78 CHAPTER TWOtion with the enigmatically brief biblical story of the descent to earth of the
sons of the gods (Genesis 6:1–4). It is not impossible that Enoch reports here
a fuller version of the Israelite tale anxiously alluded to in Genesis. In any
case, the good God and his minions have been defeated by the forces of evil,
and the world is consequently a chaotic place, filled with wickedness, suffer-
ing, and disease. God and his throngs of supporters have retired in splendor
to the highest heaven, where they wait for the preordained drama to play itself
out and occasionally are paid court by human holy men. In the most dualistic
versions (e.g., in the Serekh HaYahad and the Pauline Epistles) the world is
actually considered the dominion of Satan and his attending demons,tout
court.Inmore moderateaccounts,theworldismore complicated,andSatan’s
rule is less absolute, though he and his demons remain a powerful presence
in the world.^72 In all versions, though, there will one day come a struggle
between good and evil in which good will win. God will then rule the world
alone, his reign perhaps (but not in every version of the story) ushered in by
a messianic figure, and punish the wicked and reward the righteous.
Myth and CovenantThis story’s stark contradiction of the covenantal ideology is remarkable. The
covenant imagines an orderly world governed justly by the one God. The
apocalyptic myth imagines a world in disarray, filled with evil; a world in
which people donotget what they deserve. God is not in control in any
obvious way; indeed, the cosmology of the myth is dualist or polytheist, de-
pending on the version, though the rhetoric of the mythographers is usually
monotheist (which does not prevent the Dead Sea Scrolls from calling the
angelselim, gods).^73 The myth is also fatalistic: only the divine figures have
volition,whilehumansarebasicallytheirvictims.Nordoesthemythexplicitly
promote observance of the commandments, although Daniel and some of the
Dead Sea Scrolls, for example, seem to imagine that it is those who observe
the commandments who will be rewarded at the “end of days.”
And yet, most (ifnot all) of the literary works thatallude to the mythological
narrative or are influenced by its ethos do in addition promote the covenant
or are otherwise concerned with the Torah and related literature. The visions
and “testaments” in which the myth is most fully recounted are all attributed
to or largely concern biblical figures. The Enochic tradition may owe some-
(^72) Sectarians like Paul and the author of the Serekh HaYahad believed that their sects had
successfully liberated themselves from Satan’s rule, though the importance of exorcisms in both
Qumran and Christian ritual indicates that this liberation was not achieved without a fight.
(^73) For an interesting argument against the standard characterization of ancient (or indeed most
medieval) Judaism as monotheistic, see A. P. Hayman, “Monotheism: A Misused Word in Jewish
Studies?”JJS42 (1991): 1–15. L. Hurtado, “What Do We Mean by ‘First Century Jewish Mono-
theism’?”SBL Seminar Papers, 1993, pp. 348–67, provides a more nuanced discussion.