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10 Watchers Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls Samuel Thomas It is well known to scholars of Second Temple Jewish literature that “Watchers” (‫)עירין‬ and “Giants” (‫גברין‬ or ‫)נפילין‬1 were important features of early Jewish apocalyptic thought. The Book of the Watchers of 1 Enoch (1 En. 1–36) is just one example of the many creative elaborations of Gen. 6:1-4 to be produced during the mid-late Second Temple period. Indeed, the Book of the Watchers doubtless gave rise to its own interpretive traditions that were cultivated among the circles in which it was read and passed along. The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) include both Hebrew and Aramaic texts that exhibit familiarity with Watchers and Giants traditions. In addition to the fragments of 1 Enoch (4Q201-202; 4Q204-2122 ) and the Book of Giants3 (1Q23-24; 2Q26; 4Q203; 4Q206; 1. Early Greek translations render the ‫נפילים‬ of Gen. 6:4 and Num. 13:33 as οἱ γίγαντες, thereby conflating the references to ‫נפילים‬ and ‫הגברים‬ “mighty men” in Gen. 6:4. This conflation can also be seen in the Aramaic Book of the Watchers and in the Book of Giants (‫)נפילין‬. 2. Beyond those listed here, several other fragments of 1 Enoch have come to light in recent years. The fragments are unprovenanced (they have surfaced on the antiquities market), but Esther Eshel presumes they are from Qumran, assigning one of them to 4Q204 (= 1 En. 7:1-5) and recognizing 1 En. 106:19—107:1 on a papyrus fragment (Esther Eshel, “Two New Fragments of 1 Enoch from Qumran,” paper presented at the Fifth Enoch Seminar, Naples, Italy, June 14, 2009). See also Esther Eshel and Hanan Eshel, “New Fragments from Qumran: 4QGenf, 4QIsab, 4Q226, 8QGen, and XQpapEnoch,” DSD 12 (2005): 134–57, for discussion of XQpapEnoch. There are also several Greek fragments from Cave 7 that are probably related to 1 Enoch (7Q4, 8, 11-14). 3. The Book of Giants relates the story of the Watchers’ hybrid, malevolent offspring, expanding on the tradition found in Gen. 6:1-4 and dovetailing it with the Enochic myths of the Watchers to form a narrative later incorporated into Manichean tradition. See Jozef T. Milik with the collaboration of Matthew Black, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumrân Cave 4 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976); Black, “Turfan et Qumran: Livre des géants juif et manichéen,” in Tradition und Glaube: Das frühe 137 4Q530-32; 4Q556; 6Q8), there are several other Aramaic compositions from Qumran in which Watchers are mentioned or alluded to: the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20); the so-called “Elect of God” text (4Q534-36); and the Visions of Amram (4Q543-49). Many of these Aramaic works were evidently influential among the group(s) responsible for the collecting, copying, composition, and preservation of the Qumran manuscripts, and some of their themes were incorporated—or translated—into sectarian texts written in Hebrew.4 While John Collins is correct to note the discrepancy that “in view of the strong manuscript evidence for interest in the books of Enoch at Qumran, there is remarkably little appeal to the Enoch tradition in the major sectarian documents of Qumran,”5 the motifs of Watchers and Giants are perhaps important exceptions to this rule.6 This Christentum in seiner Umwelt. Festgabe für Karl Georg Kuhn zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Gert Jeremias, HeinzWolfgang Kuhn, and Hartmut Stegemann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1971), 117–27; Florentino García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic: Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran, STDJ 9 (Leiden: Brill, 1992); Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Book of Giants from Qumran, TSAJ 63 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997); George W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of Enoch Chapters 1–36; 81–108, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001); John C. Reeves, Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions, MHUC 14 (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992). Not all traditions about the Giants regarded them as evil beings: for discussion about the Greek Pseudo-Eupolemus fragments in which at least some Giants are given elevated status see Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “The ‘Angels’ and ‘Giants’ of Genesis 6:1-4 in Second and Third Century bce Jewish Interpretation: Reflections on the Posture of Early Apocalyptic Traditions,” DSD 7 (2000): 354–77. Milik and other scholars have suggested the possibility that the Book of Giants was part of an Enochic “Pentateuch” that did not include the later Book of Parables (1 En. 37–71). 4. Enochic material regarding Watchers...

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