Perhaps one of the most disturbing references for some Christians to a book outside the canon is found in Jude, and it regards fallen angels who were naughty and punished for it. First, let’s get a little background, then come back to Jude.
This article is from my book, When Humans Wrote Scripture.
For a partial class on this topic, see my video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHSYq3OblZ4
The Fallen Ones
Have you ever wondered where the New Testament authors got the idea that God cast angels down from Heaven?[1] Because no such incident is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, at least not explicitly, or in the past. Isaiah 14:12-14 does mention something like that, but this message is directed at one individual, the king of Babylon. (Note that sometimes even earthly rulers are symbolically compared to celestial bodies in the apocalyptic literature.[2]) I’m not saying this passage couldn’t have a secondary meaning of what God does or did to “non-earthly” beings, just that we should bear in mind that Isaiah was explicitly speaking to the king of Babylon.[3] Regardless, it is not a clear reference of God casting down a plurality of angels, or the reason for it that we’ll see in Jude. Isaiah 24 also speaks of YHVH punishing the host of heaven, and even casting them into a pit, imagery which seems to be borrowed by Revelation; however, we still have no explicit reference to Angels sinning, much less the type of sin they committed according to Jude. Plus, Isaiah seems to be predicting something that will happen in the future, not something that happened thousands of years before. Note the parallel in verse 21 between what happens in Heaven reflected in the events that happen on Earth; we’ll come back to this in chapter 8.
Genesis 6 does mention “sons of God” who produced offspring with the daughters of man. It also mentions “the Nephilim” who “were on the earth in those days”. Nephilim is Hebrew, and when you see a Hebrew word that goes untranslated,[4] it can be because it was a proper name, or because we simply don’t have a word for it in English, or even because it is not quite known what it was. For example, we’re not sure exactly what the Urim and Thummim were, both untranslated Hebrew words, although we know what they were used for, and the etymology of Azazel is uncertain, although earlier English translations created a word for it, the “scapegoat”.[5] But what were the Nephilim? First, let’s consider the etymology, then other evidence.
One possible etymology of Nephilim is “Great Ones”, or “Extraordinary ones”, from the Hebrew palal, to distinguish, or pala, meaning extraordinary. There is even one theory that Nephilim means “Cloud People”, from nephele, meaning cloud. But the one that probably gets the most attention is “Fallen Ones”, from the Hebrew napal or naphal, to fall. So which is it?
Apart from Genesis 6:4, there is another reference to Nephilim in Numbers 31:33, to a group of people who are very big. The children of Israel are said to be like grasshoppers before them. This fits with the “giants” translation, of course. We’ll see more reasons why such a translation may have come to be in a moment. Interestingly, the passages says that they descended from the Nephilim, which would seem an odd claim if one is to take the event of the Flood at face value, which would have left only the descendants of only Noah, unless you somehow bring in a lineage or three via his daughters-in-law.[6] I’ve seen some believing scholars say that they simply called this group of people Nephilim because they were large, like the original Nephilim of Genesis 6. Another theory I saw says that there was a second incident of Angels raping women! (After the Flood.) But the second time it was on a smaller scale. Well, thank God: you would be hard pressed to “lock up your daughters” from creatures that descend from the sky….
So in Genesis 6:4, we have a possible translation of fallen ones, and we have a reference to sons of God. I have seen an argument that this must refer to angels because everywhere else in the Hebrew Bible, “sons of God” refers to angels, but that is actually not the case: it is also used for humans.[7] We still do not have an explicit reference to angels being cast out of Heaven to Earth and impregnating women. However, in Genesis 6, and I want to emphasize this, we do have an unexplained reference in which the author seems to expect us to know the story! And we do have extra-biblical books that do in fact explain the story. The only question is, were such accounts written after the fact to explain the meaning of Genesis 6, or do they contain at least some of the background story that the author of Genesis 6 had in mind? We are not going to answer that question here: all I want to try to show is what at least some of the New Testament authors thought.
