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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

The Watchers, the flood and the bound angels

Most Jews of the period read the sons of God of Genesis 6:1-4 as angels who took human wives before the flood. Their books, above all 1 Enoch, had the guilty angels bound under the earth in darkness until the judgment, and 1 Peter, 2 Peter and Jude speak of that prison.

Jewish life and lawWhat people were waiting for

First, in plain English

A story everyone in the room already knows, so the speaker only has to name it. Genesis 6 says that the sons of God took human wives and that giants were born, just before the flood. Most Jews in the first century read those sons of God as angels who rebelled. Their books, above all 1 Enoch, told how God had the guilty angels bound and shut up under the earth in darkness until the last judgment, and how Enoch was sent to tell them their plea had been refused. The flood belonged to the same story, and Noah and the few saved with him became a picture of the people God rescues. 2 Peter and Jude speak of angels who sinned and are kept in chains of darkness, and many readers hear the same story behind the spirits in prison of 1 Peter, though not all agree.

What it meant then

Most later rabbis aside, almost every ancient Jewish reader took Genesis 6:1-3 to mean that angels lusted after women and fell in Noah's day. After the flood these angels were said to be imprisoned, below the earth or in the air. Charles's 1 Enoch tells it at length. Two hundred angels led by Semjaza swear an oath and descend on Mount Hermon (6:1-6). Raphael binds Azazel hand and foot and casts him into darkness until the day of judgment (10:4-6). Michael binds Semjaza and his fellows in the earth for seventy generations, after which they go to the abyss of fire (10:11-13). An angel tells Enoch, "This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever" (21:10). When the Watchers ask Enoch to plead for them, he must answer, "from henceforth you shall not ascend into heaven unto all eternity" (14:5). Josephus has angels of God who "accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust", and Noah urging that generation to change (Antiquities 1.3.1). Jewish teachers held the flood generation especially wicked. They used the flood as a pattern of the coming judgment and told of Noah as a preacher of repentance. In Greek myth Tartarus held the worst offenders, the Titans above all. The verb of 2 Peter 2:4 is "the typical word used for the punishment of the Titans" (Dictionary of Deities and Demons), and Jewish writers borrowed the name for the angels' prison. Heiser argues that the angels' punishment comes from 1 Enoch rather than Genesis. He adds that the angelic reading held until it fell from favor in the late fourth century, especially with Augustine.

The bridge to today

An analogy: a famous trial whose verdict everyone in the country remembers. A speaker need only say that the convicts are still behind bars for the audience to supply the rest of the story.

What it changes in the reading

Because the story of the bound angels was widely known, 2 Peter 2:4 can mention angels held in Tartarus in chains of darkness without explaining who they were, and Jude 6 can do the same. Readers who knew that Enoch had been sent to the imprisoned Watchers would hear an echo when 1 Peter 3:19 has Christ make a proclamation to spirits in prison, whoever those spirits are taken to be.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a sentence already served. Convicts behind bars have had their trial and their verdict. In these texts the prison is a holding place where the angels wait for a judgment still to come. Heiser stresses that Tartarus was part of the underworld, the realm of the dead, which is not the same thing as hell.

