The myth of Fallen Angels, or Watchers, who were possessed of great wisdom and mated with human women before the Flood is incredibly complex, but it is also the foundation for fringe history arguments about extraterrestrials, a lost race of giants, lost civilizations, and more. This myth has several interlocking streams: (a) Enoch and the Fallen Angels, (b) the Prophecy of Adam, (c) antediluvian tablets of wisdom, and (d) the wisdom tradition of Hermes Trismegistus. Originally separate, these pieces have combined and recombined in interesting ways across ancient and medieval literature. Below I have collected a large number of texts on the Watchers and the wisdom tradition. Additional material on the Hermetic contribution can be found in my page on medieval pyramid lore.
Epic of Gilgamesh 1.1-9 (c. 1900 CE)
I will tell of the history of Gilgamesh, he who knows all that has happened and has seen all the lands of the world, he who has seen all kinds of wisdom and knows the mysteries and has seen what is hidden. He bringeth news dating farther back than the deluge. He has travelled far-distant roads and became weary, and now he has engraved on standing stones the whole of the story.
Adapted from the translation of William Muss-Arnoldt.
Adapted from the translation of William Muss-Arnoldt.
Colophon of Ashurbanipal (seventh century BCE)
I had great joy to read inscriptions on stone from before the Flood.
Genesis 6:1-4 (c. 6th century BCE)
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1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
King James Version |
Book of the Watchers (c. 300 BCE)
Preserved in 1 Enoch 6-8 (full text here)
Chapter 6
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'
3 And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.'
4 And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.'
5 Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
6 And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
7 And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqiel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel.
8 These are their chiefs of tens.
Chapter 7
1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.
2 And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells:
3 Who consumed all the acquisitions of men.
4 And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.
5 And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood.
6 Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.
Chapter 8
1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.
2 And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.
3 Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
Translated by R. H. Charles (rev. 1913 trans.).
Chapter 6
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'
3 And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.'
4 And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.'
5 Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
6 And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
7 And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqiel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel.
8 These are their chiefs of tens.
Chapter 7
1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.
2 And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells:
3 Who consumed all the acquisitions of men.
4 And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.
5 And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood.
6 Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.
Chapter 8
1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.
2 And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.
3 Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
Translated by R. H. Charles (rev. 1913 trans.).
Fragment of the Book of Giants or Book of Noah (300 BCE? to 100 BCE?)
Preserved in George Syncellus, Chronicle 26-27
But from the mountain in which they swore, and bound themselves by mutual curses to each other, for ever shall not depart from it cold and snow—Hoar frost or dew shall not descend upon it until the day of great judgment, unless they shall be caused to descend upon it for execration. In that day it shall be consumed, shall be depressed, and shall be consumed, melted like wax in the flame. Thus shall it be burnt with all the works of it. And now I say to you ye sons of men, great wrath cometh upon you and upon your sons; and the wrath shall not cease from you till the day of the slaughter of your sons.
Translated by Edward Murray.
But from the mountain in which they swore, and bound themselves by mutual curses to each other, for ever shall not depart from it cold and snow—Hoar frost or dew shall not descend upon it until the day of great judgment, unless they shall be caused to descend upon it for execration. In that day it shall be consumed, shall be depressed, and shall be consumed, melted like wax in the flame. Thus shall it be burnt with all the works of it. And now I say to you ye sons of men, great wrath cometh upon you and upon your sons; and the wrath shall not cease from you till the day of the slaughter of your sons.
Translated by Edward Murray.
Berossus, Babyloniaca (c. 290-278 BCE)
Preserved in George Syncellus, Chronicle 30-32 and Eusebius, Chronicle 31-37
After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is thus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Dæsius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board every thing necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals; both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. If he was asked whither he intended to sail, he should say, “To the Gods, to pray for happiness for mankind.” He then obeyed the divine admonition: and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put every thing which he had prepared; and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends.
After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which, not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth: and having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared.
They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he was translated to live with the gods; that his wife and daughter, and the pilot, had obtained the same honour. To this he added, that they should return to Babylonia; and, as it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to all mankind: moreover that the place, wherein they then were, was the land of Armenia. The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods; and taking a circuit, journeyed towards Babylonia.
The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Corcyræan mountains of Armenia; and the people scrape off the bitumen, with which it had been outwardly coated, and make use of it by way of an alexipharmic and amulet. And when they returned to Babylon, and had found the writings at Sippara, they built cities, and erected temples: and Babylon was thus inhabited again.
Adapted from the translation by I. P. Cory (1826/1832), an uncredited revision of that of Jacob Bryant.
After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is thus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Dæsius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board every thing necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals; both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. If he was asked whither he intended to sail, he should say, “To the Gods, to pray for happiness for mankind.” He then obeyed the divine admonition: and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put every thing which he had prepared; and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends.
After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which, not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth: and having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared.
They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he was translated to live with the gods; that his wife and daughter, and the pilot, had obtained the same honour. To this he added, that they should return to Babylonia; and, as it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to all mankind: moreover that the place, wherein they then were, was the land of Armenia. The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods; and taking a circuit, journeyed towards Babylonia.
The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Corcyræan mountains of Armenia; and the people scrape off the bitumen, with which it had been outwardly coated, and make use of it by way of an alexipharmic and amulet. And when they returned to Babylon, and had found the writings at Sippara, they built cities, and erected temples: and Babylon was thus inhabited again.
Adapted from the translation by I. P. Cory (1826/1832), an uncredited revision of that of Jacob Bryant.
Preserved in Seneca, Natural Questions 3.29
Some suppose that in the final catastrophe the earth, too, will be shaken, and through clefts in the ground will uncover sources of fresh rivers which will flow forth from their full source in larger volume. Berossus, the translator of [the records of] Belus, affirms that the whole issue is brought about by the course of the planets. So positive is he on the point that he assigns a definite date both for the conflagration and the deluge. All that the earth inherits will, he assures us, be consigned to flame when the planets, which now move in different orbits, all assemble in Cancer, so arranged in one row that a straight line may pass through their spheres. When the same gathering takes place in Capricorn, then we are in danger of the deluge.
Translated by John Clarke.
Pseudo-Eupolemus, Concerning the Jews of Assyria (c. 158 BCE)
Preserved in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 9.17
'Eupolemus in his book Concerning the Jews of Assyria says that the city Babylon was first founded by those who escaped from the Deluge; and that they were giants, and built the tower renowned in history.
'But when this had been overthrown by the act of God, the giants were dispersed over the whole earth. And in the tenth generation, he says, in Camarina a city of Babylonia, which some call the city Uria (and which is by interpretation the city of the Chaldees), + in the thirteenth generation + Abraham was born, who surpassed all men in nobility and wisdom, who was also the inventor of astronomy and the Chaldaic art, and pleased God well by his zeal towards religion.
'By reason of God's commands this man came and dwelt in Phoenicia, and pleased their king by teaching the Phoenicians the changes of the sun and moon and all things of that kind. And afterwards the Armenians invaded the Phoenicians; and when they had been victorious, and had taken his nephew prisoner, Abraham came to the rescue with his servants, and prevailed over the captors, and made prisoners of the wives and children of the enemy.
'And when there came to him ambassadors asking that he would ransom them for money, he did not choose to trample upon the unfortunate, but on receiving food for his young men restored the booty; he was also admitted as a guest into the temple of the city called Argarizin, which being interpreted is "Mount of the Most High," and received gifts from Melchizedek, who was the king, and the priest of God.
'But when there came a famine Abraham removed into Egypt with all his household, and dwelt there, and the king of Egypt took his wife in marriage, Abraham having said that she was his sister.
'He also related fully that the king was unable to consort with her, and that it came to pass that his people and his household were perishing. And when he had called for the soothsayers, they said that the woman was not a widow; and thus the king of Egypt learned that she was Abraham's wife, and gave her back to her husband.
'And Abraham dwelt with the Egyptian priests in Heliopolis and taught them many things; and it was he who introduced astronomy and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and himself had found these things out, but tracing back the first discovery to Enoch, and saying that he, and not the Egyptians, had first invented astrology.
'For the Babylonians say that the first man was Belus, who is Kronos; and that of him was born a son Belus, and Chanaan; and that this Chanaan begat the father of the Phoenicians, and that his son was Churn, who is called by the Greeks Asbolus, and is father of the Aethiopians, and a brother of Mestraim the father of the Egyptians. But the Greeks say that Atlas invented astrology, and that Atlas is the same as Enoch: and that Enoch had a son Methuselah, who learned all things through angels of God, and thus we gained our knowledge.'
Translated by E. H. Gifford.
'Eupolemus in his book Concerning the Jews of Assyria says that the city Babylon was first founded by those who escaped from the Deluge; and that they were giants, and built the tower renowned in history.
'But when this had been overthrown by the act of God, the giants were dispersed over the whole earth. And in the tenth generation, he says, in Camarina a city of Babylonia, which some call the city Uria (and which is by interpretation the city of the Chaldees), + in the thirteenth generation + Abraham was born, who surpassed all men in nobility and wisdom, who was also the inventor of astronomy and the Chaldaic art, and pleased God well by his zeal towards religion.
'By reason of God's commands this man came and dwelt in Phoenicia, and pleased their king by teaching the Phoenicians the changes of the sun and moon and all things of that kind. And afterwards the Armenians invaded the Phoenicians; and when they had been victorious, and had taken his nephew prisoner, Abraham came to the rescue with his servants, and prevailed over the captors, and made prisoners of the wives and children of the enemy.
'And when there came to him ambassadors asking that he would ransom them for money, he did not choose to trample upon the unfortunate, but on receiving food for his young men restored the booty; he was also admitted as a guest into the temple of the city called Argarizin, which being interpreted is "Mount of the Most High," and received gifts from Melchizedek, who was the king, and the priest of God.
'But when there came a famine Abraham removed into Egypt with all his household, and dwelt there, and the king of Egypt took his wife in marriage, Abraham having said that she was his sister.
'He also related fully that the king was unable to consort with her, and that it came to pass that his people and his household were perishing. And when he had called for the soothsayers, they said that the woman was not a widow; and thus the king of Egypt learned that she was Abraham's wife, and gave her back to her husband.
'And Abraham dwelt with the Egyptian priests in Heliopolis and taught them many things; and it was he who introduced astronomy and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and himself had found these things out, but tracing back the first discovery to Enoch, and saying that he, and not the Egyptians, had first invented astrology.
'For the Babylonians say that the first man was Belus, who is Kronos; and that of him was born a son Belus, and Chanaan; and that this Chanaan begat the father of the Phoenicians, and that his son was Churn, who is called by the Greeks Asbolus, and is father of the Aethiopians, and a brother of Mestraim the father of the Egyptians. But the Greeks say that Atlas invented astrology, and that Atlas is the same as Enoch: and that Enoch had a son Methuselah, who learned all things through angels of God, and thus we gained our knowledge.'
Translated by E. H. Gifford.
Book of Jubilees 5:1-6, 8:1-4 (c. 150 BCE)
CHAPTER 5
1 And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants. 2 And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walketh on the earth-all of them corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men (was) thus evil continually. 3 And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders, and all that were upon the earth had wrought all manner of evil before His eyes. 4 And He said: “I shall destroy man and all flesh upon the face of the earth which I have created.” 5 But Noah found grace before the eyes of the Lord. 6 And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept) separate.
CHAPTER 8
1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, in the beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Râsû’ĕjâ, the daughter of Sûsân, the daughter of Elam, and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, and he called his name Kâinâm. 2 And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city. 3 And he found a writing which former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven. 4 And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it; for he was afraid to speak to Noah about it lest he should be angry with him on account of it. […]
Translated by R. H. Charles (1913).
1 And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants. 2 And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walketh on the earth-all of them corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men (was) thus evil continually. 3 And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders, and all that were upon the earth had wrought all manner of evil before His eyes. 4 And He said: “I shall destroy man and all flesh upon the face of the earth which I have created.” 5 But Noah found grace before the eyes of the Lord. 6 And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept) separate.
CHAPTER 8
1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, in the beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Râsû’ĕjâ, the daughter of Sûsân, the daughter of Elam, and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, and he called his name Kâinâm. 2 And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city. 3 And he found a writing which former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven. 4 And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it; for he was afraid to speak to Noah about it lest he should be angry with him on account of it. […]
Translated by R. H. Charles (1913).
2 Enoch (Secrets of Enoch) 18:1-7 (c. 1st century BCE)
1 The men took me on to the fifth heaven and placed me, and there I saw many and countless soldiers, called Grigori, of human appearance, and their size (was) greater than that of great giants and their faces withered, and the silence of their mouths perpetual, and their was no service on the fifth heaven, and I said to the men who were with me:
2 Wherefore are these very withered and their faces melancholy, and their mouths silent, and (wherefore) is there no service on this heaven?
3 And they said to me: These are the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail (Satan) rejected the Lord of light, and after them are those who are held in great darkness on the second heaven, and three of them went down on to earth from the Lord’s throne, to the place Ermon, and broke through their vows on the shoulder of the hill Ermon and saw the daughters of men how good they are, and took to themselves wives, and befouled the earth with their deeds, who in all times of their age made lawlessness and mixing, and giants are born and marvellous big men and great enmity.
4 And therefore God judged them with great judgment, and they weep for their brethren and they will be punished on the Lord’s great day.
5 And I said to the Grigori: I saw your brethren and their works, and their great torments, and I prayed for them, but the Lord has condemned them (to be) under earth till (the existing) heaven and earth shall end for ever.
6 And I said: Wherefore do you wait, brethren, and do not serve before the Lord’s face, and have not put your services before the Lord’s face, lest you anger your Lord utterly?
7 And they listened to my admonition, and spoke to the four ranks in heaven, and lo! As I stood with those two men four trumpets trumpeted together with great voice, and the Grigori broke into song with one voice, and their voice went up before the Lord pitifully and affectingly.
Translated by W. R. Morfill (1896).
2 Wherefore are these very withered and their faces melancholy, and their mouths silent, and (wherefore) is there no service on this heaven?
3 And they said to me: These are the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail (Satan) rejected the Lord of light, and after them are those who are held in great darkness on the second heaven, and three of them went down on to earth from the Lord’s throne, to the place Ermon, and broke through their vows on the shoulder of the hill Ermon and saw the daughters of men how good they are, and took to themselves wives, and befouled the earth with their deeds, who in all times of their age made lawlessness and mixing, and giants are born and marvellous big men and great enmity.
4 And therefore God judged them with great judgment, and they weep for their brethren and they will be punished on the Lord’s great day.
5 And I said to the Grigori: I saw your brethren and their works, and their great torments, and I prayed for them, but the Lord has condemned them (to be) under earth till (the existing) heaven and earth shall end for ever.
6 And I said: Wherefore do you wait, brethren, and do not serve before the Lord’s face, and have not put your services before the Lord’s face, lest you anger your Lord utterly?
7 And they listened to my admonition, and spoke to the four ranks in heaven, and lo! As I stood with those two men four trumpets trumpeted together with great voice, and the Grigori broke into song with one voice, and their voice went up before the Lord pitifully and affectingly.
Translated by W. R. Morfill (1896).
Damascus Document 2:18-19 (formerly Zadokite Document 3:4-5) (c. 100 BCE-70 CE)
Because they walked in the stubbornness of their hearts, the Watchers of heaven fell; yea, they were caught thereby because they kept not the commandments of God.
So too their sons, whose height was like the lofty cedars and whose bodies were as mountains. They also fell.
Translated by R. H. Charles (1913).
So too their sons, whose height was like the lofty cedars and whose bodies were as mountains. They also fell.
Translated by R. H. Charles (1913).
Kore Kosmou 1 (possibly 1st century BCE or CE)
I will not recount this Nativity, said Isis; I dare not, O powerful Horos, declare the origin of thy race, lest men in the future should learn the generation of the Gods. I will say only that the Supreme God, Creator and Architect of the world, at length accorded to earth for a season, thy father Osiris and the great Goddess Isis, that they might bring the expected salvation. By them life attained its fulness; savage and bloody wars were ended; they consecrated temples to the Gods their ancestors, and instituted oblations. They gave to mortals law, nourishment, and raiment. “They shall read,” Hermes said, “my mystic writings, and dividing them into two parts, they shall keep certain of them, and inscribe upon columns and obelisks those which may be useful to man.” Institutors of the first tribunals, they established everywhere the reign of order and justice. With them began the faith of treaties, and the introduction into human life of the religious duty of oaths. They taught the rites of sepulture towards those who cease to live; they interrogated the horrors of death; they shewed that the spirit from without delights to return into the human body, and that if the way of entry be shut against it, it brings about a failure of life. Instructed by Hermes, they engraved upon hidden tables that the air is filled with genii. Instructed by Hermes in the secret laws of God, they alone were the teachers and legislators of mankind, initiating them in the arts, the sciences, and the benefits of civilised life. Instructed by Hermes concerning the sympathetic affinities which the Creator has established between heaven and earth, they instituted religious representations and sacred mysteries. And, considering the corruptible nature of all bodies, they ordained prophetic initiation, so that the prophet who lifts his hands to the Gods should be instructed in all things, and that thereby philosophy and magic might provide nourishment for the soul, and medicine might heal the sufferings of the flesh.
Translated by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland
Translated by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland
Philo, On Giants 6-11 (before 50 CE)
6 “And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they Chose.” (Gen. 6:2) Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels; and they are souls hovering in the air. 7 And let no one suppose, that what is here stated is a fable, for it is necessarily true that the universe must be filled with living things in all its parts, since every one of its primary and elementary portions contains its appropriate animals and such as are consistent with its nature;—the earth containing terrestrial animals, the sea and the rivers containing aquatic animals, and the fire such as are born in the fire (but it is said, that such as these last are found chiefly in Macedonia), and the heaven containing the stars: 8 for these also are entire souls pervading the universe, being unadulterated and divine, inasmuch as they move in a circle, which is the kind of motion most akin to the mind, for every one of them is the parent mind. It is therefore necessary that the air also should be full of living beings. And these beings are invisible to us, inasmuch as the air itself is not visible to mortal sight. 9 But it does not follow, because our sight is incapable of perceiving the forms of souls, that for that reason there are no souls in the air; but it follows of necessity that they must be comprehended by the mind, in order that like may be contemplated by like. 10 Since what shall we say? Must we not say that these animals which are terrestrial or aquatic live in air and spirit? What? Are not pestilential afflictions accustomed to exist when the air is tainted or corrupted, as if that were the cause of all such assuming vitality? Again, when the air is free from all taint and innocent, such as it is especially wont to be when the north wind prevails, does not the imbibing of a purer air tend to a more vigorous and more lasting duration of life? 11 It is then natural that that medium by which all other animals, whether aquatic of terrestrial, are vivified should itself be empty and destitute of souls? On the contrary, even if all other animals were barren, the air by itself would be bound to be productive of life, having received from the great Creator the seeds of vitality by his especial favour.
Translated by C. D. Yonge.
Translated by C. D. Yonge.
Jude 1:9 (c. 60-90 CE)
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
King James Version.
Note: This text is paralleled by 2 Peter 2:4.
King James Version.
Note: This text is paralleled by 2 Peter 2:4.
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.68-74 (93-94 CE)
68 … Now this Seth […] was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. 69 All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. 70 And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, 71 that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad [i.e. Egypt] to this day.
72 Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. 73 For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. 74 But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.
Translated by William Whiston.
72 Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. 73 For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. 74 But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.
Translated by William Whiston.
Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Reuben 5 (c. 2nd century CE)
Hurtful are women, my children; because, since they have no power or strength over the man, they act subtly through outward guise how they may draw him to themselves; and whom they cannot overcome by strength, him they overcome by craft. For moreover the angel of God told me concerning them, and taught me that women are overcome by the spirit of fornication more than men, and they devise in their heart against men; and by means of their adornment they deceive first their minds, and instil the poison by the glance of their eye, and then they take them captive by their doings, for a woman cannot overcome a man by force.
Therefore flee fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters that they adorn not their heads and their faces; because every woman who acts deceitfully in these things has been reserved to everlasting punishment. For thus they allured the Watchers before the flood; and as these continually beheld them, they fell into desire each of the other, and they conceived the act in their mind, and changed themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them in their congress with their husbands; and the women, having in their minds desire toward their apparitions, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven.
Translated by Robert Sinker.
Therefore flee fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters that they adorn not their heads and their faces; because every woman who acts deceitfully in these things has been reserved to everlasting punishment. For thus they allured the Watchers before the flood; and as these continually beheld them, they fell into desire each of the other, and they conceived the act in their mind, and changed themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them in their congress with their husbands; and the women, having in their minds desire toward their apparitions, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven.
Translated by Robert Sinker.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 5 (155-157 CE)
In our case, who pledge ourselves to do no wickedness, nor to hold these atheistic opinions, you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, effecting apparitions of themselves, both defiled women and corrupted boys, and showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear, and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods, and gave to each the name which each of the demons chose for himself.
Translated by Marcus Dods and George Reith.
Translated by Marcus Dods and George Reith.
Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 24-25 (176 or 177 CE)
24. … Some, free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which He had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them: namely, this ruler of matter and its various forms, and others of those who were placed about this first firmament (you know that we say nothing without witnesses, but state the things which have been declared by the prophets); these fell into impure love of virgins, and were subjugated by the flesh, and he became negligent and wicked in the management of the things entrusted to him. Of these lovers of virgins, therefore, were begotten those who are called giants. And if something has been said by the poets, too, about the giants, be not surprised at this: worldly wisdom and divine differ as much from each other as truth and plausibility: the one is of heaven and the other of earth; and indeed, according to the prince of matter,— “We know we oft speak lies that look like truths.”
25. These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, the other (that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged. But the prince of matter, as may be seen merely from what transpires, exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God…
Translated by B. P. Pratten.
25. These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, the other (that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged. But the prince of matter, as may be seen merely from what transpires, exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God…
Translated by B. P. Pratten.
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.5 (c. 200 CE)
“For the most approved of those that are reputable knows how to keep watch. And justice will apprehend the forgers and witnesses of lies,” says the Ephesian. For he, having derived his knowledge from the barbarian philosophy, is acquainted with the purification by fire of those who have led bad lives, which the Stoics afterwards called the Conflagration (ἐκπύρωσις), in which also they teach that each will arise exactly as he was, so treating of the resurrection; while Plato says as follows, that the earth at certain periods is purified by fire and water: “There have been many destructions of men in many ways; and there shall be very great ones by fire and water; and others briefer by innumerable causes.” And after a little he adds: “And, in truth, there is a change of the objects which revolve about earth and heaven; and in the course of long periods there is the destruction of the objects on earth by a great conflagration.” Then he subjoins respecting the deluge: “But when, again, the gods deluge the earth to purify it with water, those on the mountains, herdsmen and shepherds, are saved; those in your cities are carried down by the rivers into the sea.” And we showed in the first Miscellany that the philosophers of the Greeks are called thieves, inasmuch as they have taken without acknowledgment their principal dogmas from Moses and the prophets. To which also we shall add, that the angels who had obtained the superior rank, having sunk into pleasures, told to the women the secrets which had come to their knowledge; while the rest of the angels concealed them, or rather, kept them against the coming of the Lord.
Translated by William Wilson.
Translated by William Wilson.
Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women 1.2-3 (c. 200 CE)
Chapter 2. The Origin of Female Ornamentation, Traced Back to the Angels Who Had Fallen.
