New Illustrated Version    Second Edition (iii)      25 September 2008    All Rights Reserved

 DOWNLOAD REQUIREMENTS

WebSite

Microsoft XP/Vista or above to ensure correct font usage: Greek Έλληνας Hebrew צברי

eBook

MS Internet Explorer 4.0 or later required (but need not be running) to support .exe format and font embedding. (Sorry .exe is not compatible with MacOS systems)

This eBook may be distributed by disk copy or e-mail attachment if requested

SPAM e-mail distribution strictly forbidden

but you can

with anti-SPAM Software

Refresh or reload page to display link if hidden

Drug Abuse in Scripture and Other extra-Biblical Writings

The Fallen Angels and the Nephilim Hybrid

An Angel called

 Pharmarós ‘Drug Agent’

‘An Incantation’, ‘Spell’

In the Old Testament and the extra-Biblical Book of Enoch the fallen ‘sons of God’, (or ‘gods’ בני־האלהים if the Hebrew takes the plural form, though the Alexandrian text of the Greek LXX records the various άγγεοι ‘angel’) (Jubilees 5:1 ‘angels of God’) are seen as making an original descent on Mount Hermon, which means either ‘Sacred’ or ‘Curse’, ‘Destruction’ (חרמון) because it was here they swore the original ‘oath against God’ and bound themselves with mutual imprecations’. (Enoch 6:4, Cf. also Isaiah 28:15-18).

Graphic: An Angel falls from Heaven,Gustave Dore Public Domain

Genesis Chapter 6:1-4 = Enoch Chapter 15:1-6

The extra-Biblical Book of Enoch records the original fallen as ‘the Watchers’, from an Aramaic root עיר ‘îr meaning ‘to watch’ or ‘be wakeful’, the eternal angelic that ‘kept not their first estate’ and fell from ‘the high, holy, and eternal heaven’. (Genesis 6:4 = Enoch 15:2-6 = Jude 1:6 see also Daniel 4:13). As such, in taking wives of all they chose, the former eternal befell the Earth with a race of giants, the Néphilim hybrid, where the word נפילים néphilim itself (root נפל) means ‘to fall’ or, ‘that fall upon others’. (Cf. Symmachus βιαιοι, Aquila οι επιπίπτοντες, c. 140 CE. HBD vol. iii p.512). In the Greek LXX and Latin text the Hebrew נפילים néphilim translates as Γίγαντες Gigantes, (Ch. 6:4, also הגברי Gibôre KJV ‘mighty’) the primal ‘giants of old’ (or, pos. from literal Hebrew, ‘of the name’ השם). In the LXX the ‘men of renown’ (v.4) of the English version are cited as απ αιωνος ‘from the age’ or ‘eon’ from the original Hebrew מעולם where the appellation ‘giant’ itself would apparently not refer to physical stature alone. (See Genesis Ch. 6 verses 1-4). Scholars are however agreed that there is much uncertain in the interpretation of ‘this strange passage’. (ISBE vol. iv p.2133). In the New Testament the fallen are cited as the sinful angels of 2 St. Peter 2:4 and St. Jude 1:6.

In the Book of Enoch, which compliments fully the Genesis account, the initial Watchers themselves, as the Host of Azâzâl, numbered two hundred in all, that fell in the days of Jarad (meaning ‘descent’). As such they each had names and corresponding functions, though much of this ancient nomenclature or ‘system of naming’ is obscure if not lost; though not all:

One Angel leader was Semjâzâ (meaning uncertain, pos. ‘my name has seen’). Semjâzâ (or Sêmîazâz) according to the Ethiopic text ‘taught enchantments and root-cuttings’. Another Angel was named Armârôs, who taught the resolving of enchantments. (Enoch 8:3).

The Angelic Nomenclature

THE ADDICTIONS

Confer the Greek text of the Gizeh MSS (8:3)* with page Babylon

Although the existence of the ancient Book of Enoch was previously known from Biblical and other ancient reference - a few portions were preserved from Snycellus in 800 CE - the full text of ‘the Lost Prophet ’ did not come to light until the Ethiopic version was discovered in Abyssinia in 1796. It was translated from a secondary Greek version of which only the few fragments remain and which were discovered in Egypt in 1886. The Greek version in turn was translated from a probable Aramaic / Hebrew original at least portions of which may be as old as the first half of the second century BCE. (Cf. e.g. Oesterley - Charles Intro. p.xviii). This must underline the difficulties the original translators must have faced when first translating this ancient book. It is certain from 2 St. Peter 2:4 and St. Jude 1:6 in the New Testament and other ancient sources that this prophetic work was known to Christ and the Disciples.

The full text of Enoch in English is available from:

The Sacred Texts Archive

In the Ethiopic version the phrase corresponding with the Greek φαρμακεία pharmakeia concerning spells, charms, drugs and magic in Scripture is:

‘[A]nd they [the fallen] taught charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made [men] acquainted with plants’. (Enoch 7:1) Trans. Charles.

A cannabis cutting (Marijuana) trimmed for propagation Public domain The Opium poppy ‘cut’ from the seed pod Public domain

The Enoch literalism, partic. 7:1 must substantiate the above lexic. where the Oxford Hebrew Lexicon at p.506, also maintains כשף kashãph, acc. to RS prop. herbs etc. shredded into a magic brew’ where the root, cognate in Arabic and Syriac, is seen as meaning to ‘cut up’ or ‘cut off, hence ‘cuttings’.† This was noted also by the erudite Hastings’ B.D. Scholars of Edwardian times. The literalism, along with the metaphoric, is further not dismissed by the editors of the academic Cambridge and Expositors Greek Testaments at the Revelation 17:5-18:23 (the Apocalyptic Babylon). The New Bible Dictionary p.766 (1962) also maintains ‘the root probably means ‘to cut’ and with the accumulated evidence as such it is now generally accepted that this word must refer to the ‘cutting up’ or shredding of herbs in the preparation of narcotic philtres. Hence the Greek LXX equivalent φαρμακεία pharmakeía, again from the Greek root φαρμακον pharmakon meaning ‘a drug’ can also be seen to stand generally, though again not always, in the LXX and Greek New Testament for a literal ‘drug enchantment’ (KJV ‘witchcrafts’ etc.)

See ‘Concordance’ for full versification and metaphoric equivalents

(ii)

THE OPIUM POPPY AS MOST PROBABLY IN SCRIPTURE

For the full lexicon of Biblical and other early reference to drug abuse as either literal or metaphoric, with further discussion as to the possible origins and judgement of the fallen Angels and the subsequent Nephilim hybrid, with full text and other various concepts and explanations...

...Download

FREE eBOOK Drug Abuse in Scripture.

Graphic: An Angel falls from Heaven, Gustave Dore. (Paradise Lost)

† A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, William Gesenius, Trans. Edward Robinson, Eds. Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, Charles A. Briggs. Clarendon Press: Oxford. Second Printing 1975. p.506.

The Book of Enoch Gizeh Edition R. H. Charles Oxford 1912.

 *Portions of A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament and the Greek fragments of The Book Enoch are fully eBook reproduce courtesy Oxford University Press

Copyright © Vortex e-Zine® 2005 - 2008  All Rights Reserved