Who tempted the woman? Variations of the Edenic episode in Jewish Apocalyptic literature

: The Jewish Apocalyptic tradition shows various conceptions about the origin of evil, which are developed throughout the history of this school of thought. In the third century a. C., the Book of the Watchers states that the descending of a rebellious group of angels to the earth seeking beautiful women is the direct cause of the origin of evil. Contrary to this myth, the tradition of Adam and Eve emerges as the main alternative. The eating of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge by the first couple explains the hard life of humans and their mortality. Nevertheless, around the first century A. D., this last tradition is developed in such a way that the serpent of the garden is linked to a satanic figure in some of the texts. This is the case of the references to the Edenic episode in the Book of Parables , 2 Enoch , the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch , the Apocalypse of Abraham , and the Greek and Latin versions of Life of Adam and Eve . Even if not all of them detail the description of the superhuman power hidden in the shape of the serpent, both 2 Enoch and the Latin version of Life of Adam and Eve refer to its initial state as one of the angels of the celestial court. An interpretation that influences the New Testament as well. The Watchers and Satan are all considered as heavenly beings that encourage humankind to superior learning and whose acts lead to the

the origin of that evil? According to the first chapters of Genesis, all the elements of the world are created by the only God, the archetype of perfection and goodness. However, experience proves that evil is an undeniable fact of human life, an incongruency that needs to be solved. The following paper focuses on the Apocalyptic responses to this issue 2 with a special interest in some of the reinterpretations of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve that introduced a satanic figure in the episode around the turn of the era.

The Apocalyptic interpretations of the origin of evil
In 1990, Paolo Sacchi stated that ‚un problema sembra percorrere l'apocalittica giudaica in tutta la sua lunga storia, questo è il problema del Male, visto non come trasgressione e conseguenza della trasgressione, ma come realtà preesistente all'uomo singolo.‛ 3 Effectively, the first main interpretation of the origin of evil in Jewish Apocalyptic literature places its introduction on Earth back to the dawn of the primeval history, to the antediluvian age. According to the Book of the Watchers -chapters 1 to 36 of the pseudepigraphical work 1 Enoch (1 En, also known as the Ethiopian Book of Enoch), third century a. C. 4 -a group of angels called the Watchers came down to the earth in the antediluvian age following his leader, called Azazel or Semyaza depending on the passages. 5 Once on earth, they mingled with beautiful women and taught them different celestial secrets such as metallurgy, cosmetics, divination, or magic practices. 6 As a result of their 2 A complete analysis of the origin of evil in Apocalyptic Judaism is offered in Esperanza Macarena García García, El origen del mal en la apocalíptica judía: evolución, influjos, protagonistas. Tesis doctoral (Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2018). 3 Paolo Sacchi, L'apocalittica giudaica e la sua storia (Brescia: Paideia, 1990), p. 168. 4 From the vast research available about the apocalyptic work of 1 Enoch and the influence of the antediluvian patriarch and his message beyond the book, the classic study James C. VanderKam, Enoch: A Man for All Generations (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995); and more recently, John C. Reeves and Annette Yoshiko Reed, Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Volume 1: Sources from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) should be highlighted. 5 1 En 6:3 identifies Semyaza as the angelic leader, as well as 1 En 6:7; 9:7; and 10:11.87. Nevertheless, the rest of the Book of the Watchers makes reference to another figure, Azazel, proving the composite character of the work. 6 Although it is not the topic of this paper, it is interesting to note that the myth of the Watchers has been generally linked with Greek mythology, mainly with the accounts of the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy. Nonetheless, the most interesting parallelism may be found in the comparison between the revealing of the heavenly secrets by the Watchers and the story of the Titan Prometheus. In both occasions, the aetiological stories that explain the presence of evil in the world of men share three common elements: disobedience towards the supreme god (Zeus, or the Jewish God); the revealing of knowledge which should be banned from humanity (be it just the fire, be it also the related techniques in Prometheus Bound, similar to the knowledge revealed by the Watchers); and the inclusion of a feminine element (such as the women related to the Watchers, or the newly created Pandora). The fact that these three elements are also shared by the story of Adam and Eve leaves an open door for a more than likely influence by the Prometheus myth in the Apocalyptic interpretations of the origin of evil. See George W. E. Nickelsburg, impure sexual union, the giants were born: mixed beings that caused and spread evil throughout the world.
