The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) · 33 of 141 · tr. R.H. Charles
Chapter XV
CHAPTER XV. 1. And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice. 2. And go, say to ⌈⌈ the Watchers of heaven ⌉⌉ , who have sent thee to intercede ⌈⌈ for them: "You should intercede" ⌉⌉ for men, and not men for you: 3. Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? 4. And p. 43 though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those ⌈ also ⌉ do who die and perish. 5. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. 6. But you were ⌈ formerly ⌉ spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. 7. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. 8. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. 9. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men , ⌈⌈ and ⌉⌉ from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; ⌈ they shall be evil spirits on earth, and ⌉ evil spirits shall they be called. [ 10. As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling. ] 11. And the spirits of the giants afflict , oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, ⌈ but nevertheless hunger ⌉ and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded ⌈ from them ⌉ .
Themes
◆Cosmic Dualismtheology
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
A sharp distinction is drawn between the spiritual/heavenly realm and the fleshly/earthly realm.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The passage outlines the final fate and condemnation of the giants' spirits as evil oppressors on earth.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The text explicitly describes the Watchers leaving their holy dwelling in heaven to dwell on earth.
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
[auto] This passage is the core narrative describing the Watchers leaving heaven, mating with women, and becoming evil spirits.