It was probablj' this very ancient view M'hich gave rise to the spurious book of Enoch, and the notion quoted from it by Jude (6), and alluded to by Peter (2 Pet. ii, 4 ; compare 1 Cor. xi, 10 ; Tertul. De Virg. Vel. 7). According to this book, certain angels, sent by God to guard the earth ('Eyp)';yopo(, (phXatcic), Mere perverted hj the beauty of women, " vent after strange flesh," taught sorcery, finery {lumina lajiillorum, circu- los ex aure, Tertullian, etc.), and, being banished from heaven, had sons 30C0 cubits high, thus originating a celestial and terrestrial race of dsemons — " LTnde modo vagi subvertunt corpora multa" (Commodiani Instruct. Ill, Cullus Dcemonum), i. e. they are still the source of epilepsy, etc. Various names M'ere given at a later time to these monsters. Their chief M-as Leuixas, and of their number Mere Machsael, Aza, Shemchozai, and (the wickedest of them) a goat-like dajmon Azael (com- pare Azazel, Lev. xvi,8: and for the very curious ques- tions connected with this name, see Bochart, Hieroz. i, 652 sq. ; Eab. Eliezer, cap. 23, Bereshith Rah. ad Gen. vi, 2 ; Sennert, De Gigantibus, iii). See Assiod.eus.
Against this notion (which Hiivernick calls "the silliest whim of the Alexandrian Gnostics and Cabba- listic Rabbis," Introd. to Pentateuch, p. 3-15) Heidegger {Hist. Patr. 1. c.) quotes Matt, xxii, 30; Luke xxiv, 39, and similar testimonies. Philastrius {Adv. Hmres.
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cap. 108) characterizes it as a heresy, and Chrysostom {Ifom. 22) even calls it to /5\((cr </)///<« tKth'o. Yet Jude (ver. (i, 7) is explicit, ami tiie (j[uestion is not so much what can lie, as what wiu: believed. The fathers al- most unanimously accepted these fables, and Tertul- lian argues warmly (partly on ejpedient grounds!) for the genuineness of tiie book of Enoch. The angels were called 'Eypi'iyupoi, watchers, a word used by Aquil. and Symni. to render the Chaldee "li" (Dan. iv, 13 sq. ; Vulg. Vigil; Sept. tip ; Lex Cyrilli, dyytXoi if ayQVTTVOi ; Fabric. Cod. Pseudepigr. V. 7". p. 180), and therefore used, as in the Zend-Avesta, of good guar- dian angels, and applied especially to archangels in the S3'riac liturgies (compare "i"2 w\ Isa. xxi, 11), but more often of evil angels (Castelli Lex. Syr. p. 649 ; Scaliger, ad Euseb. Chron. p. 403 ; Gesenius, Thes. s. v. ^1"). The story of the Egregori is given at length in Tertull. De Cult. Fern, i, 2; ii, 10; Commodianus, Iii- sU-uct. iii. ; Lactant. Div. Inst, ii, 14 ; Testam. Patriarc. c. v., etc. Every one will remember the allusions to the same interpretation in Milton, Par. Reg. ii, 179 :
" Before the I'lood, thou with thy lusty ciew. False-titled sons of God, roaming tlie eiirth, Ciist wanton eyes on the daughters of men. And coupled with them, and begat a race."
The use made of the legend in some modern poems deserves to be severely reprobated. See Angel.
We need hardly say how closely allied this is to the Greek legends which connected the dypia (JwXa yiyuv- rcov with the gods (Homer, Od. vii, 205 ; I'ausan. viii, 29), and made caijxoi'tQ sons of the gods (Plato, Ajiolog. I'lpiGtoi ; Cratylus, § 32). Indeed, the whole heathen tradition resembles the one before us (Cumberland's Sanckoniatho, p. 24 ; Homer, Od. xi, 306 sq. ; Hesiod, Theog. 185, %>. et D. 144 ; Plato, Rep. ii, § 17, 604 E. ; De Legg. iii, § IG, 805 A. ; Ovid, Mctam. i, 151 ; Lu- can, iv, 293; Lucian, Be Dea Sgr., etc. ; compare Gro- tius, De Ver. i, 6) ; and the Greek translators of the Bible make the resemblance still more close by intro- ducing such words as Beofiaxot, y)]ytvt7c, and even T;r«)'£c, to which last Josephus (/. c.) expressly com- pares the giants of Genesis (Sept. at Prov. ii, 18; Psa. xlviii, 2 ; 1 Sam. v, 18 ; Judith xvi, 5). The fate, too, of these daemon-chiefs is identical with that of heathen story (.Job xxvi, 5 ; Sir. xvi, 7 ; Bar. iii, 26-28 ; Wisd. xiv, 6 ; 3 Mace, ii, 4 ; 1 Pet. iii, 19). See Daemon.
These legends may therefore be regarded as distor- tions of the Biblical narrative, handed down by tradi- tion, and embellished by the fancy and imagination of Eastern nations (Thomson, Land and Bool; ii, 395 sq.). The belief of the Jews in later times is remark- ably illustrated by the story of Asmodaius in the book of Tobit. It is decplj' instructive to observe how wide and marked a contrast there is betv.een the incidental allusion of the sacred narrative (Gen. vi, 4), and the minute frivolities or prurient follies which degrade the heathen mythology, and repeatedly appear in the groundless imaginings of the Kabbinic interpreters. If there were fallen angels whose lawless desires gave birth to a monstrous progeny, both they and their in- tolerable offspring were destroj'ed by the deluge, which was the retribution on their wickedness, and they have no existence in the baptized and renovated eartli.^Smith, s. v. Giants. See Giant.
Gibbs, JosiAH W., LL.D., professor in the theo- logical department of Yale College, was born in Sa- lem, INIass., April 30, 1790. He graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1809, and was tutor in the College from 1811 till 1815. He then spent some years at Andover, Mass., devoting himself to the study of Hebrew and Biblical literature. While there he publislked a trans- lation of Storr on The Jlistorical Sense of the New Tes- tament (IJoston, 1817, 12mo), and also prepared a trans- lation of Gesenius's Ilehrew'Lexicon, which appeared in 1824 ; also London, 1827, 2d edit. 1832 ; in abridged form. Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon, including