In those days, when the children of man had multiplied, it happened that there were born unto them handsome and beautiful daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw them and desired them; and they said to one another, ‚Come, let us choose wives for ourselves from among the daughters of man and beget us children.‛ […] And they took wives unto themselves, and everyone (respectively) chose one woman for himself, and they began to go unto them. And they taught them magical medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots, and taught them (about) plants. And the women became pregnant and gave birth to great giants whose heights were three hundred cubits. These (giants) consumed the produce of all the people until the people detested feeding them. So the giants turned against (the people) in order to eat them. And they began to sin against birds, wild beasts, reptiles, and fish. And their flesh was devoured the one by the other, and they drank blood. And then the earth brought an accusation against the oppressors. 7 Then, the archangels, having noticed the terrible situation on earth, denounced it to God, who decided to punish the rebellious angels. In addition, their offspring were destroyed, and the Flood was sent in order to purify God's creation. 8 Nevertheless, the spirits of the dead giants -sons of immortal beings-remain free on earth until the last judgement, tempting humanity and causing evil until our days. Therefore, in this aetiological myth, 9 evil ‚Apocalyptic and Myth in 1 Enoch 6-11‛, JBL 96, 3 (1977), pp. 383-405, espec. 399-405;and García García, El origen del mal, pp. 73-92. 7 1 En 6:1-7:6. English translation by E. Isaac, ‚1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch‛, in James H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1983), pp. 5-89, espec. 15-16. 8 The allusion to a sexual union between angels and women, as well as the announcement of the Flood, have led the majority of the researchers to consider the Book of the Watchers as an extension of the cryptic verses Gen 6:1-4. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis between these two sources brings to light noticeable differences. According to the primeval history of humankind in the Bible, the cause of the Flood is the increase of human malice and their disobedience to God (Gen 6:5). Moreover, the Biblical excerpt does not include any negative consideration about the sexual union between angels and women, being their descent even called ‚men of renown‛. In light of these divergences, Philip R. Davies suggests reading Gen 6:1-4 as a reference to a lost common source to Genesis and 1 Enoch that would explain their similarities. However, in the last version of the Bible, this story would have suffered an anti-Enochic review in order to promote an earthly origin of evil. Instead of removing all the characteristic elements of the story, the Jahwist writer would modify the function of the original source by means of other motifs well-known in the ancient Near East, providing a different explanation in the final version of the passage: the origin of the heroes. Vid. Philip R. Davies, ‚And Enoch Was Not, For Genesis Took Him‛, in Charlotte Hempel and Judith M. Lieu (eds.), Biblical Traditions in Transmission: Essays in Honour of Michael A. Knibb (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2006), pp. 97-107. has a heavenly origin. It is explained as a result of the misbehaviour of some angelic figures, as a consequence of their impure acts.
The story of the fallen angels was not only echoed to a greater or lesser extent by the successive works of the Enochic Cycle, but it also had an enormous influence on other apocalyptic works, such as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs or the first Christian writings (TestReub 5:1-7; TestNaph 3:1-5; TestNaph 4:1; Jud 5-7; 1 Pet 3:18-22; 2 Pet 2:4-9…). Moreover, its mention by Flavius Josephus in the first century A. D. (vid. Jewish Antiquities I 72-74) could lead us to think of an even greater influence, being probably known -though not necessarily shared-by other groups of Second Temple Judaism.
That being said, although the myth of the Watchers is one of the most popular traditions in Apocalyptic literature, it is not the only aetiology of evil defended by the Jewish writings related to this trend. In contrast to a heavenly explanation of the origin of evil, the story of Adam and Eve -known long before the emergence of apocalyptic Judaism thanks to Genesis 3-states as the earthly one. 10 According to the Biblical source, the first human couple enjoyed an idyllic life in the Garden of Eden until a serpent tempted the woman to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The woman listened to the serpent and ate the fruit, and then Adam did so too. Once God discovered the transgression of his command, he punished them. He cursed the serpent and the ground, and announced the beginning of painful childbirths for women -who, besides the previous punishment, will forever be ruled by their husbands-and the expulsion of humankind from paradise, far away from the tree of life. Since this episode, mortality, pain, and hard work are part of all human life.
It is true that the story of Adam and Eve is not originally an aetiological myth of evil as such, 11 for the Hebrew Bible's allusions to this tradition are scarce: if established as the main explanation for the spread of evil across the earthly world, abundant references to this episode would be expected when dealing with the problem of evil throughout the verses of Scripture. 12 Rather, it is a paradigmatic myth: the first of so many examples gathered by the Hebrew Bible in which human nature is made manifest, emphasizing that every evil action carried out by men will have its corresponding divine punishment. The episode fits well Fallen Priest: The Problem of Family Purity in 1 Enoch 6-36‛, Hebrew Union College Annual 50 (1979), pp. 115-135. On the contrary, Nickelsburg has suggested that the myth responds to a military clash with Hellenism: Nickelsburg, ‚Apocalyptic and Myth‛, pp. 389-391. That being said, the fact is that the Watchers myth has since ancient times been interpreted and transmitted as an aetiological story, not allegorical: John J. Collins, Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls (London, New York: Routledge, 1977). 10 For a complete study of the Edenic episode in the Bible and its subsequent interpretation, vid. Mark S.
Smith, The Genesis of Good and Evil. The Fall(out)  with the Deuteronomistic scheme of sin-punishment-repentance-salvation and the prophetic warnings about the loss of the earth from transgression, which leads only to expulsion and exile. Nevertheless, the apocalyptic tradition did not only take this tradition as a paradigm (as, for example, the book of Jubilees), but also it became an aetiology of evil in other works: being the first human sin the cause of the following human transgressions, as well as the origin of sickness and mortality.

From a heavenly to an earthly origin of evil
Traditionally, a diachronic evolution has been defended from a predominance of the heavenly explanation about the origin of evil in the earliest apocalyptic writings to a predominance of the earthly one in the first century of the era. This theory could be easily confirmed by a comparison between the references to both interpretations along three apocalyptic works: the Book of the Watchers, Jubilees, and the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch.
