The Origin of Evil Spirits: The Reception of Genesis 6:1-4 in Early Jewish Literature

Archie T. Wright traces the development of the concept of evil spirits from the Hebrew Bible through postbiblical Jewish literature, examining the reception history of Genesis 6:1-4 in early Enochic and Philonic Judaism during the Second Temple Period. He suggests that the nonspecificity inherent in Genesis 6:1-4 opened the basis for the later emergence of an etiology of evil spirits as Jewish authors engaged with the text. As a result, Genesis 6:1-4 played an important part in the development of demonology in Second Temple Judaism.Read less