HistoricalChristian.Faith
HistoricalChristian.Faith
Dates: c. 100 BC Summary: Jubilees retells Genesis 6 in the angelic tradition of 1 Enoch. The "angels of God" descend, take human wives, and beget sons who are giants; the resulting lawlessness corrupts all flesh and brings on the Flood. God's wrath falls on these angels: they are bound in the depths of the earth and their giant sons are slain by the sword.
And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants.
— Book of Jubilees Chapter 5, sections 1-11, Charles' 1913 translation, wesley.nnu.edu. The "sons of God" are read as angels, whose offspring are giants — the classic supernatural view.
And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth … And against their sons went forth a command from before His face that they should be smitten with the sword, and be removed from under heaven.
— Book of Jubilees Chapter 5, sections 1-11, Charles' 1913 translation, wesley.nnu.edu. The judgment on rebel angels and their giant offspring parallels 1 Enoch's account.
After the Flood the spirits that come from the dead giants begin leading Noah's descendants astray. When Noah prays for them all to be bound, Mastema, "the chief of the spirits," strikes a bargain with God — the passage De Young invokes for the demonology of the Gospels:
And the chief of the spirits, Mastêmâ, came and said: 'Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them harken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men…' And He said: 'Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation.'
— Book of Jubilees 10:8–9, Charles' translation, pseudepigrapha.com. Jubilees then says the nine-tenths were bound "in the place of condemnation," while "a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth" (10:11). This is the 90% / 10% schema De Young cites: most of the dead-Nephilim spirits are confined in the abyss, a remnant left to afflict humanity until the judgment — and the theodicy is that God uses even them to drive the wicked to repentance. It underwrites the Gospel demons' cry, "Have you come to torment us before the time?" (Matt 8:29) and the Legion-into-the-abyss episode. See De Young's page.