For they, withal, who instituted them are assigned, under condemnation, to the penalty of death—those angels, to wit, who rushed from heaven on the daughters of men; so that this ignominy also attaches to woman. For when to an age much more ignorant (than ours) they had disclosed certain well-concealed material substances, and several not well-revealed scientific arts—if it is true that they had laid bare the operations of metallurgy, and had divulged the natural properties of herbs, and had promulgated the powers of enchantments, and had traced out every curious art, even to the interpretation of the stars—they conferred properly and as it were peculiarly upon women that instrumental mean of womanly ostentation, the radiances of jewels wherewith necklaces are variegated, and the circlets of gold wherewith the arms are compressed, and the medicaments of orchil with which wools are coloured, and that black powder itself wherewith the eyelids and eyelashes are made prominent. What is the quality of these things may be declared meantime, even at this point, from the quality and condition of their teachers: in that sinners could never have either shown or supplied anything conducive to integrity, unlawful lovers anything conducive to chastity, renegade spirits anything conducive to the fear of God. If (these things) are to be called teachings, ill masters must of necessity have taught ill; if as wages of lust, there is nothing base of which the wages are honourable. But why was it of so much importance to show these things as well as to confer them? Was it that women, without material causes of splendour, and without ingenious contrivances of grace, could not please men, who, while still unadorned, and uncouth and—so to say—crude and rude, had moved (the mind of) angels? Or was it that the lovers would appear sordid and—through gratuitous use—contumelious, if they had conferred no (compensating) gift on the women who had been enticed into connubial connection with them? But these questions admit of no calculation. Women who possessed angels (as husbands) could desire nothing more; they had, forsooth, made a grand match! Assuredly they who, of course, did sometimes think whence they had fallen, and, after the heated impulses of their lusts, looked up toward heaven, thus requited that very excellence of women, natural beauty, as (having proved) a cause of evil, in order that their good fortune might profit them nothing; but that, being turned from simplicity and sincerity, they, together with (the angels) themselves, might become offensive to God. Sure they were that all ostentation, and ambition, and love of pleasing by carnal means, was displeasing to God. And these are the angels whom we are destined to judge: these are the angels whom in baptism we renounce: these, of course, are the reasons why they have deserved to be judged by man. What business, then, have their things with their judges? What commerce have they who are to condemn with them who are to be condemned? The same, I take it, as Christ has with Belial. With what consistency do we mount that (future) judgment-seat to pronounce sentence against those whose gifts we (now) seek after? For you too, (women as you are,) have the self-same angelic nature promised as your reward, the self-same sex as men: the self-same advancement to the dignity of judging, does (the Lord) promise you. Unless, then, we begin even here to pre-judge, by pre-condemning their things, which we are hereafter to condemn in themselves, they will rather judge and condemn us.
Chapter 3. Concerning the Genuineness of “The Prophecy of Enoch.”
I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not think that, having been published before the deluge, it could have safely survived that world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things. If that is the reason (for rejecting it), let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself; and he, of course, had heard and remembered, from domestic renown and hereditary tradition, concerning his own great-grandfather's “grace in the sight of God,” and concerning all his preachings; since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity. Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching; or, had the case been otherwise, he would not have been silent alike concerning the disposition (of things) made by God, his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory of his own house.
If (Noah) had not had this (conservative power) by so short a route, there would (still) be this (consideration) to warrant our assertion of (the genuineness of) this Scripture: he could equally have renewed it, under the Spirit's inspiration, after it had been destroyed by the violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document of the Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra.
But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that “every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.” By the Jews it may now seem to have been rejected for that (very) reason, just like all the other (portions) nearly which tell of Christ. Nor, of course, is this fact wonderful, that they did not receive some Scriptures which spoke of Him whom even in person, speaking in their presence, they were not to receive. To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude.
Translated by S. Thelwall.
For they, withal, who instituted them are assigned, under condemnation, to the penalty of death—those angels, to wit, who rushed from heaven on the daughters of men; so that this ignominy also attaches to woman. For when to an age much more ignorant (than ours) they had disclosed certain well-concealed material substances, and several not well-revealed scientific arts—if it is true that they had laid bare the operations of metallurgy, and had divulged the natural properties of herbs, and had promulgated the powers of enchantments, and had traced out every curious art, even to the interpretation of the stars—they conferred properly and as it were peculiarly upon women that instrumental mean of womanly ostentation, the radiances of jewels wherewith necklaces are variegated, and the circlets of gold wherewith the arms are compressed, and the medicaments of orchil with which wools are coloured, and that black powder itself wherewith the eyelids and eyelashes are made prominent. What is the quality of these things may be declared meantime, even at this point, from the quality and condition of their teachers: in that sinners could never have either shown or supplied anything conducive to integrity, unlawful lovers anything conducive to chastity, renegade spirits anything conducive to the fear of God. If (these things) are to be called teachings, ill masters must of necessity have taught ill; if as wages of lust, there is nothing base of which the wages are honourable. But why was it of so much importance to show these things as well as to confer them? Was it that women, without material causes of splendour, and without ingenious contrivances of grace, could not please men, who, while still unadorned, and uncouth and—so to say—crude and rude, had moved (the mind of) angels? Or was it that the lovers would appear sordid and—through gratuitous use—contumelious, if they had conferred no (compensating) gift on the women who had been enticed into connubial connection with them? But these questions admit of no calculation. Women who possessed angels (as husbands) could desire nothing more; they had, forsooth, made a grand match! Assuredly they who, of course, did sometimes think whence they had fallen, and, after the heated impulses of their lusts, looked up toward heaven, thus requited that very excellence of women, natural beauty, as (having proved) a cause of evil, in order that their good fortune might profit them nothing; but that, being turned from simplicity and sincerity, they, together with (the angels) themselves, might become offensive to God. Sure they were that all ostentation, and ambition, and love of pleasing by carnal means, was displeasing to God. And these are the angels whom we are destined to judge: these are the angels whom in baptism we renounce: these, of course, are the reasons why they have deserved to be judged by man. What business, then, have their things with their judges? What commerce have they who are to condemn with them who are to be condemned? The same, I take it, as Christ has with Belial. With what consistency do we mount that (future) judgment-seat to pronounce sentence against those whose gifts we (now) seek after? For you too, (women as you are,) have the self-same angelic nature promised as your reward, the self-same sex as men: the self-same advancement to the dignity of judging, does (the Lord) promise you. Unless, then, we begin even here to pre-judge, by pre-condemning their things, which we are hereafter to condemn in themselves, they will rather judge and condemn us.
Chapter 3. Concerning the Genuineness of “The Prophecy of Enoch.”
I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not think that, having been published before the deluge, it could have safely survived that world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things. If that is the reason (for rejecting it), let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself; and he, of course, had heard and remembered, from domestic renown and hereditary tradition, concerning his own great-grandfather's “grace in the sight of God,” and concerning all his preachings; since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity. Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching; or, had the case been otherwise, he would not have been silent alike concerning the disposition (of things) made by God, his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory of his own house.
If (Noah) had not had this (conservative power) by so short a route, there would (still) be this (consideration) to warrant our assertion of (the genuineness of) this Scripture: he could equally have renewed it, under the Spirit's inspiration, after it had been destroyed by the violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document of the Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra.
But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that “every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.” By the Jews it may now seem to have been rejected for that (very) reason, just like all the other (portions) nearly which tell of Christ. Nor, of course, is this fact wonderful, that they did not receive some Scriptures which spoke of Him whom even in person, speaking in their presence, they were not to receive. To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude.
Translated by S. Thelwall.
Julius Africanus, Chronography (c. 221 CE)
Preserved in George Syncellus, Chronicle 19-20
When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of men. In some copies I found “the sons of God.” What is meant by the Spirit, in my opinion, is that the descendants of Seth are called the sons of God on account of the righteous men and patriarchs who have sprung from him, even down to the Saviour Himself; but that the descendants of Cain are named the seed of men, as having nothing divine in them, on account of the wickedness of their race and the inequality of their nature, being a mixed people, and having stirred the indignation of God. But if it is thought that these refer to angels, we must take them to be those who deal with magic and jugglery, who taught the women the motions of the stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by whose power they conceived the giants as their children, by whom wickedness came to its height on the earth, until God decreed that the whole race of the living should perish in their impiety by the deluge.
Translated by S. D. F. Salmond (1869).
When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of men. In some copies I found “the sons of God.” What is meant by the Spirit, in my opinion, is that the descendants of Seth are called the sons of God on account of the righteous men and patriarchs who have sprung from him, even down to the Saviour Himself; but that the descendants of Cain are named the seed of men, as having nothing divine in them, on account of the wickedness of their race and the inequality of their nature, being a mixed people, and having stirred the indignation of God. But if it is thought that these refer to angels, we must take them to be those who deal with magic and jugglery, who taught the women the motions of the stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by whose power they conceived the giants as their children, by whom wickedness came to its height on the earth, until God decreed that the whole race of the living should perish in their impiety by the deluge.
Translated by S. D. F. Salmond (1869).
Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah, p. 3, lines 12-20 (c. 3rd century CE)
12 … If it be that] thou seekest to pronounce a spell, come to me that I may cause thee to be taken to the place wherein is the book which Thoth wrote with his own hand when he went down following the gods. (There are) two formulae in writing that are upon it, 13 and when thou [readest the first formula thou wilt] enchant the heaven, the earth, the underworld, the mountains, the seas; thou wilt discover all that the birds of heaven and the creeping things shall say; thou wilt see the fish of the deep, there being 14 [power of God resting in water] over [them]. If thou read the second formula, though thou be in Amenti, thou shalt take again thy form upon earth; thou wilt see Ra shining forth in heaven with all the gods of his company, and the moon rising [in] its wise.”
‘[And Neneferkaptah said unto him], “O king, live for 15 ever! let there be told unto me some good thing that thou seekest, and I will cause it to be done unto thee, that thou mayest direct me to the place in which this book is.”
‘And the priest said unto Neneferkaptah, “If it be that [thou] seekest to be directed to [the place where this book is], thou 16 shalt give unto me a hundred teben of silver for my burial, and thou shalt cause to be given to me two priestly offices (?) without fee (?).”
‘Neneferkaptah called a youth, and caused to be given unto the priest the hundred teben of silver; he caused two to be made, he caused them to be given [to him 17 without fee (?).
‘And the priest said unto] Neneferkaptah, “The book named, it is in the midst of the Sea of Coptos, in a box of iron, the box of iron being [in] a box [of bronze, the box of bronze] in 18 a box [of] kete-wood in a box of ivory and 19 ebony, the box of ivory and ebony in a [box of silver, and the box] of silver in a box of gold, wherein is the book: there [being a schoenus] of every kind of serpent, scorpion, and 20 reptile around the box wherein is the book, there being [an endless snake about] the box named.”…’
Translated by F. Ll. Griffith
‘[And Neneferkaptah said unto him], “O king, live for 15 ever! let there be told unto me some good thing that thou seekest, and I will cause it to be done unto thee, that thou mayest direct me to the place in which this book is.”
‘And the priest said unto Neneferkaptah, “If it be that [thou] seekest to be directed to [the place where this book is], thou 16 shalt give unto me a hundred teben of silver for my burial, and thou shalt cause to be given to me two priestly offices (?) without fee (?).”
‘Neneferkaptah called a youth, and caused to be given unto the priest the hundred teben of silver; he caused two to be made, he caused them to be given [to him 17 without fee (?).
‘And the priest said unto] Neneferkaptah, “The book named, it is in the midst of the Sea of Coptos, in a box of iron, the box of iron being [in] a box [of bronze, the box of bronze] in 18 a box [of] kete-wood in a box of ivory and 19 ebony, the box of ivory and ebony in a [box of silver, and the box] of silver in a box of gold, wherein is the book: there [being a schoenus] of every kind of serpent, scorpion, and 20 reptile around the box wherein is the book, there being [an endless snake about] the box named.”…’
Translated by F. Ll. Griffith
Commodianus, Instructions 3 (c. 240-250 CE)
The Worship of Demons
When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. By them arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that ye this day worship and pray to as gods.
Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis.
When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. By them arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that ye this day worship and pray to as gods.
Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis.
Origen, Contra Celsum 5 (248 CE)
54. In the next place, he proceeds to answer himself as he thinks fit in the following terms: “And so he is not the only one who is recorded to have visited the human race, as even those who, under pretext of teaching in the name of Jesus, have apostatized from the Creator as an inferior being, and have given in their adherence to one who is a superior God and father of him who visited (the world), assert that before him certain beings came from the Creator to visit the human race.” Now, as it is in the spirit of truth that we investigate all that relates to the subject, we shall remark that it is asserted by Apelles, the celebrated disciple of Marcion, who became the founder of a certain sect, and who treated the writings of the Jews as fabulous, that Jesus is the only one that came to visit the human race. Even against him, then, who maintained that Jesus was the only one that came from God to men, it would be in vain for Celsus to quote the statements regarding the descent of other angels, seeing Apelles discredits, as we have already mentioned, the miraculous narratives of the Jewish Scriptures; and much more will he decline to admit what Celsus has adduced, from not understanding the contents of the book of Enoch. No one, then, convicts us of falsehood, or of making contradictory assertions, as if we maintained both that our Saviour was the only being that ever came to men, and yet that many others came on different occasions. And in a most confused manner, moreover, does he adduce, when examining the subject of the visits of angels to men, what he has derived, without seeing its meaning, from the contents of the book of Enoch; for he does not appear to have read the passages in question, nor to have been aware that the books which bear the name Enoch do not at all circulate in the Churches as divine, although it is from this source that he might be supposed to have obtained the statement, that “sixty or seventy angels descended at the same time, who fell into a state of wickedness.”
55. But, that we may grant to him in a spirit of candour what he has not discovered in the contents of the book of Genesis, that “the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to them wives of all whom they chose,” we shall nevertheless even on this point persuade those who are capable of understanding the meaning of the prophet, that even before us there was one who referred this narrative to the doctrine regarding souls, which became possessed with a desire for the corporeal life of men, and this in metaphorical language, he said, was termed “daughters of men.” But whatever may be the meaning of the “sons of God desiring to possess the daughters of men,” it will not at all contribute to prove that Jesus was not the only one who visited mankind as an angel, and who manifestly became the Saviour and benefactor of all those who depart from the flood of wickedness. Then, mixing up and confusing whatever he had at any time heard, or had anywhere found written— whether held to be of divine origin among Christians or not— he adds: “The sixty or seventy who descended together were cast under the earth, and were punished with chains.” And he quotes (as from the book of Enoch, but without naming it) the following: “And hence it is that the tears of these angels are warm springs,”— a thing neither mentioned nor heard of in the Churches of God! For no one was ever so foolish as to materialize into human tears those which were shed by the angels who had come down from heaven. And if it were right to pass a jest upon what is advanced against us in a serious spirit by Celsus, we might observe that no one would ever have said that hot springs, the greater part of which are fresh water, were the tears of the angels, since tears are saltish in their nature, unless indeed the angels, in the opinion of Celsus, shed tears which are fresh.
56. Proceeding immediately after to mix up and compare with one another things that are dissimilar, and incapable of being united, he subjoins to his statement regarding the sixty or seventy angels who came down from heaven, and who, according to him, shed fountains of warm water for tears, the following: “It is related also that there came to the tomb of Jesus himself, according to some, two angels, according to others, one;” having failed to notice, I think, that Matthew and Mark speak of one, and Luke and John of two, which statements are not contradictory. For they who mention “one,” say that it was he who rolled away the stone from the sepulchre; while they who mention “two,” refer to those who appeared in shining raiment to the women that repaired to the sepulchre, or who were seen within sitting in white garments. Each of these occurrences might now be demonstrated to have actually taken place, and to be indicative of a figurative meaning existing in these “phenomena,” (and intelligible) to those who were prepared to behold the resurrection of the Word. Such a task, however, does not belong to our present purpose, but rather to an exposition of the Gospel.
Translated by Frederick Crombie.
55. But, that we may grant to him in a spirit of candour what he has not discovered in the contents of the book of Genesis, that “the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to them wives of all whom they chose,” we shall nevertheless even on this point persuade those who are capable of understanding the meaning of the prophet, that even before us there was one who referred this narrative to the doctrine regarding souls, which became possessed with a desire for the corporeal life of men, and this in metaphorical language, he said, was termed “daughters of men.” But whatever may be the meaning of the “sons of God desiring to possess the daughters of men,” it will not at all contribute to prove that Jesus was not the only one who visited mankind as an angel, and who manifestly became the Saviour and benefactor of all those who depart from the flood of wickedness. Then, mixing up and confusing whatever he had at any time heard, or had anywhere found written— whether held to be of divine origin among Christians or not— he adds: “The sixty or seventy who descended together were cast under the earth, and were punished with chains.” And he quotes (as from the book of Enoch, but without naming it) the following: “And hence it is that the tears of these angels are warm springs,”— a thing neither mentioned nor heard of in the Churches of God! For no one was ever so foolish as to materialize into human tears those which were shed by the angels who had come down from heaven. And if it were right to pass a jest upon what is advanced against us in a serious spirit by Celsus, we might observe that no one would ever have said that hot springs, the greater part of which are fresh water, were the tears of the angels, since tears are saltish in their nature, unless indeed the angels, in the opinion of Celsus, shed tears which are fresh.
56. Proceeding immediately after to mix up and compare with one another things that are dissimilar, and incapable of being united, he subjoins to his statement regarding the sixty or seventy angels who came down from heaven, and who, according to him, shed fountains of warm water for tears, the following: “It is related also that there came to the tomb of Jesus himself, according to some, two angels, according to others, one;” having failed to notice, I think, that Matthew and Mark speak of one, and Luke and John of two, which statements are not contradictory. For they who mention “one,” say that it was he who rolled away the stone from the sepulchre; while they who mention “two,” refer to those who appeared in shining raiment to the women that repaired to the sepulchre, or who were seen within sitting in white garments. Each of these occurrences might now be demonstrated to have actually taken place, and to be indicative of a figurative meaning existing in these “phenomena,” (and intelligible) to those who were prepared to behold the resurrection of the Word. Such a task, however, does not belong to our present purpose, but rather to an exposition of the Gospel.
Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Asclepius 9.24-26 (c. 3rd century CE or later)
(Hermes is speaking)
24
1. … Dost thou not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of the Heaven; or, what is truer still, the transference, or the descent, of all that are in governance or exercise in Heaven? And if more truly [still] it must be said,—this land of ours is Shrine of all the World.
2. Further, in that ’tis fitting that the prudent should know all before, it is not right ye should be ignorant of this. The time will come when Egypt will appear to have in vain served the Divinity with pious mind and constant worship; and all its holy cult will fall to nothingness and be in vain. For that Divinity is now about to hasten back from Earth to Heaven, and Egypt shall be left; and Earth, which was the seat of pious cults, shall be bereft and widowed of the presence of the Gods. And foreigners shall fill this region and this land; and there shall be not only the neglect of pious cults, but—what is still more painful,—as though enacted by the laws, a penalty shall be decreed against the practice of [our] pious cults and worship of the Gods—[entire] proscription of them.
3. Then shall this holiest land, seat of [our] shrines and temples, be choked with tombs and corpses. O Egypt, Egypt, of thy pious cults tales only will remain, as far beyond belief for thy own sons [as for the rest of men]; words only will be left cut on thy stones, thy pious deeds recounting! And Egypt will be made the home of Scyth or Indian, or some one like to them,—that is a foreign neighbour. Ay, for the Godly company shall mount again to Heaven, and their forsaken worshippers shall all die out; and Egypt, thus bereft of God and man, shall be abandoned.
4. And now I speak to thee, O River, holiest [Stream]! I tell thee what will be. With bloody torrents shalt thou overflow thy banks. Not only shall thy streams divine be stained with blood; but they shall all flow over [with the same]. The tale of tombs shall far exceed the [number of the] quick; and the surviving remnant shall be Egyptians in their tongue alone, but in their actions foreigners.
25
1. Why dost thou weep, Asclepius? Nay, more than this, by far more wretched,—Egypt herself shall be impelled and stained with greater ills. For she, the Holy [Land], and once deservedly the most beloved by God, by reason of her pious service of the Gods on earth,—she, the sole colony of holiness, and teacher of religion [on the earth], shall be the type of all that is most barbarous And then, out of our loathing for mankind, the World will seem no more deserving of our wonder and our praise. All this good thing,—than which there has been fairer naught that can be seen, nor is there anything, nor will there [ever] be,—will be in jeopardy.
2. And it will prove a burden unto men; and on account of this they will despise and cease to love this Cosmos as a whole,—the changeless work of God; the glorious construction of the Good, comprised of multifold variety of forms; the engine of God’s Will, supporting His own work ungrudgingly; the multitudinous whole massed in a unity of all, that should be reverenced, praised and loved,—by them at least who have the eyes to see. For Darkness will be set before the Light, and Death will be thought preferable to Life. No one will raise his eyes to Heaven; the pious man will be considered mad, the impious a sage; the frenzied held as strong, the worst as best.
3. For soul, and all concerning it,—whereby it doth presume that either it hath been born deathless, or that it will attain to deathlessness, according to the argument I have set forth for you,—[all this] will be considered not only food for sport, but even vanity. Nay, [if ye will] believe me, the penalty of death shall be decreed to him who shall devote himself to the Religion of the Mind. New statutes shall come into force, a novel law; naught [that is] sacred, nothing pious, naught that is worthy of the Heaven, or Gods in Heaven, shall [e’er] be heard, or [even] mentally believed.
4. The sorrowful departure of the Gods from men takes place; bad angels only stay, who mingled with humanity will lay their hands on them, and drive the wretched folk to every ill of recklessness,—to wars, and robberies, deceits, and all those things that are opposed to the soul’s nature. Then shall the Earth no longer hold together; the Sea no longer shall be sailed upon; nor shall the Heaven continue with the Courses of the Stars, nor the Star-course in Heaven. The voice of every God shall cease in the [Great] Silence that no one can break; the fruits of Earth shall rot; nay, Earth no longer shall bring forth; and Air itself shall faint in that sad listlessness.
26
1. This, when it comes, shall be the World’s old age, impiety,—irregularity, and lack of rationality in all good things. And when these things all come to pass, Asclepius,—then He, [our] Lord and Sire, God First in power, and Ruler of the One God [Visible], in check of crime, and calling error back from the corruption of all things unto good manners and to deeds spontaneous with His Will (that is to say God’s Goodness),—ending all ill, by either washing it away with water-flood, or burning it away with fire, or by the means of pestilent diseases, spread throughout all hostile lands,—God will recall the Cosmos to its ancient form; so that the World itself shall seem meet to be worshipped and admired; and God, the Maker and Restorer of so vast a work, be sung by the humanity who shall be then, with ceaseless heraldings of praise and [hymns of] blessing.
2. For this [Re-]birth of Cosmos is the making new of all good things, and the most holy and most pious bringing-back again of Nature’s self, by means of a set course of time,—of Nature, which was without beginning, and which is without an end. For that God’s Will hath no beginning; and, in that ’tis the same and as it is, it is without an end.
Translated by G. R. S. Mead
24
1. … Dost thou not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of the Heaven; or, what is truer still, the transference, or the descent, of all that are in governance or exercise in Heaven? And if more truly [still] it must be said,—this land of ours is Shrine of all the World.
2. Further, in that ’tis fitting that the prudent should know all before, it is not right ye should be ignorant of this. The time will come when Egypt will appear to have in vain served the Divinity with pious mind and constant worship; and all its holy cult will fall to nothingness and be in vain. For that Divinity is now about to hasten back from Earth to Heaven, and Egypt shall be left; and Earth, which was the seat of pious cults, shall be bereft and widowed of the presence of the Gods. And foreigners shall fill this region and this land; and there shall be not only the neglect of pious cults, but—what is still more painful,—as though enacted by the laws, a penalty shall be decreed against the practice of [our] pious cults and worship of the Gods—[entire] proscription of them.
3. Then shall this holiest land, seat of [our] shrines and temples, be choked with tombs and corpses. O Egypt, Egypt, of thy pious cults tales only will remain, as far beyond belief for thy own sons [as for the rest of men]; words only will be left cut on thy stones, thy pious deeds recounting! And Egypt will be made the home of Scyth or Indian, or some one like to them,—that is a foreign neighbour. Ay, for the Godly company shall mount again to Heaven, and their forsaken worshippers shall all die out; and Egypt, thus bereft of God and man, shall be abandoned.
4. And now I speak to thee, O River, holiest [Stream]! I tell thee what will be. With bloody torrents shalt thou overflow thy banks. Not only shall thy streams divine be stained with blood; but they shall all flow over [with the same]. The tale of tombs shall far exceed the [number of the] quick; and the surviving remnant shall be Egyptians in their tongue alone, but in their actions foreigners.
25
1. Why dost thou weep, Asclepius? Nay, more than this, by far more wretched,—Egypt herself shall be impelled and stained with greater ills. For she, the Holy [Land], and once deservedly the most beloved by God, by reason of her pious service of the Gods on earth,—she, the sole colony of holiness, and teacher of religion [on the earth], shall be the type of all that is most barbarous And then, out of our loathing for mankind, the World will seem no more deserving of our wonder and our praise. All this good thing,—than which there has been fairer naught that can be seen, nor is there anything, nor will there [ever] be,—will be in jeopardy.