Despite the Book of the Watchers is mainly worried about the fall of the angels, the last chapters of this book describe two heavenly travels of Enoch -the antediluvian patriarchwhere some references to Eden could be found: notably, a brief mention of the tree of Life in 1 En 24:4-25:6 and a more interesting description of the tree of wisdom in chapter 32: And I came to the garden of righteousness and saw beyond those trees many (other) large (ones) growing there -their fragrance sweet, large ones, with much elegance, and glorious. And the tree of wisdom, of which one eats and knows great wisdom, (was among them). It looked like the colors of the carob tree, its fruit like very beautiful grape clusters, and the fragrance of this tree travels and reaches afar. And I said, ‚This tree is beautiful and its appearance beautiful and pleasant!‛ Then the holy angel Raphael, who was with me, responded to me and said, ‚This very thing is the tree of wisdom from which your old father and aged mother, they who are your precursors, ate and came to know wisdom; and (consequently) their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked and (so) they were expelled from the garden.‛ 13 From my point of view, the lack of some of the main elements in the excerpt -such as the divine prohibition of eating the fruit or the intervention of the serpent in the transgression of God's will-proves that the Edenic episode does not function as an aetiology of evil in this case. The first couple discovered their nudity, was punished and expelled from the paradise, but nothing indicates that their acts condemned the rest of human beings to sin. The fall of the Watchers to earth, their inappropriate teachings to humankind, and the violence of their offspring play a major role in this book as an explanation of the sin. Therefore, the heavenly etiology of evil seems to be prevalent in this apocalyptic writing of the third century a. C.
In the following century, the book of Jubilees (Jub) also contains some references to both the myth of the Watchers and the Edenic transgression in its rewriting of the first chapters of the Bible. The story of Adam and Eve is included in the first place, Jub 3:17-35, and follows almost literally its biblical source. Relating to the fall of the angels, it is also included some chapters later as an interpretation of Gen 6:1-4. 14 The main difference between the Book of the Watchers and Jubilees is that, in this last book, only 10% of the evil spirits 15 will remain on the Earth after the flood, commanded by their leader, Mastema: 16 And the Lord our God spoke to us so that we might bind all of them. And the chief of the spirits, Mastema, came and he said, ‚Lord, Creator, leave some of them before me, and let them obey my voice. And let them do everything which I tell them, because if some of them are not left for me, I will not be able to exercise the authority of my will among the children of men because they are (intended) to corrupt and lead astray before my judgment because the evil of the sons of men is great.‛ And he said, ‚Let a tenth of them remain before him, but let nine parts go down into the place of judgment.‛ 17 The action of evil spirits on the Earth as an explanation of evil is then mitigated: just a small part of them will survive and torment people. Jubilees does not deny the existence of demons and evil spirits that lead humankind to sin, but pays more attention to the question of identity. In this context, the references to both the myth of the Watchers and the story of Adam and Eve in Jubilees do not have an etiological character but a paradigmatic function. Jewish people are not like Gentiles, and they must respect God's rules and commandments. Otherwise, they will be punished as the first couple or the fallen angels were. Therefore, none of the traditions compete against each other or try to deny its validity, but seek to explain how the world works. For the author(s) of Jubilees, evil on earth 14 Concerning the link between the Book of the Watchers and Genesis 6, vid. note 8. Regardless of the dependency (or not) of the Enochic material on the Bible, from the second century a. C. it is common practice to interpret the cryptic verses of Gen 6:1-4 as an allusion to the union of angels and women on earth. 15 It is not clearly said -but implicitly understood in light of the Book of the Watchers-that the evil spirits are identified as the spirits of the dead giants, the offspring of the fallen angels. 16 The term mastema appears once in the Hebrew Bible (Hos 9:7-8) and could be translated as the common name 'enmity' or 'hostility'. Jubilees is the only work from the Second Temple period where this figure is included, although its root could be associated with another evil leader: Satan. Vid is the result of the existence of evil spirits and, at the same time, the consequence of the sinful acts of humankind. 18 The final step of this diachronic evolution is represented by the references to the origin of evil in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Bar), dated from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century A. D.
And as you first saw the black waters on the top of the cloud which first came down upon the earth; this is the transgression which Adam, the first man, committed. For when he transgressed, untimely death came into being, mourning was mentioned, affliction was prepared, illness was created, labor accomplished, pride began to come into existence, the realm of death began to ask to be renewed with blood, the conception of children came about, the passion of the parents was produced, the loftiness of men was humiliated, and goodness vanished. What could, therefore, have been blacker and darker than these things? This is the beginning of the black waters which you have seen. And from these black waters again black were born, and very dark darkness originated. For he who was a danger to himself was also a danger to the angels. For they possessed freedom in that time in which they were created. And some of them came down and mingled themselves with women. At that time they who acted like this were tormented in chains. But the rest of the multitude of angels, who have no number, restrained themselves. And those living on earth perished together through the waters of the flood. Those are the first black waters. 19 The works dating from the beginning of the Era deal with the shock of the population facing the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A. D. The greatest of the unimaginable divine punishments had taken place again, and the people demanded an explanation (and a solution) for the evil they had suffered. For this, many of the pseudepigraphic books of the time refer to known characters who lived a similar situation: the loss of the First Temple (as it is the case of Baruch, the scribe and the secretary of the Biblical prophet Jeremiah). The parallel of the historical contexts allows them to give a clear message of hope: just as the Jewish people survived the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Exile, so too the present tribulations will pass and God will forgive his people, who will be again safe under his protection. 18 For a more detailed discussion about the origin of evil in Jubilees, vid. Regarding the different interpretations of the origin of evil, 20 the previous passage of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch includes both the myth of the Watchers and the Edenic episode among the symbolic visions presented to the scribe. However, the two interpretations are not held on the same level. The action of the first human couple is clearly placed as the first transgression in God's creation and established as the starting point -or the origin-of the following negative episodes of Jewish history, including the fall of the angels. There is a degenerative conception of history in which the Edenic episode, being the earlier one underlined. 