Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil (3 page)

The spirits of the giants shall be like clouds, which shall oppress, corrupt, fall, contend, and bruise upon earth.

They shall cause lamentation. No food shall they eat; and they shall be thirsty; they shall be concealed, and shall not rise up against the sons of men, and against women; for they come forth during the days of slaughter and destruction.

And as to the death of the giants, wheresoever their spirits depart from their bodies, let their flesh, that which is perishable, be without judgment. Thus shall they perish, until the day of the great consummation of the great world. A destruction shall take place of the Watchers and the impious. (15:8–10; 16:1)

Because of so great a sin, the Lord tells the Watchers, “Never therefore shall you obtain peace.” According to the text of the Book of Enoch, the Lord’s judgment against the Watchers prevails—then and now.

The author of the book also describes in powerful majesty and moving praise certain visions of heaven given to him. He writes of his instruction from the archangels regarding the awesome judgment of the fallen ones before God’s throne. He delivers three heavenly parables (or similitudes) describing the glories of the Kingdom and the ineffable Ancient of Days and the Son of man who, it is said, shall bring the final judgment upon the wicked of the earth. There is also a major section of the work devoted to astronomical description, as well as a lengthy prophecy concerning the future of the elect.

So runs the text of the Book of Enoch as we have the manuscripts today. The studious reader will note that the manuscript translated here feels somewhat disjointed and therefore might be compiled of old fragments loosely stitched together in ancient times—perhaps even a crudely edited version of a larger corpus of Enoch books that no longer exists.

Most scholars say that the present form of the story in the Book of Enoch was penned sometime during the second century
B.C.
and was popular for at least five hundred years. The earliest Ethiopic text was apparently made from a Greek manuscript of the Book of Enoch, which itself was a copy of an earlier text. The original was apparently written in a Semitic language, now thought to be Aramaic.

Though it was once believed to be post-Christian (the similarities to Christian terminology and teachings are striking), discoveries of copies of the book among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran prove that the book was in existence before the time of Jesus Christ. But the date of the original writing upon which the Qumran copies of the second century
B.C.
were based is shrouded in obscurity. It is, in a word, old.

It has largely been the opinion of historians that the book does not really contain the authentic words of the ancient biblical patriarch Enoch, since he would have lived (according to the chronologies in the Book of Genesis) several thousand years earlier than the first known appearance of the book attributed to him.

But, of course, the contemporary historians’ knowledge of Judaic scriptural history is by no means complete. As time progresses, new discoveries may help clarify the picture painted by the rabbinical tradition in the Zohar, which implies that Enoch’s writings were passed faithfully from generation to generation.
[9]

Despite its unknown origins, Christians once accepted the words of this Book of Enoch as authentic scripture, especially the part about the fallen angels and their prophesied judgment. In fact, many of the key concepts used by Jesus Christ himself seem directly connected to terms and ideas in the Book of Enoch.

Thus, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Jesus had not only studied the book, but also respected it highly enough to adopt and elaborate on its specific descriptions of the coming kingdom and its theme of inevitable judgment descending upon “the wicked”—the term most often used in the Old Testament to describe the Watchers. (See “
Concealed References to the Watchers...
”)

There is abundant proof that Christ approved of the Book of Enoch. Over a hundred phrases in the New Testament find precedents in the Book of Enoch. Our Lord’s beatitude “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5) perhaps renders Enoch 6:9, “The elect shall possess light, joy, and peace; and they shall inherit the earth.”

Likewise, Jesus’ scolding

Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born (Matt. 26:24)

is reminiscent of Enoch’s

Where [will be] the place of rest for those who have rejected the Lord of spirits? It would have been better for them, had they never been born. (En. 38:2)

The Book of Enoch also contains precedents for Jesus’ assertion of “many mansions” in the Father’s house. (John 14:2) Enoch 39:4 reads:

I saw the habitations and couches of the saints. There my eyes beheld their habitations with the angels, and their couches with the holy ones. They were entreating, supplicating, and praying for the sons of men; while righteousness like water flowed before them.

Another Enochian parallel is found in Luke 18:7:

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

In Enoch 47, verse 2, we read:

In that day shall the holy ones assemble, who dwell above the heavens, and with united voice petition, supplicate, praise, laud, and bless the name of the Lord of spirits, on account of the blood of the righteous which has been shed; that the prayer of the righteous may not be intermitted before the Lord of spirits; that for them he would execute judgment; and that his patience may not endure for ever.

Jesus’ “well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14) perhaps parallels Enoch 48:1, the “fountain of righteousness, which never failed.” The biblical term “children of light”
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is a term that possibly stems from Enoch’s “generation of light.” Enoch 105:25 reads:

And now will I call the spirits of the good from the generation of light, and will change those who have been born in darkness.

