Monday, July 11, 2022

George W. E. Nickelsburg on Athenagoras of Athens' Acceptance of 1 Enoch as Authoritative

  

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)