Amplified Roles, Idealized Depictions: Women in the Book of JubileesTal Ilan posits that women came to be associated with such arts because "of
their experience with childbirth, healing, the preparation of potions and
medicines and even lamentations at the grave."^58 This particular narrative
provides an etiology for and negative evaluation of such practices that may
have been uniquely associated with women in this period. Loader also asso
ciates such practices (and "dangerous knowledge") with foreign wives in
particular and suggests that this tradition may be rooted in concern for
endogamous relations.^59 The association of women, especially of the wives
of the angels, with forbidden or illicit knowledge diminishes within the
Enochic works. The Animal Apocalypse and Jubilees, even while they may
know the tradition concerning Asael, for example, make no mention of the
theme.^60 In general, the wives of the watchers seem less "interesting" to later
Enochic works.
Eve exchanges places with the wives in these narratives as Enochic
texts demonstrate an increasing uneasiness with the first woman. The earli
est reference to Eve among Enochic texts occurs in the Book of the Watchers.
Eve, like Adam, is associated with wisdom and the protagonist of the litera
ture, the patriarch Enoch (l En 32:3-6). In later traditions, such as the second
century B.C.E. Animal Apocalypse and first century B.C.E. or C.E. Parables,
Eve's lot worsens as she becomes distanced from Adam and associated with
the Cainite line (85:3) or with being deceived by a malevolent angel (6c;:6).^61
In conclusion, Enochic works do not amplify women in the same
manner as the book of Jubilees. The depictions of women familiar from the
antediluvian world of Genesis are not sharply drawn; the references to such
women are not in great supply. In context, Enochic literature does not share
in the trend to expand roles for women familiar from the Hebrew Bible, as
one observes in the case of Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, and the Testament
of Job.^62 Moreover, because of the complex nature of the various works we
associate with Enochic literature, we are not able to present a single
- T. Ilan, Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into Image and Status
(Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1995), 225. - Loader, Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees, 46. Tigchelaar has also read the account of the
watchers as an indictment on intermarriage between Jerusalem priests and Samaritan
women. See Prophets of Old, 198-203. - See Segal, The Book of Jubilees, 117, who also notes that Jubilees lacks the tradition
of angels teaching women crafts of a questionable nature. - See my "Adamic Traditions," 355-58.
- See Chesnutt, "Revelatory Experiences Attributed to Biblical Women in Early
Jewish Literature."