2. And it will prove a burden unto men; and on account of this they will despise and cease to love this Cosmos as a whole,—the changeless work of God; the glorious construction of the Good, comprised of multifold variety of forms; the engine of God’s Will, supporting His own work ungrudgingly; the multitudinous whole massed in a unity of all, that should be reverenced, praised and loved,—by them at least who have the eyes to see. For Darkness will be set before the Light, and Death will be thought preferable to Life. No one will raise his eyes to Heaven; the pious man will be considered mad, the impious a sage; the frenzied held as strong, the worst as best.
3. For soul, and all concerning it,—whereby it doth presume that either it hath been born deathless, or that it will attain to deathlessness, according to the argument I have set forth for you,—[all this] will be considered not only food for sport, but even vanity. Nay, [if ye will] believe me, the penalty of death shall be decreed to him who shall devote himself to the Religion of the Mind. New statutes shall come into force, a novel law; naught [that is] sacred, nothing pious, naught that is worthy of the Heaven, or Gods in Heaven, shall [e’er] be heard, or [even] mentally believed.
4. The sorrowful departure of the Gods from men takes place; bad angels only stay, who mingled with humanity will lay their hands on them, and drive the wretched folk to every ill of recklessness,—to wars, and robberies, deceits, and all those things that are opposed to the soul’s nature. Then shall the Earth no longer hold together; the Sea no longer shall be sailed upon; nor shall the Heaven continue with the Courses of the Stars, nor the Star-course in Heaven. The voice of every God shall cease in the [Great] Silence that no one can break; the fruits of Earth shall rot; nay, Earth no longer shall bring forth; and Air itself shall faint in that sad listlessness.
26
1. This, when it comes, shall be the World’s old age, impiety,—irregularity, and lack of rationality in all good things. And when these things all come to pass, Asclepius,—then He, [our] Lord and Sire, God First in power, and Ruler of the One God [Visible], in check of crime, and calling error back from the corruption of all things unto good manners and to deeds spontaneous with His Will (that is to say God’s Goodness),—ending all ill, by either washing it away with water-flood, or burning it away with fire, or by the means of pestilent diseases, spread throughout all hostile lands,—God will recall the Cosmos to its ancient form; so that the World itself shall seem meet to be worshipped and admired; and God, the Maker and Restorer of so vast a work, be sung by the humanity who shall be then, with ceaseless heraldings of praise and [hymns of] blessing.
2. For this [Re-]birth of Cosmos is the making new of all good things, and the most holy and most pious bringing-back again of Nature’s self, by means of a set course of time,—of Nature, which was without beginning, and which is without an end. For that God’s Will hath no beginning; and, in that ’tis the same and as it is, it is without an end.
Translated by G. R. S. Mead
Latin Life of Adam and Eve 49.3-50.2 (3rd-5th centuries CE)
On account of your transgression, Our Lord will bring upon your race the anger of his judgement, first by water, the second time by fire; by these two, will the Lord judge the whole human race. But hearken unto me, my children. Make ye then tables of stone and others of clay, and write on them, all my life and your father’s (all) that ye have heard and seen from us. If by water the Lord judge our race, the tables of clay will be dissolved and the tables of stone will remain; but if by fire, the tables of stone will be broken up and the tables of clay will be baked (hard).
Translated by R. H. Charles (1913).
Translated by R. H. Charles (1913).
Iambilichus, Theurgia 1.2, 8.16 (c. 300 CE)
1.2 Hermes, the patron of literature, was rightly considered of old to be a god common to all the priests and the one presiding over the genuine learning relating to the gods, one and the same among all. Hence our predecessors were wont to ascribe to him their discoveries in wisdom and to name all their respective works Books of Hermes. […] 8.16 Hence, as Seleukos describes, Hermes set forth the universal principles in two thousand scrolls, or as Manetho affirms, he explained them completely in thirty-six thousand five hundred and twenty-five treatises. The different ancient writers, however, being in conflict with one another, have in many places given different interpretations in regard to the particular essence. It is necessary, however, to ascertain the truth in respect to them all, and then set it forth to thee concisely as we may be able.
Translated by Alexander Wilder (1911).
Translated by Alexander Wilder (1911).
Zosimus of Panoplis, Imouth 9 (c. 300 CE)
Preserved in George Syncellus, Chronicle 14
The sacred Scriptures inform us that there exists a tribe of genii, who make use of women. Hermes mentions this circumstance in his Physics; and almost every writing, whether sacred or apocryphal, states the same thing. The ancient and divine Scriptures inform us, that the angels, captivated by women, taught them all the operations of nature. Offence being taken at this, they remained out of heaven, because they had taught mankind all manner of evil, and things which could not be advantageous to their souls. The Scriptures inform us that the giants sprang from these embraces. Chema is the first of their traditions respecting these arts. The book itself they called Chema; hence the art is called Chemia.
Translated by Thomas Thomson.
The sacred Scriptures inform us that there exists a tribe of genii, who make use of women. Hermes mentions this circumstance in his Physics; and almost every writing, whether sacred or apocryphal, states the same thing. The ancient and divine Scriptures inform us, that the angels, captivated by women, taught them all the operations of nature. Offence being taken at this, they remained out of heaven, because they had taught mankind all manner of evil, and things which could not be advantageous to their souls. The Scriptures inform us that the giants sprang from these embraces. Chema is the first of their traditions respecting these arts. The book itself they called Chema; hence the art is called Chemia.
Translated by Thomas Thomson.
Alexander of Lycopolis, Against the Manichaeans 25 (c. 300 CE)
But what the poets say about the giants is manifestly a fable. For those who lay it down about these, bring forward such matters in allegories, by a species of fable hiding the majesty of their discourse; as, for instance, when the Jewish history relates that angels came down to hold intercourse with the daughters of men; for this saying signifies that the nutritive powers of the soul descended from heaven to earth. But the poets who say that they, when they had emerged in full armour from the earth, perished immediately after they stirred up rebellion against the gods, in order that they might insinuate the frail and quickly-perishing constitution of the body, adorn their poetry in this way for the sake of refreshing the soul by the strangeness of the occurrence. But these, understanding nothing of all this, wheresoever they can get hold of a paralogism from whatsoever quarter it comes, greedily seize on it as a God-send, and strive with all their arts to overturn truth by any means.
Translated by James B. H. Hawkins
Translated by James B. H. Hawkins
Lactantius, Divine Institutes 2.15 (Origin of Error 15) (303-311 CE)
When, therefore, the number of men had begun to increase, God in His forethought, lest the devil, to whom from the beginning He had given power over the earth, should by his subtlety either corrupt or destroy men, as he had done at first, sent angels for the protection and improvement of the human race; and inasmuch as He had given these a free will, He enjoined them above all things not to defile themselves with contamination from the earth, and thus lose the dignity of their heavenly nature. He plainly prohibited them from doing that which He knew that they would do, that they might entertain no hope of pardon. Therefore, while they abode among men, that most deceitful ruler of the earth, by his very association, gradually enticed them to vices, and polluted them by intercourse with women. Then, not being admitted into heaven on account of the sins into which they had plunged themselves, they fell to the earth. Thus from angels the devil makes them to become his satellites and attendants. But they who were born from these, because they were neither angels nor men, but bearing a kind of mixed nature, were not admitted into hell, as their fathers were not into heaven. Thus there came to be two kinds of demons; one of heaven, the other of the earth. The latter are the wicked spirits, the authors of all the evils which are done, and the same devil is their prince. Whence Trismegistus calls him the ruler of the demons. But grammarians say that they are called demons, as though dœmones, that is, skilled and acquainted with matters: for they think that these are gods. They are acquainted, indeed, with many future events, but not all, since it is not permitted them entirely to know the counsel of God; and therefore they are accustomed to accommodate their answers to ambiguous results. The poets both know them to be demons, and so describe them. Hesiod thus speaks:— “These are the demons according to the will of Zeus, Good, living on the earth, the guardians of mortal men.”
And this is said for this purpose, because God had sent them as guardians to the human race; but they themselves also, though they are the destroyers of men, yet wish themselves to appear as their guardians, that they themselves may be worshipped, and God may not be worshipped. The philosophers also discuss the subject of these beings. For Plato attempted even to explain their natures in his “Banquet;” and Socrates said that there was a demon continually about him, who had become attached to him when a boy, by whose will and direction his life was guided. The art also and power of the Magi altogether consists in the influences of these; invoked by whom they deceive the sight of men with deceptive illusions, so that they do not see those things which exist, and think that they see those things which do not exist. These contaminated and abandoned spirits, as I say, wander over the whole earth, and contrive a solace for their own perdition by the destruction of men. Therefore they fill every place with snares, deceits, frauds, and errors; for they cling to individuals, and occupy whole houses from door to door, and assume to themselves the name of genii; for by this word they translate demons in the Latin language. They consecrate these in their houses, to these they daily pour out libations of wine, and worship the wise demons as gods of the earth, and as averters of those evils which they themselves cause and impose. And these, since spirits are without substance and not to be grasped, insinuate themselves into the bodies of men; and secretly working in their inward parts, they corrupt the health, hasten diseases, terrify their souls with dreams, harass their minds with phrenzies, that by these evils they may compel men to have recourse to their aid.
Translated by William Fletcher.
And this is said for this purpose, because God had sent them as guardians to the human race; but they themselves also, though they are the destroyers of men, yet wish themselves to appear as their guardians, that they themselves may be worshipped, and God may not be worshipped. The philosophers also discuss the subject of these beings. For Plato attempted even to explain their natures in his “Banquet;” and Socrates said that there was a demon continually about him, who had become attached to him when a boy, by whose will and direction his life was guided. The art also and power of the Magi altogether consists in the influences of these; invoked by whom they deceive the sight of men with deceptive illusions, so that they do not see those things which exist, and think that they see those things which do not exist. These contaminated and abandoned spirits, as I say, wander over the whole earth, and contrive a solace for their own perdition by the destruction of men. Therefore they fill every place with snares, deceits, frauds, and errors; for they cling to individuals, and occupy whole houses from door to door, and assume to themselves the name of genii; for by this word they translate demons in the Latin language. They consecrate these in their houses, to these they daily pour out libations of wine, and worship the wise demons as gods of the earth, and as averters of those evils which they themselves cause and impose. And these, since spirits are without substance and not to be grasped, insinuate themselves into the bodies of men; and secretly working in their inward parts, they corrupt the health, hasten diseases, terrify their souls with dreams, harass their minds with phrenzies, that by these evils they may compel men to have recourse to their aid.
Translated by William Fletcher.
Julian the Apostate, Against the Galileans (363 CE)
Preserved in Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian 9
And that Moses calls the angels gods you may hear from his own words, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." And a little further on: "And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became the giants which were of old, the men of renown." Now that he means the angels is evident, and this has not been foisted on him from without, but it is clear also from his saying that not men but giants were born from them. For it is clear that if he had thought that men and not beings of some higher and more powerful nature were their fathers, he would not have said that the giants were their offspring. For it seems to me that he declared that the race of giants arose from the mixture of mortal and immortal. Again, when Moses speaks of many sons of God and calls them not men but angels, would he not then have revealed to mankind, if he had known thereof, God, the "only begotten Word," or a son of God or however you call him?
Translated by Wilmer Cave Wright (1923)
And that Moses calls the angels gods you may hear from his own words, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." And a little further on: "And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became the giants which were of old, the men of renown." Now that he means the angels is evident, and this has not been foisted on him from without, but it is clear also from his saying that not men but giants were born from them. For it is clear that if he had thought that men and not beings of some higher and more powerful nature were their fathers, he would not have said that the giants were their offspring. For it seems to me that he declared that the race of giants arose from the mixture of mortal and immortal. Again, when Moses speaks of many sons of God and calls them not men but angels, would he not then have revealed to mankind, if he had known thereof, God, the "only begotten Word," or a son of God or however you call him?
Translated by Wilmer Cave Wright (1923)
Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis and Exodus (before 373 CE)
Preserved in Syncellus, Chronicle 15
Paradise is higher than all the lofty pleasant places of the earth; the waters of the deluge only reached its foundations. But the men older than the deluge dwelt between the ocean and paradise: the offspring of Cain, indeed, inhabited the land of Nod, which signifies "tremulous;" the sons of Seth dwelt on the higher grounds in obedience to the command of Adam, that they should not mix with the offspring of the fratricidal Cain. The descendants of Cain were of low stature, on account of the curse pronounced upon their progenitor, but the children of Seth were giants, and like the angels of God in the upper regions. But the daughters of Cain, going to them with various musical instruments, brought them down from the upper regions and married them; contempt of the law consequently increasing, the deluge arose. And God brought Noah's ark (across the ocean) to Mount Ararat, and thenceforward, men dwelt on this earth. From whence it is evident, that the earth now cultivated was then deserted, for by the mercy of God, men dwelt, before the deluge, in regions near paradise, between paradise and the ocean. But the outward darkness of which Christ speaks, lies beyond paradise. For paradise, with the ocean, goes all round the earth. Eden is on the eastern side, and the two lights of the sun and moon rise within paradise, and having traversed it, set outside.
Translated anonymously in The Foreign Quarterly.
Paradise is higher than all the lofty pleasant places of the earth; the waters of the deluge only reached its foundations. But the men older than the deluge dwelt between the ocean and paradise: the offspring of Cain, indeed, inhabited the land of Nod, which signifies "tremulous;" the sons of Seth dwelt on the higher grounds in obedience to the command of Adam, that they should not mix with the offspring of the fratricidal Cain. The descendants of Cain were of low stature, on account of the curse pronounced upon their progenitor, but the children of Seth were giants, and like the angels of God in the upper regions. But the daughters of Cain, going to them with various musical instruments, brought them down from the upper regions and married them; contempt of the law consequently increasing, the deluge arose. And God brought Noah's ark (across the ocean) to Mount Ararat, and thenceforward, men dwelt on this earth. From whence it is evident, that the earth now cultivated was then deserted, for by the mercy of God, men dwelt, before the deluge, in regions near paradise, between paradise and the ocean. But the outward darkness of which Christ speaks, lies beyond paradise. For paradise, with the ocean, goes all round the earth. Eden is on the eastern side, and the two lights of the sun and moon rise within paradise, and having traversed it, set outside.
Translated anonymously in The Foreign Quarterly.
Epiphanius, Panarion 1.39 (c. 374-378 CE)
Section 1
4 [The Sethian sect] give their teaching in the following form: all things, they say, are the work of angels and not of the power on high.
Section 2
1 Two men were born at the very beginning, and Cain and Abel were the sons of the two. And in quarrelling about them the angels went to war with each other, and so brought it about that Abel was killed by Cain. […]
Section 3
1 But once more, seeing a great deal of intercourse and unruly appetition on the part of angels and men since the two breeds [of Cain and Seth] had come together for intercourse, and seeing that their unruliness had caused certain origins of (new) breeds, Mother and Female returned and brought the flood, and destroyed the entire human race and all of the opposing stock—in order that, supposedly, only the pure stock that derived from Seth and was righteous would remain in the world, for the origin of the stock from on high and the spark of righteousness. 2 But without her knowledge the angels in their turn slipped Ham, who, was of their seed, into the ark. For they say that of the eight persons who were saved in Noah’s then ark, seven were of the pure stock but one was Ham, who belonged to the other power and got in unknown to the Mother on high. 3 A plan of this sort, of the angels’ contrivance, was thus carried out. For, they say, since the angels had learned that all their seed would be wiped out in the flood, they smuggled Ham in by some knavery to preserve the wicked stock they had created.
Translated by Frank Williams (1987).
4 [The Sethian sect] give their teaching in the following form: all things, they say, are the work of angels and not of the power on high.
Section 2
1 Two men were born at the very beginning, and Cain and Abel were the sons of the two. And in quarrelling about them the angels went to war with each other, and so brought it about that Abel was killed by Cain. […]
Section 3
1 But once more, seeing a great deal of intercourse and unruly appetition on the part of angels and men since the two breeds [of Cain and Seth] had come together for intercourse, and seeing that their unruliness had caused certain origins of (new) breeds, Mother and Female returned and brought the flood, and destroyed the entire human race and all of the opposing stock—in order that, supposedly, only the pure stock that derived from Seth and was righteous would remain in the world, for the origin of the stock from on high and the spark of righteousness. 2 But without her knowledge the angels in their turn slipped Ham, who, was of their seed, into the ark. For they say that of the eight persons who were saved in Noah’s then ark, seven were of the pure stock but one was Ham, who belonged to the other power and got in unknown to the Mother on high. 3 A plan of this sort, of the angels’ contrivance, was thus carried out. For, they say, since the angels had learned that all their seed would be wiped out in the flood, they smuggled Ham in by some knavery to preserve the wicked stock they had created.
Translated by Frank Williams (1987).
Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions 4 (c. fourth century CE)
Chapter 26. Evil Angels Seducers.
Now therefore, since you do not yet understand how great darkness of ignorance surrounds you, meantime I wish to explain to you whence the worship of idols began in this world. And by idols, I mean those lifeless images which you worship, whether made of wood, or earthenware, or stone, or brass, or any other metals: of these the beginning was in this wise. Certain angels, having left the course of their proper order, began to favour the vices of men, and in some measure to lend unworthy aid to their lust, in order that by these means they might indulge their own pleasures the more; and then, that they might not seem to be inclined of their own accord to unworthy services, taught men that demons could, by certain arts— that is, by magical invocations— be made to obey men; and so, as from a furnace and workshop of wickedness, they filled the whole world with the smoke of impiety, the light of piety being withdrawn.
Chapter 27. Ham the First Magician.
For these and some other causes, a flood was brought upon the world, as we have said already, and shall say again; and all who were upon the earth were destroyed, except the family of Noah, who survived, with his three sons and their wives. One of these, by name Ham, unhappily discovered the magical act, and handed down the instruction of it to one of his sons, who was called Mesraim, from whom the race of the Egyptians and Babylonians and Persians are descended. Him the nations who then existed called Zoroaster, admiring him as the first author of the magic art; under whose name also many books on this subject exist. He therefore, being much and frequently intent upon the stars, and wishing to be esteemed a god among them, began to draw forth, as it were, certain sparks from the stars, and to show them to men, in order that the rude and ignorant might be astonished, as with a miracle; and desiring to increase this estimation of him, he attempted these things again and again, until he was set on fire, and consumed by the demon himself, whom he accosted with too great importunity.
Translated by Thomas Smith.
Now therefore, since you do not yet understand how great darkness of ignorance surrounds you, meantime I wish to explain to you whence the worship of idols began in this world. And by idols, I mean those lifeless images which you worship, whether made of wood, or earthenware, or stone, or brass, or any other metals: of these the beginning was in this wise. Certain angels, having left the course of their proper order, began to favour the vices of men, and in some measure to lend unworthy aid to their lust, in order that by these means they might indulge their own pleasures the more; and then, that they might not seem to be inclined of their own accord to unworthy services, taught men that demons could, by certain arts— that is, by magical invocations— be made to obey men; and so, as from a furnace and workshop of wickedness, they filled the whole world with the smoke of impiety, the light of piety being withdrawn.
Chapter 27. Ham the First Magician.
For these and some other causes, a flood was brought upon the world, as we have said already, and shall say again; and all who were upon the earth were destroyed, except the family of Noah, who survived, with his three sons and their wives. One of these, by name Ham, unhappily discovered the magical act, and handed down the instruction of it to one of his sons, who was called Mesraim, from whom the race of the Egyptians and Babylonians and Persians are descended. Him the nations who then existed called Zoroaster, admiring him as the first author of the magic art; under whose name also many books on this subject exist. He therefore, being much and frequently intent upon the stars, and wishing to be esteemed a god among them, began to draw forth, as it were, certain sparks from the stars, and to show them to men, in order that the rude and ignorant might be astonished, as with a miracle; and desiring to increase this estimation of him, he attempted these things again and again, until he was set on fire, and consumed by the demon himself, whom he accosted with too great importunity.
Translated by Thomas Smith.
Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History 22.15.30 (before 391 CE)
There are also [in Egypt] subterranean passages, and winding retreats, which, it is said, men skilful, in the ancient mysteries, by means of which they divined the coming of a flood, constructed in different places lest the memory of all their sacred ceremonies should be lost. On the walls, as they cut them out, they have sculptured several kinds of birds and beasts, and countless other figures of animals, which they call hieroglyphics.
Translated by C. D. Yonge.
Translated by C. D. Yonge.
Panodorus of Alexandria, Chronicle (c. 400 CE)
Preserved in George Syncellus, Chronicle 42
From the formation of Adam to Enoch, or to the Year of the World 1282, mankind was ignorant of the number of days both of the month and year. But the Egregori coming down upon Earth in the thousandth year of the world, and conversing with men, taught them that the periods of both the luminaries (the Sun and Moon) were completed in a their passing through twelve signs consisting of 360 degrees. But Men regarding chiefly the lesser and more observable lunar period round the Earth, agreed amongst themselves, that the lunar circle of thirty days should be the established year; for that the circle of the Sun was in like manner completed by his passing through twelve signs of 360 equal parts, or degrees.
Trans. John Jackson (slightly adapted).
From the formation of Adam to Enoch, or to the Year of the World 1282, mankind was ignorant of the number of days both of the month and year. But the Egregori coming down upon Earth in the thousandth year of the world, and conversing with men, taught them that the periods of both the luminaries (the Sun and Moon) were completed in a their passing through twelve signs consisting of 360 degrees. But Men regarding chiefly the lesser and more observable lunar period round the Earth, agreed amongst themselves, that the lunar circle of thirty days should be the established year; for that the circle of the Sun was in like manner completed by his passing through twelve signs of 360 equal parts, or degrees.
Trans. John Jackson (slightly adapted).
Sulpicius Severus, Chronicle 1.2 (403 CE)
When by this time the human race had increased to a great multitude, certain angels, whose habitation was in heaven, were captivated by the appearance of some beautiful virgins, and cherished illicit desires after them, so much so, that falling beneath their own proper nature and origin, they left the higher regions of which they were inhabitants, and allied themselves in earthly marriages. These angels gradually spreading wicked habits, corrupted the human family, and from their alliance giants are said to have sprung, for the mixture with them of beings of a different nature, as a matter of course, gave birth to monsters.
Translated by Alexander Roberts.
Translated by Alexander Roberts.
Jerome, Homily on Psalm 133 (c. 420 CE)
We read in an apocryphal book that in the time when the sons of God descended unto the daughters of men, they descended on Mount Hermon, and there entered into a pact that they should go to the daughters of men and form unions with them. This book is quite explicit, and it is classified as apocryphal. The interpreters of old not infrequently referenced it, but we are telling you of this, not as an authority, but to make note of it. [...] I have read about this apocryphal work in a certain book where it was used to confirm its author’s heresy. What did he say? He said that the sons of God, who had descended from heaven and came to Hermon and lusted for the daughters of men were angels, and he said that they came down from heaven and their souls accordingly longed for the bodies of the daughters of men. Does this not seem to be the origin of the dogma of Manichaeans? For just as the Manichaeans say that souls desired human bodies, and to be united in the pleasures of the flesh, thus do not those who say the angels desired bodies—that is, the daughters of men—seem to be saying that which the Manichaeans say? It would take too long to speak against them now, but merely I wish to indicate the volume which opportunistically seemed to confirm their dogma.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Translated by Jason Colavito
St. John Cassian, Collationes 8.21 (c. 428 CE)
[The abbot Serenus is speaking:] [T]he sons of Seth who were the sons of God, […] fell away from that true study of natural philosophy, handed down to them by their ancestors… This knowledge then of all nature the seed of Seth received through successive generations, handed down from the fathers, so long as it remained separate from the wicked line [of Cain], and as it had received it in holiness, so it made use of it to promote the glory of God and the needs of everyday life. But when it had been mingled with the evil generation, it drew aside at the suggestion of devils to profane and harmful uses what it had innocently learned, and audaciously taught by it the curious arts of wizards and enchantments and magical superstitions, teaching its posterity to forsake the holy worship of the Divinity and to honour and worship either the elements or fire or the demons of the air. How it was then that this knowledge of curious arts of which we have spoken, did not perish in the deluge, but became known to the ages that followed, should, I think, be briefly explained, as the occasion of this discussion suggests, although the answer to the question raised scarcely requires it. And so, as ancient traditions tell us, Ham the son of Noah, who had been taught these superstitions and wicked and profane arts, as he knew that he could not possibly bring any handbook on these subjects into the ark, into which he was to enter with his good father and holy brothers, inscribed these nefarious arts and profane devices on plates of various metals which could not be destroyed by the flood of waters, and on hard rocks, and when the flood was over he hunted for them with the same inquisitiveness with which he had concealed them, and so transmitted to his descendants a seed-bed of profanity and perpetual sin. In this way then that common notion, according to which men believe that angels delivered to men enchantments and diverse arts, is in truth fulfilled. From these sons of Seth then and daughters of Cain, as we have said, there were born still worse children who became mighty hunters, violent and most fierce men who were termed giants by reason of the size of their bodies and their cruelty and wickedness. For these first began to harass their neighbours and to practise pillaging among men, getting their living rather by rapine than by being contented with the sweat and labour of toil, and their wickedness increased to such a pitch that the world could only be purified by the flood and deluge.
