Kelky Coblentz Bautch
mine whether one of the angels joined with Lamech's unnamed wife to fa
ther the unusual-looking baby (1 En 106:7-8)."
Even while the narratives may not indicate that the women are culpa
ble in provoking the sexual encounters, the watchers are portrayed as defiled
through these unions (1 En 7:i).^53 Defilement, as in the book of Jubilees, is
the result of the watchers having sexual intercourse with people forbidden to
them.^54 As one sees in Jubilees, itself dependent on these or comparable tra
ditions, forbidden unions result in troublesome offspring; in the Enochic lit
erature the problematic progeny are giants who initiate violence and leave as
a legacy their immortal spirits as demons (1 En 6; 7:2-6; 9:7-8; 15). The illicit
nature of the sexual relationship is also reflected in how the Book of the
Watchers refers to the offspring of the union: bastards, half-breeds, and sons
of miscegenation (10:9)."
Women also appear in Enochic texts in association with illicit knowl
edge, a significant theme that runs throughout this literature.^56 In one of the
strata that make up 1 En 6-11, angels teach the wives sorcery, charms, and the
cutting of roots and plants after they have sexual relations (cf. 7:1; 8:3; 16:3)."
- While Enoch selects a mate for his son, Methuselah, the Greek (Chester Beatty-
Michigan Papyrus) of 1 En 106:1 suggests that Lamech chooses his own wife; this detail sets
the stage for the remarkable (and troubling) appearance of Noah. One recalls that choosing
one's mate, from the perspective of Jubilees, could be seen as a careless and dangerous ap
proach to matrimony. Cf. Jub 7:20-21; Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 38,41-42,
and above. - Loader observes that the Ethiopic features dammara ("were promiscuous with,"
"united with," or "mixed with"), whereas Panopolitanus reads uiaivsoSai ("to defile").
Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees, 12 n. 28. The theme of women defiling the watchers occurs also in
1 En 9:8; 10:11; and 15:4. For possible interpretations of these occurrences, see Loader, Enoch,
Levi, and Jubilees, 12-15, and Helge Kvanvig, "Gen 6,3 and the Watcher Story," Hen 25 (2003):
277-300 (here 291). - Loader, Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees, 15. See also Arcari, "The Myth of the Watchers
and the Problem of Intermarriage in Jubilees" - See Loader, Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees, 22.
- On the theme of illicit knowledge, see A. Yoshiko Reed, Fallen Angels and the His
tory of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), 29-49. - The Book of the Watchers includes a third stratum that also takes up illicit knowl
edge. In this instance the angel Asael teaches the manufacturing of weapons of war, adorn
ments, and cosmetics. These forbidden arts then lead to impiety (1 En 8:1-2). Because Asael
teaches men the arts, who, in fact, produce adornments and cosmetics for their daughters as
well as the weapons of war for themselves, I do not see the daughters given special censure in
the narrative.