The culpability of women in the Asael strand of 1 Enoch 6–11 and the redaction history of Genesis 4

Abstract

One of the major sources in 1 Enoch 6–11, a narrative strand focusing on the rebellious angel Asael, emphasizes the culpability of human women in the transmission of illicit knowledge. While scholars have long noted that this narrative strand develops concepts found in Genesis 4, the polemic against women as transmitters of dangerous ideas draws from a long-unnoticed aspect of the Genesis material that has been obscured through the latter’s redaction into the Pentateuch. The Pentateuchal redactor introduced a secondary gloss at the end of Gen 4:1, rendering Eve’s comment on Cain’s birth as a comment on YHWH’s involvement. In the absence of this secondary addition, an earlier form of Genesis 4 emerges where Eve alone takes credit for “creating” Cain, whose descendants continue to “create” human culture as an affront to YHWH’s divine intentions. This earlier version of Genesis 4 likely emerged during the reign of King Hezekiah, and survived in oral tradition beyond the redaction of the Pentateuch down to the days of the authors of the Asael strand. This carries implications for dating the Asael strand’s compositional origins and the use of oral traditions in the literary compositions of Second Temple scribes.