21 The idea that the earthly origin of evil becomes clearly dominant above the heavenly alternative at the beginning of the common era could be finally highlighted in the Fourth Book of Ezra (4 Ezra). Dated from the same period as the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 22 this book says nothing of the myth of the Watchers. In contrast, it focuses on Adam's transgression and introduces a new element in the story, the evil heart: For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him. Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the people's heart along with the evil root, but what was good departed, and the evil remained. So the times passed and the years were completed, and you raised up for yourself a servant, named David. And you commanded him to build a city for your name, and in it to offer you oblations from what is yours. This was done for many years; but the inhabitants of the city transgressed, in everything doing as Adam and all his descendants had done, for they also had the evil heart. So you delivered the city into the hands of your enemies. 23 As it could be seen, the Fourth Book of Ezra is highly influenced by wisdom literature. The evil heart proposed in this book is quite similar to the concept of inclination (yetser) included in the deuterocanonical book of Wisdom of ben Sira, and frequently noted by the rabbinic sources. An innate force that leads humankind to sin that could mitigate, in some way, Adam's guilt in this text: since his birth, every human -even Adam-has in his nature an inclination to evil that cannot be removed. The only ‚antidote‛ for the evil heart is the 20 Despite 2 Bar 48:42-50 and 56:5-16 could be discussed in relation to the problem of evil, it must be said that this is not actually the main theme of this work, which could be described as a compilation of different lamentations, prayers, dialogues, and Apocalyptic visions. 21 A similar analysis of the work is provided by Annette Yoshiko Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism Torah given by God. Once more, the responsibility of humankind about the existence of evil is underlined.

A parallel line: the angelic presence in Eden
That being said, this line of evolution is not the only one that could be identified in an analysis of the Apocalyptic sources. 24 Following a different path, other writings seem to merge both traditions around the first and the beginning of the second century A. D. I refer to the Apocalyptic references to the story of Adam and Eve which include the mediation or participation of a malevolent angel in the episode. Such is the case in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, and Life of Adam and Eve, as well as some passages from the Book of the Parables and the Slavonic Book of Enoch.
Despite it is not the main topic of the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Bar), 25 two different excerpts include a reference to the Edenic episode. In both cases, Adam's eating of the fruit is induced by the persuasion of a misleading angel: Samael. This figure is also mentioned in other Jewish sources such as the Ascension of Isaiah, Deuteronomy Rabbah, or Targum Pseudo-Jonathan; and is named Satanael in the Slavonic version of the work. 26 In all the cases, he is identified with a negative power who acts against humankind. According to the fourth chapter of the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, this angel is responsible for tempting Adam by means of the vine tree 27 in the Edenic episode: And I said, ‚I pray you, show me which is the tree which caused Adam to stray.‛ And the angel said, ‚It is the vine which the angel Samael planted by which the Lord became angered, and he cursed him and his planting. For the reason he did not permit 24 To the diachronic evolution, the sapiential influence of yetser, and the angelic presence in Eden could be added another line of evolution that will not be addressed in this paper: the increasing responsibility of the feminine figures in the origin of evil. Vid. García García,El origen del mal, The work could be described as a cosmic Apocalypse which includes the protagonist's ascent to the different levels of Heaven. 26 The same name as the angelic leader who seeks Adam's ruin in 2 Enoch (satan plus the theophoric suffixel, vid. infra). 27 It is noteworthy that Gen 2-3 says nothing about the identification of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with any specific type of fruit tree. The identification of the forbidden fruit with the apple in Western culture could be due to the Latin translation of the Bible in the fourth century A. D., the Vulgate. When translating the expression ‚the tree of the science of good and evil‛, mali, genitive case of malum, is used for 'evil'. This term could also refer to 'apple'. Even if there is not a consensus among the researchers about the veracity of this interpretation, the truth is that the Renaissance representations of this biblical episode will popularize this image by taking as a reference for their works the golden apples of Greek mythology. Vid The link between the serpent and a malevolent angel is absent in the biblical narrative but included in both previous passages. The introduction of the angelic action could be seen as mitigation of human responsibility for their expulsion of paradise and mortality. However, the information given about Adam and Eve in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch is so brief that it is difficult to come to more conclusions. Likewise, the Apocalypse of Abraham (ApAb) refers to this tradition in chapter 23, identifying the forbidden tree of the garden with the vine too. After a marvellous monstrous description of the serpent, it is said that the animal conceals a disguised supernatural force, just as in the aforementioned work: And I looked at the picture, and my eyes ran to the side of the garden of Eden. And I saw there a man very great in height and terrible in breadth, incomparable in aspect, entwined with a woman who was also equal to the man in aspect and size. And they were standing under a tree of Eden, and the fruit of the tree was like the appearance of a bunch of grapes of the vine. And behind the tree was standing (something) like a dragon in form, but having hands and feet like a man's, on his back six wings on the right and six on the left. And he was holding the grapes of the tree and feeding them to the two I saw entwined with each other. And I said, ‚Who are these two entwined with each other, or who is this between them, and what is the fruit which they are eating, Mighty One, Eternal?‛ And he said, ‚This is the world of men, this is Adam The representation of the moon as a woman appears in the Hellenistic period, but this passage has no parallels in other Jewish works. 30 3 Bar 9:6-7. English translation by Gaylord, ‚3 (Greek Apocalypse of) Baruch‛, p. 673. and this is their thought on earth, this is Eve. And he who is between them is the impiety of their behaviour unto perdition, Azazel himself.‛ 31 In this case, the name of the misleading figure is not Samael or Satanael, but Azazel: the same name as one of the angelic leaders who appears in the Book of the Watchers. 32 As in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, the reason that leads this figure to take part in the transgression is not included: it is just implied that the fallen angel seeks human perdition.
