he Pseudepigrapha come from the same general time period as the Apocrypha. The term pseudepigrapha literally means "pseudonymous writings," where typically the book is falsely attributed to a character from the Hebrew Bible. The Pseudepigrapha were never part of the official scriptures of Judaism or Christianity. The following is a list of Jewish pseudepigraphic books whose core was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.
1 Enoch (or Ethiopic Enoch)
2 Enoch (or Slavonic Enoch)
2 Baruch (or Syriac Baruch)
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Apocalypse of Elijah
Ascension of Isaiah
Jubilees
Letter of Aristeas
Life of Adam and Eve (or Apocalypse of Moses)
Lives of the Prophets
Psalms of Solomon
Sibylline Oracles
Testament of Job
Testament of Moses (or Assumption of Moses)
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
The book of 1 Enoch was one of the most widely read and circulated books of the Pseudepigrapha. It has been found in multiple copies among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was even quoted in the book of Jude (verses 14-15) in the New Testament. The figure of Enoch comes from Genesis 5:24, where he was said to have walked with God. Being supremely righteous in an unrighteous age, he was taken directly into heaven. Because of his peculiar position before God, so the legend goes, God transmitted to Enoch special revelations about the nature of the world and about the end times. 1 Enoch is one of the best examples of that brand of literature called apocalyptic that was wildly popular during this period.
1 Enoch contains a story about the rebellion of the angels in primeval times and their subsequent judgment. The story takes Genesis 6:1-4 as its point of departure but adds a significant amount of detail.
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' 3 And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin." 4 And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' 5 Then sware [sic] they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 6 And they were in all two hundred. 7:1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2 And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3 Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. (6:1-7:3; Charles 1913)
Our discussion of Genesis 6:1-4 in Chapter 1 noted that the identification of the "sons of God" is not obvious from the biblical text. Some readers have interpreted "the sons of God" to have been the line of Seth. But evidence from the use of the phrase "sons of God" elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible strongly suggests that the writer had angels of the divine council in mind.
Here in 1 Enoch there is no doubt how the phrase was interpreted: it is clearly "angels, the children of the heaven." The writer understands the story to be the description of how evil angels corrupted the human race. Of special interest is how the writer elaborated on the Genesis core story. He notes how beautiful these human women were, and adds that the angels were motivated by sexual lust. The story goes on to describe how the bad angels were policed by the good angels, Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel. The bad angels were bound, taken prisoner, and eventually destroyed.