Let’s review our essential points so far: there is no explicit account of angels being cast out of Heaven to Tartarus/the Pit in the Hebrew Bible that we now have, even though in theory there could be an unexplained, implicit reference to them as a group in Genesis 6. Their name may mean “fallen”; however, note that if the etymology of Nephilim refers to their size, (“great” or “extraordinary ones”) it does not seem logical to conclude that it also comes from the word for “fallen”.[8] We should also note that Genesis 6 speaks of these “sons of God” on Earth, with no mention of punishment or being cast into the pit. When verse 5 begins to turn to God’s punishment on the world, the focus is on man’s sin. This is a gaping hole as to what is meant, and the extra-biblical accounts provide a fair amount of material to try to plug it, as we’ll see.
So where did passages like Jude and 2 Peter 2:4 get their account of angels being cast down, past tense? It seems doubtful that they were just assuming that Isaiah 24 had been fulfilled, with no other biblical explanation to tell when or how that happened. There may have been other details regarding the Nephilim from accounts that we no longer possess, but there are multiple accounts that do survive, and they are found all through the Apocrypha, books—found in the Greek Septuagint translation (3rd-2nd Century BCE), written during the second Temple period—which give us important information of the history of Israel, as well as the development of various new religious ideas, along with some very colorful retellings of many of the accounts of the Hebrew Bible. Mentions of the Nephilim and their judgment are found in Sirach 16:7, Baruch 3:26-28, and Wisdom 14:6.[9] Note that none of these, like the Hebrew Bible, explicitly mention Angels being cast from Heaven. For that reference, we now turn to 1 Enoch, which is not included in the most common list of books of the Apocrypha, although the Orthodox Tewahedo Canon (used by two large churches of Africa) does include it, even though the Britannica article on 1 Enoch states that no canon includes it: rude. Jubilees is found in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s canon, and also contains an account of the fallen angels and their sexual sin (see book 1); it also connects them to “the Watchers” (see Daniel 4:17), like 1 Enoch.
Some sects of Judaism (possibly including Qumran, whose library included 1 Enoch and Jubilees) and some early Patristic Christian writers considered the accounts of 1 Enoch to be true. They believed, as many still do today,[10] that the Nephilim were offspring of human women and angels, that they were literally giants (300 cubits tall!), and that the Flood was intended to wipe them out. And, get this, that their souls remained on Earth as demons. Recall demon possession also is only found in the New Testament, with no explanation as to why it’s not found in the Hebrew Bible.[11] While 2 Peter 2:4 does not quote its source, Jude 14-15 uses the language of 1 Enoch 1:9! (Which itself appears to borrow language from Deuteronomy 33:2…or vice versa). In fact, Jude gives us other details that line up with the 1 Enoch explanation of Genesis 6, like that their sin was sexual in nature (vv.6, 7). In fact, I would argue that Jude appears to be quoting this account exactly like the New Testament writers quote the rest of the Hebrew Bible, as authoritative Scripture. As I said, early patristic writers agreed, and some even included 1 Enoch in the canon, but the rest of this topic must be saved for a later book more focused on the formation of the canon.
Let us return to our main point related to modern notions of the completeness of inspiration: the Bible is missing not only many books of prophets it seems to consider inspired, but even at least one that a New Testament book quotes just like the rest of Scripture,[12] a book which has been rejected by the majority of Christians. And the reasons why they might reject 1 Enoch are quite understandable. For instance, how many modern Christians would accept that there were people 300 cubits tall? But maybe they would if taught it from their youth, for there are other equally fantastical accounts actually in the Bible: besides fire from heaven, parted seas, and water-walking, there are even many people who rose from the dead.
Other References to Forgeries and Deuterocanon
Again, I am not making a judgment about whether the Bible is complete. I am merely trying to flesh out various viewpoints of the actual authors, like what might the author of Jude say about the completeness of the modern canons? Not only that, but many early Christians thought Jude itself did not belong in the canon, quite possibly because it quoted from 1 Enoch, which scholars (and probably many early Christians) believe to have originated during the Hellenistic period, long after the pre-diluvian man named Enoch[13] who was supposed to have written it.
