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6.3.2.6. Athenagoras
In his Plea for the Christians (177 c.E.),80 this Athenian apologist devotes considerable space to the topic of the demons and their activity, also identifying them as the progeny of the rebel angels (chaps. 24-25). Like Justin he ascribes to the angels a responsibility to exercise divine providence (irpovoict.) over creation. Their sin was to fall in love with virgins (cf. comm. on 15:4) and procreate giants who constitute a demonic realm. Two details in Athenagoras's account parallel 1 Enoch. The angels are unable to ascend to or command a view of heaven (virepKViTTO}), having fallen from there (cf. 1 Enoch 13:5 and 14:5). The demons are identified as the "souls" (\l/vx(xi) of the giants, who "wander" (irAavdo}) over the earth causing trouble (cf. 1 Enoch 15:11-16:1).
6.3.2.7 Irenaeus
Irenaeus, a native of Asia Minor, probably Smyrna, who became bishop of Lyons (ca. 180 c.E.),81 makes several references to the sin of the angels (Adv. haer. 1.10.1, 3; 1.15.6; 4.16.2; 4.36.4; 4.37.1, 6; Dem. 18). Although these references indicate knowledge of the tradition about the ingels' intercourse with women (4.36.4), different from fustin and Athenagoras, Irenaeus never attributes to :hem the begetting of children who would become a lemonic horde that foster sin in the world. He cites the radition, rather, to Drove that sin a funr-tinn ^f A-O~ will, meets with divine judgment. Irenaeus's knowledge of the Enochic source of the tradition about the angels is indicated in Adv. haer. 4.16.2: although he was a man, Enoch was sent as God's legate to announce judgment to the angels (1 Enoch 12:4-5; 13:4-7; 15:2). In addition, his reference to Enoch's role as witness at the judgment indicates knowledge of other traditions attested in Jubilees and the Testament of Abraham (see §6.2.3.3.3 and §6.3.3.3). His reference to Azazel in connection with astrological prognostication and the magical arts (1.15.6), while it does not correspond exactly with 1 Enoch 8:1, is close enough to indicate that the elder whom he cites had at least secondhand knowledge of the tradition. A final, clear reference to the Enochic tradition appears in the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 18, where he refers not only to "illicit unions" but -' also to many details in the lists of teaching in 1 Enoch 8:1-3 and 9:8: roots, herbs, dyeing, cosmetics, sorcery, and hate-producing potions.
6.3.2.8. Minucius Felix
A distinguished lawyer who lived in Rome ca. 200,82 Minucius Felix composed a Latin apology for Christianity entitled Octavius after its Christian protagonist. In chap. 26 Octavius refutes his pagan opponents' appeal to the use of divination by ascribing its origins to demons, "insincere, wandering spirits, degraded from their heavenly vigor by earthly stains and lusts" (Spiritus sunt insinceri, vagi, a caelesti vigore terrenis labibus et cupidi-tatibus degravati), weighed down and immersed by vices. Any direct association with 1 Enoch is tenuous. Authority for this view of demons is found by appeal to Socrates and Plato, not a surprising move in an argument with a pagan. Nonetheless, Minucius's reference to the defilement of the fallen spirits may indicate a connection with the story in 1 Enoch (cf. 7:1; 10:8, 11; 12:4; 15:3-4); along with the motif of wandering, it appears in Athenagoras (see §6.3.2.6) and later Christian texts dependent on 1 Enoch (Commodianus, Lactantius; see §6.3.2.16-17).