Where scholars disagree

First, who the sons of God of Genesis 6 were. The ESV Study Bible sets out three views without choosing: fallen angels, tyrannical human rulers, or godly descendants of Seth. Keener notes that most later rabbis rejected the angelic reading. Heiser argues that no other angelic sin in the Old Testament fits what 2 Peter and Jude describe. The Zondervan dictionary instead reads 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 as a fall of angels before Adam's, with no tie to Genesis 6. Second, who the imprisoned spirits of 1 Peter 3:19 are. Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes call the fallen-angel reading the view of most scholars today, and Wright and Bird call it the most likely. Heiser notes that neither the New Testament nor 1 Enoch puts disobedient human souls in a prison. Others read Christ preaching through Noah to the people of his day, which the CSB Study Bible calls plausible and the ESV Study Bible counts among the two best fits. Many church fathers had Christ preach to the dead in Hades between his death and resurrection. Arnold has Christ proclaim his victory to the fallen angels on a descent before the ascension.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1peter-3-8-22\/","n":"1 Peter 3:8-22, A defense, and the spirits in prison","s":"Peter calls for harmony and for blessing in return for insult, and tells his readers to be ready to make a defense of their hope. Christ suffered once for sins, was put to death in the body and made alive in the Spirit, and went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison who disobeyed in Noah's day; the flood that saved eight people prefigures baptism, and Christ has gone into heaven, where every angelic authority and power is subject to him.","r":"1 Peter 3:8-22"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2peter-2-1-10\/","n":"2 Peter 2:1-10, Angels in Tartarus, Noah, Sodom and Lot","s":"As there were false prophets in Israel, so false teachers will come, greedy and denying the Master who bought them. God punished the angels who sinned, keeping them bound in darkness in Tartarus for judgment; he swept away the ancient world but kept Noah; he burned Sodom and Gomorrah but rescued righteous Lot. So the Lord knows how to rescue the godly and keep the unrighteous for judgment.","r":"2 Peter 2:1-10"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2peter-3-1-18\/","n":"2 Peter 3:1-18, Scoffers, the flood and the day of fire","s":"Scoffers will ask where the promised coming is, since everything goes on as it has since creation. Peter answers that the world once made by God's word was destroyed by water and is now kept for fire on the day of judgment; the Lord does not count time as people do, and he delays out of patience. The day will come like a thief, and the readers wait for new heavens and a new earth, as Paul too wrote in letters some twist like the other Scriptures.","r":"2 Peter 3:1-18"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/jude-5-7\/","n":"Jude 5-7, Israel in the desert, the angels who left their place, and Sodom","s":"Jude reminds his readers that the Lord who saved a people out of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe; that the angels who did not keep their position are held in darkness, bound in everlasting chains, for the judgment of the great day; and that Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example of the punishment of eternal fire.","r":"Jude 5-7"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/jude-8-13\/","n":"Jude 8-13, Michael and the body of Moses, and hidden reefs at the love feasts","s":"The intruders claim dream visions, defile the body, despise authority and slander the glorious ones, though the archangel Michael, disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, did not dare to slander him but left the rebuke to the Lord. They have taken the way of Cain, Balaam and Korah; they are hidden reefs at the love feasts, waterless clouds, wild waves and wandering stars.","r":"Jude 8-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-9-1-21\/","n":"Revelation 9:1-21, the Abyss opened and the armies from the Euphrates","s":"At the fifth trumpet a fallen star is given the key to the Abyss, and from its smoke come locusts like horses with human faces, women's hair and scorpions' stings, under a king called Abaddon and Apollyon. At the sixth, four angels bound at the Euphrates are released with a cavalry of two hundred million that kills a third of humanity, yet the survivors do not repent.","r":"Revelation 9:1-21"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-20-1-6\/","n":"Revelation 20:1-6, Satan bound and the thousand years","s":"An angel with the key to the Abyss and a great chain seizes the dragon, binds him for a thousand years and seals him in the Abyss so that he cannot deceive the nations. Those beheaded for their witness, who refused the beast and its mark, come to life and reign with Christ for the thousand years, the first resurrection, over which the second death has no power.","r":"Revelation 20:1-6"}

Beings in the Gods of the Bible

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-watchers-enochic\/","n":"The Watchers (Enochic)","s":"Angels who, in 1 Enoch, come down to earth, marry women, and teach humanity things it should not know.","r":"Daniel 4:13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/shemihazah\/","n":"Shemihazah","s":"The leader who talks the other Watchers into the descent and binds them to an oath.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/azazel\/","n":"Azazel","s":"The name on the second lot at the Day of Atonement, where the other lot says God.","r":"Leviticus 16:8"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/nephilim\/","n":"Nephilim","s":"The giants of Genesis 6, born from the sons of God and human women.","r":"Genesis 6:4"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/uriel-sariel-phanuel\/","n":"Uriel, Sariel, Phanuel","s":"Angels named in 1 Enoch that readers go looking for in the Bible and never find.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/abaddon-apollyon\/","n":"Abaddon \/ Apollyon","s":"A word for the place of destruction that Revelation turns into an angel over the abyss.","r":"Revelation 9:11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-four-angels-of-the-euphrates\/","n":"The four angels of the Euphrates","s":"Angels tied up at a river and released on schedule to kill.","r":"Revelation 9:14-15"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/asael\/","n":"Asael","s":"The Watcher who teaches weapons and cosmetics and gets buried under rocks until judgment.","r":""}

In the Divine Council Index

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/genesis-6-1-4\/","n":"Genesis 6:1-4","s":"The sons of God take wives, and the Nephilim are in the earth.","r":"Genesis 6:1-4"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/1-peter-3-18-22\/","n":"1 Peter 3:18-22","s":"Christ proclaims to the spirits in prison, the ones disobedient in the days of Noah.","r":"1 Peter 3:18-22"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/jude-6-2-peter-2-4\/","n":"Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4","s":"Angels who abandoned their proper dwelling, held in chains until judgment.","r":"Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/isaiah-24-21-23\/","n":"Isaiah 24:21-23","s":"Yahweh punishes the host of heaven above and the kings of earth below, then reigns before His elders.","r":"Isaiah 24:21-23"}

Sources

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Peter 3:18-19 and 3:20, and on 2 Peter 2:4 and 2:5
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Peter 3:19 and 3:20, and on 2 Peter 2:4 and 2:5
R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (1917), 6:1-6, 10:4-6, 10:11-13, 14:4-5 and 21:10
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1, trans. William Whiston
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst, entries Titans (section III) and Watcher
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 12, Divine Transgression, section Peter and Jude, and ch. 38, Choosing Sides, section Baptism as Holy War
Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 9, The Sin of the Watchers and Baptism, section Spirits in Prison, Chained in Gloomy Darkness
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Genesis 6:1-2 and 1 Peter 3:19
CSB Study Bible, note on 1 Peter 3:19-20a
N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 32, The Argument of 1 Peter, section 3
CSB Study Bible, word study box tartaroo (2 Peter 2:4)
J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry angel
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 4, Judaism, section The Angelic Fall, and ch. 7, section The Powers As Christ's Captives (Eph 4:8-10)

All ideas