judgment stresses the need for obedience now, and provides a model for John in Revelation. Following East from the middle of the earth, Enoch is shown valleys where the accursed are gathered for judgment in the presence of the righteous (1 En. 27:1). Further East he is shown mountains covered with wonderful aromatic trees: frankincense, myrrh, almond, nard, cinnamon, pepper, etc. Finally he arrives, east of the Persian and Indian oceans, to the garden of righteousness with fragrant trees and the tree of Wisdom. Its height is that of a fir, its leaves those of a carob and its fruit is like the clusters of the fruit of the vine with a strong aroma. Rafael now informs Enoch that this is the tree “of which thy father old (in years) and thy aged mother, who were before thee, have eaten, and they learned wisdom and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they were driven out of the garden” (En. 32:6). By bringing up the expulsion of the first pair from the garden of Eden, and the reference to the tree that was not to be touched, the Book of the Watchers reaches back to the beginning, further back than the rebellion at Sinai, as the time when sin entered the world. Thus, the book reveals the origin of evil in the world, and informs the readers that the preservation of the tree for future transplanting is a sign that the original purpose of creation will be accomplished.
From there, Enoch was taken to the ends of the earth where he saw great beasts and birds, all different from each other. To the East he saw where the heavens rest and the portals of heaven open. Through those portals the stars enter the heavens on their journeys West. Going North from there he saw other portals of heaven. From one of them comes the North Wind with cold, rain and snow. From the other two enter violence and affliction. After the tour of the whole universe, the Book of the Watchers ends with Enoch blessing “the Lord of Glory who has brought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of his work to the angels and to spirits and to men, that they might praise his work and all his creation … and bless him for ever” (En. 36:4). The book had began with Enoch’s blessings, and records his blessing of God throughout (1 En. 1:1; 11:1; 12:3; 22:14; 36:4). As demonstrated, the book is concerned to convince the reader that, even though angels who defiled themselves with women and brought into the world giants whose spirits cause men and women to sin, this is still God’s world. He has full control over his creation, and his original purpose for creation will be accomplished. The angels who defiled themselves and taught charms and arts to men are already in prison waiting for the final judgment which will eventually take care of all sinners. Then God will restore the world so that peace and joy will endure in it forever. Thus, while making a more extensive use of mythological descriptions, the Book of the Watchers follows the course established by Ezekiel and Zechariah. Its author gives to his contemporaries an explanation for the origin of evil and provides a vision of God’s dealing with it.
It is to be noticed that, while The Book of the Watchers is aware of the sin of the first couple and of their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, it does not see their disobedience as the cosmic Fall of all creation. Still, its reference to the sin of the first couple is a move in the direction that gave place to the concept of the Fall. The entrance of sin in the human world is thought to have been brought about by the angels who defiled themselves with women and introduced warfare and medical charms and potions. They are the ones who brought into the world fornication, defilement and debauchery. Besides, the book marks a significant shift in Hebraic anthropology, one that facilitated the emergence of apocalypticism. As pointed out above, the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel brought about a shift from a corporate to an individual identity. The Book of the Watchers introduced a new understanding of the dead as capable of pleading for justice. This opened a new path to eschatological scenarios.
The books of the Old Testament reveal that among the ancient Israelites there were two contrasting conceptions of the dead. On the one hand, there was the view that when a person dies the body that is placed in a grave is still somewhat alive. The nails and the hair are still growing, and the bones remain articulated. In very dry climates, they may stay that way for an indefinite length of time. At the time, the Israelites held a psycho-physical understanding of the person. They did not distinguish between material and ethereal or psychic aspects of an individual. They had no abstract nouns in their vocabulary. This means that they did not conceive the notions of mind, will, idea, etc. They located psychic functions in physical organs. The hand indicates intentions; the arm, strength; the bowels, emotions; the heart, will power. The Hebrew word translated “soul” does not refer to an independent, abstract, essential aspect of a person, but to the whole person as alive, active; in fact it is best translated as “person” or “being.” One of the creation stories says that God breathed into the nostrils of a clay form and it became a “living person, or being” (Gen. 2:7). When a person, or being, dies, for the Hebrews the “soul” dies (Gen. 37:21; Dt. 19:6; Jer. 40:14-15). Moreover, the word for “spirit” which also means “wind,” refers to the moving forces within, the feelings, the ideas, the character of the whole person. Thus, according to one point of view found in the Old Testament, when a person is placed in the grave, it goes into the pit and joins the rephaim, the shades. They are negative replicas of living persons who have the remnants of life still in the body. They are a very weak form of life. In this understanding of human beings, life and death are not opposites. They are related to each other within a continuum of different degrees of vitality. While in the realm of the living, persons experience reductions of vitality when they are sick, suffering or under great distress. These experiences are understood to be drawing the person to the gates of Sheol, the place where the rephaim, the shades, are found. Thus, while living on the face of the earth, persons may be already feeling that Sheol is taking vital power away from them. The basic characteristic of the shades in Sheol is that they are weak.
The other view of the dead in the Old Testament sees death as the opposite of life. The living exist; the dead do not exist. They are extinct. Death brings about the extraction of life from the body. It is the emptying of life, the dissolution of the person. Of the suffering servant it is said that he “poured out his soul [being] to death” (Is. 53:12). Dying in childbirth, Rachel called the newborn Benoni “as her soul [being] was departing” (Gen. 35:18). When a woman of Tekoa is coached by Joab to convince King David that he should admit back Absalom into the family, she gives the iconic metaphor for death according to this view. The woman says to David, “We must all die, we are like water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again” (2 Sam. 14:14). According to this view, the dead are in Abaddon (destruction, Job 28:22; Ps. 15:11; 27:20), Dumah (silence, Ps. 115:17). Pleading with God to relent from the unjust treatment he is inflicting on an innocent man, Job says, “Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness” (Job 10:20-22). In Job the dead are in total annihilation. Job reminds God, “now I shall die on the earth; Thou will seek me, but I shall not be” (Job 7:21). Under distress, the Psalmist pleads, “Look away from me, that I may know gladness, before I depart and be no more” (Ps. 39:13).
The author of the Book of the Watchers is aware of the biblical language describing the pit as a place of chaos and “darkness with no light in it.” But he is also living in a time when Hellenistic culture has made significant inroads in the Fertile Crescent. Among its many contributions, the Greeks fostered the cross-fertilization of cultural features between Greece and India. Among these was the distinction between the body of the dead and their souls and spirits. Our author describes the Watchers, or the giants, as dead and says that their souls ask Enoch to intercede on their behalf before God. He also sees that the spirits of the dead children of the Watchers are causing women and men to sin. This, of course, reveals the influence of the notions of the soul as an independent, living entity. The language of the defiled angels as spirits in prison, found in First and Second Peter clearly comes from The Book of the Watchers and the Hellenic understanding of life after death. To be noticed also is that those in this prison are not just there, as the rephaim in Sheol are described in Ezekiel and Isaiah. They are suffering punishments while waiting for the judgment that will exterminate them.
The Book of the Watchers provides a topography of the underworld, a place not found within the three levels of the biblical world constituted by the heavens above, the earth beneath and the waters under the earth. In the different places
