1 Enoch 15

He answered me, and I heard his voice: 'Do not be afraid, Enoch, you righteous man and scribe of righteousness. Come here and listen to my voice.

1And 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.

NoteA scribe was a professional writer and keeper of records, an office of standing in the ancient world rather than a mere copyist. 'Scribe of righteousness' is Enoch's fixed title in this book: he is the one who writes petitions and verdicts down and carries them between earth and heaven. The speaker is God, and the setting is the heavenly throne room Enoch has just been brought into in the previous chapter.

2Go and say to the Watchers of heaven, who sent you to plead with me for them: "You are the ones who should be pleading for men, and not men for you.

2And 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:

Note'Watchers' renders a word meaning wakeful ones, those who never sleep. In this book it is the standard name for a class of heavenly beings set over the world. The ones addressed here are the group who came down to earth and took human wives, whose story is told in chapters 6 and 7. Afterward they begged Enoch to write out a petition asking for pardon and to carry it up on their behalf; this chapter is the answer he brings back. 'Intercede' is the technical word for pleading another party's case before a superior, which is exactly the errand they gave him.

3Why have you left the high, holy, everlasting heaven and slept with women? Why have you made yourselves unclean with the daughters of men, and taken wives for yourselves, and acted like the children of earth, and fathered giants as your sons?

3Wherefore 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?

NoteThe giants are the Nephilim of Genesis 6, the offspring of these heavenly beings and human women; the Greek Bible renders that word as gigantes, giants, which is where the English word here comes from. 'Daughters of men' and 'children of earth' both simply mean human beings, mortals born on earth, as opposed to the heavenly beings being addressed. 'Defiled yourselves' is the language of ritual uncleanness: contact that leaves a person unfit to enter a holy place until cleansed. The charge is that beings whose proper place was the sanctuary of heaven disqualified themselves from it.

4Though you were holy, spiritual, and living the eternal life, you have made yourselves unclean with the blood of women. You have fathered children with the blood of flesh, and, like the children of men, you have lusted after flesh and blood, as those do who die and perish.

4And 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.

Note'Flesh and blood' is the ordinary ancient way of saying mortal, perishable human nature. To be defiled 'with the blood of women' means to have entered human reproduction, with its bleeding, birth and death, which is precisely the process beings who never die had no part in.

5That is why I gave them wives too, so that they could make them pregnant and father children by them, and so nothing would be lacking to them on earth.

5Therefore 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.

Note'Them' here is human beings, not the Watchers. The argument turns on mortality: people die, so marriage and children were given to them as the means of continuing, 'that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth'. Beings who never die need no such replacement.

6But you were spiritual before this, living the eternal life, and never dying, through all the generations of the world.

6But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world.

7And so I did not appoint wives for you. For as for the spiritual ones of heaven, heaven is where they live.

7And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.

8And now the giants, who came from spirits and from flesh, will be called evil spirits on the earth, and the earth will be where they live.

8And 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.

NoteThis is the oldest surviving version of a widespread ancient explanation of where evil spirits come from: the giants were part heavenly and part human, so when their bodies died, what was in them did not die with them but stayed on earth. Readers in the centuries around the turn of the era would have taken this passage as the account of the origin of the demons.

9Evil spirits have come out of their bodies, because they were born from men, and their beginning and first origin is from the holy Watchers. They will be evil spirits on the earth, and they will be called evil spirits.

9Evil 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.

NoteThe Watchers are still called 'holy' at this point in the sentence. The word marks the class of beings they belong to and where they came from, not their conduct in this story.

10As for the spirits of heaven, heaven will be where they live. But as for the spirits of the earth, which were born on the earth, the earth will be where they live.

10As 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.

11The spirits of the giants harm, crush, ruin, attack, fight, and work destruction on the earth, and they cause trouble. They eat no food, but even so they are hungry and thirsty, and they cause offenses.

11And 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.

Note'Offences' here does not mean insults or hurt feelings. It renders a word for a stumbling block or a trap set in someone's path; the spirits are described as making people fall.

12These spirits will rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they came out of them."

12And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.

Note'They have proceeded from them' points back to the human stock that bore the giants: the spirits turn on the very people they came out of. The line is compressed, and it is not settled whether 'them' means the human mothers in particular or humankind in general.