6.3.2.9. Tertullian
More than any other early church theologian, Tertullian of Carthage indicates knowledge of 1 Enoch and defends its authenticity and inspiration. He does so, first, in two works that date from around 210 c.E.83 In De cult. fern. 1.2, he supports his argument for modest apparel by arguing that ornamentation—jewelry, dyed cloth, and cosmetics—and the arts and technology that have produced it (as well as knowledge of herbs, the practice of magic, and astral prognostication) were revealed by rebellious and lusting angels. In chap. 3 he identifies the source of this information as "the writing of Enoch" (scriptura Enoch). Although he acknowledges that some doubt its authority because it is not in the Jewish canon (armarium ludaicum), he defends its authenticity. Enoch transmitted his traditions to Methuselah with the command that he pass them on to his posterity (cf. 1 Enoch 82:1-3). Citing 2 Tim 3:16, with its reference to inspired Scripture, Tertullian exhorts his readers to heed Enoch, since he had preached about the Lord, Christ. He concludes by citing Jude's testimony about Enoch. He returns to this subject in De cultu feminarum book 2, which was originally a separate work,84 again undergirding his criticism with the authority of Enoch (2.10). The influence of the story of the watchers and the women is likely in Tertullian's treatise De virginibus velandis (chap. 7), where Paul's command in 1 Cor 11:2-16 is applied to virgins by means of a detailed and tortured exegesis of Gen 6:1-2 that contains elements found only in 1 Enoch (the identification of the sons of God as "angels" and their sinful lust; cf. De oratione 23).85 That virgins were the object of the angels' lust is also asserted by Athenagoras (see §6.3.2.6).
Tertullian's other references to 1 Enoch occur in De idololatria. Criticizing the making and worshiping of idols (chap. 4), Tertullian quotes the Decalogue and then states that Enoch, who had preceded Moses, had predicted that the demons, the spirits of the angelic apostates, would turn all the elements of creation into idolatry. The passage does not quote 1 Enoch but may reflect 1 Enoch 19:1.86 Several lines later, however, Tertullian prefaces a verbatim quotation of 1 Enoch 99:6-7 (for details, see textual notes, ad loc.) with the statement that the same Enoch condemned in advance the worshipers and makers of idols. In chap. 15, in what may be another allusion to 1 Enoch 19:1,87 Tertullian condemns dedicatory inscriptions, stating that they had been predicted by the Holy Spirit "through the most ancient prophet Enoch" (per antiquissimum prophetam Enoch).
Taken together, these references indicate Tertullian's knowledge of the Book of the Watchers, chaps. 81:1— 82:3, and the Epistle of Enoch. His references to Enoch's prediction of Christ may indicate knowledge of the Book of Parables, although these comments may refer to 1 Enoch 1, which he cites later with reference to the Epistle of Jude. Like Jude, he considers Enoch to have been a prophet and the author of this text.
6.3.2.10. Cyprian
In his treatise De habitu virginum (12-14, ca. 250 c.E.),88 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, proscribes the wearing of ornaments and dyed clothes. Dyeing, jewelry, eye paint, and other facial cosmetics "sinning and apostate angels put forth by their arts, when, lowered to the contagions of earth, they forsook their heavenly vigor" (peccatores et apostatae angeli suis artibus prodiderunt quando ad terrena contagia devoluti a caeksti vigore recesserunt, 14). That Cyprian uses Tertullian's treatise De cultu feminarum seems beyond dispute; his firsthand knowledge of 1 Enoch is less certain.89 His reference to their forsaking their heavenly vigor parallels verbatim the same word in Minucius Felix (see §6.3.2.8).
6.3.2.11. Ad Novatianum
This treatise against Novatian, falsely ascribed to Cyprian but probably written in North Africa between 253 and 257,90 strings together a series of citations about the coming judgment (chaps. 16-17), among them a verbatim quotation of 1 Enoch 1:8, introduced by the words "as it is written" (sicut scriptum est). The inclusion of a phrase not found in Jude 14-15 (see textual n. d on 1:9) indicates that this Christian author is not quoting from the NT epistle.