The letter of Jude speaks vaguely about those who crept in among them, but who were not true Christians; along with sexual sins and a rejection of Jesus, the author accuses these false Christians of blaspheming angels; some scholars have therefore wondered whether this was an opposing view to the doctrine in Colossians, which condemns those who give undue prominence to angels, worshipping them. Then Jude cites a passage to prove that not even angels reviled the Devil, where Michael says “the Lord rebuke you” to Satan, regarding the body of Moses. This incident is not found anywhere in the Hebrew Bible.[14] In fact, we don’t have it anywhere else, but one educated guess as to where it came from is the Testament of Moses, (ca. middle of the first century) for which we only have the first part; the ending has been lost; however, such an incident would fit into the story line, which begins with Moses’ exhortations to Joshua before he dies.
It should also be noted that Jude was not written in a vacuum: it does not merely reflect the beliefs of a single author. In the second half of the first century when it was composed, it had enough of an audience who not only knew about the books it referenced, but also respected them. In other words, Jude is reflective of beliefs of at least a significant community at the time, significant enough for it to end up in the Bible itself! At least two of the early patristic writers of the second century also took the book seriously, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian. And Josephus (c.93 CE) included many Enochic events directly into his history of the Jews, including the details of the Giants birthed from angels and women, which he equates to similar Greek tales.
If you’re wondering whether any of the rest of the New Testament shows any signs of relying on pseudepigrapha, James 5:11 has a possible reference to the Testament of Job (c. 6th century BCE), speaking of the “perseverance” of Job. Of course the Hebrew Bible contains the story of Job, but only the Testament of Job harps on his perseverance. So James has a possible reference to a pseudepigraphal work. Perhaps the most remarkable, likely, and glaring reference to a pseudepigraphal work—apart from Jude’s—is the thousand-year reign of the Messiah in Revelation 20:3, which is clearly already found in 1 Enoch 21:6. Second Peter 2:5 also mentions that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, which is not found in the Hebrew Bible, but is found in Josephus’ Antiquities (c. 93CE), so was probably well-known, existing, and accepted detail from non-biblical sources which we no longer have.
And while we’re on the topic of Jude and extra-canonical books, note that he also mentions that Michael is an “archangel”, which is not made explicit anywhere in the Hebrew Bible; actually, Michael is only mentioned in the Bible in the later, apocalyptic book of Daniel. The Hebrew Bible’s earlier mentions of angels give us almost no detail about them, and certainly no names;[15] then suddenly Daniel names two angels, the other of which is Gabriel, who also both make an appearance in the New Testament.[16] 1 Thessalonians 4:16 also mentions the idea of an archangel. Where do these two New Testament authors get the idea of the hierarchy of angels? Once again, we find them in the Deuterocanonical works and the Pseudepigrapha.[17] Many of the New Testament writers were almost certainly not just using our Hebrew Bible. Scholars have speculated that Israel developed a fascination with angels during the Babylonian captivity, and especially when they lived among the Persians who replaced the Babylonian empire, as the Persians’ Zoroastrianism contains much focus on angels and demons, but that is a topic for another time.
In chapter 6 below, we’ll see how Hebrews 9 relies on details only found in the Apocrypha, not in the Hebrew Bible of today. We’ll also see a few examples of New Testament mentions of doctrines not found in the Hebrew Bible, but only from rabbinic sources, such as the mention of the Sabbath’s day’s journey in Acts 1:12. For more answers to Bible questions you probably never knew begged to be asked, make sure to check out my book here: When Humans Wrote Scripture.
[1] See also 2 Peter 2:4, besides Jude.
[2] E.g., Daniel 8:5-12, 20, 21; cf. Joel 3, Matthew 24:29-31. Even Jesus got his own star in Matthew 2:2-10, even the same “morning star” from which we get the word Lucifer from the Isaiah passage (Revelation 22:16).