Translated by C. S. Gibson.
Translated by C. S. Gibson.
The Book of the Cave of Treasures, Second Thousand Years (c. 6th century CE)
Yôbâl (Jubal) and Tôbalkîn (Tubal-Cain), the two brethren, the sons of Lamech, the blind man, who killed Cain, invented and made all kinds of instruments of music. Jôbâl made reed instruments, and harps, and flutes, and whistles, and the devils went and dwelt inside them. When men blew into the pipes, the devils sang inside them, and sent out sounds from inside them. Tôbalkîn made [Fol. 12a, col. 2] cymbals, and sistra, and tambourines (or drums). And lasciviousness and fornication increased among the children of Cain, and they had nothing to occupy them except fornication—now they had no obligation [to pay] tribute, and they had neither prince nor governor—and eating, and drinking, and lasciviousness, and drunkenness, and dancing and singing to instruments of music, and the wanton sportings of the devils, and the laughter which affordeth pleasure to the devils, and the sounds of the furious lust of men neighing after women. And Satan, finding [his] opportunity in this work of error, rejoiced greatly, because thereby he could compel the sons of Seth to come down from that holy mountain. There they had been made to occupy the place of that army [of angels] that fell [with Satan], there they were beloved by God, there they were held in honour by the angels, and were called “sons of God,” even as the blessed David saith in the psalm, “I have said [Fol. 12b, col. 1], Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” (Ps. lxxxii. 6.)
Meanwhile fornication reigned among the daughters of Cain, and without shame [several] women would run after one man. And one man would attack another, and they committed fornication in the presence of each other shamelessly. * * * For all the devils were gathered together in that camp of Cain, and unclean spirits entered into the women, and took possession of them. The old women were more lascivious than the maidens, fathers and sons defiled themselves with their mothers and sisters, sons respected not even their own fathers, and fathers made no distinction between their sons [and other men]. And Satan had been made ruler (or prince) of that camp [Fol. 12b, col. 2]. And when the men and women were stirred up to lascivious frenzy by the devilish playing of the reeds which emitted musical sounds, and by the harps which the men played through the operation of the power of the devils, and by the sounds of the tambourines and of the sistra which were beaten and rattled through the agency of evil spirits, the sounds of their laughter were heard in the air above them, and ascended to that holy mountain.
And when the children of Seth heard the noise, and uproar, and shouts of laughter in the camp of the children of Cain, about one hundred of them who were mighty men of war gathered together, and set their faces to go down to the camp of the children of Cain. When Yârêd heard their words and knew their intention, he became sorely afflicted, and he sent and called them to him, and said unto them, “By the holy blood of Abel, I will have you swear that not one of you shall go down from this holy mountain. Remember ye [Fol. 13a, col. 1] the oaths which our fathers Seth, and Ânôsh, and Kainân, and Mahlâlâîl made you to swear.” And Enoch also said unto them, “Hearken, O ye children of Seth, no man who shall transgress the commandment of Yârêd, and [break] the oaths of our fathers, and go down from this mountain, shall never again ascend it.” But the children of Seth would neither hearken to the commandment of Yârêd, nor to the words of Enoch, and they dared to transgress the commandment, and those hundred men, who were mighty men of war, went down [to the camp of Cain]. And when they saw that the daughters of Cain were beautiful in form and that they were naked and unashamed, the children of Seth became inflamed with the fire of lust. And when the daughters of Cain saw the goodliness of the children of Seth, they gripped them like ravening beasts and defiled their bodies. And the children of Seth slew their souls by fornication with the daughters of Cain. And when the children of Seth wished to go up [again] to that holy mountain [Fol. 13a, col. 2], after they had come down and fallen, the stones of that holy mountain became fire in their sight, and having defiled their souls with the fire of fornication, God did not permit them to ascend to that holy place. And, moreover, very many others made bold and went down after them, and they, too, fell.
Trans. E. A. Wallis Budge (1927).
Meanwhile fornication reigned among the daughters of Cain, and without shame [several] women would run after one man. And one man would attack another, and they committed fornication in the presence of each other shamelessly. * * * For all the devils were gathered together in that camp of Cain, and unclean spirits entered into the women, and took possession of them. The old women were more lascivious than the maidens, fathers and sons defiled themselves with their mothers and sisters, sons respected not even their own fathers, and fathers made no distinction between their sons [and other men]. And Satan had been made ruler (or prince) of that camp [Fol. 12b, col. 2]. And when the men and women were stirred up to lascivious frenzy by the devilish playing of the reeds which emitted musical sounds, and by the harps which the men played through the operation of the power of the devils, and by the sounds of the tambourines and of the sistra which were beaten and rattled through the agency of evil spirits, the sounds of their laughter were heard in the air above them, and ascended to that holy mountain.
And when the children of Seth heard the noise, and uproar, and shouts of laughter in the camp of the children of Cain, about one hundred of them who were mighty men of war gathered together, and set their faces to go down to the camp of the children of Cain. When Yârêd heard their words and knew their intention, he became sorely afflicted, and he sent and called them to him, and said unto them, “By the holy blood of Abel, I will have you swear that not one of you shall go down from this holy mountain. Remember ye [Fol. 13a, col. 1] the oaths which our fathers Seth, and Ânôsh, and Kainân, and Mahlâlâîl made you to swear.” And Enoch also said unto them, “Hearken, O ye children of Seth, no man who shall transgress the commandment of Yârêd, and [break] the oaths of our fathers, and go down from this mountain, shall never again ascend it.” But the children of Seth would neither hearken to the commandment of Yârêd, nor to the words of Enoch, and they dared to transgress the commandment, and those hundred men, who were mighty men of war, went down [to the camp of Cain]. And when they saw that the daughters of Cain were beautiful in form and that they were naked and unashamed, the children of Seth became inflamed with the fire of lust. And when the daughters of Cain saw the goodliness of the children of Seth, they gripped them like ravening beasts and defiled their bodies. And the children of Seth slew their souls by fornication with the daughters of Cain. And when the children of Seth wished to go up [again] to that holy mountain [Fol. 13a, col. 2], after they had come down and fallen, the stones of that holy mountain became fire in their sight, and having defiled their souls with the fire of fornication, God did not permit them to ascend to that holy place. And, moreover, very many others made bold and went down after them, and they, too, fell.
Trans. E. A. Wallis Budge (1927).
3 Enoch 5:7-10 (fifth century CE or later)
(7) And what did the generation of Enosh do? They went from one end of the world to the other, and each one brought silver, gold, precious stones and pearls in heaps like unto mountains and hills making idols out of them throughout all the world. And they erected the idols in every quarter of the world: the size of each idol was 1000 parasangs. (8) And they brought down the sun, the moon, planets and constellations, and placed them before the idols on their right hand and on their left, to attend them even as they attend the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written (1 Kings xxii. 19): "And all the host of heaven was standing by him on his right hand and on his left". (9) What power was in them that they were able to bring them down? They would not have been able to bring them down but for 'Uzza, 'Azza and 'Azziel who taught them sorceries whereby they brought them down and made use of them (10) In that time the ministering angels brought charges (against them) before the Holy One, blessed be He, saying before him: "Master of the World! What hast thou to do with the children of men? As it is written (Ps. viii. 4) 'What is man (Enosh) that thou art mindful of him?' 'Mah Adam' is not written here, but 'Mah Enosh', for he (Enosh) is the head of the idol worshippers.
Trans. Hugo Odeberg (1928).
Trans. Hugo Odeberg (1928).
Armenian History of the Forefathers 41 (early medieval)
Seventh, that he [Enosh; confused for Enoch] made writings and wrote on stela(e) of baked brick and bronze, and he prophesied that the earth will pass through water and fire on account of the sins of humans. And he cast the baked brick into the water and the bronze into the fire, in order to test (them), if the fire was to come first, the bronze would melt, and if the water was to come first, the brick would be destroyed. And by this means he learned that the water was destined to come, and then fire. And these are a work of hope.
Trans. in M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Related to Adam and Eve (Brill, 1996).
Trans. in M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Related to Adam and Eve (Brill, 1996).
Armenian Abel 4.3-4 (early medieval)
However, we found that Enosh, son of Seth, made the letter(s) and called the planets by name. And he prophesied that this world would pass away twice, by water and by fire. And he made two stelae, of bronze and of clay, and he wrote upon them the names of the parts of creation which Adam had called. He said, “If it passes away by water, then the bronze (will) remain, and if by fire, then the fired clay.”
Trans. in M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Related to Adam and Eve (Brill, 1996).
Trans. in M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Related to Adam and Eve (Brill, 1996).
John Malalas, Chronicle 1.2-3 (c. 565 CE)
2. … For the priests of the Jews interpreted Moses’ Hebrew accounts as follows: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and took them wives of all which they chose and came in unto them, as Moses said, and they bare sons to them. There were giants in the earth in those days, the men which were of old, the men of renown” (Gen. 6.2, 4).
From Adam until the angels, the sons of Seth, desired women, or rather the daughters of men, of the tribe of Cain, there were 2122 years.
3. In that time God sent a ball of fire from the heavens against the giants in the Celtic land and burnt it and them. The ball plunged into the river Jordan and was extinguished. They tell stories of this fire and say that Phthaethon, the son of the sun, fell from his chariot to earth, a tale which Ovid has written poetically. But Plutarch of Chaironeia speaks of this more truthfully when he says that the ball of fire fell on the Celtic land. Although the remaining giants saw so many of their number struck by lightning they remained stubborn. God said to them in anger, “My spirit will not abide in these men, for they are flesh” (Gen. 6.3).
Translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, Roger Scott, and Brian Croke (1986).
From Adam until the angels, the sons of Seth, desired women, or rather the daughters of men, of the tribe of Cain, there were 2122 years.
3. In that time God sent a ball of fire from the heavens against the giants in the Celtic land and burnt it and them. The ball plunged into the river Jordan and was extinguished. They tell stories of this fire and say that Phthaethon, the son of the sun, fell from his chariot to earth, a tale which Ovid has written poetically. But Plutarch of Chaironeia speaks of this more truthfully when he says that the ball of fire fell on the Celtic land. Although the remaining giants saw so many of their number struck by lightning they remained stubborn. God said to them in anger, “My spirit will not abide in these men, for they are flesh” (Gen. 6.3).
Translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, Roger Scott, and Brian Croke (1986).
Quran 2:102-103 (632 CE)
102 And they followed the device which the devils devised against the kingdom of Solomon; and Solomon was not an unbeliever; but the devils believed not, they taught men sorcery, and that which was sent down to the two angels at Babel, Harut and Marut: yet those two taught no man until they had said, Verily we are a temptation, therefore be not an unbeliever. So men learned from those two a charm by which they might cause division between a man and his wife; but they hurt none thereby, unless by GOD’s permission, and they learned that which would hurt them, and not profit them; and yet they knew that he who bought that art should have no part in the life to come, and woful is the price for which they have sold their souls, if they knew it. 103 But if they had believed, and feared GOD, verily the reward they would have had from GOD would have been better, if they had known it.
Translated by George Sale.
Translated by George Sale.
Chronicon Paschale 1 (c. 627 CE)
Why are they called the angels of God? One must do away with the idea that these were heavenly beings (according to this interpretation), for the minds of angels are far removed from material bodies. But they said these beings were called “men,” who had flesh and were mortal, because, it is said, they were of flesh.
Many therefore rightly interpret what was said in this way, that Moses called the progeny of Seth the angels of God because, when the progeny of Cain fell into jealousy and hated of their brothers and became imbued with the denial of the divine, the lineage of Seth first began to call upon the name of God, which is the angelic hymn. For thus says Scripture: “And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” This is in the Book of Genesis (4:26).
These sons of Seth, compared to angels and invoking the angelic hymn, cleaved unto the damned daughters of Cain, and they provoked the rage of the divine. For thus in Scripture: “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Gen. 6:3).
Therefore, when they had copulated, they gave birth to these children, who on account of their immense height came to be called giants in the books. Listen to what Genesis has to say: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Those named above as the Angels of God called on the name of the Lord God, and they also were called the Sons of God. And thus as it is in Scripture. That is why afterward these Angels were called gods by some people.
Among the Chaldeans, their first king was Aloros, whom Alagoros succeeded, and the other leaders, to whom the Scripture seems to refer (when it says) “the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:4).
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Many therefore rightly interpret what was said in this way, that Moses called the progeny of Seth the angels of God because, when the progeny of Cain fell into jealousy and hated of their brothers and became imbued with the denial of the divine, the lineage of Seth first began to call upon the name of God, which is the angelic hymn. For thus says Scripture: “And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” This is in the Book of Genesis (4:26).
These sons of Seth, compared to angels and invoking the angelic hymn, cleaved unto the damned daughters of Cain, and they provoked the rage of the divine. For thus in Scripture: “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Gen. 6:3).
Therefore, when they had copulated, they gave birth to these children, who on account of their immense height came to be called giants in the books. Listen to what Genesis has to say: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Those named above as the Angels of God called on the name of the Lord God, and they also were called the Sons of God. And thus as it is in Scripture. That is why afterward these Angels were called gods by some people.
Among the Chaldeans, their first king was Aloros, whom Alagoros succeeded, and the other leaders, to whom the Scripture seems to refer (when it says) “the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:4).
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Pseudo-Methodius, Apocalypse (c. seventh century CE)
from Chapter 2
In the eight hundredth year of the life of Jared, that is in the second millennium, the wicked and destructive Devil proceeded to afflict the war of fornication upon the sons of Seth; he drove them out to the daughters of Cain, and cast the giants of Seth into the pit of sin. The Lord God was angered, and at the end of the second millennium, a flood of waters came and the whole first creation and fashioning disappeared.
Translated by Benjamin Garstad (2012).
In the eight hundredth year of the life of Jared, that is in the second millennium, the wicked and destructive Devil proceeded to afflict the war of fornication upon the sons of Seth; he drove them out to the daughters of Cain, and cast the giants of Seth into the pit of sin. The Lord God was angered, and at the end of the second millennium, a flood of waters came and the whole first creation and fashioning disappeared.
Translated by Benjamin Garstad (2012).
from Chapter 3
In the year of the world 2100, there was born unto Noah in his own likeness a fourth son, Ionithus; and in 2300 Noah gave him his portion and sent him into the land of Ethan. In 2690 Noah died; and then the people began building the Tower in the plain of Sennaar, and the confusion and dispersion came to pass. But Ionithus held the entering-in of Ethan, to the sea, which region is called Heliochora, because the sun riseth there. He received wisdom from God and invented astronomy; and Nemroth the giant, a man instructed in many things by God, went to Ionithus, and learned from him under what influences of the stars he was to begin his reign. He was son of Chus, son of Cham.
Translated by Algernon Herbert
In the year of the world 2100, there was born unto Noah in his own likeness a fourth son, Ionithus; and in 2300 Noah gave him his portion and sent him into the land of Ethan. In 2690 Noah died; and then the people began building the Tower in the plain of Sennaar, and the confusion and dispersion came to pass. But Ionithus held the entering-in of Ethan, to the sea, which region is called Heliochora, because the sun riseth there. He received wisdom from God and invented astronomy; and Nemroth the giant, a man instructed in many things by God, went to Ionithus, and learned from him under what influences of the stars he was to begin his reign. He was son of Chus, son of Cham.
Translated by Algernon Herbert
The Venerable Bede, Commentary on Genesis at 6:4 (c. 700 CE)
It is said that giants are tall men with enormous bodies and possessed of excessive strength, such as the many of whom we read even after the Flood, that is, in the time of Moses and David; these have a Greek name because, from the stories of the poets, the earth gave birth to them. It seems that they were born when the descendants of Seth chose wives from the lineage of Cain for their exceptional beauty, against the dignity of their station. For, as follows, “after the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men,” etc. But note that in this place, for the “giants” the Hebrew reads “the fallen,” that is, “Annafilim”; and the meaning is perfect, for in those days men were falling into the earth, that is, cleaving to earthly desires, having lost the righteous state of devotion to God. Moreover, in that language the giants are properly called Rafaim.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Alcuin, Questions and Answers on Genesis 96 (c. late 700s)
Why is it said that “when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose”? Answer: The Scripture intends to call the descendants of Ham as the “daughters of men” and the progeny of Shem as the “sons of God.” The pious latter had their grandfather’s blessing, while the unchaste former bore their father’s curse. But afterward, the sons of Shem were conquered by lust for the daughters of Ham and joined with them in marriage. And from such unions were born men with immense bodies, overweening pride, and crude manners, whom Scripture calls “giants.”
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
George Syncellus, Chronicle (c. 800 CE)
41 It remains, therefore, to make certain extracts concerning the dynasties of the Egyptians, from the writings of Manetho the Sebennyte, the high priest of the idolatrous temple of Egypt in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. These, according to his own account, he copied from the inscriptions which were engraved in the sacred dialect, and hieroglyphic characters, upon the columns set up in the Seriadic land, by Thoth, the first Hermes; and after the deluge, translated from the sacred dialect into the Greek tongue in hieroglyphic characters: and committed to writing in books, and deposited by Agathodaemon, the son of the second Hermes, the father of Tat, in the temple-shrines of Egypt.
Adapted from the translation by I. P. Cory (1826/1832)
90 In the 2585th year, Kainan was walking in the field and discovered the writing of the Giants and hid it for himself.
Translated by William Adler and Paul Tuffin
Adapted from the translation by I. P. Cory (1826/1832)
90 In the 2585th year, Kainan was walking in the field and discovered the writing of the Giants and hid it for himself.
Translated by William Adler and Paul Tuffin
Palaea Historica (9th century CE)
... When the giants heard that the righteous Noah was building an ark for the Flood, they laughed at him. But Enoch, who was still around, was also telling the giants that the earth would either be destroyed by fire or by water. And the righteous Enoch was doing nothing else but sitting and writing on marble (tablets) and on bricks the mighty works of God which had happened from the beginning. For he used to say: “If the earth is destroyed by fire, the bricks will be preserved to be a reminder [for those who come after] of the mighty works of God which have happened from the beginning; and if the earth is destroyed by water, the marble tablets will be preserved.” And Enoch used to warn the giants about many things, but they remained stubborn and impenitent, nor did they want to glorify the Creator, but instead each [of them] walked in his own will of the flesh...
Translated by Andrei A. Orlov (2001).
Translated by Andrei A. Orlov (2001).
Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Tabari, The History of the Prophets and Kings, p. 170 (c. 915 CE)
One hundred handsome children of Seth said: Would that we could look at what our cousins — meaning the children of Cain — are doing. So the hundred went down to the beautiful female children of Cain. The women detained the men, and they remained for a while. Then, another hundred said: Would that we could look at what our brothers are doing. They went down from the mountain, and the women detained them. Then all the children of Seth went down. The result was the coming of sin. They intermarried and mingled, and the children of Cain grew in numbers until they filled the earth. They are the ones who drowned in the days of Noah.
Trans. Franz Rosenthal (1989).
Trans. Franz Rosenthal (1989).
Eutychius (Sa‘id ibn Batriq), Annales (Nazm al-Jauhar) (c. 920 CE)
But as for the progeny of Cain the murderer, their men resembled stallions neighing with lust after their women, and the women would in like manner consort with them whorishly, fornicating and sinning with one another wantonly and without shame. Two or three men were living with each woman, and the elders were more lecherous than the youths. Fathers used their daughters with sexual promiscuity, and young men their mothers. Indeed, children could not distinguish their parents, nor parents their children. They made use of all the musical instruments, and indeed the sound of their playing ascended to the top of the sacred mountain. And when the progeny of Seth heard this, they called together one hundred of their men, who descended from the mountain to the progeny of the accursed Cain, though Jared abjured them by the blood of Abel not to go down from the holy mountain. They, however, heeded not his words, and so they descended. And when they had descended, beholding that the daughters of the accursed Cain were beauteous and shamelessly naked, they were overcome with lust. Similarly, the daughters of Cain, seeing that these were handsome men of gigantic stature, acted in the manner of wild animals, and polluted their bodies with them. Thus did the sons of Seth fall into ruin through the harlotry of the daughters of Cain. Thus the daughters of Cain bore giants unto the sons of Seth. As it is according to the Book: “the sons of God (called the Bani Elohim), when they saw the beauteous daughters of men, they descended to them, and thus gave rise to Giants.” But they err and fail to understand what this says when they say that the angels descended unto to the daughters of men, for it should be understood that the sons of Seth descended from the holy mountain to the daughters of the accursed Cain. For it is on account of their sanctity and their habitation atop the holy mountain that the sons of Seth were called Bani Elohim, which is to say sons of God. Therefore they who say that the angels descended to the daughters of men are in error, for the substance of angels is a simple substance, nor can their nature be used for sexual acts. However, man, and equally all having life, has a complex substance, whose nature has a sexual use. For if the angels could have sex with women, there would not be one virgin left uncorrupted among the daughters of men. And when the sons of Seth, who had descended unto the daughters of accursed Cain, wished to ascend the sacred mountain, the stone of the mountain became fire, and so it was not accessible for them to go back up the mountain. After this others and afterward still others descended from the holy mountain to the daughters of the accursed Cain.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Translated by Jason Colavito
Agapius of Hierapolis, Kitab al-'Unwan (c. 940 CE)
The text follows the lost Universal History of Theophilus of Edessa (c. 785 CE).
It is written that the children of Seth, son of Adam, and his descendants, three hundred men, gathered and went down from the holy mountain to the children of Cain in the wicked plain, which had received the blood of Abel, led by the desire to hear their plays and their recreations. The daughters of Cain united themselves with them, and they committed adultery with them. A few days afterwards, when they wanted to go up on to the mountain to their residences and their domiciles, the mountain became a fire in front of them, so that they could not approach it nor go up there because of their sins. Those who were on the mountain, supposing that the delay of their companions was a serious thing, and seeing that they had not gone up home, did not cease going down, one after the other, themselves, their children and their wives, until there was only Noah alone who remained on the mountain; he was then five hundred years old, and he was not yet married. Then God said to Noah that He would send the flood on the earth and would submerge the earth and those upon it. And Noah arose, picked up the body of Adam, father of mankind, went down from the mountain and married. All the descendants of Seth and Cain were devoted to adultery, fell from all the ways of purity and descended in everything to the rank of beasts. The first cause of this, as we have said, were Tubal-Cain and his sister Nahama. The sacred book says on this subject that the sons of the Angels dallied with the daughters of men, meaning by the former the sons of Seth and his descendants.
And the word of God and its commandment were in them and with them during their stay in the holy mountains. But after they had dallied with the daughters of Cain and fallen from the ways of purity, God ordered Noah, who was five hundred years old, to make a ship; and God fixed the limit for him and told him of the time of the flood at the end of a hundred and twenty years. On this, Noah married, as we have already told, and fathered three sons, Sem, Cham and Jafeth. And God, may He be blessed and magnified, showed them during these years the rainbow, in the lower part of which there was a cord of fire and some arrows of fire; the cord was tight; all was on fire, with a sword of fire, which permanently shone in the air. That is explained in the Book of the Psalms, where David the prophet said: "His sword shines and his bow is knocked; and the features of war and rage will set ablaze everything."
