Demonology and the Construction of Christian Identity: Approaches to Illicit Angelic Instruction among Proto-Orthodox Christians

Abstract

THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER EXPLORED THREE FACETS OF THE PROTO-orthodox Christian relationship with Judaism: continuities with pre-Rabbinic Judaism, parallels with the emergent Rabbinic movement, and efforts to delineate an identity distinct from “the Jews.” This, of course, forms only half of the story of the construction of a Christian collective identity in the second and third centuries. The other half – the Christian encounter with Greco-Roman culture – had no less of an impact on the interpretation of the Enochic myth of angelic descent and the continued transmission of the Book of the Watchers in Christian circles. It was due, in large part, to the challenge of Greco-Roman culture that proto-orthodox Christians made their most radical break with earlier Jewish interpretations of this apocalypse, namely, their appeal to the fallen angels and their teachings to explain the corruption of humankind.