All: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

1 Enoch: the Watchers (the 'sons of God' of Genesis 6)

1 Enoch · PseudepigraphaPseudepigrapha

1 Enoch expands the brief, mysterious note in Genesis 6 that 'the sons of God' took human wives who bore giants: it names the fallen angels 'Watchers,' led by Semjaza and Azazel, who taught forbidden knowledge and corrupted the earth before the Flood. This story shaped how some New Testament writers spoke of 'the angels who sinned', a Jewish tradition, not Scripture.

1 Enoch 6:1-2
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 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.'

R. H. Charles's 1913 translation (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Oxford; Public Domain)

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

  • undefined 6:2bsb

    the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.

On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.

1 Enoch: the Watchers (the 'sons of God' of Genesis 6) · Bubble Bible