6.3.2.12. Clement of Alexandria
Clement's Eclogue propheticae (ca. 200 C.E.) is a collection of excerpts from gnostic writings with brief commentary in which it is not always possible to separate the excerpts from Clement's commentary.91 Chapters 1-2 quote and comment on the Song of the Three Young Men in Daniel 3 (LXX). In chap. 2, Dan 3:54 and its reference to God looking upon the abyss is likened to a statement by Enoch, "And I saw all matter" (mi. eldov raq vXaq irdaat;, GCS Clement 3). The quotation is usually seen as a rough paraphrase of 1 Enoch 19:3.92 The preserved Greek of 1 Enoch (TO. irepara iravTav) and its Ethiopic translation seem to refer to Enoch's seeing the ends of the earth (see comm. on 19:3). But the Greek in Clement may be an attempt to take the concluding statement of chaps. 17-19 as a summary of the contents of the whole section, in which Enoch has seen the whole of the created world. The same quotation appears in Ori-gen (see §6.3.2.13). The name of Enoch appears again in Edogae propheticae 53. Chapters 51-63 comment on Psalm 19. With respect to the demons' knowledge of Christ, chap. 53 states, "Already Enoch says that the transgressing angels taught humans astronomy and prognostication and the other arts" (77617 de mi, 'Ev®\ tprjOLV TOV<; irapapavTaq dyyeAouc; didd^ai TOV<; av&pairovq aarpovo^iav mi, yi,a.vTu<.r)v mi, Tag aAAag Te~xya<;, GCS Clement 3). Thus the text summarizes 1 Enoch 8, identifying it as an Enochic composition and in some indefinite way connecting demonic knowledge with angelic revelations. The motif of angelic instruction appears also in Stromata 5.1.10.2. After mentioning the Greeks' "theft" of ideas from Moses and the prophets, Clement states that certain angels of high rank, "having sunk into pleasures, uttered unspeakable things to the women, which had come to their knowledge" (KaroXiadriaavTeq eig rjdovaq e£ei7rof TO. d-rtopp-qra yvvci.L^iv oaa ye eig yvasaiv avrav cupluro, GCS Clement 2). The passage appears to paraphrase 1 Enoch 16:2 (see comm.).
In his Plea for the Christians (177 c.E.),80 this Athenian apologist devotes considerable space to the topic of the demons and their activity, also identifying them as the progeny of the rebel angels (chaps. 24-25). Like Justin he ascribes to the angels a responsibility to exercise divine providence (irpovoict.) over creation. Their sin was to fall in love with virgins (cf. comm. on 15:4) and procreate giants who constitute a demonic realm. Two details in Athenagoras's account parallel 1 Enoch. The angels are unable to ascend to or command a view of heaven (virepKViTTO}), having fallen from there (cf. 1 Enoch 13:5 and 14:5). The demons are identified as the "souls" (\l/vx(xi) of the giants, who "wander" (irAavdo}) over the earth causing trouble (cf. 1 Enoch 15:11-16:1).
6.3.2.7 Irenaeus
Irenaeus, a native of Asia Minor, probably Smyrna, who became bishop of Lyons (ca. 180 c.E.),81 makes several references to the sin of the angels (Adv. haer. 1.10.1, 3; 1.15.6; 4.16.2; 4.36.4; 4.37.1, 6; Dem. 18). Although these references indicate knowledge of the tradition about the ingels' intercourse with women (4.36.4), different from fustin and Athenagoras, Irenaeus never attributes to :hem the begetting of children who would become a lemonic horde that foster sin in the world. He cites the radition, rather, to Drove that sin a funr-tinn ^f A-O~ will, meets with divine judgment. Irenaeus's knowledge of the Enochic source of the tradition about the angels is indicated in Adv. haer. 4.16.2: although he was a man, Enoch was sent as God's legate to announce judgment to the angels (1 Enoch 12:4-5; 13:4-7; 15:2). In addition, his reference to Enoch's role as witness at the judgment indicates knowledge of other traditions attested in Jubilees and the Testament of Abraham (see §6.2.3.3.3 and §6.3.3.3). His reference to Azazel in connection with astrological prognostication and the magical arts (1.15.6), while it does not correspond exactly with 1 Enoch 8:1, is close enough to indicate that the elder whom he cites had at least secondhand knowledge of the tradition. A final, clear reference to the Enochic tradition appears in the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 18, where he refers not only to "illicit unions" but -' also to many details in the lists of teaching in 1 Enoch 8:1-3 and 9:8: roots, herbs, dyeing, cosmetics, sorcery, and hate-producing potions.