[3] As stated in the introduction, I am merely using the conventional names of the books of the Bible, irrespective of actual authorship. This is a great spot to point out that much of Isaiah concerns itself with prophetic messages against Assyria, which is the time period the Bible places the actual prophet Isaiah, in the 8th century BCE. Most scholarship seems to consider the first 39 chapters of Isaiah to be from this period, with the last 4 of those chapters being a narrative also found in 2 Kings 18:13-20:19, with some additional material found in Isaiah; and from chapter 40 onward containing a little material from the time of Josiah (about a century after Isaiah), but mostly after the Babylonian empire ruled supreme over Mesopotamia, about two centuries after Isaiah. No references to the earlier empire of Assyria appear from chapter 40 onward, except for one whose context clearly refers to the past (52:4). Of course, one fundamentalist perspective might be that Isaiah was a prophet so he was able to predict the future; I save the discussion of historical context versus prophecy for another book. Noteworthy is the fact that Jesus himself quotes from what scholars call Second (or Third) Isaiah, and attributes it to Isaiah (e.g., Matthew 8:17, cf. Isaiah 53:4); and the entirety of Isaiah is one of the most quoted books through all of the New Testament.
[4] Most Bible translations today follow most ancient Bible translations in rendering Nephilim as “giants”; however, as this discussion will demonstrate, not only is this very uncertain, but it also does not capture the full meaning of what these passages seem to be suggesting.
[5] Exodus 28:30, Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 33:8; Leviticus 16.
[6] Giant daughters-in-law might have been a big help to Noah, feeding all those animals….
[7] E.g., see Deuteronomy 14:1; 18:5.
[8] Actually, there are words in the Hebrew Bible which are treated precisely this way, as if their meaning or source were from two different words or languages. Moses was an Egyptian name, given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter, yet the meaning of the Hebrew word mashah, “drawing out” (of water; Strong’s 4871, 4872), appears to be attributed to his origin story in Exodus 2. Likewise, Babel comes from Akkadian meaning “gate of the gods”, yet in Genesis 10:10, it seems to be associated with the Hebrew babel, “confusion” (Strong’s 894).
[9] For Protestants who do not know how to find an online Bible version with the Apocrypha, I recommend the very accurate NRSVUE, although you can also select the Good News Translation or the Douay-Rheims.
[10] Just read a Dake study Bible, or do an internet search on who were the Nephilim, and select the articles written by Christian theologians. Most will connect them to Angels who coupled with human women.
[11] It is argued, however, that there are references translated as “demons” in the Hebrew Bible, especially since the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (a.k.a., LXX), translates some words as daimonion, which meant simply a divine spirit, whether good or evil. See Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37. The original Hebrew word used, shed, is of uncertain origin, but seems to mean at least something similar to “spirit”. But these raise even more questions, if they are referring to the gods as actual entities. (See also seirim, Leviticus 17:7). Perhaps significantly, spirits of dead people who are consulted by the living are called elohim, ‘gods’ or ‘divine beings’ (see 1 Samuel 28:13), a term used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for men (Psalm 82:6) as interpreted by Jesus himself (John 10:34). Azazel (Lev 16) is often associated with a demon, but this is not made explicit in the text. There are “evil spirits” and even “Satan” mentioned, but they are all sent by God himself (I Samuel 16:14; cf. I Kings 22:19-22; I Chronicles 21:1; cf. 2 Samuel 24:1; Job 2:1-7). In Job and Zechariah 3, Satan is like God’s prosecuting attorney (his name meaning “accuser”) and he and the angels are together.
[12] I am not saying that just because the New Testament quotes something that the author must have considered it Scripture. Surely the author of Titus was not trying to say that the Cretan who called his own countrymen liars was somehow speaking prophetically (Titus 1:12), nor when Paul quotes Greek poets (e.g., Acts 17:28). I am merely arguing that Jude does not appear to be citing an example of merely an idea for rhetorical reasons, as Paul was doing, but seems to be actually using 1 Enoch as a source for theological, authoritative argument.
[13] Genesis 5
[14] Zechariah 3:2 has the quote, but not the context of a dispute over the body of Moses.
[15] It can even be argued that the angels were intentionally unnamed to avoid worshipping them (e.g., Judges 13:18), which did in fact become an issue at some point during the Second Temple Period (see Colossians 2:18).
[16] Luke 1
[17] E.g., Tobit 12:15, 1 Enoch 20.