More information is given in the Greek and Latin versions of Life of Adam and Eve (GrAdEv and LatAdEv) 33 which focuses on the first couple's life after leaving paradise, Adam's illness in his last days, and his subsequent death. According to the Greek version of the work, Adam's increasing tiredness towards the end of his days is explained as a consequence of his mortality, acquired as punishment for the transgression committed in the Garden of Eden: Adam said to him [to Set]: ‚When God made us, me and your mother, through whom I am dying, he gave us every plant in Paradise, but concerning one he commanded us not to eat of it, (for) we would die by it. And the hour drew near for the angels who were guarding your mother to ascend and worship the Lord. And the enemy gave to her and she ate from the tree, since he knew that neither I nor the holy angels were near her. Then she gave also to me to eat. When we both had eaten, God was angry with us.
[…] And he said 'Since you have forsaken my covenant, I have submitted your body to seventy plagues. The pain of the first plague is affliction of the eyes; the pain of the second plague is of the hearing; and so one after the other all the plagues shall pursue you.'‛ 34 31 ApAb 23:4-11. English translation by R. Rubinkiewicz, ‚Apocalypse of Abraham‛, in James H.
Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1983), pp. 681-705, espec. 700. 32 An interesting passage in ApAb 13:3-12 shows that Azazel could be understood in this work in a similar way to Mastema in Jubilees: an angelic or satanic figure that tempts humankind and seeks his doom. 33 On one hand, the Greek version of the work -also known as Apocalypse of Moses-is generally dated around the second half of the first century A. D. Nevertheless, as it does not include any mention of the destruction of the Second Temple, materials from the beginning of the century were probably used as a basis. On the other hand, the Latin version describes the same story as half of the Greek version but doubles its extension. Although it does not contain any temporal indication and includes several Christian interpolations, it is normally defended that it reflects Jewish original material dated to the same period as its Greek counterpart. Vid This description of the episode of Eden is based on Gen 3 but shows certain variants of great relevance. For example, it includes a reference to the angels in paradise before the ingestion of the fruit, guardians of humanity who show in a positive light the Watchers' original task. Eve's transgression cannot occur if it is not at the moment when her guardian angels leave paradise to go worship the Lord. Nor is Adam with her at the moment when the ‚enemy‛ approaches the first woman. The punishment for transgression is slightly different in this work: the eating of the forbidden fruit not only causes the appearance of mortality, but also the appearance of seventy different plagues or bodily calamities, such as the pain in the eyes or in the ears. 35 Thus, Adam and Eve's transgression is clearly established as an aetiology of evil in this account, or at least, of a specific type of natural evil: disease.
On the other hand, according to this work, the devil does not disguise himself as a serpent to plot his plan, but they are both two separate characters within the episode: ‚And the devil spoke to the serpent, saying: 'Rise and come to me, and I will tell you something to your advantage.' Then the serpent came to me, and the devil said to him, 'I hear that you are wiser than all the beasts; so I came to observe you. I found you greater than all the beast, and they associate with you: but yet you are prostrate to the very least. Why do you eat of the weeds of Adam and not of the fruit of Paradise? Rise and come and let us make him to cast out of Paradise through his wife, just as we were cast out through him.' And the serpent said to him, 'I fear lest the Lord be wrathful to me.' The devil said to him, 'Do not fear; only become my vessel, and I will speak a word through your mouth by which you will be able to deceive him.‛ 36 According to this passage, divine fear causes the serpent to show some hesitation in participating in the devil's trap. Envy could explain why these two characters act like this: although it is not specified, it seems that both the devil and the serpent have been somehow degraded from their initial status, as the former says, ‚just as we were cast out through him.‛ Although the devil's fall is not included in the Greek text, the Latin version -which shows a slightly different account-explains in more detail the transgression committed by the angelic figure: when he tried to raise his throne above the one God's: The devil replied, ‚Adam, what are you telling me? It is because of you that I have been thrown out of there. When you were created, I was cast out from the presence of God and was sent out from the fellowship of the angels. When God blew into you the breath of life and your countenance and likeness were made in the image of God, Michael brought you and made (us) worship you in the sight of God, and the Lord 35 'Seventy' is here understood as a symbolic number, as it is also the case of the 'seventy weeks' in Dan 9:24. 36 GrAdEv 16. English translation by Johnson, ‚Life of Adam and Eve‛, p. 277.
