Fallen Angels, the Watchers, and the Origins of Evil Read Online Free PDF Page A

them.
                The angels converse in Hebrew as it is the heavenly tongue. The law is written by God using this alphabet thus the law is also holy. All men spoke Hebrew until the time of Babel when the Hebrew language was lost. However, when Abraham dedicated himself to God, his ears were opened and his tongue was sanctified and Hebrew was again spoken and understood.
                   Finally, the entire text is based on the numbers of forty-nine and fifty. Forty-nine represents the pinnacle of perfection, being made up of seven times seven. The number fifty, which is the number of the Jubilee, is the number of grace. In the year of Jubilee slaves were to be set free, debts were forgiven, and grace filled the land and people.
                Drawing from the theology and myths at the time, the Book of Jubilees expands and embellishes on the creation story, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the fall of the angels. The expanded detail written into the text may have been one reason it was eventually rejected. However, the effects of the book can still be seen throughout the Judeo-Christian beliefs of today. The theology espoused in Jubilees can be seen in the angelology and demonology taught in the Christian churches of today and widely held by many Jews.
                In an attempt to answer questions left unaddressed in Genesis the writer confronts the origin and identification of Cain’s wife. According to the Book Of Jubilees, Cain married his sister, as did all of the sons of Adam and Eve, except Abel, who was murdered. This seemed offensive to some, since it flies in the face of the very law it was written to defend. Yet this seemed to the writer to be the lesser of evils, given the problematic questions. Inbreeding was dismissed with the observation that the law was not fully given and understood then. The effects of the act were moot due to the purity of the newly created race.
                The seeming discrepancy between the divine command of Adam’s death decree and the timing of his death is addressed. Seeing that Adam continued to live even after he ate the fruit, which was supposed to bring on his death, the writer set about to clarify God’s actions. The problem is explained away is a single sentence. Since a day in heaven is as a thousand years on earth and Adam died having lived less than a thousand years this meant he died in the same heavenly day. Dying within the same day of the crime was acceptable.
                In an astonishing parallel to the Book of Enoch, written at about the same time as Jubilees, the Watchers, or sons of God mentioned in Genesis 6, fell from grace when they descended to earth and had sex with the daughters of men. In the Book of Enoch, the angels descended for the purpose of seducing the women of earth.
    However, in The Book of Jubilees, the angels were sent to teach men, but after living on earth for a while, they were tempted by their own lust and fell from heaven. The offspring of this unholy union were bloodthirsty and cannibalistic giants.
    The Book of Jubilees indicates that each of the offspring was somehow different. Because of this, they are divided into categories of the Nephilim (or Naphidim, depending on the transliteration), the Giants, and the Eljo. The Nephil are mentioned however this word is the singular of Nephilim. Therefore, we have these classifications or species living on the earth: Angels, also referred to as watchers; Nephilim; Eljo; Giants; and Human.
    The Nephilim seem to be a being that contains an evil spirit much like their fathers. The giants, although coming from the same union of angel and woman, were carnal creatures. We have little information about the Eljo except they lived to kill men. They could be the “men of renown” mentioned in the Bible. These may have been the beings that brought about the myths of the violent and angry creatures such as the Cyclops or gods of war.