God wanted men to repent and renounce their sins and their errors; but they did not do penitence and did not repent; on the contrary, they fell into all kinds of impiety and all kinds of hypocrisy. They started to kill one another; whoever was stronger than his companion, killed him and ate him to satisfy himself because of the lack of animals and beasts. On these events, God reduced the deadline by twenty years, advanced the date of the flood and fixed it at the end of hundred years. Then Noah was six hundred years old and Sem, his son, one hundred years. God acted thus from his mercy for them, to prevent them being led astray, from sinning, from bloodshed between them and from eating each other.
[…] Certain scholars also affirm that Enoch – i.e. Idris – made known, explained and taught the arts of writing, letters, stars (astronomy) and calculation. Manetho, a scholar of Egypt and an astronomer, affirms that God raised Enoch to the revolving sphere and made known to him the signs of the zodiac, which are there, the fixed and wandering stars, horoscopes, the terms of the influence of the stars, the decades of the degrees, the constellations which are there, and the other mysteries of astrology. This is why it is said that his book of stars is called a book of hidden meanings. All the Harranians, who worship the idols and the stars, share the opinion of Manetho the Egyptian.
Translated by Roger Pearse (2008). Full translation here.
It is written that the children of Seth, son of Adam, and his descendants, three hundred men, gathered and went down from the holy mountain to the children of Cain in the wicked plain, which had received the blood of Abel, led by the desire to hear their plays and their recreations. The daughters of Cain united themselves with them, and they committed adultery with them. A few days afterwards, when they wanted to go up on to the mountain to their residences and their domiciles, the mountain became a fire in front of them, so that they could not approach it nor go up there because of their sins. Those who were on the mountain, supposing that the delay of their companions was a serious thing, and seeing that they had not gone up home, did not cease going down, one after the other, themselves, their children and their wives, until there was only Noah alone who remained on the mountain; he was then five hundred years old, and he was not yet married. Then God said to Noah that He would send the flood on the earth and would submerge the earth and those upon it. And Noah arose, picked up the body of Adam, father of mankind, went down from the mountain and married. All the descendants of Seth and Cain were devoted to adultery, fell from all the ways of purity and descended in everything to the rank of beasts. The first cause of this, as we have said, were Tubal-Cain and his sister Nahama. The sacred book says on this subject that the sons of the Angels dallied with the daughters of men, meaning by the former the sons of Seth and his descendants.
And the word of God and its commandment were in them and with them during their stay in the holy mountains. But after they had dallied with the daughters of Cain and fallen from the ways of purity, God ordered Noah, who was five hundred years old, to make a ship; and God fixed the limit for him and told him of the time of the flood at the end of a hundred and twenty years. On this, Noah married, as we have already told, and fathered three sons, Sem, Cham and Jafeth. And God, may He be blessed and magnified, showed them during these years the rainbow, in the lower part of which there was a cord of fire and some arrows of fire; the cord was tight; all was on fire, with a sword of fire, which permanently shone in the air. That is explained in the Book of the Psalms, where David the prophet said: "His sword shines and his bow is knocked; and the features of war and rage will set ablaze everything."
God wanted men to repent and renounce their sins and their errors; but they did not do penitence and did not repent; on the contrary, they fell into all kinds of impiety and all kinds of hypocrisy. They started to kill one another; whoever was stronger than his companion, killed him and ate him to satisfy himself because of the lack of animals and beasts. On these events, God reduced the deadline by twenty years, advanced the date of the flood and fixed it at the end of hundred years. Then Noah was six hundred years old and Sem, his son, one hundred years. God acted thus from his mercy for them, to prevent them being led astray, from sinning, from bloodshed between them and from eating each other.
[…] Certain scholars also affirm that Enoch – i.e. Idris – made known, explained and taught the arts of writing, letters, stars (astronomy) and calculation. Manetho, a scholar of Egypt and an astronomer, affirms that God raised Enoch to the revolving sphere and made known to him the signs of the zodiac, which are there, the fixed and wandering stars, horoscopes, the terms of the influence of the stars, the decades of the degrees, the constellations which are there, and the other mysteries of astrology. This is why it is said that his book of stars is called a book of hidden meanings. All the Harranians, who worship the idols and the stars, share the opinion of Manetho the Egyptian.
Translated by Roger Pearse (2008). Full translation here.
Al-Mas'udi, Meadows of Gold (c. 947-956 CE)
The children of Shíth (Seth) had wars with the descendants of Cain. A race of Hindus, who descend from Adam, derive their origin from the children of Cain. They inhabit that part of India which is called Komár: from this country the Komári Aloe has its name. Lúd lived 962 years, and died in Adár (March). He was succeeded by his son Akhnukh (Enoch), who is the same person as Edris (instructor) the prophet. The Sabeans believe that he is identical with Hermes, which name means ’Utárid (the planet Mercury). God says of him in his book (Qur’an 19:58), “that he exalted him to a high place.” He lived on earth 300 years or more. He was the first man who taught the comforts of life and sewed with a needle. To him thirty books were revealed, and to Shíth twenty-nine, in which there are the two formulas, “There is no God but God,” and “Praise be to God.”
Translated by Aloys Sprenger
Translated by Aloys Sprenger
Suda, s. v. "Seth" (10th century CE)
Seth was the son of Adam: of this it is said, the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men; that is to say, the sons of Seth went in unto the daughters of Cain. For in that age Seth was called God, because he had discovered Hebrew letters, and the names of the stars; but especially on account of his great piety, so that he was the first to bear the name of God.
Translated by Sabine Baring-Gould
Translated by Sabine Baring-Gould
Pseudo-Josephus Gorionides, Josippon 2.18 (10th century CE?)
[Letter of Alexander to Aristotle]
After I had entered the Persian region, which is a province of India, I arrived at some islands of the sea, and there I found men, like women, who fed on raw fish, and spake a language very like Greek; they said to me that there was in the island the sepulchre of a most ancient king, who was called Cainan, son of Enos, and who ruled the whole world, and taught men all kinds of knowledge, and had demons and all kinds of evil spirits under his control. He, by his wisdom, understood that the ever-blessed God would bring in a flood in the times of Noah; wherefore he engraved all that was to take place on stone tables, which exist there to this day, and are written in Hebrew characters. He wrote therein that the ocean would, in that age, overflow a third part of the world, which took place in the lifetime of Enos, the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, our first parent.
In the same island, Cainan built a most extensive city, surrounded with walls; and a great marble citadel, in which he treasured jewels and pearls, and gold and silver in great abundance.
Moreover, he erected a tower, very lofty, over a sepulchre for himself, to serve as his monument. This tower can be approached by no man; for it was built by astronomical art under the seven planets, and with magical skill, so that every one who draws near the wall is struck down with sudden death.
Translated by Sabine Baring-Gould
After I had entered the Persian region, which is a province of India, I arrived at some islands of the sea, and there I found men, like women, who fed on raw fish, and spake a language very like Greek; they said to me that there was in the island the sepulchre of a most ancient king, who was called Cainan, son of Enos, and who ruled the whole world, and taught men all kinds of knowledge, and had demons and all kinds of evil spirits under his control. He, by his wisdom, understood that the ever-blessed God would bring in a flood in the times of Noah; wherefore he engraved all that was to take place on stone tables, which exist there to this day, and are written in Hebrew characters. He wrote therein that the ocean would, in that age, overflow a third part of the world, which took place in the lifetime of Enos, the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, our first parent.
In the same island, Cainan built a most extensive city, surrounded with walls; and a great marble citadel, in which he treasured jewels and pearls, and gold and silver in great abundance.
Moreover, he erected a tower, very lofty, over a sepulchre for himself, to serve as his monument. This tower can be approached by no man; for it was built by astronomical art under the seven planets, and with magical skill, so that every one who draws near the wall is struck down with sudden death.
Translated by Sabine Baring-Gould
Glossia Ordinaria at Genesis 4:21 (10th century CE?)
His brother’s name was Jubal. (RAB.) Josephus writes that this (Jubal) wrote music on two columns, one of stone and the other of brick, that the first might survive a flood and the second flames, which were the two judgments Adam said would come.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Translated by Jason Colavito
The Caedmon Manuscript (MS Junius 11) Genesis 20.1248-1284 (c. 960 CE)
(ll. 1248-1254) Then the sons of God began to take them wives from the tribe of Cain, a cursed folk, and the sons of men chose them wives from among that people, the fair and winsome daughters of that sinful race, against the will of God. Then the Lord of heaven lifted up His voice in wrath against mankind, and said:
(ll. 1255-1262) "Lo! I have not been unmindful of the sons of men, but the tribe of Cain hath sorely angered Me. The sons of Seth have stirred My wrath against them; they have taken them wives from among the daughters of My foes. Woman's beauty and woman's grace and the eternal fiend have taken hold upon this people who dwelt of old in peace."
(ll. 1263-1284) An hundred and twenty numbered winters in the world that fated folk were busied in evil. Then the Lord resolved to punish those faithless spirits, and slay the sinful giant sons, undear to God, those huge, unholy scathers, loathsome to the Lord. The King of victory beheld how great was the wickedness of men on earth, and saw that they were bold in sin and full of wiles. He resolved to bring destruction on the tribes of men, and smite mankind with heavy hand. It repented Him exceedingly that He had made man, and the first of men, when He created Adam. He said that for the sins of men He would lay waste the earth, and all that was upon the earth, destroying every living thing that breathed the breath of life. All this would the Lord destroy in the days that were coming on the sons of men.
Anonymous nineteenth century translation from the Old English.
(ll. 1255-1262) "Lo! I have not been unmindful of the sons of men, but the tribe of Cain hath sorely angered Me. The sons of Seth have stirred My wrath against them; they have taken them wives from among the daughters of My foes. Woman's beauty and woman's grace and the eternal fiend have taken hold upon this people who dwelt of old in peace."
(ll. 1263-1284) An hundred and twenty numbered winters in the world that fated folk were busied in evil. Then the Lord resolved to punish those faithless spirits, and slay the sinful giant sons, undear to God, those huge, unholy scathers, loathsome to the Lord. The King of victory beheld how great was the wickedness of men on earth, and saw that they were bold in sin and full of wiles. He resolved to bring destruction on the tribes of men, and smite mankind with heavy hand. It repented Him exceedingly that He had made man, and the first of men, when He created Adam. He said that for the sins of men He would lay waste the earth, and all that was upon the earth, destroying every living thing that breathed the breath of life. All this would the Lord destroy in the days that were coming on the sons of men.
Anonymous nineteenth century translation from the Old English.
Abu Rayhan al-Bīrūnī, Chronology of Ancient Nations, p. 24 (1000 CE)
It is related, that Tahmurath on receiving the warning of the Deluge—231 years before the Deluge—ordered his people to select a place of good air and soil in his realm. Now they did not find a place that answered better to this description than Ispahan. Thereupon, he ordered all scientific books to be preserved for posterity, and to be buried in a part of that place, least exposed to obnoxious influences. In favour of this report we may state that in our time in Jay, the city of Ispahan, there have been discovered hills, which, on being excavated, disclosed houses, filled with many loads of that tree-bark, with which arrows and shields are covered, and which is called Tuz, bearing inscriptions, of which no one was able to say what they are, and what they mean.
Translated by C. Edward Sachau
Translated by C. Edward Sachau
George Kedrenos, A Concise History of the World, 1.16-20 (c. 1050 CE)
Seth is recorded as the third son of Adam. He married his own sister, called Asouam, and begat Enos. Seth signifies resurrection. He was also called God, because of the shining of his face, which lasted all his life. Moses also had this grace, and so veiled himself when he spoke with the Jews, for forty years. Seth gave names to the seven planets, and comprehended the lore of the movement of the heavens. He also prepared two pillars, one of stone and one of brick and wrote these things upon them. For he had predicted universal ruin, which if it were to come by water, the stone pillar would survive, and the brick were it by fire; and the former even now continues to exist on the mountain of Siriad, as Josephus testifies. This same Seth devised the Hebrew letters. In the 270th year of Adam Seth was caught away by an angel and instructed in what concerned the future transgression of his sons (that is to say, the Watchers, who were also called Sons of God), and concerning the Flood and the coming of the Saviour. And on the fortieth day after he had disappeared, he returned and told the protoplasts all that he had been taught by the angel. He was comely and well-formed, both he and those that were born of him, who were called Watchers and Sons of God because of the shining of the face of Seth. And they dwelt on the higher land of Eden near to Paradise, living the life of angels, until the 1000th year of the world. [...]
Adam in his 600th year repeated and knew by revelation the thing concerning the Watchers and the Deluge, and repentance and the Divine Incarnation, and the prayers which are sent up to God at every hour of day and night from all creatures through Uriel the archangel of repentance. [...]
After Adam, Seth ruled over humanity. In the 1,200th year from the creation of the world, when Jared had attained forty years of life and Seth 770, the Watchers, or the progeny of Seth, descended and were led into error, for they chose wives for themselves from among the daughters of Cain, and they begat the famous giants. Because of the just Seth, these giants had great strength, and enormous bodies, and on account of this were monstrous and abominations, and thus had this name imposed upon them. In truth, on account of the wicked Cain, they dedicated themselves with strength, fortitude, and the strongest resolve to a life of murder, impiety, and wantonness. Some call them snake-footed, for with their souls enraged in the manner of the poisonous beasts, they could think of nothing good. Or, according to some accounts, they bore the name snake-footed because certain of them made war on those dwelling in heaven, and with their hands and feet and coils crawled on high on their bellies in the manner of snakes, from which many of them were shot at and killed by those on high. God in heaven killed more than a few of them with balls of fire or thunderbolts: But when the rest of them remained unmoved by any sense of punishment, nor could they be induced to give up any part of their atrocious life, afterwards God removed them through the universal deluge. They swore on Mt. Hermon to take wives for themselves from the daughters of men, or the progeny of Cain. And this mountain gained its name because there they bound themselves under mutual oath. They taught their wives witchcraft and incantations: First Azael, the tenth of their princes (for there were 200 of their princes who had come down), taught them to make swords and breastplates, and all the instruments of war, and then to dig up from the bowels of the earth gold, silver, and the other metals. Similarly, each of the other princes taught them things: the embellishment of the body, precious stones and dyes, herbs and roots, wisdom, how counteract enchantments, astronomy and the motions of stars, astrology, the properties of the air, and the signs of the earth and the sun and the moon.
Translated by M. R. James, Jason Colavito, and the Dictionary of Christian Biography
Adam in his 600th year repeated and knew by revelation the thing concerning the Watchers and the Deluge, and repentance and the Divine Incarnation, and the prayers which are sent up to God at every hour of day and night from all creatures through Uriel the archangel of repentance. [...]
After Adam, Seth ruled over humanity. In the 1,200th year from the creation of the world, when Jared had attained forty years of life and Seth 770, the Watchers, or the progeny of Seth, descended and were led into error, for they chose wives for themselves from among the daughters of Cain, and they begat the famous giants. Because of the just Seth, these giants had great strength, and enormous bodies, and on account of this were monstrous and abominations, and thus had this name imposed upon them. In truth, on account of the wicked Cain, they dedicated themselves with strength, fortitude, and the strongest resolve to a life of murder, impiety, and wantonness. Some call them snake-footed, for with their souls enraged in the manner of the poisonous beasts, they could think of nothing good. Or, according to some accounts, they bore the name snake-footed because certain of them made war on those dwelling in heaven, and with their hands and feet and coils crawled on high on their bellies in the manner of snakes, from which many of them were shot at and killed by those on high. God in heaven killed more than a few of them with balls of fire or thunderbolts: But when the rest of them remained unmoved by any sense of punishment, nor could they be induced to give up any part of their atrocious life, afterwards God removed them through the universal deluge. They swore on Mt. Hermon to take wives for themselves from the daughters of men, or the progeny of Cain. And this mountain gained its name because there they bound themselves under mutual oath. They taught their wives witchcraft and incantations: First Azael, the tenth of their princes (for there were 200 of their princes who had come down), taught them to make swords and breastplates, and all the instruments of war, and then to dig up from the bowels of the earth gold, silver, and the other metals. Similarly, each of the other princes taught them things: the embellishment of the body, precious stones and dyes, herbs and roots, wisdom, how counteract enchantments, astronomy and the motions of stars, astrology, the properties of the air, and the signs of the earth and the sun and the moon.
Translated by M. R. James, Jason Colavito, and the Dictionary of Christian Biography
Targum Yerushalmi (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) at Genesis 6 (medieval; date disputed)
And it was when the sons of men began to multiply upon the face of the earth, and fair daughters were born to them; and the sons of the great saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and painted, and curled, walking with revelation of the flesh, and with imaginations of wickedness; that they took them wives of all who pleased them. And the Lord said by His Word, All the generations of the wicked which are to arise shall not be purged after the order of the judgments of the generation of the deluge, which shall be destroyed and exterminated from the midst of the world. Have I not imparted My Holy Spirit to them, (or, placed My Holy Spirit in them,) that they may work good works? And, behold, their works are wicked. Behold, I will give them a prolongment of a hundred and twenty years, that they may work repentance, and not perish.
Schamchazai and Uzziel, who fell from heaven, were on the earth in those days; and also, after the sons of the Great had gone in with the daughters of men, they bare to them: and these are they who are called men who are of the world, men of names.
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and all the imagery of the thought of his heart was only evil every day. And it repented the Lord in His Word that He had made man upon the earth; and He passed judgment upon them by His Word.
And the Lord said, I will abolish by My Word man, whom I have created upon the face of the earth, from man to cattle, to the reptile, and to the fowl of the heavens; because I have repented in My Word that I have made them. But Noah, who was righteous, found favour before the Lord.
Translated by J. W. Etheridge (1862).
Schamchazai and Uzziel, who fell from heaven, were on the earth in those days; and also, after the sons of the Great had gone in with the daughters of men, they bare to them: and these are they who are called men who are of the world, men of names.
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and all the imagery of the thought of his heart was only evil every day. And it repented the Lord in His Word that He had made man upon the earth; and He passed judgment upon them by His Word.
And the Lord said, I will abolish by My Word man, whom I have created upon the face of the earth, from man to cattle, to the reptile, and to the fowl of the heavens; because I have repented in My Word that I have made them. But Noah, who was righteous, found favour before the Lord.
Translated by J. W. Etheridge (1862).
Hugh of St. Victor, Adnotationes Elucidatoriae in Pentateuchon at Gen. 11 (c. 1130)
Cham [...] king of Bactria was conquered by Ninus and called Zoroaster, the inventor and creator of the evil mathematical arts (i.e. astrology). He inscribed the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars, seven bronze and seven brick, against the possibility of a flood, in order to provide usefulness to posterity. His books on mathematics Ninus, having gained victory, had burned.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica (c. 1173 CE)
Liber Genesis
16 … God cast a deep sleep upon Adam, not regular sleep, but an ecstasy, in which he was supposed to have been in the midst of the heavenly court. From this state he awakened and prophesied the marriage of Christ and the Church, and he knew of the Flood to come, and in the same way of the Judgment through fire. And afterward he told his sons.
28 … And because he (Tubal Cain) had heard Adam prophesy of the two judgments, that the arts he invented should not perish, he inscribed them on two columns, the whole of it on each. According to Josephus, one was of marble, the other of brick, so that one would not be dissolved by the Flood, and the other would not be incinerated by the flames. Josephus says the marble one was yet in the land of Syria. …
30 When Noah was five hundred years old, he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen. 6). And Moses says that the Flood was sent for this reason: When men began to multiply over the earth, the sons of God, that is, of the pious Seth, beheld the daughters of men, that is, of the race of Cain, and, conquered by lust, they took them for wives, and thence the giants were born. The time when this occurred, whether under Noah, or long before him, or multiple times, or just a little before, has not been determined. Josephus, however, says that up to the seventh generation the sons of Seth persisted in righteousness, but afterward they inclined toward evil, departing from the rites of their fathers, and because of this provoked God himself against them. In fact, many of the angels of God—that is, the sons of Seth—which is to say, those who were above the sons of God, had sexual intercourse with women and produced evil children, who, because of their overweening pride, were called giants by the Greeks.
Methodius (says that) the cause of the flood was men knowing sexual sin and spreading it forth. In the year five hundred of the first chiliad, that is, after the first chiliad, the sons of Cain abused the wives of their brother with excessive fornications. In the year six hundred, the women turned things around and overthrew the men who had abused them. After the death of Adam, Seth separated his kindred from the kindred of Cain, who had returned to his native soil. Indeed, while he (Adam) was living their father had not prohibited such mixing together. Seth dwelt on a mountain near to paradise. Cain dwelt in the plains where he had slain his brother. In the five hundredth year of the second chiliad, men burned for other sexual unions. In the seven hundredth year of the second chiliad, the sons of Seth lusted after the daughters of Cain, and from this were born the giants. And at the start of the third chiliad, the Flood inundated the earth. Thus ordains Methodius.
It is even possible for demonic incubi to give rise to giants, whose name is derived from the magnitude of their bodies, so called from Geo, which is the earth. These are the incubi or demons who at night are accustomed to molest women; but even the savagery of their bodies answered to the savagery of their minds. After the Flood, however, other giants were born in Hebron, and later they were in the city of Tham in Egypt, and were called the Titans, of whom was the lineage of the Enachin (sic for Anakim), whose sons dwelt in Hebron, of whom was born Goliath, and certain others. …
38 ... Ninus conquered Ham, who was still living at this time, and reigned in Bractia [al. Thracia; sic for Bactria], and they say that Zoroaster invented the magical arts, and inscribed the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars, seven of bronze and seven of brick, against the aforementioned judgments (of Adam). Verily, Ninus burned all of his books. By the same (Ninus) was thus instituted idolatry.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
16 … God cast a deep sleep upon Adam, not regular sleep, but an ecstasy, in which he was supposed to have been in the midst of the heavenly court. From this state he awakened and prophesied the marriage of Christ and the Church, and he knew of the Flood to come, and in the same way of the Judgment through fire. And afterward he told his sons.
28 … And because he (Tubal Cain) had heard Adam prophesy of the two judgments, that the arts he invented should not perish, he inscribed them on two columns, the whole of it on each. According to Josephus, one was of marble, the other of brick, so that one would not be dissolved by the Flood, and the other would not be incinerated by the flames. Josephus says the marble one was yet in the land of Syria. …
30 When Noah was five hundred years old, he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen. 6). And Moses says that the Flood was sent for this reason: When men began to multiply over the earth, the sons of God, that is, of the pious Seth, beheld the daughters of men, that is, of the race of Cain, and, conquered by lust, they took them for wives, and thence the giants were born. The time when this occurred, whether under Noah, or long before him, or multiple times, or just a little before, has not been determined. Josephus, however, says that up to the seventh generation the sons of Seth persisted in righteousness, but afterward they inclined toward evil, departing from the rites of their fathers, and because of this provoked God himself against them. In fact, many of the angels of God—that is, the sons of Seth—which is to say, those who were above the sons of God, had sexual intercourse with women and produced evil children, who, because of their overweening pride, were called giants by the Greeks.
Methodius (says that) the cause of the flood was men knowing sexual sin and spreading it forth. In the year five hundred of the first chiliad, that is, after the first chiliad, the sons of Cain abused the wives of their brother with excessive fornications. In the year six hundred, the women turned things around and overthrew the men who had abused them. After the death of Adam, Seth separated his kindred from the kindred of Cain, who had returned to his native soil. Indeed, while he (Adam) was living their father had not prohibited such mixing together. Seth dwelt on a mountain near to paradise. Cain dwelt in the plains where he had slain his brother. In the five hundredth year of the second chiliad, men burned for other sexual unions. In the seven hundredth year of the second chiliad, the sons of Seth lusted after the daughters of Cain, and from this were born the giants. And at the start of the third chiliad, the Flood inundated the earth. Thus ordains Methodius.