God said, 'Behold Adam! I have made you in our image and likeness.' And Michael went out and called all the angels, saying, 'Worship the image of the Lord God, as the Lord God has instructed.' And Michael himself worshiped first, and called me and said, 'Worship the image of God, Yhwh.' And I answered, 'I do not worship Adam.' And when Michael kept forcing me to worship, I said to him, 'Why do you compel me? I will not worship one inferior and subsequent to me. I am prior to him in creation; before he was made, I was already made. He ought to worship me.' When they heard this, other angels who were under me refused to worship him. And Michael asserted, 'Worship the image of God. But if now you will not worship, the Lord God will be wrathful with you.' And I said, 'If he be wrathful with me, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven and will be like the Most High.' And the Lord God was angry with me and sent me with my angels out from our glory; and because of you, we were expelled into this world from our dwellings and have been cast onto the earth. And immediately we were made to grieve, since we had been deprived of so great glory. And we were pained to see you in such bliss of delights. So with deceit I assailed your wife and made you to be expelled through her from the joys of your bliss, as I have been expelled from my glory.‛ 37 Therefore, it is explained that the reason for the angel's fall is the envy he experiences after man's creation, which leads him to rebel against God and, later, to take reprisals against the man when his own rebellious action has condemned him to be expelled from heaven. This tradition is surely based on the exegesis of some biblical passages about a rebellion against divination and a heavenly fall as, for example, Isa 14:12-15 and Ezek 28:12-19. 38 Devil's envy is also noted by other ancient Jewish sources like Wis 2:23-24, 39 is probably behind the description of the episode in the Greek version of Life of Adam and Eve, and also maybe behind the brief references in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch and the Apocalypse of Abraham.
That being said, two works of the Enochic Cycle dated to the same period provide more references to Adam and Eve in their accounts, even if the heavenly origin of evil is still predominant in this tradition: The Book of Parables (1 En 37-71) 40  known as the Slavonic Book of Enoch). 41 Regarding the first work, the angel Gader'el -the third in a list of fallen angels 42 -seduces Eve in parallel to the action of the serpent in Gen 3, as well as instructing men in the different weapons and mortal blows: The third was named Gader'el; this one is he who showed the children of the people all the blows of death, who misled Eve, who showed the children of the people (how to make) the instruments of death (such as) the shield, the breastplate, and the sword for warfare, and all (the other) instruments of death to the children of the people. Through their agency (death) proceeds against the people who dwell upon the earth, from that day forevermore. 43 Although Eve's mention in this passage could be understood as merely anecdotic, 44 it is interesting in light of the aforementioned pseudepigraphical passages, as the Book of the Parables does not only assert that Eve was seduced by an evil angel, but that this figure is clearly one of the Watchers.
2 Enoch goes a step further and identifies Eve's seducer as the leader of the Watchers or Grigori. Following a similar (if not the same) tradition to the Latin version of Life of Adam and Eve, it states that envy is the cause of the satanic intervention in the episode. The angel Satanael -a name that is also linked to the devil in the Slavonic version of the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch-is expelled from heaven because he attempted to raise himself to the same level as God (2 En 29:4-5). Then, he ‚lost‛ the suffix -el that characterises theophoric names and turns into Satan. Once on earth, he sees Adam, the ruler of God's new creation, and becomes jealous of him. This is why he decides to corrupt humankind through Eve: And the devil understood how I wished to create another world, so that everything could be subjected to Adam on the earth, to rule and reign over it. The devil is of the lowest places. And he will become a demon, because he fled from heaven; Sotona [Satan], because his name was Satanael. In this way he became different from the angels. His nature did not change, (but) his thought did, since his consciousness of righteous and sinful things changed. And he became aware of his condemnation and of the sin which he sinned previously. And that is why he thought up the scheme Nevertheless, this hypothesis has been highly criticised and is generally rejected by the majority of researchers. Vid. Vegas Montaner, ‚Literatura entre la Biblia y la Misná‛,p. 213,f. 5. 41 No manuscripts older than the fourteenth century are known, but the work is generally dated from the first or second century A. D. Vid 42 Contrary to most of the mentions of this myth, the list included in chapter 69 is more interested in the revelation of knowledge by the fallen angels than in their impure sexual union with the mortal women. 43 1 En 69:6. English translation by Isaac, ‚1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch‛, pp. 47-48. 44 Eve does not play a relevant role in the Enochic account.
against Adam. In such a form he entered paradise, and corrupted Eve. But Adam he did not contact. 45 Like other studied references, 2 Enoch omits many of the elements of the biblical account, such as the prohibition of eating, the explicit mention of the character of the serpent, his conversation with the woman, the ingestion of the fruit by Adam and Eve, or the discovery of their nakedness. The only consequence of the episode seems to be mortality, albeit nuanced, since humanity will return to life after the second coming. Similar to other Enochic works, Adam and Eve's transgression does not imply the condemnation of successive generations of men: it is said that God blesses all his creatures and is only critical of their evil deeds. The story does not act as an explanation of the origin of evil. 46 Indeed, when the sin of the first couple is mentioned again in chapter 41, their transgression does not seem to receive a harder consideration than the rest of the faults, either committed by men or by the angels: ‚|And| I saw all those from the age of my ancestors, with Adam and Eve. And I sighed and burst into tears. |And I said| concerning their disreputable depravity, 'Oh how miserable for me is my incapacity |and that of| my ancestors!' And I thought in my heart and I said, 'How blessed is the person who has not been born, or who, having been born, has not sinned before the face of the Lord, so that he will not come into this place nor carry the yoke of this place. '‛ 47 In addition, a certain notion of the degeneration of history could be observed in 2 En 70:25: ‚For the devil became ruler for the third time. The first was before paradise; the second time was in paradise; the third time was after paradise, <and> continuing right up to the Flood.‛ 48 The fall of Satanael, his intervention in the episode of Eden, and the fall of the Watchers are presented as successive episodes in which evil has left a great imprint on the history of humanity. However, the exact origin of evil does not seem to be of particular interest to the author, more concerned with emphasizing mankind's freedom to decide how they want to act throughout their lives. 45 2 En 31:3-6. English translation by F. I. Andersen, ‚2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch‛, in James H.
Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1983), pp. 91-221, espec. 154. 46 In fact, according to Carlos Santos Carretero, the inclusion of the Adamic tradition in this pseudepigrapha could also be understood as a way to highlight the figure of Enoch: the patriarch, who the angels do worship, is the one chosen to restore the primeval glory of humanity. Vid

Some reflections about Satan in the New Testament
Lastly, an influence of these new conceptions could be seen in some of the passages of the New Testament, where the Satanic figure is presented as a fallen angel: ‚And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven‛ (Lk 10:18). 49 Named also as Devil (as in Mt 4:1), Beelzebub (Mt 12:24), or Belial (2 Cor 6:15); 50 his assimilation with the figure of the serpent seems to be complete in this corpus: And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season […] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 51 In this passage, Satan receives a punishment quite similar to the Watchers' leader in 1 En 10: first enchained and then thrown into the fire where he will burn for eternally. 52 Nevertheless, the identification of an angelic leader with a serpent or dragon is not included in the first account of the myth of the Watchers, but respond to a later development. 53 Although it is not included in the aforementioned sources, the identification of Satan with the animal of Eden is not illogical. In fact, throughout the Hebrew Bible there are certain passages that point to a struggle between two opposing powers: God and a primordial being represented in the form of a winged and/or sea serpent. This is reminiscent of the surrounding mythologies, where this confrontation is frequent. In the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, this god confronts Leviathan, a sea monster with seven heads and a 49 Cf. Isa 14:12-15, the aforementioned passage, where the motif of the heavenly fall is also included. Out of the demarcated timeline of this paper, it should be noted that the influence of this ‚fusion‛ between the Edenic episode and the Enochic myth of the Watchers through the motif of an angelic fall is also present in other later traditions, such as the story of Simon Magus (as included by Epiphanius of Salamis in Panarion), the references to fallen angels in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer or the Midrash of Shemhazai and Azael. 50 While Belzeebub is probably derived from Baal-zebub, god of Ekron in 2 Kgs 1:2, Belial is the habitual name for this figure in the Dead Sea Scrolls. To them, it has to be added another usual name for the Satanic figure in the Christian context: Lucifer (‚light-bringer‛ in Latin), that appears in the Vulgate translation of ‫הילל‬ in Isa 14:12. According to Henry Ansgar Kelly, the use of this term in the Latin version of Isa 14 ‚it is taken to be a reference to some Canaanite Deity used as a poetic metaphor, much as Christian poets used to refer to God and the Saints in terms of Greek and Roman Gods -Zeus and Hera on the one hand and Jupiter and Juno on the other‛. See Kelly,Satan,p. 191. 51 Rev 20:1-3.10 (King James Version). 52 See also Mt 25:41. 53 As it could be verified in ApAb 23:4-11 (vid. supra). serpentine body to which the Scriptures refer in Isa 27:1. Likewise, in the famous Enuma Elish, Marduk -the god of the heavens-confronts Tiamat: the stormy sea, a female being in the form of a dragon or winged serpent; and in Greek mythology, Zeus confronts Typhon, a winged monster of enormous stature with serpents on his lower limbs and dragon heads on his fingers (Theogony 819-869). 54 However, positive characterisations related to this animal are also preserved, such as the serpent god Šaḥan in Akkadian mythology, the Egyptian fertility goddess Renenutet or the Greek god of medicine Asclepius (or Aesculapius for the Romans). His cult as a symbol of protection and welfare was widespread in the eastern environment (cf. Dan 14), so that it reached Israel and was abolished in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:1-5). The fact that the serpent was related to a false god whose idolatrous worship had become abominable, would also have contributed to its transformation into a satanic figure. 55 The influence of dualism in Jewish apocalyptic would also have played a role in this change of perspective: it is not difficult to imagine how the stories about the struggle between the serpent and a chief god could have been interpreted in terms of a confrontation between good and evil, God and his adversary. Since Gen 3 already includes the link between the serpent character and the evil motif, the identification between the animal and an evil supernatural being was only a matter of time.
Coming back to the Scriptures, if the New Testament writers are not just taking into account the biblical text but they are also influenced by the traditions highlighted around the turn of the era, could be the mention of the serpent who tempts Eve in 2 Cor 11:3 considered as a reference to Satan too? Only one more excerpt mentions Eve in the New Testament (1 Tim 2:13), but says nothing about the Satanic figure, neither the other passages which focus on Adam (vid. Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:21-22; 15:45-49). The question, therefore, is open to debate.