6.3.2.8. Minucius Felix
A distinguished lawyer who lived in Rome ca. 200,82 Minucius Felix composed a Latin apology for Christianity entitled Octavius after its Christian protagonist. In chap. 26 Octavius refutes his pagan opponents' appeal to the use of divination by ascribing its origins to demons, "insincere, wandering spirits, degraded from their heavenly vigor by earthly stains and lusts" (Spiritus sunt insinceri, vagi, a caelesti vigore terrenis labibus et cupidi-tatibus degravati), weighed down and immersed by vices. Any direct association with 1 Enoch is tenuous. Authority for this view of demons is found by appeal to Socrates and Plato, not a surprising move in an argument with a pagan. Nonetheless, Minucius's reference to the defilement of the fallen spirits may indicate a connection with the story in 1 Enoch (cf. 7:1; 10:8, 11; 12:4; 15:3-4); along with the motif of wandering, it appears in Athenagoras (see §6.3.2.6) and later Christian texts dependent on 1 Enoch (Commodianus, Lactantius; see §6.3.2.16-17).
6.3.2.9. Tertullian
More than any other early church theologian, Tertullian of Carthage indicates knowledge of 1 Enoch and defends its authenticity and inspiration. He does so, first, in two works that date from around 210 c.E.83 In De cult. fern. 1.2, he supports his argument for modest apparel by arguing that ornamentation—jewelry, dyed cloth, and cosmetics—and the arts and technology that have produced it (as well as knowledge of herbs, the practice of magic, and astral prognostication) were revealed by rebellious and lusting angels. In chap. 3 he identifies the source of this information as "the writing of Enoch" (scriptura Enoch). Although he acknowledges that some doubt its authority because it is not in the Jewish canon (armarium ludaicum), he defends its authenticity. Enoch transmitted his traditions to Methuselah with the command that he pass them on to his posterity (cf. 1 Enoch 82:1-3). Citing 2 Tim 3:16, with its reference to inspired Scripture, Tertullian exhorts his readers to heed Enoch, since he had preached about the Lord, Christ. He concludes by citing Jude's testimony about Enoch. He returns to this subject in De cultu feminarum book 2, which was originally a separate work,84 again undergirding his criticism with the authority of Enoch (2.10). The influence of the story of the watchers and the women is likely in Tertullian's treatise De virginibus velandis (chap. 7), where Paul's command in 1 Cor 11:2-16 is applied to virgins by means of a detailed and tortured exegesis of Gen 6:1-2 that contains elements found only in 1 Enoch (the identification of the sons of God as "angels" and their sinful lust; cf. De oratione 23).85 That virgins were the object of the angels' lust is also asserted by Athenagoras (see §6.3.2.6).
Tertullian's other references to 1 Enoch occur in De idololatria. Criticizing the making and worshiping of idols (chap. 4), Tertullian quotes the Decalogue and then states that Enoch, who had preceded Moses, had predicted that the demons, the spirits of the angelic apostates, would turn all the elements of creation into idolatry. The passage does not quote 1 Enoch but may reflect 1 Enoch 19:1.86 Several lines later, however, Tertullian prefaces a verbatim quotation of 1 Enoch 99:6-7 (for details, see textual notes, ad loc.) with the statement that the same Enoch condemned in advance the worshipers and makers of idols. In chap. 15, in what may be another allusion to 1 Enoch 19:1,87 Tertullian condemns dedicatory inscriptions, stating that they had been predicted by the Holy Spirit "through the most ancient prophet Enoch" (per antiquissimum prophetam Enoch).