It is even possible for demonic incubi to give rise to giants, whose name is derived from the magnitude of their bodies, so called from Geo, which is the earth. These are the incubi or demons who at night are accustomed to molest women; but even the savagery of their bodies answered to the savagery of their minds. After the Flood, however, other giants were born in Hebron, and later they were in the city of Tham in Egypt, and were called the Titans, of whom was the lineage of the Enachin (sic for Anakim), whose sons dwelt in Hebron, of whom was born Goliath, and certain others. …
38 ... Ninus conquered Ham, who was still living at this time, and reigned in Bractia [al. Thracia; sic for Bactria], and they say that Zoroaster invented the magical arts, and inscribed the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars, seven of bronze and seven of brick, against the aforementioned judgments (of Adam). Verily, Ninus burned all of his books. By the same (Ninus) was thus instituted idolatry.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Michael the Syrian, Chronicle (before 1199 CE)
1.3. In the days of Seth, his children remembered the blessed life of Paradise, and they dreamed of pleasing God through their purity; therefore, they ascended Mount Hermon, and lived there in the holy orders, forgoing marriage. That is why they were called the Benê Elôhim and “angels.” […]
In the year 40 of Jared, the first Millennium ended. In that year the Benê Elôhim, who numbered two hundred, descended from Mount Hermon. Seeing that they could not return to Paradise, they became discouraged and abandoned the angelic life. They surrendered themselves to the voluptuous flesh, and appointed among themselves a king called Semiazos. Annianus tells of them that they came down from Mount Hermon toward their brethren, the sons of Seth and Enos, who would not give them wives, because they had failed to keep their promise. So instead, they went to the children of Cain, took wives, and sired powerful giants who were plunderers, famous and renowned assassins, and also daring bandits.
1.4. The first king was Adam; Seth succeeded him. In their time, the concord and peace that reigned among men [was applied] to good works in the fear and love of God. When those who were called “angels” and “children of God” became fallen, they multiplied troubles, battles, and murders. They chose Semiazos for their king. The children of Seth who lived in the north, in the third climate, which is called the lower region, became their imitators and imitated them. They learned from the malice of the children of Cain and followed their example. They also put up among themselves a first king, Aloros, in imitation of Semiazus. He reigned for ten saris. There were then two kingdoms.
After Aloros the Chaldean, nine others reigned successively until the Deluge, all Chaldeans, whose number of years has been calculated by the Chaldeans and [expressed] according to the names of the epoch in sares, neres and sosses.—The first was Aloros, a Chaldean of Babylon, who reigned 10 sares, that is, 98 years and 230 days. The second, Alaparos, his son, reigned three sares, that is, 29 years and 215 days. The third was Almelon, a Chaldean, from the town of Pantibiblon; He reigned 13 sares, that is to say 128 years and 80 days. The fourth, Ammenon, a Chaldean, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 12 sares, that is to say 118 years and 130 days. The fifth, Amegalaros, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 18 sares, that is, 177 years and 195 days. The sixth, Daonos the shepherd, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 10 sares, that is to say 98 years and 230 days. The seventh, Eudorancos, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 18 sares, that is to say 177 years and 195 days. The eighth, Amempsinos, of Laranchon, reigned 10 sares, that is to say, 98 years and 230 days. The ninth, Otiartes, also of the city of Laranchon, reigned 8 sares, that is to say 78 years and 330 days. The tenth, his son Xisoutros, reigned 18 sares, that is to say, 177 years, and 195 days, and all the years together amounted to 1183 years and 205 days. In the time of this last one was the Deluge, as stated in the books of the Chaldeans. These 1183 years and 205 days added to the 10,583 years during which there was no king, and during which Adam and Seth governed, fill the space of time that goes from Adam until the Flood which took place in the time of Noah, and formed a total of 2,242 years, according to the Sacerdotal Book.
1.8. […] From the race of Seth were those who went up on the mountain and were called Benê Elôhim. Having broken their promise, they descended and mingled with the daughters of Cain. They committed impiety. An empire was formed, the first king of which was Semiazos. This empire lasted until the Deluge, in which they all perished.
Translated by Jason Colavito
In the year 40 of Jared, the first Millennium ended. In that year the Benê Elôhim, who numbered two hundred, descended from Mount Hermon. Seeing that they could not return to Paradise, they became discouraged and abandoned the angelic life. They surrendered themselves to the voluptuous flesh, and appointed among themselves a king called Semiazos. Annianus tells of them that they came down from Mount Hermon toward their brethren, the sons of Seth and Enos, who would not give them wives, because they had failed to keep their promise. So instead, they went to the children of Cain, took wives, and sired powerful giants who were plunderers, famous and renowned assassins, and also daring bandits.
1.4. The first king was Adam; Seth succeeded him. In their time, the concord and peace that reigned among men [was applied] to good works in the fear and love of God. When those who were called “angels” and “children of God” became fallen, they multiplied troubles, battles, and murders. They chose Semiazos for their king. The children of Seth who lived in the north, in the third climate, which is called the lower region, became their imitators and imitated them. They learned from the malice of the children of Cain and followed their example. They also put up among themselves a first king, Aloros, in imitation of Semiazus. He reigned for ten saris. There were then two kingdoms.
After Aloros the Chaldean, nine others reigned successively until the Deluge, all Chaldeans, whose number of years has been calculated by the Chaldeans and [expressed] according to the names of the epoch in sares, neres and sosses.—The first was Aloros, a Chaldean of Babylon, who reigned 10 sares, that is, 98 years and 230 days. The second, Alaparos, his son, reigned three sares, that is, 29 years and 215 days. The third was Almelon, a Chaldean, from the town of Pantibiblon; He reigned 13 sares, that is to say 128 years and 80 days. The fourth, Ammenon, a Chaldean, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 12 sares, that is to say 118 years and 130 days. The fifth, Amegalaros, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 18 sares, that is, 177 years and 195 days. The sixth, Daonos the shepherd, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 10 sares, that is to say 98 years and 230 days. The seventh, Eudorancos, also of Pantibiblon, reigned 18 sares, that is to say 177 years and 195 days. The eighth, Amempsinos, of Laranchon, reigned 10 sares, that is to say, 98 years and 230 days. The ninth, Otiartes, also of the city of Laranchon, reigned 8 sares, that is to say 78 years and 330 days. The tenth, his son Xisoutros, reigned 18 sares, that is to say, 177 years, and 195 days, and all the years together amounted to 1183 years and 205 days. In the time of this last one was the Deluge, as stated in the books of the Chaldeans. These 1183 years and 205 days added to the 10,583 years during which there was no king, and during which Adam and Seth governed, fill the space of time that goes from Adam until the Flood which took place in the time of Noah, and formed a total of 2,242 years, according to the Sacerdotal Book.
1.8. […] From the race of Seth were those who went up on the mountain and were called Benê Elôhim. Having broken their promise, they descended and mingled with the daughters of Cain. They committed impiety. An empire was formed, the first king of which was Semiazos. This empire lasted until the Deluge, in which they all perished.
Translated by Jason Colavito
Chronicles of Jerahmeel 24-26 (12th century, but with earlier material)
Chapter 24
...5 The wicked Lemech had two wives, ‘Adah and Ṣillah, and ‘Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as live in tents and feed the cattle. He discovered the work appertaining to shepherds, and made tents and pens for the cattle, one for the sheep, and another for the oxen, distinct from each other. He also invented the locks which are made to prevent thieves entering the house, which are like unto this, χ. And the name of his brother was Jubal, the father of all who play on the harp and the reed-pipe. 6 At this time the inhabitants of the earth began to commit violence, to defile each other, and kindle the anger of the Lord. They began to sing with the harp and the reed-pipe, and to sport with all kinds of song corrupting the earth. This Jubal discovered the science of music, whence arose all the tunes for the above two instruments. This art is very great. 7 And it came to pass, when he heard of the judgments which Adam prophesied concerning the two trials to come upon his descendants by the flood, the dispersion and fire, he wrote down the science of music upon two pillars, one of white marble, and the other of brick, so that if one would melt and crumble away on account of the water, the other would be saved. 8 And Sillah bare Tubal Cain, who forged all the iron implements of war, and was an artificer in all kinds of ironwork. He also discovered the art of joining lead and iron together, in order to temper the iron and to make the blade sharper. He also invented the pincers, the hammer, and the axe, and other instruments of iron. Tubal was a worker in all kinds of tin and lead, iron and copper, silver and gold. Then men began to make graven images for worship. The sister of Tubal Cain was called Naamah. It was she who invented all kinds of instruments used for weaving and sewing silk, wool and flax, and the entire art of the fancy-worker and the weaver. 9 In the days of Enosh men began to be designated by the names of princes and judges, to be made gods, applying to them the name of the Lord. They also erected temples for them, but in the time of Re’u they were all overthrown. 10 It came to pass when man began to multiply upon the face of the earth, that the children of Elohim—that is, the seed of Seth—looked upon the daughters of man—that is, the seed of Cain—and they took them wives of all which they chose, and begat those giants that peopled the earth in the days of Noah. 11 During the whole lifetime of Adam the sons of Seth had not intermarried with the seed of Cain, but when Adam died they intermarried. The sons of Seth dwelt in the mountains by the Garden of Eden, while Cain dwelt in the fields of Damascus, where Abel was killed. For seven generations the descendants of Seth kept righteous, but thenceforward they became wicked. It was for this reason that God repented that He had made man. 12 From the seed of Seth and Cain there came forth the giants, who, from their haughtiness of spirit, fell and became corrupt, and were therefore swept away by the waters of the flood, and therefore they were called ‘Nefilim’ (the fallen). They claimed the same pedigree as the descendants of Seth, and compared themselves to princes and to men of noble descent—sons of Elohim, lords and judges. Concerning them it is said, ‘Therefore like unto man ye shall die, and as like unto princes ye shall fall.’
Chapter 25
1 R. Joseph was once asked what was the story of Shemhazai and Azael, and he replied, ‘When the generation of Enosh arose and worshipped idols, and when the generation of the flood arose and went astray, God was grieved that He had created man, as it is said, “And the Lord repented that He had made man, and He was grieved at heart.” 2 Then two angels, whose names were Shemḥazai and ‘Azael, appeared before God, and said, “O Lord of the universe, did we not say unto Thee when Thou didst create Thy world, ‘Do not create man’?” as it is said, “What is man, that Thou shouldst remember him?” “Then what shall become of the world?” said God. They replied, “We will occupy ourselves with it.” 3 God said, “It is revealed and well known to Me that if peradventure you had lived in that earthly world, the evil inclination would have swayed you just as much as it rules over the sons of man, but you would be more stubborn than they.” “Give us Thy sanction, then, and let us descend among the creatures, and then Thou shalt see how we shall sanctify Thy name.” “Descend,” spake the Lord, “and dwell ye among them.” Forthwith He allowed the evil inclination to sway them. 4 As soon as they descended and beheld the daughters of man that they were beautiful, they began to disport themselves with them, as it is said, “When the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of man,” they could not restrain their inclination. 5 Shemhazai beheld a girl whose name was Esṭirah. When he beheld her, he said, “Listen to my request.” But she replied, “I will not listen to thee until thou teachest me the name by the mention of which thou art enabled to ascend to heaven.” He forthwith taught her the Ineffable Name. 6 She then uttered the Ineffable Name and thereby ascended to heaven. God said, “Since she has departed from sin, go and set her among the stars”—it is she who shines brightly in the midst of the seven stars of Pleiades; for that she may always be remembered God fixed her among the Pleiades. 7 When Shemhazai and ‘Azael saw this they took to them wives, and begat children. The former begat two children, whose names were Heyya, and Aheyya. And ‘Azael was appointed chief over all the dyes, and over all kinds of ornaments by which women entice men to thoughts of sin.
8 ‘God then sent Metatron a messenger to Shemhazai, and said to him, “God will destroy His world, and bring upon it a flood.” Shemhazai then raised his voice and wept aloud, for he was sorely troubled about his sons and his own iniquity. “How shall my children live, and what shall they eat, and if the world is destroyed what shall become of my children, for each one of them eats 1,000 camels, 1,000 horses, and 1,000 oxen daily?” 9 One night the sons of Shemhazai—Heyya and Aheyyah—dreamt dreams. One dreamt that he saw a great stone spread over the earth like a table, the whole of which was covered with writing. An angel descended from heaven with a knife in his hand and obliterated all the lines, save one line only with four words upon it. 10 The other dreamt that he saw a lovely garden, planted with all kinds of trees and beautiful things. An angel descended from heaven with an axe in his hand, and cut down all the trees, so that there remained only one tree containing three branches. 11 When they awoke from their sleep they were much confused, and, going to their father, they related their dreams. He said to them, “God is about to bring a flood upon the world, to destroy it, so that there will remain but one man and his three sons.” They thereupon cried in anguish, and wept, saying, “What shall become of us, and how shall our names be perpetuated?” “Do not trouble yourselves about your names. Heyya and Aheyya will never cease from the mouths of creatures, because every time that men raise heavy stones, or ships, or any heavy load or burden, they will sigh and call your names.” With this his sons were satisfied (quieted).
12 ‘Shemhazai repented and suspended himself between heaven and earth, head downwards, because he durst not appear before God, and he still hangs between heaven and earth. 13 ‘Azael, however, did not repent. He is appointed over all kinds of dyes which entice man to commit sin, and he still continues to sin. Therefore, when the Israelites used to bring sacrifices on the day of atonement, they cast one lot for the Lord that it might atone for the iniquities of the Israelites, and one lot for Azael that he might bear the burden of Israel’s iniquity. This is the ‘Azazel that is mentioned in the Scripture.’
Chapter 26
...14 And Lemech took two wives. Ada bore Jabal, the father of all those who dwell in tents, and Jubal, the father of all who play upon the harp and the reed-pipe. 15 Then the inhabitants of the land began to commit violence and to defile the wives of their neighbours, thus kindling the anger of the Lord. And they then began to play upon the harp and the reed-pipe, and to sport with every kind of song, corrupting the earth. This same Jubal discovered the science of music, whence arose all the melodies for the two above-named instruments. This is a great science, as I have explained in its proper place (above). 16 And it came to pass, when Jubal heard the prophecy of Adam concerning the two judgments about to come upon the world by means of the flood, the dispersion and fire, that he wrote down the science of music upon two pillars, one of fine white marble and the other of brick, so that in the event of the one melting and being destroyed by the waters, the other would be saved. 17 And Sillah bore Tubal Cain, who used to sharpen all instruments of iron for war, and worked in all manner of iron. He also invented the art of alloying lead and iron together, so as to temper the iron and to make the blade sharper. He also invented the pincers, the hammer, and the axe, and all instruments of iron. 18 The sister of Tubal Cain was Na‘amah. It was she who invented the art of weaving and sewing silk, wool, and flax, and the whole art of the fancy-worker and the weaver. Ṣillah also bore Miza and Tipa. Tubal was a worker in tin, lead, iron, copper, silver, and gold. Then men began to make graven images for their worship. 19 ‘Adah also bore Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and attend to the flock. He discovered the work appertaining to shepherds, and made tents and pens for the cattle, one for the sheep and another for the oxen, distinct from each other. He also invented the locks, as a safeguard to prevent robbers entering the house, like this, χ.
Chapter 32
3 ... From this land Assur, that is, Ninus, the son of Bel, the son of Nimrod, went forth. 4 Ninus vanquished Zoroastres the Wise, who discovered the art of Nigromancia, i.e., Nagirā. He reigned in Bractia (Bactria), and had written down the seven sciences (or arts) on fourteen pillars, seven of brass and seven of brick, so that they should be proof against the water—of the flood—and against the fire—of the day of judgment. But Ninus vanquished him, and burnt the books of wisdom. 5 And Ninus wrote (?) another book of wisdom.
Translated by Moses Gaster (1899).
...5 The wicked Lemech had two wives, ‘Adah and Ṣillah, and ‘Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as live in tents and feed the cattle. He discovered the work appertaining to shepherds, and made tents and pens for the cattle, one for the sheep, and another for the oxen, distinct from each other. He also invented the locks which are made to prevent thieves entering the house, which are like unto this, χ. And the name of his brother was Jubal, the father of all who play on the harp and the reed-pipe. 6 At this time the inhabitants of the earth began to commit violence, to defile each other, and kindle the anger of the Lord. They began to sing with the harp and the reed-pipe, and to sport with all kinds of song corrupting the earth. This Jubal discovered the science of music, whence arose all the tunes for the above two instruments. This art is very great. 7 And it came to pass, when he heard of the judgments which Adam prophesied concerning the two trials to come upon his descendants by the flood, the dispersion and fire, he wrote down the science of music upon two pillars, one of white marble, and the other of brick, so that if one would melt and crumble away on account of the water, the other would be saved. 8 And Sillah bare Tubal Cain, who forged all the iron implements of war, and was an artificer in all kinds of ironwork. He also discovered the art of joining lead and iron together, in order to temper the iron and to make the blade sharper. He also invented the pincers, the hammer, and the axe, and other instruments of iron. Tubal was a worker in all kinds of tin and lead, iron and copper, silver and gold. Then men began to make graven images for worship. The sister of Tubal Cain was called Naamah. It was she who invented all kinds of instruments used for weaving and sewing silk, wool and flax, and the entire art of the fancy-worker and the weaver. 9 In the days of Enosh men began to be designated by the names of princes and judges, to be made gods, applying to them the name of the Lord. They also erected temples for them, but in the time of Re’u they were all overthrown. 10 It came to pass when man began to multiply upon the face of the earth, that the children of Elohim—that is, the seed of Seth—looked upon the daughters of man—that is, the seed of Cain—and they took them wives of all which they chose, and begat those giants that peopled the earth in the days of Noah. 11 During the whole lifetime of Adam the sons of Seth had not intermarried with the seed of Cain, but when Adam died they intermarried. The sons of Seth dwelt in the mountains by the Garden of Eden, while Cain dwelt in the fields of Damascus, where Abel was killed. For seven generations the descendants of Seth kept righteous, but thenceforward they became wicked. It was for this reason that God repented that He had made man. 12 From the seed of Seth and Cain there came forth the giants, who, from their haughtiness of spirit, fell and became corrupt, and were therefore swept away by the waters of the flood, and therefore they were called ‘Nefilim’ (the fallen). They claimed the same pedigree as the descendants of Seth, and compared themselves to princes and to men of noble descent—sons of Elohim, lords and judges. Concerning them it is said, ‘Therefore like unto man ye shall die, and as like unto princes ye shall fall.’
Chapter 25
1 R. Joseph was once asked what was the story of Shemhazai and Azael, and he replied, ‘When the generation of Enosh arose and worshipped idols, and when the generation of the flood arose and went astray, God was grieved that He had created man, as it is said, “And the Lord repented that He had made man, and He was grieved at heart.” 2 Then two angels, whose names were Shemḥazai and ‘Azael, appeared before God, and said, “O Lord of the universe, did we not say unto Thee when Thou didst create Thy world, ‘Do not create man’?” as it is said, “What is man, that Thou shouldst remember him?” “Then what shall become of the world?” said God. They replied, “We will occupy ourselves with it.” 3 God said, “It is revealed and well known to Me that if peradventure you had lived in that earthly world, the evil inclination would have swayed you just as much as it rules over the sons of man, but you would be more stubborn than they.” “Give us Thy sanction, then, and let us descend among the creatures, and then Thou shalt see how we shall sanctify Thy name.” “Descend,” spake the Lord, “and dwell ye among them.” Forthwith He allowed the evil inclination to sway them. 4 As soon as they descended and beheld the daughters of man that they were beautiful, they began to disport themselves with them, as it is said, “When the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of man,” they could not restrain their inclination. 5 Shemhazai beheld a girl whose name was Esṭirah. When he beheld her, he said, “Listen to my request.” But she replied, “I will not listen to thee until thou teachest me the name by the mention of which thou art enabled to ascend to heaven.” He forthwith taught her the Ineffable Name. 6 She then uttered the Ineffable Name and thereby ascended to heaven. God said, “Since she has departed from sin, go and set her among the stars”—it is she who shines brightly in the midst of the seven stars of Pleiades; for that she may always be remembered God fixed her among the Pleiades. 7 When Shemhazai and ‘Azael saw this they took to them wives, and begat children. The former begat two children, whose names were Heyya, and Aheyya. And ‘Azael was appointed chief over all the dyes, and over all kinds of ornaments by which women entice men to thoughts of sin.
8 ‘God then sent Metatron a messenger to Shemhazai, and said to him, “God will destroy His world, and bring upon it a flood.” Shemhazai then raised his voice and wept aloud, for he was sorely troubled about his sons and his own iniquity. “How shall my children live, and what shall they eat, and if the world is destroyed what shall become of my children, for each one of them eats 1,000 camels, 1,000 horses, and 1,000 oxen daily?” 9 One night the sons of Shemhazai—Heyya and Aheyyah—dreamt dreams. One dreamt that he saw a great stone spread over the earth like a table, the whole of which was covered with writing. An angel descended from heaven with a knife in his hand and obliterated all the lines, save one line only with four words upon it. 10 The other dreamt that he saw a lovely garden, planted with all kinds of trees and beautiful things. An angel descended from heaven with an axe in his hand, and cut down all the trees, so that there remained only one tree containing three branches. 11 When they awoke from their sleep they were much confused, and, going to their father, they related their dreams. He said to them, “God is about to bring a flood upon the world, to destroy it, so that there will remain but one man and his three sons.” They thereupon cried in anguish, and wept, saying, “What shall become of us, and how shall our names be perpetuated?” “Do not trouble yourselves about your names. Heyya and Aheyya will never cease from the mouths of creatures, because every time that men raise heavy stones, or ships, or any heavy load or burden, they will sigh and call your names.” With this his sons were satisfied (quieted).
12 ‘Shemhazai repented and suspended himself between heaven and earth, head downwards, because he durst not appear before God, and he still hangs between heaven and earth. 13 ‘Azael, however, did not repent. He is appointed over all kinds of dyes which entice man to commit sin, and he still continues to sin. Therefore, when the Israelites used to bring sacrifices on the day of atonement, they cast one lot for the Lord that it might atone for the iniquities of the Israelites, and one lot for Azael that he might bear the burden of Israel’s iniquity. This is the ‘Azazel that is mentioned in the Scripture.’
Chapter 26
...14 And Lemech took two wives. Ada bore Jabal, the father of all those who dwell in tents, and Jubal, the father of all who play upon the harp and the reed-pipe. 15 Then the inhabitants of the land began to commit violence and to defile the wives of their neighbours, thus kindling the anger of the Lord. And they then began to play upon the harp and the reed-pipe, and to sport with every kind of song, corrupting the earth. This same Jubal discovered the science of music, whence arose all the melodies for the two above-named instruments. This is a great science, as I have explained in its proper place (above). 16 And it came to pass, when Jubal heard the prophecy of Adam concerning the two judgments about to come upon the world by means of the flood, the dispersion and fire, that he wrote down the science of music upon two pillars, one of fine white marble and the other of brick, so that in the event of the one melting and being destroyed by the waters, the other would be saved. 17 And Sillah bore Tubal Cain, who used to sharpen all instruments of iron for war, and worked in all manner of iron. He also invented the art of alloying lead and iron together, so as to temper the iron and to make the blade sharper. He also invented the pincers, the hammer, and the axe, and all instruments of iron. 18 The sister of Tubal Cain was Na‘amah. It was she who invented the art of weaving and sewing silk, wool, and flax, and the whole art of the fancy-worker and the weaver. Ṣillah also bore Miza and Tipa. Tubal was a worker in tin, lead, iron, copper, silver, and gold. Then men began to make graven images for their worship. 19 ‘Adah also bore Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and attend to the flock. He discovered the work appertaining to shepherds, and made tents and pens for the cattle, one for the sheep and another for the oxen, distinct from each other. He also invented the locks, as a safeguard to prevent robbers entering the house, like this, χ.
Chapter 32
3 ... From this land Assur, that is, Ninus, the son of Bel, the son of Nimrod, went forth. 4 Ninus vanquished Zoroastres the Wise, who discovered the art of Nigromancia, i.e., Nagirā. He reigned in Bractia (Bactria), and had written down the seven sciences (or arts) on fourteen pillars, seven of brass and seven of brick, so that they should be proof against the water—of the flood—and against the fire—of the day of judgment. But Ninus vanquished him, and burnt the books of wisdom. 5 And Ninus wrote (?) another book of wisdom.
Translated by Moses Gaster (1899).
Gervase of Tillbury, Otia Imperiala 1.20 (1211)
… Jubal invented tents, and taught mankind how to divide and manage flocks. Jubal was called the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ; not because he was the inventor of them, for they were not invented till long after, but because he was the inventor of music, that is, of harmony, in order that the shepherd’s toil might be turned into pleasure. And because he had heard Adam prophesy two judgments, he wrote the whole system on each of two columns, the one of which was of brick, the other of marble, that the one might not be washed away by a flood, nor the other perish in the fire. Josephus narrates that the marble pillar is still extant in the land of Siriad. […] Some relate that Zoroaster, the inventor of magic, whose other name was Ham, son of Noah, taught Abraham the knowledge of the stars; for Zoroaster was still alive in Abraham’s days, and then reigned in Bactria. He was conquered by Ninus, son of Bel, and king of the Assyrians. Now Zoroaster had inscribed the fourteen liberal arts on fourteen pillars; seven were of brass, and seven of brick, that they might survive either the judgment by water or that by fire. But Ninus burnt his books. Besides, Abraham, being skilled in the stars, instituted the year of jubilee; that is, the remission of captives every fifty years.