Jesus’ explanation of the afterlife of the righteous is nearly identical to Enoch 50:4: “All the righteous shall become angels in heaven.” Matthew records Jesus as saying, “For in the resurrection they ... are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matt. 22:30)

And the “woe unto you that are rich” (Luke 6:24) of Jesus Christ is found almost verbatim in Enoch:

Woe to you who are rich, for in your riches have you trusted; but from your riches you shall be removed; because you have not remembered the Most High in the days of your prosperity. (En. 93:7)

The list of parallels runs longer than can be summarized here (therefore we have listed them in “
Biblical Parallels to the Book of Enoch
”), but two further themes central both to Christ’s teaching and to the Book of Enoch ought to be noted.

First,
the term “Son of man,” often used by Jesus, finds great elaboration in the Book of Enoch. It has long been thought that Jesus’ use of the term “Son of man” in referring to himself originated with Daniel 7:13. But prominent scholars believe that it was the Book of Enoch which provided this key term to Jesus.
[11]

Although Laurence’s translation does not reflect it, it seems that Enoch himself was called by God “Son of man.” Biblical scholar H. H. Rowley points out that various translators have hedged on this passage, mistranslating it or even attempting to change the original text that applies the words “Thou art the Son of man” to Enoch.
[12]

Laurence’s translation of the key passage, perhaps for doctrinal reasons, substitutes the words “offspring of man” for the literal translation “Son of man.” By contrast, when the term “Son of man” clearly refers to Jesus Christ, Laurence uses it without hesitation. Laurence’s translation reads:

Then that angel came to me, and with his voice saluted me, saying, Thou art the
offspring of man,
who art born for righteousness, and righteousness has rested on thee. (En. 70:17, 23)
[13]

Laurence’s choice of words
is duly noted
in this volume in the Book of Enoch.

The second theme important to both the Book of Enoch and the teachings of Jesus Christ concerns the judgment and the great tribulation. Jesus depicts the Gentile judgment executed by the Son of man, his angels with him, as recorded in Matthew 25:31–32, 41, 46.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all Gentiles: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats....

Next he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you [the judgment of God upon the Watchers], to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his [fallen] angels.”
(Jerusalem Bible)
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And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

The same scene is described in Enoch 45:3 and 66:5–7.

In that day shall the Elect One sit upon a throne of glory; and shall choose their conditions and countless habitations (while their spirits within them shall be strengthened, when they behold my Elect One), shall choose them for those who have fled for protection to my holy and glorious name....

I beheld that valley in which there was great perturbation, and where the waters were troubled.

And when all this was effected, from the fluid mass of fire, and the perturbation which prevailed in that place, there arose a strong smell of sulphur, which became mixed with the waters; and the valley of the angels, who had been guilty of seduction, burned underneath its soil.

Through that valley also rivers of fire were flowing, to which those angels shall be condemned, who seduced the inhabitants of the earth.

In Matthew 24:7, 21–22, 29–30 Jesus’ prophecy on the great tribulation is recorded:

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places....

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened....

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

These passages are entirely consistent with the great drama of the judgment as it unfolds in the Book of Enoch. In Enoch 79, Archangel Uriel gives Enoch the vision of those things that the Son of man would also tell us must be fulfilled.

In those days Uriel answered and said to me, Behold, I have showed thee all things, O Enoch;

And all things have I revealed to thee. Thou seest the sun, the moon, and those which conduct the stars of heaven, which cause all their operations, seasons, and arrivals to return.

In the days of sinners the years shall be shortened.

Their seed shall be backward in their prolific soil; and everything done on earth shall be subverted, and disappear in its season. The rain shall be restrained, and heaven shall stand still.

In those days the fruits of the earth shall be late, and not flourish in their season; and in their season the fruits of the trees shall be withholden.

The moon shall change its laws, and not be seen at its proper period. But in those days shall heaven be seen; and barrenness shall take place in the borders of the great chariots in the west. Heaven shall shine more than when illuminated by the orders of light; while many chiefs among the stars of authority shall err, perverting their ways and works.

Those shall not appear in their season, who command them, and all the classes of the stars shall be shut up against sinners. (79:1–7)

Note that in Enoch the stars are revealed to be a hierarchy of angels, some of whom pervert their ways and works, while Jesus says they shall fall from heaven and their powers be shaken, and Mother Mary declares in the Magnificat that her Son shall put down the mighty Watchers from their seats of authority on earth which they have usurped from the children of the Light—“them of low degree.”
[15]

The idea that Jesus’ teachings may have been “dependent,” in a broad sense, upon a former theological work, rather than an all-new and never-before-revealed teaching straight from heaven, has troubled some. In 1891, Reverend William J. Deane protested against connecting Jesus’ teaching to the newly published Book of Enoch, noting indignantly, “We are asked to believe that our Lord and His apostles, consciously or unconsciously, introduced into their speech and writings ideas and expressions most decidedly derived from Enoch.”
[16]

But one can only conclude that it was a conscious decision on the part of the beloved Rabbi (Teacher) to include Enoch among the Old Testament prophets he so frequently cited. (See
Appendix I
, “The Law and the Prophets Quoted by Jesus Christ.”) Even as a boy of twelve, Jesus revealed his understanding of the Scriptures to the doctors of the temple at Jerusalem, who were astonished at his questions
and
his answers. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared himself to be the fulfillment of both the law and the prophets: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Matt. 5:17)