Taken together, these references indicate Tertullian's knowledge of the Book of the Watchers, chaps. 81:1— 82:3, and the Epistle of Enoch. His references to Enoch's prediction of Christ may indicate knowledge of the Book of Parables, although these comments may refer to 1 Enoch 1, which he cites later with reference to the Epistle of Jude. Like Jude, he considers Enoch to have been a prophet and the author of this text.
6.3.2.10. Cyprian
In his treatise De habitu virginum (12-14, ca. 250 c.E.),88 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, proscribes the wearing of ornaments and dyed clothes. Dyeing, jewelry, eye paint, and other facial cosmetics "sinning and apostate angels put forth by their arts, when, lowered to the contagions of earth, they forsook their heavenly vigor" (peccatores et apostatae angeli suis artibus prodiderunt quando ad terrena contagia devoluti a caeksti vigore recesserunt, 14). That Cyprian uses Tertullian's treatise De cultu feminarum seems beyond dispute; his firsthand knowledge of 1 Enoch is less certain.89 His reference to their forsaking their heavenly vigor parallels verbatim the same word in Minucius Felix (see §6.3.2.8).
6.3.2.11. Ad Novatianum
This treatise against Novatian, falsely ascribed to Cyprian but probably written in North Africa between 253 and 257,90 strings together a series of citations about the coming judgment (chaps. 16-17), among them a verbatim quotation of 1 Enoch 1:8, introduced by the words "as it is written" (sicut scriptum est). The inclusion of a phrase not found in Jude 14-15 (see textual n. d on 1:9) indicates that this Christian author is not quoting from the NT epistle.
6.3.2.12. Clement of Alexandria
Clement's Eclogue propheticae (ca. 200 C.E.) is a collection of excerpts from gnostic writings with brief commentary in which it is not always possible to separate the excerpts from Clement's commentary.91 Chapters 1-2 quote and comment on the Song of the Three Young Men in Daniel 3 (LXX). In chap. 2, Dan 3:54 and its reference to God looking upon the abyss is likened to a statement by Enoch, "And I saw all matter" (mi. eldov raq vXaq irdaat;, GCS Clement 3). The quotation is usually seen as a rough paraphrase of 1 Enoch 19:3.92 The preserved Greek of 1 Enoch (TO. irepara iravTav) and its Ethiopic translation seem to refer to Enoch's seeing the ends of the earth (see comm. on 19:3). But the Greek in Clement may be an attempt to take the concluding statement of chaps. 17-19 as a summary of the contents of the whole section, in which Enoch has seen the whole of the created world. The same quotation appears in Ori-gen (see §6.3.2.13). The name of Enoch appears again in Edogae propheticae 53. Chapters 51-63 comment on Psalm 19. With respect to the demons' knowledge of Christ, chap. 53 states, "Already Enoch says that the transgressing angels taught humans astronomy and prognostication and the other arts" (77617 de mi, 'Ev®\ tprjOLV TOV<; irapapavTaq dyyeAouc; didd^ai TOV<; av&pairovq aarpovo^iav mi, yi,a.vTu<.r)v mi, Tag aAAag Te~xya<;, GCS Clement 3). Thus the text summarizes 1 Enoch 8, identifying it as an Enochic composition and in some indefinite way connecting demonic knowledge with angelic revelations. The motif of angelic instruction appears also in Stromata 5.1.10.2. After mentioning the Greeks' "theft" of ideas from Moses and the prophets, Clement states that certain angels of high rank, "having sunk into pleasures, uttered unspeakable things to the women, which had come to their knowledge" (KaroXiadriaavTeq eig rjdovaq e£ei7rof TO. d-rtopp-qra yvvci.L^iv oaa ye eig yvasaiv avrav cupluro, GCS Clement 2). The passage appears to paraphrase 1 Enoch 16:2 (see comm.).
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