Translated by Rev. H. B. Taylor.
Translated by Rev. H. B. Taylor.
Murtada ibn al-‘Afif, The History of Egypt (before 1237 CE)
God afterwards sent Seth twenty nine sheets [of wisdom]. He liv’d on the mountain and Cabel (i.e., Cain) built in the bottom of the valley. Seth lived nine hundred and twelve years, and had for successor his son Enos, who lived nine hundred and fifty years, and appointed for his successor after his death his son Cainan, in whose favour he made his last will, and afterwards distributed the Earth among the sons of his sons. Cainan died aged nine hundred and twenty years, and made his last testament in favour of his son Mahalel. In his time the square Temple was built. He died aged nine hundred seventy five years, and appointed for successor his son Jared, whom he taught all the sciences, and told all that was to happen in the world. He considered the stars, and read the book of the secrets of the Kingdom, which was sent from Heaven to Adam: then he had to his son Enoch, who is Idris, God’s peace be with him. [...] Spirits spoke to him [Enoch-Idris]; he knew the names of the ascent and descent, and ascended and descended, and turned the sphere, and knew the significations of the stars, and all that was to happen, and engraved all sciences upon stones and upon bricks.
Adapted from the translation of John Davies.
Adapted from the translation of John Davies.
Al-Qazwini, Marvels of Creatures and the Strange Things Existing (before 1238 CE)
It is related in histories that a race of Jinn in ancient times, before the creation of Adam, inhabited the earth, and covered it, the land and the sea, and the plains and the mountains; and the favours of God were multiplied upon them, and they had government, and prophecy, and religion and law; but they transgressed and offended, and opposed their prophets, and made wickedness to abound in the earth: whereupon God, whose name be exalted, sent against them an army of angels, who took possession of the earth, and drove away the Jinn to the regions of the islands, and made many of them prisoners; and of those who were made prisoners was ‘Azazīl (afterwards called Iblīs, from his despair), and a slaughter was made among them. At that time, ‘Azazīl was young; he grew up among the angels [and probably for that reason was called one of them], and became learned in their knowledge, and assumed the. government of them; and his days were prolonged until he became their chief; and thus it continued for a long time, until the affair between him and Adam happened, as God, whose name be exalted, hath said, ‘When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblis, [who] was one] of the Jinn’ (Sūrah l. 49).
Translated by Edward William Lane (as adapted by Thomas Patrick Hughes).
Translated by Edward William Lane (as adapted by Thomas Patrick Hughes).
Al-Ghadanfar, appendix to al-Bīrūnī (c. 13th century CE)
The Book of the Giants by Mani the Babylonian is full of the stories of these giants, to which Sām and Narīmān belong, which two names he probably took from the Avesta of Zaradust from Adarbaigan. The Indians also speak of the coming of Vasudeva, who was sent to put the world in order and to destroy the giants in the time of Bharata. Vyasa, his son, wrote a book containing a hundred and twenty thousand verses according to their meters, all of which deal with the stories of these giants, namely their wars and other conditions.
Translated by Jason Colavito from the German of Konrad Kessler, Mani, p. 19
Translated by Jason Colavito from the German of Konrad Kessler, Mani, p. 19
The Zohar, Bereishit (c. 13th century CE)
58 ’“By the word ‘flesh,’” said Rabbi Simeon, “is meant the angel of death, whilst the words, ‘the days of man shall be a hundred and twenty years,’ mean to the thread or silver cord as it is termed, shall be broken that binds body and soul together. It is written, ‘There were Nephalim (giants, fallen ones) in the earth in those days.’” (Gen. vi., 4.)
Said Rabbi Jose: “The nephalim here mentioned were the angels Aza and Azael, whom the Holy One hurled from heaven onto the earth. If the question be asked, how could they exist on earth in a state so different to that they enjoyed in heaven?”
Said Rabbi Hiya: “They were of that class of angels of whom scripture says ‘and fowl that fly above the earth’ (Gen i., 20), and who manifest themselves to mankind, in human form. When descending upon earth they are able to assume various shapes that become materialized and thus visible to mortal eyes. These rebel angels Aza and Azael hurled upon the earth became embodied in material bodies of which they could not after rid themselves. Charmed and overcome with the beauty of the daughters of men, they continue living unto this day, teaching men and initiating them into magical art and science. They begat children who were termed anakim (giants), Giborim (mighty ones). Such were the fallen angels who formerly were called sons of God.”
Translated by Nurho de Manhar (1912).
464 When the generations of Cain were walking in the world, they would equalize and smooth out the earth, and they were similar to the angels above and to people below. It is so because Cain was of the filth of SAM who came over Eve, and who was an angel, as well as from Adam’s semen. Because of the mightiness of Cain’s children, with their walking, they made the mountains and the valleys in the land into a plain. When Aza and Azael fell from their place of Kedusha from above, they saw the daughters of men and sinned with them, begetting children. They are as it is written, “The fallen ones were in the land in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and bore children to them.”
465 Cain’s sons were the sons of the gods because when SAM came up on Eve, he cast filth in her and she conceived and bore Cain. Hence, his form was not similar to that of the rest of the people because he was an offspring of an angel. Likewise, all those who come from the side of Cain were called “children of the gods” because their appearance was that of angels, who are called “gods.”
468 Two angels of heaven, Aza and Azael, said to the Creator, “If we were in the earth, like the man, we would be righteous.” The Creator told them, “Can you overcome the evil inclination, which is governing on earth?” They said to Him, “We can.” Promptly, the Creator dropped them from heaven. When they came down to earth, the evil inclination entered them, as it was said, “And they took for them women.” They sinned and were uprooted from their Kedusha.
Translated by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag at kabbala.info.
Said Rabbi Jose: “The nephalim here mentioned were the angels Aza and Azael, whom the Holy One hurled from heaven onto the earth. If the question be asked, how could they exist on earth in a state so different to that they enjoyed in heaven?”
Said Rabbi Hiya: “They were of that class of angels of whom scripture says ‘and fowl that fly above the earth’ (Gen i., 20), and who manifest themselves to mankind, in human form. When descending upon earth they are able to assume various shapes that become materialized and thus visible to mortal eyes. These rebel angels Aza and Azael hurled upon the earth became embodied in material bodies of which they could not after rid themselves. Charmed and overcome with the beauty of the daughters of men, they continue living unto this day, teaching men and initiating them into magical art and science. They begat children who were termed anakim (giants), Giborim (mighty ones). Such were the fallen angels who formerly were called sons of God.”
Translated by Nurho de Manhar (1912).
464 When the generations of Cain were walking in the world, they would equalize and smooth out the earth, and they were similar to the angels above and to people below. It is so because Cain was of the filth of SAM who came over Eve, and who was an angel, as well as from Adam’s semen. Because of the mightiness of Cain’s children, with their walking, they made the mountains and the valleys in the land into a plain. When Aza and Azael fell from their place of Kedusha from above, they saw the daughters of men and sinned with them, begetting children. They are as it is written, “The fallen ones were in the land in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and bore children to them.”
465 Cain’s sons were the sons of the gods because when SAM came up on Eve, he cast filth in her and she conceived and bore Cain. Hence, his form was not similar to that of the rest of the people because he was an offspring of an angel. Likewise, all those who come from the side of Cain were called “children of the gods” because their appearance was that of angels, who are called “gods.”
468 Two angels of heaven, Aza and Azael, said to the Creator, “If we were in the earth, like the man, we would be righteous.” The Creator told them, “Can you overcome the evil inclination, which is governing on earth?” They said to Him, “We can.” Promptly, the Creator dropped them from heaven. When they came down to earth, the evil inclination entered them, as it was said, “And they took for them women.” They sinned and were uprooted from their Kedusha.
Translated by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag at kabbala.info.
Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale 1.101 (c. 1250-1260 CE)
Ninus conquered Cham, who was still alive at that time and was reigning in Bactria. He was called Zoroaster, inventor of the magical arts, and he discovered the seven liberal arts. He inscribed these on fourteen columns, seven bronze and seven brick against both fire and flood. Ninus burned his books.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Al-Juzjani, Tabaqat-i-Nasiri 1 (c. 1259-1260 CE)
In Unnush’s [Enosh’s] time a son of Adam named Nabaṭī [sic for al-Yaqza, the Watchers], with his children, retired to the mountains of Jarmūn [Hermon], and devoted themselves to religion, and many others joined him. From the death of Adam to this period, according to Abū Ma’shar-i-Munajjim, [quoted] in the Qānūn-al-mas‘ūdī [of al-Bīrūnī], was 432 years. After some time elapsed, Nabaṭī and his descendants came down from the mountains and joined the descendants of Ḳābīl [Cain], who had taken possession of the hills of Shām, and parts around, who had increased beyond computation. Iblīs [the Devil] had taught them the worship of fire; and drunkenness, and all sorts of other grievous sins prevailed among them. A thousand years had elapsed since Adam’s death, and the rebellious sons of Ḳābīl and Nabaṭī began to act tyrannically. They chose one of their number to rule over them, who was named Sāmīārush [Semjaza]; and between them and the other descendants of Adam, who were just persons, hostility and enmity arose.
The sons of Shīs [Seth], and others of Adam’s descendants who acknowledged Shīs’s authority, assembled, and chose one of the Kārānīān Maliks, who are styled the Bāstānīān Maliks, to defend them from the wickedness of the sons of Ḳābīl and Nabaṭī; and this, the first person among the upright and just kings whom they set up, is styled Aylūrūs [Aloros, the first antediluvian king of Babylon from Berossus] in the Yūnānī [Ionian; i.e., Greek] language; and the Yūnānīs say, that he is the same as he whom the ’Ajamīs call by the name of Gaiū-mart. He was entitled Gil-Shāh, and was the first king of the Gil-wānīān dynasty, which also named the Pesh-Dādīān, and Bāstānīān dynasty. When Aylūrūs became king, 1024 years had passed from the fall of Adam, and the land of Bābil became the seat of his government, and the just sons of Shīs, and other just descendants of Adam obeyed him. When 1162 years had passed away, the countries of ’Arab, ’Ajam, Shām, and Maghrab became settled; and according to the Qānūn-al-mas‘ūdī, previous to Nūh’s flood, eleven kings of the Gil-wānīān dynasty reigned.
Adapted from the translation by Major H. G. Raverty.
The sons of Shīs [Seth], and others of Adam’s descendants who acknowledged Shīs’s authority, assembled, and chose one of the Kārānīān Maliks, who are styled the Bāstānīān Maliks, to defend them from the wickedness of the sons of Ḳābīl and Nabaṭī; and this, the first person among the upright and just kings whom they set up, is styled Aylūrūs [Aloros, the first antediluvian king of Babylon from Berossus] in the Yūnānī [Ionian; i.e., Greek] language; and the Yūnānīs say, that he is the same as he whom the ’Ajamīs call by the name of Gaiū-mart. He was entitled Gil-Shāh, and was the first king of the Gil-wānīān dynasty, which also named the Pesh-Dādīān, and Bāstānīān dynasty. When Aylūrūs became king, 1024 years had passed from the fall of Adam, and the land of Bābil became the seat of his government, and the just sons of Shīs, and other just descendants of Adam obeyed him. When 1162 years had passed away, the countries of ’Arab, ’Ajam, Shām, and Maghrab became settled; and according to the Qānūn-al-mas‘ūdī, previous to Nūh’s flood, eleven kings of the Gil-wānīān dynasty reigned.
Adapted from the translation by Major H. G. Raverty.
Bar Hebraeus, Chronography 1, pp. 4-6 (1286 CE)
After ADAM [came] SETH his son. In the time of SETH, when his sons remembered the blessed life [which they had led] in PARADISE, they went up into the mountain of HERMON, and there they led a chaste and holy life, being remote from carnal intercourse (or, marriage); and for this reason they were called 'IRE (i.e. 'Watchers', and 'Sons of 'ALOHIM' (=Sons of God) ). Now SETH, being two hundred and five years old, begot 'ANOSH; and all the years that SETH lived was nine hundred and twelve years.
After SETH [came] 'ANOSH his son. He announced that he would call upon the Name of the Lord. Now, although he submitted to marriage, he was not neglectful in pleasing God, and he did so more than those who chose a life of virginity and who went up into [the mountain of HERMON] but who did not abide in (i.e. keep) their covenant. 'ANOSH was one hundred and ninety years old when he begot KAINAN, and all his years were nine hundred and five. After 'ANOSH [came] KAINAN his son, who at the age of one hundred and seventy years begot MAHLALA'IL; and all the years of his life were nine hundred and ten years.
And after KAINAN [came] MAHLALA'IL his son, who at the age of one hundred and sixty-five years begot YARD; and all the years of his life were eight hundred and ninety-five years.
And after MAHLALA'IL [came] YARD his son, who, when he was one hundred and sixty and two years old begot HANOKH (ENOCH); and all the years of his life were nine hundred and sixty and two years. And in the fortieth year [of the life] of YARD, that is to say in the year one thousand of the world, the Sons of God, about two hundred souls, came down from the mountain of HERMON, because they had lost all hope of a return to PARADISE. And because they lusted for carnal intercourse with women, their brethren the sons of SETH and ANOSH despised them, and regarded them as transgressors of the covenant, and they refused to give them their daughters. And because of this they (i.e. the men from HERMON) went to the children of CAIN, and took wives, and begat mighty men of names, that is to say, men notorious for murders and robberies. Moreover, they set up over them the first king, a man whose name was SAMYAZOS, and when they began to quarrel with their brethren the children of SETH, they forced them also to set up a king over them, and they set up a king.
The first was a man whose name was 'ALOROS.
And the second was 'ALPAROS.
And the third was 'ALMILON.
And the fourth was 'AMMANON.
And the fifth was MIGHALAROS.
And the sixth was 'AONOS, the shepherd.
And the seventh was 'AODHORANBOS.
And the eighth was 'AMPESIS.
And the ninth was 'AOTYARTIS,
And the tenth was KSISOTHROS (or KSISORTHOS) his son, in whose days the FLOOD took place.
All these were KHALDHAYE, that is to say ANCIENT SYRIANS, according to the tradition of the early writers. And because the greater number of [these] writers were GREEKS, they changed the sounds of the Chaldean names and did not pronounce them as they were pronounced in Chaldean fashion. For behold, also, in the case of 'NOH' (NOAH), which is a pure Syrian name, and is derived from nawha, yet they (i.e. the Greeks) call it 'NOACHOS'. And it is not only the ancient [writers] who do this, but people who are living in our own days are in the habit of changing the pronunciation [of words], thus YA'KOB, which [is derived] from 'Ekbha is called 'AIAKOBHOS', and BAR-SAWMA they call 'SOMOS'; and many others.
And after YARD [came] HANOKH (ENOCH), who at the age of one hundred and sixty-five years begot MATHUSHLAH (METHUSELAH). And having pleased God for three hundred years he was translated to the place where God wished him [to be], and it is said, to Paradise, the place where the first ADAM was when he transgressed the command in days of old. Now this ENOCH made manifest before every man the knowledge of books and the art of writing. The ancient GREEKS say that ENOCH is HARMIS (HERMES) TRIS-MAGHISTOS (the 'THRICE GREAT'), and it was he who taught men to build cities; and he established wonderful laws. And in his days one hundred and eighty cities were built; of which the smallest is URHAI (EDESSA). And he invented the science of the constellations and the courses (orbits?) of the stars. And he ordained that the children of men should worship God, and that they should fast, and pray, and give alms, and [make] votive offerings, and [pay] tithes. And he rejected the foods [which produced] impurities, and drunkenness. And he ordered festivals for the entrance of the sun into each Sign of the Zodiac, and for the New Moon, and for every star (planet?) when it entereth its house or when it riseth. And he commanded [men] to present offerings of perfumes (sweet incense?), and beasts for slaughter sacrificially, and wine, and offerings of first-fruits of every kind. And they say that he received all this doctrine (or, learning) from 'AGHATHODAHMON (AGATHODAIMON), and they also say that 'AGHATHODAHMON was SETH, the son of 'ADHAM, that is to say, the priest of the priest of ENOCH. And they also say that 'ASKLAIPIDIS (AESCULAPIUS), the wise king, was a disciple of HERMES, that is to say, of ENOCH.
Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge (1932)
After SETH [came] 'ANOSH his son. He announced that he would call upon the Name of the Lord. Now, although he submitted to marriage, he was not neglectful in pleasing God, and he did so more than those who chose a life of virginity and who went up into [the mountain of HERMON] but who did not abide in (i.e. keep) their covenant. 'ANOSH was one hundred and ninety years old when he begot KAINAN, and all his years were nine hundred and five. After 'ANOSH [came] KAINAN his son, who at the age of one hundred and seventy years begot MAHLALA'IL; and all the years of his life were nine hundred and ten years.
And after KAINAN [came] MAHLALA'IL his son, who at the age of one hundred and sixty-five years begot YARD; and all the years of his life were eight hundred and ninety-five years.
And after MAHLALA'IL [came] YARD his son, who, when he was one hundred and sixty and two years old begot HANOKH (ENOCH); and all the years of his life were nine hundred and sixty and two years. And in the fortieth year [of the life] of YARD, that is to say in the year one thousand of the world, the Sons of God, about two hundred souls, came down from the mountain of HERMON, because they had lost all hope of a return to PARADISE. And because they lusted for carnal intercourse with women, their brethren the sons of SETH and ANOSH despised them, and regarded them as transgressors of the covenant, and they refused to give them their daughters. And because of this they (i.e. the men from HERMON) went to the children of CAIN, and took wives, and begat mighty men of names, that is to say, men notorious for murders and robberies. Moreover, they set up over them the first king, a man whose name was SAMYAZOS, and when they began to quarrel with their brethren the children of SETH, they forced them also to set up a king over them, and they set up a king.
The first was a man whose name was 'ALOROS.
And the second was 'ALPAROS.
And the third was 'ALMILON.
And the fourth was 'AMMANON.
And the fifth was MIGHALAROS.
And the sixth was 'AONOS, the shepherd.
And the seventh was 'AODHORANBOS.
And the eighth was 'AMPESIS.
And the ninth was 'AOTYARTIS,
And the tenth was KSISOTHROS (or KSISORTHOS) his son, in whose days the FLOOD took place.
All these were KHALDHAYE, that is to say ANCIENT SYRIANS, according to the tradition of the early writers. And because the greater number of [these] writers were GREEKS, they changed the sounds of the Chaldean names and did not pronounce them as they were pronounced in Chaldean fashion. For behold, also, in the case of 'NOH' (NOAH), which is a pure Syrian name, and is derived from nawha, yet they (i.e. the Greeks) call it 'NOACHOS'. And it is not only the ancient [writers] who do this, but people who are living in our own days are in the habit of changing the pronunciation [of words], thus YA'KOB, which [is derived] from 'Ekbha is called 'AIAKOBHOS', and BAR-SAWMA they call 'SOMOS'; and many others.
And after YARD [came] HANOKH (ENOCH), who at the age of one hundred and sixty-five years begot MATHUSHLAH (METHUSELAH). And having pleased God for three hundred years he was translated to the place where God wished him [to be], and it is said, to Paradise, the place where the first ADAM was when he transgressed the command in days of old. Now this ENOCH made manifest before every man the knowledge of books and the art of writing. The ancient GREEKS say that ENOCH is HARMIS (HERMES) TRIS-MAGHISTOS (the 'THRICE GREAT'), and it was he who taught men to build cities; and he established wonderful laws. And in his days one hundred and eighty cities were built; of which the smallest is URHAI (EDESSA). And he invented the science of the constellations and the courses (orbits?) of the stars. And he ordained that the children of men should worship God, and that they should fast, and pray, and give alms, and [make] votive offerings, and [pay] tithes. And he rejected the foods [which produced] impurities, and drunkenness. And he ordered festivals for the entrance of the sun into each Sign of the Zodiac, and for the New Moon, and for every star (planet?) when it entereth its house or when it riseth. And he commanded [men] to present offerings of perfumes (sweet incense?), and beasts for slaughter sacrificially, and wine, and offerings of first-fruits of every kind. And they say that he received all this doctrine (or, learning) from 'AGHATHODAHMON (AGATHODAIMON), and they also say that 'AGHATHODAHMON was SETH, the son of 'ADHAM, that is to say, the priest of the priest of ENOCH. And they also say that 'ASKLAIPIDIS (AESCULAPIUS), the wise king, was a disciple of HERMES, that is to say, of ENOCH.
Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge (1932)
Aegidius of Zamora, Ars Musica 2 (c. 1300)
After reproducing Petrus Comestor’s account of Tubal Cain and the Pillars, Aegidius continues:
It should be noted, moreover, that Zoroaster (called Cham by some), the inventor of the magical arts, elegantly inscribed the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars. Seven of the pillars were of bronze and seven of brick, to resist the Flood and fire mentioned above.
Translated by James McKinnon (1974).
It should be noted, moreover, that Zoroaster (called Cham by some), the inventor of the magical arts, elegantly inscribed the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars. Seven of the pillars were of bronze and seven of brick, to resist the Flood and fire mentioned above.
Translated by James McKinnon (1974).
Ovide moralisé 1.2405-2423 (early 14th century CE)
Cham made seven pillars of marble
And seven of brick, on which he wrote
The seven sciences which he possessed.
He did this because he knew
That there would twice come a time
When the earth would be destroyed,
Once by water and once by flame. He did not want
That the sciences should perish,
And so, in order that they would not perish,
On marble, which would not dissolve,
No matter how long it was submerged underwater,
And for fear of the coming judgment,
He inscribed the seven liberal arts and sciences.
And he inscribed them in brick — because the flames would
Only make the arts more solid
The drier and harder they became --
In order to preserve their memory.
This Cham, of whom this history speaks,
Is called Zoroaster.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
And seven of brick, on which he wrote
The seven sciences which he possessed.
He did this because he knew
That there would twice come a time
When the earth would be destroyed,
Once by water and once by flame. He did not want
That the sciences should perish,
And so, in order that they would not perish,
On marble, which would not dissolve,
No matter how long it was submerged underwater,
And for fear of the coming judgment,
He inscribed the seven liberal arts and sciences.
And he inscribed them in brick — because the flames would
Only make the arts more solid
The drier and harder they became --
In order to preserve their memory.
This Cham, of whom this history speaks,
Is called Zoroaster.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon (c. 1326-1342 CE)
Book 2
5 ... Petrus [Comestor]. The children of Seth were good unto the seventh generation; but after that men abused men, and women abused women. Genesis. The children of God came unto the daughters of men, that is to say the sons of Seth to the daughters of Cain, begetting giants. Petrus. And it might be that spirits begat giants, in whom hugeness of soul was corresponded to the hugeness of their body. But other giants were born in Hebron after the great flood, and other in Than, a city of Egypt, which were called Titans, of the stock of whom Enachim was, whose children dwelled in Hebron, of whom Goliath came. Josephus. Men in that time knowing by Adam that they should perish by water or fire, did write arts which they had gotten by labor in two great pillars. One pillar was of marble, against the flowing of water; that other was of brick (lateritia), against the burning of fire; for it should be saved in that manner to help mankind. I say that the pillar of stone soon escaped the flood and is said to still remain in Syria.
9 ... Petrus, chapter 36. [...] Ninus, the son of Belus, after the death of his father obtained Assyria […] He defeated even Cham, who is Zoroaster, king of Bactria, who wrote the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars, in seven of brass and seven of brick, for to save them against either flood [Rudolf omits “or flame”]. Nilus also burned his books.
Adapted from an anonymous fifteenth century English translation, with restorations from the 1387 translation of John Trevisa.
