Fallen Angels in the Book of Life

Abstract

In the second half of the thirteenth century the Italian philosopher Hillel ben Shmuel of Verona investigated the question of whether or not the myth of fallen angels is based on true and reliable sources.1 Well acquainted with Latin scholasticism, he argues that even the idea of sinning angels originated within Jewish tradition. He writes how he found some that one group of angels fell from heaven at the beginning of the creation of the world.2 It is not quite clear which homiletic books Hillel of Verona refers to. Moritz Steinschneider already noticed in his commentary to HillePs Sefer Tagmule ha-Nefesh that the idea of the so-called Fall of the Angels is well-known, but the story of a heavenly revolt at the beginning of Creation is absent in rabbinic literature.3 However, Hillel of Verona did not expound the Jewish sources, but rather the problems of the specifically Christian elaboration of the concept. He explicitly rejects the Christian idea that angels were created with the capacity to sin, that one group of them was expelled from heaven because of their rebellion against God, and that the