Date of Award
2026
Degree Type
Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation
Degree Name
Religion, PhD
Program
School of Arts and Humanities
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Nicola Denzey Lewis,
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Tammi Schneider
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Lori Anne Ferrell
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2026 Sarah Susan Eckert
Subject Categories
Religion
Abstract
The story of the fallen angels recalled in the Book of the Watchers located in the first thirty-six chapters of the Jewish apocryphal text, 1 Enoch, develops an obscure text from Genesis 6:1-4. Composed circa the 3rd century B.C.E., the narrative tells of the lustful desires of a group of specialized angels known as the Watchers. Driven by their desire to unite sexually with human women, these once divine beings violate their divine status and fall to earth. The Watchers reveal illicit knowledge to humankind, but they hold responsibility for the birth of the Giants. The Giants, the offspring of the angels and their human wives, cause much misery upon earth. God must intervene with a great flood to address humankind’s pleas for aid, yet several traditions maintain that the legacy of the Watchers continued even after their condemnation. The Christian concept of the demon and even its development of the Devil draw on themes present in the Enochic narrative. Several early Christian Fathers of the second and third centuries C.E. still drew on the fallen angels’ story as an explanation for their sufferings. Among the most prominent theologians include Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Tertullian. Each of these individuals accepted the authority of 1 Enoch and the Watchers narrative. Christians not only faced a consistent threat of persecution, but each individual Christian theologian displayed a concern for theological predicaments facing their communities. I emphasize that Justin, for instance, applied the angelic fall to enter a dialogue over theodicy and to express his ideas concerning the role of the Logos in the perception of evil. Tatian, however, drew on the angelic fall so he could condemn magical practices on a theological basis. Tertullian, known for his tirades against women, applied the Watchers’ story to justify his positions for virgins to veil and for Christian women to wear modest attire. I argue that the versatility in application and relevancy of the angelic fall found in 1 Enoch’s Book of the Watchers enabled its endurance through the early Christian era. The key texts under study include Justin’s 1st and 2nd Apologies, Tatian’s Oratio ad Graecos, and Tertullian’s De Virginibus Velandis along with his De Cultu Feminarum. I apply an exegetical approach to each of the works to address the larger question of why the Enochic fall would soon be replaced by another myth from the Book of Genesis. By the end of the early Christian era, 1 Enoch fell into the crevices of history. The story of Adam and Eve endured as Christianity’s explanation for the sin of the world. The problem investigated in the following study represents the first phase of research attempting to address this question. Despite its non-canonical status, I demonstrate why 1 Enoch did continue as an authoritative text among certain early Christian writers. Thus, the text functioned on two levels. First, the theologians drawing on the story’s subject chose to do so with intent in reaction to the world around them. This is because an aspect of the angelic fall resonated with that individual’s own time and experience. Second, the author determined that the text spoke comfort to their immediate communities. The story of the Watchers provided a reason for early Christians to endure in this new faith. Based on this, I conclude that all three theologians surveyed viewed the fallen angels as characters easily connectable to the perceived fallacies of Greco-Roman culture. The narrative further provided early Christians with a model of what it meant to act against God. In other words, the Enochic story addressed issues of Christian identity as a minority culture. The story, for the authors surveyed, might be compared to a divinely authorized set of guidelines that define anti-Christian behavior. Christians saw this story as a reflection of their own fight against the Romans and the influx of illicit practices.
ISBN
9798247918363
Recommended Citation
Eckert, Sarah Susan. (2026). Bound to Sin: New Interpretations of the Fallen Angels in Select Early Christian Fathers. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 1095. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1095.