5 ... Petrus [Comestor]. The children of Seth were good unto the seventh generation; but after that men abused men, and women abused women. Genesis. The children of God came unto the daughters of men, that is to say the sons of Seth to the daughters of Cain, begetting giants. Petrus. And it might be that spirits begat giants, in whom hugeness of soul was corresponded to the hugeness of their body. But other giants were born in Hebron after the great flood, and other in Than, a city of Egypt, which were called Titans, of the stock of whom Enachim was, whose children dwelled in Hebron, of whom Goliath came. Josephus. Men in that time knowing by Adam that they should perish by water or fire, did write arts which they had gotten by labor in two great pillars. One pillar was of marble, against the flowing of water; that other was of brick (lateritia), against the burning of fire; for it should be saved in that manner to help mankind. I say that the pillar of stone soon escaped the flood and is said to still remain in Syria.
9 ... Petrus, chapter 36. [...] Ninus, the son of Belus, after the death of his father obtained Assyria […] He defeated even Cham, who is Zoroaster, king of Bactria, who wrote the seven liberal arts on fourteen pillars, in seven of brass and seven of brick, for to save them against either flood [Rudolf omits “or flame”]. Nilus also burned his books.
Adapted from an anonymous fifteenth century English translation, with restorations from the 1387 translation of John Trevisa.
Al-Maqrizi, Al Khitat 2.80 (c. 1400 CE)
The temple at Akhmim was among the finest and largest [in Egypt]. The Egyptians had built it to store their wheat because they had been warned in advance of the coming of the Flood. But they disagreed about the nature of the destruction; according to some, it would be a fire that would burn everything on the surface of the earth; according to others, it would be a flood. Therefore, they constructed this temple before the Flood. In it they depicted portraits of the kings who ruled Egypt. The temple was built of marble blocks, each measuring five cubits wide and two cubits thick. It included seven rooms constructed from stones each eighteen cubits long and five wide; these stones were covered with paint the color of lapis and other shades, and for those who see them, these paintings appear to have been executed today, since they are that perfect. Each room was named after one of the seven planets, and all the walls were engraved with images of different shapes and sizes, along with signs explaining the sciences of the Copts: chemistry, cosmography, the art of talismans, medicine, astronomy, geometry, etc., all of which are represented by these images.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Translated by Jason Colavito.
Matthew Cooke Manuscript (Masonic), folios 12-15 (c. 1450 CE)
Ye shall understand that this son Tubal Cain was [the] founder of smiths’ craft, and of other crafts of metal, that is to say, of iron, of brass, of gold, and of silver, as some doctors say, and his sister Naamah was finder of weavers-craft, for before that time was no cloth woven, but they did spin yarn and knit it, and made them such clothing as they could, but as the woman Naamah found the craft of weaving, and therefore it was called women’s craft, and these 3 brethren, aforesaid, had knowledge that God would take vengeance for sin, either by fire, or water, and they had greater care how they might do to save the sciences that they [had] found, and they took their counsel together and, by all their witts, they said that [there] were 2 manner of stone[s] of such virtue that the one would never burn, and that stone is called marble, and that the other stone that will not sink in water and that stone is named latres, and so they devised to write all the sciences that they had found in these 2 stones, [so that] if that God would take vengeance, by fire, that the marble should not burn. And if God sent vengeance, by water, that the other should not drown, and so they prayed their elder brother Jabal that [he] would make 2 pillars of these 2 stones, that is to say of marble and of latres, and that he would write in the 2 pillars all the science[s], and crafts, that all they had found, and so he did and, therefore, we may say that he was most cunning in science, for he first began and performed the before Noah’s flood.
Kindly knowing of that vengeance, that God would send, whether it should be by fire, or by water, the brethren had it not by a manner of a prophecy, they wist that God would send one thereof, and therefore they wrote their science[s] in the 2 pillars of stone, and some men say that they wrote in the stones all the 7 science[s], but as they [had] in their mind[s] that a vengeance should come. And so it was that God sent vengeance so that there came such a flood that all the world was drowned, and all men were dead therein, save 8 persons, And that was Noah, and his wife, and his three sons, and their wives, of which 3 sons all the world came of, and their names were named in this manner, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. And this flood was called Noah’s flood, for he, and his children, were saved therein. And after this flood many years, as the chronicle telleth, these 2 pillars were found, and as the Polychronicon saith, that a great clerk that [was] called Pythagoras found that one, and Hermes, the philosopher, found that other, and they taught forth the sciences that they found therein written.
Spelling modernized. Note: The material attributed to the Polychronicon in the last paragraph does not appear in that text and is an apparent reference to Petrus Comestor, who compared Tubal Cain (sic for Jubal) and Pythagoras as inventors of music.
Kindly knowing of that vengeance, that God would send, whether it should be by fire, or by water, the brethren had it not by a manner of a prophecy, they wist that God would send one thereof, and therefore they wrote their science[s] in the 2 pillars of stone, and some men say that they wrote in the stones all the 7 science[s], but as they [had] in their mind[s] that a vengeance should come. And so it was that God sent vengeance so that there came such a flood that all the world was drowned, and all men were dead therein, save 8 persons, And that was Noah, and his wife, and his three sons, and their wives, of which 3 sons all the world came of, and their names were named in this manner, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. And this flood was called Noah’s flood, for he, and his children, were saved therein. And after this flood many years, as the chronicle telleth, these 2 pillars were found, and as the Polychronicon saith, that a great clerk that [was] called Pythagoras found that one, and Hermes, the philosopher, found that other, and they taught forth the sciences that they found therein written.
Spelling modernized. Note: The material attributed to the Polychronicon in the last paragraph does not appear in that text and is an apparent reference to Petrus Comestor, who compared Tubal Cain (sic for Jubal) and Pythagoras as inventors of music.
Book of Jasher 2:11-13 (c. 1500 CE)
11 And Cainan grew up and he was forty years old, and he became wise and had knowledge and skill in all wisdom, and he reigned over all the sons of men, and he led the sons of men to wisdom and knowledge; for Cainan was a very wise man and had understanding in all wisdom, and with his wisdom he ruled over spirits and demons; 12 And Cainan knew by his wisdom that God would destroy the sons of men for having sinned upon earth, and that the Lord would in the latter days bring upon them the waters of the flood. 13 And in those days Cainan wrote upon tablets of stone, what was to take place in time to come, and he put them in his treasures.
Anonymous 1887 translation.
Anonymous 1887 translation.
Masonic Buchanan Manuscript (c. 1660)
IV. If you aske how this Science [of Geometry] began I shall you tell: before the flood of Noah there was a man called Lamech: as you may find in the fourth Chapter of Genisis, whoe had two wives, the name of the one was Adah: and the name of the other was Zillah: by his first wife Adah hee had two sonnes the name of the Elder was Jaball: and the other was called Juball: and by his other wife Zillah hee had a sonne called Tuball and a daughter called Naamah: These foure children found the begining of all the Crafts in the world: And the eldest sonne Jaball found the Craft of Geometrye and hee parted flocks of sheepe and lands in the field and first built a house of stoone and timber as is noted in the Chapter aforesaid: and his brother Juball found the Craft of Musicke songe of tongue harpe organn and Trumpett: And the third brother Tuball found the Smith's Craft to worke in Gold Silver Brasse Copper Iron and Steele and the Daughter Naamah found the Craft of Weaveing: and these children knew that God would take vengance for sinns either by fire, water, wherefore they did write the sciences they had found in two pillars of stone that they might be found after God had taken vengance for sine the one was Marble and would not burne with fire: the other was Laterus and it would not droune in water.
V. There resteth more to tell you how the stones were found that the Sciences were written in after the said flood the great Hermarynes that was Tusses his Sonne the which was the sonne of Sem the sonne of Noah the same Hermarynes was afterwards called Hermes the father of wise men: he found one of the two pillars of stone and hee found the sciences written therin and he taught them to other men.
V. There resteth more to tell you how the stones were found that the Sciences were written in after the said flood the great Hermarynes that was Tusses his Sonne the which was the sonne of Sem the sonne of Noah the same Hermarynes was afterwards called Hermes the father of wise men: he found one of the two pillars of stone and hee found the sciences written therin and he taught them to other men.
Masonic Alnwick Manuscript (1701)
How this worthy Science was first begunne, I shall tell. Before Noah's Flood, there was a man called Lameck as it is written in the 4 Chap. of Gen.: and this Lameck had two Wives. The one was called Adah, and the other Zillah; By the first wife Adah he gott two Sons, the one called Jaball, and the other Juball, and by the other wife Zillah he got a Son and Daughter, and the four children found the beginning of all Tuball Cain Crafts in the world. This Jaball was the elder Son, and he found the and Naamah Craft of Geometric, and he parted flocks, as of Sheep and Lambs in the fields, and first wrought Houses of Stone and Tree, as it is noted in the Chape aforesaid, and his brother Juball found the crafte of Musick, of Songs, Organs and Harp.
The Third Brother found out Smith's craft to work Iron and steel, and their sister, Naamah found out the art of Weaving; These children did know thatt God would take Vengeance for Sinne, Either by fire or water, wherefor they wrote these Sciences which they had found in Two Pillars of stone, thatt they might be found after the Flood.
The one stone was called Marbell—cannott burn with Fire, and the other was called Laturus, thatt cannott drown in the Water:
Our intent is to tell you truely, and in whatt manner these stones were found that the science was written on.
The Great Hermemes thatt was Son unto Cush, which was Son unto Shem, which was Son unto Noah: This same Hermemes was afterwards called Hermes the Father of Wisdom, he found one of the Two Pillars of Stones, and found the Science written thereupon, and he taught to other men.
The Third Brother found out Smith's craft to work Iron and steel, and their sister, Naamah found out the art of Weaving; These children did know thatt God would take Vengeance for Sinne, Either by fire or water, wherefor they wrote these Sciences which they had found in Two Pillars of stone, thatt they might be found after the Flood.
The one stone was called Marbell—cannott burn with Fire, and the other was called Laturus, thatt cannott drown in the Water:
Our intent is to tell you truely, and in whatt manner these stones were found that the science was written on.
The Great Hermemes thatt was Son unto Cush, which was Son unto Shem, which was Son unto Noah: This same Hermemes was afterwards called Hermes the Father of Wisdom, he found one of the Two Pillars of Stones, and found the Science written thereupon, and he taught to other men.
Thomas Webb, The Freemason's Monitor 2.1.10 (1797)
Enoch being inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a temple under ground, and dedicated the same to God. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, constructed the building, without being acquainted with his father's motives.
This happened in that part of the world which was afterwards called the land of Canaan, and since known by the name of the Holy Land.
Enoch caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; be enriched it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate, of the same form. He then engraved upon it the ineffable characters, and placed it on a triangular pedestal of white marble, which he deposited in the deepest arch.
When Enoch's temple was completed, he made a door of stone, and put a ring of iron therein, by which it might be occasionally raised; and placed it over the opening of the arch, that the matters enclosed therein might be preserved from the universal destruction impending. And none But Enoch knew of the treasure which the arches contained.
And, behold the wickedness of mankind increased more and became grievous in the sight of the Lord, and God threatened to destroy the whole world. Enoch, perceiving that the knowledge of the arts was likely to be lost in the general destruction, and being desirous of preserving the principles of the sciences, for the posterity of those whom God should he pleased to spare, built two great pillars on the top of the highest mountain, the one of brass, to withstand water, the other of marble, to withstand fire; and he engraved on the marble pillar, hieroglyphics, signifying that there was a most precious treasure concealed in the arches under ground, which he had dedicated to God. And he engraved on the pillar of brass the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.
[…] The flood took place in the year of the world 1656, and destroyed most of the superb monuments of antiquity. The marble pillar of Enoch fell in the general destruction; but by divine permission, the pillar of brass withstood the water, by which means the ancient state of the liberal arts, and particularly masonry, has been handed down to us.
This happened in that part of the world which was afterwards called the land of Canaan, and since known by the name of the Holy Land.
Enoch caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; be enriched it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate, of the same form. He then engraved upon it the ineffable characters, and placed it on a triangular pedestal of white marble, which he deposited in the deepest arch.
When Enoch's temple was completed, he made a door of stone, and put a ring of iron therein, by which it might be occasionally raised; and placed it over the opening of the arch, that the matters enclosed therein might be preserved from the universal destruction impending. And none But Enoch knew of the treasure which the arches contained.
And, behold the wickedness of mankind increased more and became grievous in the sight of the Lord, and God threatened to destroy the whole world. Enoch, perceiving that the knowledge of the arts was likely to be lost in the general destruction, and being desirous of preserving the principles of the sciences, for the posterity of those whom God should he pleased to spare, built two great pillars on the top of the highest mountain, the one of brass, to withstand water, the other of marble, to withstand fire; and he engraved on the marble pillar, hieroglyphics, signifying that there was a most precious treasure concealed in the arches under ground, which he had dedicated to God. And he engraved on the pillar of brass the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.
[…] The flood took place in the year of the world 1656, and destroyed most of the superb monuments of antiquity. The marble pillar of Enoch fell in the general destruction; but by divine permission, the pillar of brass withstood the water, by which means the ancient state of the liberal arts, and particularly masonry, has been handed down to us.
George Oliver, Antiquities of Freemasonry, chapter 4 (1823)
Enoch practised Masonry, of which he was now installed Grand Master, with such effect, that God vouchsafed, by immediate revelation, to communicate to him some peculiar mysteries, in token of his approbation. The most valuable of these, according to old traditions, was that SACRED NAME OR WORD, which demands our utmost veneration, and enables man to reflect on the goodness of his Maker with renewed sentiments of reverence and devotion.
The degeneracy of mankind increasing, Enoch exhorted them to turn from their unrighteous ways, and imitate the purity of their forefathers. He pressed upon them the nature of their obligations; he reiterated their duty to God and man; but the fascinations of pleasure had so intoxicated their senses, that the sober admonitions of reason and duty were little regarded. He therefore called a special assembly of Masons in whom he could confide, and in the presence of Adam, Seth, Jared his father, and Methusaleh his son, he enumerated the accumulating wickedness of man, and the enormous evils which were desolating the earth; and implored their advice and assistance in stemming the torrent of impiety which threatened a universal corruption. It was here Adam communicated that terrible prophecy, that all mankind, except a few just persons, should so far swerve from their allegiance to God, as to cause the destruction of all created things by water and fire.
From this information Enoch formed his plans for preserving the knowledge he had acquired, amidst the devastation necessarily attending the predicted calamity. The sacred mysteries committed to his charge occupied his first and most anxious solicitude. Being inspired by his Maker, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision on the holy mountain, in which these sublime secrets were revealed to him, he built a temple in the bowels of the earth, the entrance to which was through nine several porches, each supported by a pair of pillars, and curiously concealed from human observation. The perpendicular depth of this temple was eighty-one feet from the surface. Enoch, Jared, and Methusaleh were the three architects who constructed this subterranean edifice; but the two latter were not acquainted with the secret motives which influenced Enoch in causing this cavern to be dug. The arches were formed in the bowels of a mountain, which was afterwards denominated Calvary, in the land of Canaan; and the temple was dedicated to the living God.
He then made a plate of gold in the form of an equilateral triangle, each of whose sides was eighteen inches; which he enriched with precious stones, and encrusted it on a triangular agate of the same dimensions. On this plate he engraved the ineffable characters he had seen in his vision; and alone, in silence and solitude, he descended through the nine portals into the temple, and placed this invaluable treasure upon a cubical pedestal of white marble.
When the temple was completed, Enoch made nine secret doors of stone, and placed them at the entrance of the portals, with an iron ring inserted in each for the facility of raising, in case any wise and good man of future ages should be led to explore the secret recesses of this sepulchral vault. He then closed up the whole, that the secrets there deposited might remain in perfect security amidst the anticipated destruction of mankind; for the contents of this temple were not entrusted to any human being. Enoch paid occasional visits to the temple, for the purpose of offering up his prayers and thanksgivings in a peculiar manner to the God who had vouchsafed to him alone such distinguished favours.
As the world increased in wickedness, and the threatened destruction visibly approached nearer and nearer, Enoch, trembling for the fate of those useful arts and sciences which he had invented or improved, proceeded without delay to provide for their transmission to future ages: for the accomplishment of which, his knowledge of letters lent the greatest facility. Upon a high mountain, therefore, he erected two great pillars, one of marble and another of brass, to preserve the true principles of science for the benefit of a future world; the former of which he conceived would withstand fire and the latter water. On these he engraved the elements of the liberal sciences, including Masonry; and also a notification that he had concealed a valuable treasure in the bowels of the earth, which contained the essence and end of Masonry, and was consecrated to the only true and living God. Let him that hath WISDOM find it!
Enoch perceiving that men did not reform, from his repeated exhortations, instituted that form of excommunication known amongst the primitive Christians by the name of Maranatha, being derived from Maran, the Lord, and Ath, fire. After giving them a solemn warning of the dreadful punishment which awaited their obdurate iniquity, he resigned the government to his son Lamech; and on his fervent petition for death, it pleased God to translate him from the Lodge on earth to the Lodge above, where his piety was rewarded with everlasting glory. His farewell exhortation was calculated to awaken mankind from their lethargy, if they had not been dead to every impulse but that of vice. “Behold,” says he, “the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 14-15)
Being liberated from a monitor whom they regarded with some degree of awe and reverence, mankind proceeded to the unlimited gratification of their rebellious passions, without fear of restraint. The fascinations held out by the Cainites were too powerful for the children of Seth to resist, and their minds became rapidly tainted with the abominations of idolatry; they worshipped the host of heaven; they erected shrines to the honour of imaginary rural deities; and at length Tubal Cain was exalted to the dignity of a god, under the appellation of Vulcan. This was the first instance of a mortal being deified, and it took place in the seventh generation from Adam. To this god the Egyptians afterwards assigned the attributes of prescience, power, and unlimited duration or immortality. While the reign of other gods was confined within certain and specific limits, the reign of Vulcan was declared without end.
The degeneracy of mankind increasing, Enoch exhorted them to turn from their unrighteous ways, and imitate the purity of their forefathers. He pressed upon them the nature of their obligations; he reiterated their duty to God and man; but the fascinations of pleasure had so intoxicated their senses, that the sober admonitions of reason and duty were little regarded. He therefore called a special assembly of Masons in whom he could confide, and in the presence of Adam, Seth, Jared his father, and Methusaleh his son, he enumerated the accumulating wickedness of man, and the enormous evils which were desolating the earth; and implored their advice and assistance in stemming the torrent of impiety which threatened a universal corruption. It was here Adam communicated that terrible prophecy, that all mankind, except a few just persons, should so far swerve from their allegiance to God, as to cause the destruction of all created things by water and fire.
From this information Enoch formed his plans for preserving the knowledge he had acquired, amidst the devastation necessarily attending the predicted calamity. The sacred mysteries committed to his charge occupied his first and most anxious solicitude. Being inspired by his Maker, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision on the holy mountain, in which these sublime secrets were revealed to him, he built a temple in the bowels of the earth, the entrance to which was through nine several porches, each supported by a pair of pillars, and curiously concealed from human observation. The perpendicular depth of this temple was eighty-one feet from the surface. Enoch, Jared, and Methusaleh were the three architects who constructed this subterranean edifice; but the two latter were not acquainted with the secret motives which influenced Enoch in causing this cavern to be dug. The arches were formed in the bowels of a mountain, which was afterwards denominated Calvary, in the land of Canaan; and the temple was dedicated to the living God.
He then made a plate of gold in the form of an equilateral triangle, each of whose sides was eighteen inches; which he enriched with precious stones, and encrusted it on a triangular agate of the same dimensions. On this plate he engraved the ineffable characters he had seen in his vision; and alone, in silence and solitude, he descended through the nine portals into the temple, and placed this invaluable treasure upon a cubical pedestal of white marble.
When the temple was completed, Enoch made nine secret doors of stone, and placed them at the entrance of the portals, with an iron ring inserted in each for the facility of raising, in case any wise and good man of future ages should be led to explore the secret recesses of this sepulchral vault. He then closed up the whole, that the secrets there deposited might remain in perfect security amidst the anticipated destruction of mankind; for the contents of this temple were not entrusted to any human being. Enoch paid occasional visits to the temple, for the purpose of offering up his prayers and thanksgivings in a peculiar manner to the God who had vouchsafed to him alone such distinguished favours.
As the world increased in wickedness, and the threatened destruction visibly approached nearer and nearer, Enoch, trembling for the fate of those useful arts and sciences which he had invented or improved, proceeded without delay to provide for their transmission to future ages: for the accomplishment of which, his knowledge of letters lent the greatest facility. Upon a high mountain, therefore, he erected two great pillars, one of marble and another of brass, to preserve the true principles of science for the benefit of a future world; the former of which he conceived would withstand fire and the latter water. On these he engraved the elements of the liberal sciences, including Masonry; and also a notification that he had concealed a valuable treasure in the bowels of the earth, which contained the essence and end of Masonry, and was consecrated to the only true and living God. Let him that hath WISDOM find it!
Enoch perceiving that men did not reform, from his repeated exhortations, instituted that form of excommunication known amongst the primitive Christians by the name of Maranatha, being derived from Maran, the Lord, and Ath, fire. After giving them a solemn warning of the dreadful punishment which awaited their obdurate iniquity, he resigned the government to his son Lamech; and on his fervent petition for death, it pleased God to translate him from the Lodge on earth to the Lodge above, where his piety was rewarded with everlasting glory. His farewell exhortation was calculated to awaken mankind from their lethargy, if they had not been dead to every impulse but that of vice. “Behold,” says he, “the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 14-15)
Being liberated from a monitor whom they regarded with some degree of awe and reverence, mankind proceeded to the unlimited gratification of their rebellious passions, without fear of restraint. The fascinations held out by the Cainites were too powerful for the children of Seth to resist, and their minds became rapidly tainted with the abominations of idolatry; they worshipped the host of heaven; they erected shrines to the honour of imaginary rural deities; and at length Tubal Cain was exalted to the dignity of a god, under the appellation of Vulcan. This was the first instance of a mortal being deified, and it took place in the seventh generation from Adam. To this god the Egyptians afterwards assigned the attributes of prescience, power, and unlimited duration or immortality. While the reign of other gods was confined within certain and specific limits, the reign of Vulcan was declared without end.
Charles T. McClenachan, The Book of the Ancient & Accepted Rite of Scottish Freemasonry, "Royal Arch of Enoch" (1868)
Enoch, accepting his vision as an inspiration, journeyed in search of the mountain he had seen in his dream, until, weary of the search, he stopped in the land of Canaan, then already populous with the descendants of Adam, and there employed workmen; and with the help of his son Methuselah, he excavated nine apartments, one above the other, and each roofed with an arch, as he had seen in his dream, the lowest being hewn out of the solid rock. In the crown of each arch he left a narrow aperture, closed with a square stone, and over the upper one he built a modest temple, roofless and of huge unhewn stones, to the Grand Architect of the Universe.
Upon a triangular plate of gold, inlaid with many precious gems, he engraved the ineffable name of God, and sank the plate into one face of a cube of agate.
None knew of the deposit of the precious treasure; and, that it might remain undiscovered, and survive the Flood, which it was known to Enoch would soon overwhelm the world in one vast sea of mire, he covered the aperture, and the stone that closed it and the great ring of iron used to raise the stone, with the granite pavement of his primitive temple.
Then, fearing that all knowledge of the arts and sciences would be lost in the universal flood, he built two great columns upon a high hill—one of brass, to resist water, and one of granite, to resist fire. On the granite column was written in hieroglyphics a description of the subterranean apartments; on the one of brass, the rudiments of the arts and sciences.
The granite column was overturned and swept away, and worn to a shapeless mass by the Deluge, but that of brass stood firm, and was found by Noah.
Upon a triangular plate of gold, inlaid with many precious gems, he engraved the ineffable name of God, and sank the plate into one face of a cube of agate.
None knew of the deposit of the precious treasure; and, that it might remain undiscovered, and survive the Flood, which it was known to Enoch would soon overwhelm the world in one vast sea of mire, he covered the aperture, and the stone that closed it and the great ring of iron used to raise the stone, with the granite pavement of his primitive temple.
Then, fearing that all knowledge of the arts and sciences would be lost in the universal flood, he built two great columns upon a high hill—one of brass, to resist water, and one of granite, to resist fire. On the granite column was written in hieroglyphics a description of the subterranean apartments; on the one of brass, the rudiments of the arts and sciences.
The granite column was overturned and swept away, and worn to a shapeless mass by the Deluge, but that of brass stood firm, and was found by Noah.
