The Foundation of Jewish Demonology
As mentioned above, ancient near eastern and classical texts give only scant explanations regarding the origin of demons—reports like the myth of
the origin of the demon Lamastu/Labartu are exceptional.
Systematic and theoretical demonology is rare among the texts produced in ancient near eastern cultures.[183]The Second Temple period is a time of the “recrudescence of Jewish demonology”—at the same time, it is an age of creating a theoretical demonology explaining the origin of evil. The establishing of an etiology of demons and a demonological system occurs in various cultures when practice related to demons needs a legitimation. Demonology is formulated in myths on the origin of evil. In Judaism, an etiology of demonic evil was shaped between the fifth and third centuries BC in the Enochic corpus as an independent tradition, providing an answer to the question of the origin of evil in the world.[184] Texts are social products, and Mesopotamian culture—the background of the exile—provided a strong impetus to this, the Babylonian exile being when the self-identification of the exilic community was shaped against a foreign milieu. The means of this self-identification were, first of all, practising special customs that were presented as traditional, insisting upon endogamy, maintaining genealogical purity, and shaping distinctive ideas on the origin of evil.[185]
The latter was done in the core tradition of the Enochic collection. Fragments of the Aramaic original of a group of Enochic writings were found in the library of the Qumran community. These Enochic writings were the source of the collection known to us as 1 Enoch or Ethiopic Enoch.[186] The earliest Enochic manuscripts from Qumran, containing 1 En 1-36, were written at the end of the third century BC, well before the establishment of the Qumran settlement in middle of the second century BC.n The Qumran library offers a continuous tradition of the Enochic manuscripts. The story of the Watchers—the foundation of Second Temple period Jewish demonology—is preserved in the earliest Enochic texts found at Qumran.
The story of the Watchers in 1 En 6-11 is a myth that relates the origin of evil, which is represented in the Enochic tradition by evil demons.12 According to this narrative, evil came into the world as a result of two hundred heavenly beings called Watchers descending to the earth in order to mate with human women, and then teaching witchcraft to them. The Watchers thus became impure, and their activity caused further impurities: their giant offspring, having devoured all that humans could provide for them, then devoured humans and finally each other. The activities of the Watchers and their giant offspring defiled the earth—hence the Flood was sent, as both punishment against and purification of the earth.13 A later commentary in the Enochic collection (1 En 15) explicitly connects the origin of evil spirits to the Giants, asserting that they emerged from the dead bodies of the giants who perished in the Flood. The activity of these evil spirits is directed, first of all, against women and children.Thus, according to the Enochic myth, evil entered the world as a result of the physical and ethical impurities caused by the activities of the Watchers and their giant offspring. The Giants are described in the Enochic tradition in terms of Mesopotamian demonology as attested in Neo-Babylonian sources— the devouring nature of the Giants is similar to that of the evil demons that cause various plagues, infertility and illnesses. In the Enochic tradition, these Giants become evil demons that work in the world, so the demons retain their characteristics: impure and harmful beings that bring about plagues, infertility, illnesses and death to humans. This is the basis of Qumran demonology and their concept of illness.