Eusebius "Battles of the giants"

[John T]

Eusebius writes about, "battles of giants" that took place before the great flood...Ecclesiastical History 1.2.19.

I can['t] help but think his source was not the Pentateuch (Genesis 6:4) but the Book of Enoch. That Eusebius obtained a personal copy of the Book of Enoch from Pamphilus' renown library at Caesarea.

Question: Do any writings of Eusebius mention the Book of Enoch?

Thanks in advance,

John T

[MrMacSon]

Apparently in Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel) 9, 17 Eusebius wrote that Enoch is Atlas, king of Atlantis.

Loius Feldman in Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian suggests, in a note, that may not be the case. See note 36 to Chapter 7 here

One interpretation -

'But when there came a famine Abraham removed into Egypt with all his household, and dwelt there, and the king of Egypt took his wife in marriage, Abraham having said that she was his sister.

'He also related fully that the king was unable to consort with her, and that it came to pass that his people and his household were perishing. And when he had called for the soothsayers, they said that the woman was not a widow; and thus the king of Egypt learned that she was Abraham's wife, and gave her back to her husband.

'And Abraham dwelt with the Egyptian priests in Heliopolis and taught them many things; and it was he who introduced astronomy and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and himself had found these things out, but tracing back the first discovery to Enoch, and saying that he, and not the Egyptians, had first invented astrology.

'For the Babylonians say that the first man was Belus, who is Kronos; and that of him was born a son Belus, and Chanaan; and that this Chanaan begat the father of the Phoenicians, and that his son was Churn, who is called by the Greeks Asbolus, and is father of the Aethiopians, and a brother of Mestraim the father of the Egyptians. But the Greeks say that Atlas invented astrology, and that Atlas is the same as Enoch: and that Enoch had a son Methuselah, who learned all things through angels of God, and thus we gained our knowledge.'

http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/euseb ... _book9.htm

[Ben C. Smith]

Andrew Carriker, in The Library of Eusebius of Caesarea, does list 1 Enoch among the Jewish books known to Eusebius, but it is marked by an asterisk, meaning that this knowledge is conjectured on the basis of Origen having known the work in question (supposing that the work may well have still been available to Eusebius a century later). On page 162 Carriker writes:

Some pseudepigraphic and apocryphal works known to Origen may also have been available at Caesarea even in Eusebius’ day. For example, Origen refers to a Book of Enoch, probably the Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), though it is of course possible that Origen knew still other books of Enoch, like 2 Enoch, the Slavonic Enoch.

So I am guessing that Eusebius nowhere explicitly mentions 1 Enoch, but that his knowledge of it is possible from Origen's.

[DCHindley]

Not so fast now.

None of the Ethiopic Books of Enoch (if we consider the five sections to be separate books, as they seem to be among the DSS) mention a battle of the Giants, but they do mention strife occasioned by forbidden knowledge about weapons, poisons, charms, etc., that the Watcher angels had taught man and woman kind. Now that the children of these unions were giants, and that these were great warriors, suggests they weren't just hanging around looking at their iPhones.

J T Milik identified a number of fragments of a book or books that he identified as the fifth book of the Enochic "Pentateuch" that would have stood in for the book of Parables in Ethiopic Enoch. Apparently, it was not as well represented in the DSS as were the other books of Enoch, but he can point to fragments of some sort of book or books of Giants prized by the Manicheans that have been discovered in other contexts, mainly in places like Bactria and Sogdia.

There are quite a few pages dedicated to it in his book The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave Four (1976).

DCH

[Secret Alias]

From the footnote to this section of Eusebius in one of the translations:

Eusebius combines the description of the nephilim (Gen. 6:4) with the account of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9).

On Eusebius's conflation of details in Genesis - https://books.google.com/books?id=pH4eD ... he&f=false

[Secret Alias]

And moreover notice the Greek can also be rendered:

battles of the giants famous among all men

It is a general reference to Genesis and what is preserved in various world mythologies (including Hesiod).

[Secret Alias]

Eusebius does cite other Fathers who explicitly cite the Book of Enoch elsewhere:

https://books.google.com/books?id=BnKWe ... 22&f=false

[John T]

Thanks for your help, especially to Ben C. Smith.

It would appear that Origen passed on his copy of The Book of Enoch to Pamphilus who passed it on to Eusebius.

Still, I cannot find the phrase; "battles of giants" in The Book of Enoch.

However, I did find what I suspect Eusebius was referring to: The Book of Enoch 7:11.

7:11 And the women conceiving brought forth giants, (7)

(7) The Greek texts vary considerably from the Ethiopic text here. One Greek manuscript adds to this section, "And they [the women] bore to them [the Watchers] three races–first, the great giants. The giants brought forth [some say "slew"] the Naphelim, and the Naphelim brought forth [or "slew"] the Elioud. And they existed, increasing in power according to their greatness."

http://reluctant-messenger.com/1enoch01 ... #Chapter01

Or perhaps, The Book of Jubilees.

7:21 For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth, namely, owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which they chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness.
7:22 And they begat sons the Naphidim, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Naphil, and the Naphil slew the Eljo, and the Eljo mankind, and one man another.

http://www.summascriptura.com/html/Jubi ... C.html#7:1

This research only strengthened my belief that the origin of Christianity as seen by Eusebius was likely started by the Essenes, even though he did not cite them as his source for "battles of the giants".

[John T]

From the footnote to this section of Eusebius in one of the translations:

Eusebius combines the description of the nephilim (Gen. 6:4) with the account of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9).

On Eusebius's conflation of details in Genesis - https://books.google.com/books?id=pH4eD ... he&f=false

Secret Alias,

Thanks for the link. It was right on target and most valuable.

Hazel Johannessen makes a convincing argument that Eusebius thoughts on the origin of demons must have been 1Enoch/Book of Watchers. That is; demons are roaming spirits of the slain giants as told in 1Enoch. Still, why Eusebius did not cite 1Enoch as his primary source for his demonology theory is still unknown.

Got any thoughts on that?

Thanks in advance.

John T

[John T]

Not so fast now.

None of the Ethiopic Books of Enoch (if we consider the five sections to be separate books, as they seem to be among the DSS) mention a battle of the Giants, but they do mention strife occasioned by forbidden knowledge about weapons, poisons, charms, etc., that the Watcher angels had taught man and woman kind. Now that the children of these unions were giants, and that these were great warriors, suggests they weren't just hanging around looking at their iPhones.

J T Milik identified a number of fragments of a book or books that he identified as the fifth book of the Enochic "Pentateuch" that would have stood in for the book of Parables in Ethiopic Enoch. Apparently, it was not as well represented in the DSS as were the other books of Enoch, but he can point to fragments of some sort of book or books of Giants prized by the Manicheans that have been discovered in other contexts, mainly in places like Bactria and Sogdia.

There are quite a few pages dedicated to it in his book The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave Four (1976).

DCH

DCH,

Thanks for the research.

I strongly suspect the, "Battles of giants" i.e. great giants slew the Naphelim who slew the Elioud , were found in cave 4. However, like much of the scrolls in cave 4, the story is in too tiny of fragments to be identified as such. Perhaps one day a super computer, soft-ware program will paste it all together.

Still, the Christian theology of Eusebius owes much to the Essenes.

John T