Although not referred to Eve, chapter 12 of the book of Revelation includes an interesting portrayal of Satan's fall where another woman is the objective of his machinations: And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him […] And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 56 This time, Jesus' mother -representing the New Jerusalem, the Church-is who suffers the Devil's attack when he is deprived of his place in Heaven. The passage certainly resembles in this point those references to the fall of the angel in the Latin version of Life of Adam and Eve and 2 Enoch. The motivation for Satan's actions lies in his expulsion from Heaven and the envy (here implied) generated by the sight of the one who still enjoys divine trust. Apocalyptic traditions are constantly reinterpreted over the years: the motivation for the angelic descent to earth has shifted from an impure desire for women to an unbridled envy for the birth of the first man, being later applied to a dualistic opposition against the Messiah and the forces of good. Satan's action in the world shows great freedom, identifying him as the author of evil and the tempter of mankind (cf., for example, Mk 4:15; Acts 5:3; 1 Cor 7:5; 1 Pet 5:8; or 1 Jn 3:8; and espec. Mt 4:11; Mk 1:12-13; and Lk 4:1-13 in regard to Jesus).

Conclusion
To sum up, some Jewish references to the Edenic episode towards the beginning of the Common Era link the character of the serpent with a satanic figure. Named differently depending on the sources, the roots of this figure can be found in the Biblical term ‫שטן‬ (saṭan): a common name for ‚enemy‛ or ‚adversary‛ (1 Sam 29:4; 2 Sam 19:23; 1 Kgs 5:18; 11:14.23.25; Ps 109:6.) which in postexilic times becomes a reference to a supernatural power: one of the angels of the celestial court (as it appears, for example, in the book of Job). Nevertheless, the aforementioned pseudepigrapha and New Testament excerpts do not only take into account this biblical background but could be also inspired by the Watchers' tradition. The Devil is presented as a fallen angel that -like the Watchers-acted against the order established by God in his creation and was punished because of it. He was expelled from heaven and came down to earth, where he looked for the ruin of God's new favourite. There is a significant difference between the Satanic figure in Job and the New Testament: the fall of this angel allows him to abandon his role as a punisher of mankind under God's command and to become free to act according to his will. In addition, it is interesting to note that the forbidden tree is -according to Genesis 3-the tree of knowledge of good and evil: Satan and the Watchers share a transmission of knowledge to humankind which is linked with the introduction of evil on earth. Although traditionally the myth of the Watchers and the story of Adam and Eve have been defined as two opposite aetiologies, the studied sources demonstrate that the distinction between the celestial and earthly origin of evil is not always so clear. The inclusion of a celestial figure in the Edenic episode implies that a superhuman force is involved in the human decision of eating the forbidden fruit. Therefore, to what extent could Adam or Eve be made responsible for their acts if they were influenced by a superior being? The boundaries between the two apocalyptic interpretations seem to blur in the first centuries A. D.

Abstract:
The Jewish Apocalyptic tradition shows various conceptions about the origin of evil, which are developed throughout the history of this school of thought. In the third century a. C., the Book of the Watchers states that the descending of a rebellious group of angels to the earth seeking beautiful women is the direct cause of the origin of evil. Contrary to this myth, the tradition of Adam and Eve emerges as the main alternative. The eating of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge by the first couple explains the hard life of humans and their mortality. Nevertheless, around the first century A. D., this last tradition is developed in such a way that the serpent of the garden is linked to a satanic figure in some of the texts. This is the case of the references to the Edenic episode in the Book of Parables, 2 Enoch, the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Greek and Latin versions of Life of Adam and Eve. Even if not all of them detail the description of the superhuman power hidden in the shape of the serpent, both 2 Enoch and the Latin version of Life of Adam and Eve refer to its initial state as one of the angels of the celestial court. An interpretation that influences the New Testament as well. The Watchers and Satan are all considered as heavenly beings that encourage humankind to superior learning and whose acts lead to the Resumen: La apocalíptica judía nos ofrece una amplia variedad de interpretaciones acerca del origen del mal que se desarrollan a lo largo de toda la historia de esta corriente ideológica. En el s. III a. C., el Libro de los Vigilantes defiende que el origen del mal se debe al descenso de un grupo de ángeles rebeldes a la tierra en pos de sus bellas mujeres. En contraste, la tradición de Adán y Eva se erige como la principal alternativa a este mito. La ingesta del fruto prohibido del árbol del conocimiento por parte de la primera pareja explicaría en este caso la dura vida y mortalidad humanas. Sin embargo, alrededor del s. I A. D., esta última tradición sufre un desarrollo peculiar en ciertos textos, en los que la serpiente del jardín se relaciona con una figura satánica. Tal es el caso de las referencias al episodio edénico en el Libro de las Parábolas, 2 Enoc, el Apocalipsis griego de Baruc, el Apocalipsis de Abraham y las versiones griega y latina de Vida de Adán y Eva. Si bien no todas las fuentes incluyen una descripción en detalle de ese poder sobrenatural escondido tras la figura de la serpiente, lo cierto es que 2 Enoc y la versión latina de Vida de Adán y Eva sí que lo identifican como un antiguo ángel de la corte celestial. Una interpretación que, igualmente, influye en el Nuevo Testamento. Tanto los Vigilantes como Satán son considerados seres celestiales introduction and spread of evil in the world. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to analyse these late Apocalyptic references to the story of Adam and Eve in comparison to the myth of the Watchers in order to show the possible syncretism amongst these traditions. que animan a la humanidad a buscar un conocimiento superior y cuyos actos llevan a la introducción y difusión del mal en el mundo. Por lo tanto, el principal objeto de este artículo es analizar las referencias apocalípticas más tardías al relato de Adán y Eva, comparándolas con el mito de los Vigilantes y mostrando, de este modo, el posible sincretismo entre ambas tradiciones.