Athenagoras
In
his Plea for the Christians (177 C.E.), this Athenian apologist devotes
considerable space to the topic of demons and their activity, also identifying
them as the progeny of the rebel angels (chaps. 24-25). Like Justin he ascribes
to the angels a responsibility to exercise divine providence (προνοια) over creation. Their sin was to fall in love
with virgins . . . and procreate giants who constitute a demonic realm. Two
angels are unable to ascend to or command a view of heaven (υπερκυπτω ),
having fallen from there (cf. 1 Enoch 13:5 and 14:5). The demons are identified
as the “souls” (ψυχαι) of the giants, who “wander” (πλαναω) over the earth causing trouble (cf. 1 Enoch
15:11-16:1). (George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1 [Hermeneia—A Critical
and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001], 88)
Acceptance
of This Authority
Certain
writers in the second and third centuries accepted at least parts of the Enochic
corpus as Sacred Scripture authored by the prophet Enoch. The appeal to Enochic
authority is explicit in Jude, Barnabas, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of
Alexandria, and Origen. (Ibid., 101)
