precisely the same phrase is foundin some fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls (e.g., 1 QapGen II:1). Most sources identifyAzazel and Semyaza as the leaders of the fallen Watchers. The name Azazel appears alsoin the canonical Old Testament (Lev 16:8-10), where it seems to refer to a wildernessdemon of Judaeo-pagan origin. In this respect, it resembles Isa 34:14, the single Old
 
Testament reference to Lilith (see below). The name Azazel appears also in the canonicalOld Testament (Lev 16:8-10), where it seems to refer to a wilderness demon of Judaeo- pagan origin; in this respect, it resembles Isa 34:14, the single Old Testament reference toLilith (see below). On delving deeper, it appears that Azazel, Azzael, Azza, Ussa,Uzzaya, and even Semyaza (literally Shem-y-aza, ‘the name Aza’) are cognate withal-‘Uzza, one of the three chief deities of pre-Islamic Arabia (Qur’an, Surah 53:19). Thisname features in Lihyanite graffiti as early as the fourth century BCE, and translates as‘the Mighty.’ In an unexpected twist, al-‘Uzza is unambiguously female; for example,she was identified by the Nabataeans with Aphrodite/Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Perhaps this is why, as well as teaching the manufacture and use of weapons,‘Azazel taught […] bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures’ (1En8:1-2).The Christian church later attempted to reinterpret the phrase 'sons of God' in Gen6:2 as 'sons of Seth' and 'daughters of men' as 'daughters of Cain' so that the Watcher story could be dispensed with. In contrast, Josephus (see below) specifies not only thatthe males were angels but that the women were of untainted lineage - the daughters of Seth. The Church's re-interpretation also sits oddly with other events in the same epoch,where illicit heterosexual couplings (inter-generational incest, to be precise) weretolerated by God and gave rise to normal offspring (Gen 19:30-38), while 'unnatural'unions were punished (Gen 19:1-26). Clearly, there was something more abhorrent aboutintermarriage between 'sons of God' and daughters of men than would be warranted byunions between humans of opposite sex, whatever their lines of descent.
 Retellings and Allusions
In 1 Enoch, the Watcher story is first given in ch. 6-16,recapitulated in ch. 64-69, and re-told in a disguised form in the Animal Apocalypse (ch.86-89). In the Book of Jubilees, a work of 153-105 BCE, it is given in Jub 4:21-24; 5:1-13; 7:20-27; and 10:1-15. As in 1 Enoch, the fallen Watchers were imprisoned within theearth until Judgement Day. In the final version given in Jubilees, the prince of thenephilim-derived evil spirits is called both Mastema and Satan, and - in a duplication of the imprisonment of the Watchers - these spirits too were bound in the earth untilJudgement Day. In this account, God granted Mastema's request that a tenth of the evilspirits should be left free to roam the earth while the remainder were bound. As a remedyfor their corrupting activities, though, God ordered one of his loyal angels to instruct Noah in the science of medicine (Jub 10:10-14).The Watcher episode features in sources other than 1 Enoch and Jubilees,appearing also in Wis 14:6, some Dead Sea Scroll texts, the Ethiopic
 Kebra Nagast 
, andin the
 Book of the Secrets of Enoch
(2 Enoch, a Slavonic work written after 100 CE).Aspects of the Watcher story are also mentioned in the canonical New Testament (e.g., 1Pet 3:19-20; 2 Pet 2:4-5; Jude 1:6; Rev 12:9; Rev 20:1-3). There are also references in thewritings of first century Christians like Tertullian, and of their Jewish contemporary,Josephus. The author of the pseudo-Clementine homilies resolved some of the theologicaldifficulties inherent in the Watcher story by proposing that the angels were notoverpowered with sensual passion while in their purely spiritual state (Hom 8:9). Hemaintained that the angels asked God to endow them with human bodies so that theycould descend to earth and rectify the wickedness of mankind. Once they had taken
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...