BEFORE EXPLORING THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRANSFORMAtions of the Enochic myth of angelic descent, we must first ask how the fallen angels and their teachings function within the Book of the Watchers itself. Our inquiry into the reception-history of this apocalypse necessitates a focus on the redacted form of the text, the form in which (most) Jews and Christians would encounter it. In light of its complex literary history, however, the contents of the apocalypse cannot be addressed apart from some discussion of the strands from which it has been woven.

As noted above, the Book of the Watchers appears to integrate at least five originally independent units into the larger narrative framework of an apocalypse. Some of these units are themselves composite, constructed from threads of even more ancient texts and/or traditions. In the apocalypse's present form, the combination and arrangement of these parts have resulted in the integration of traditions about two events with no connection in the book of Genesis: Enoch walking with God and being taken by Him (Gen 5:21–24) and the “sons of God” choosing wives from the “daughters of men” (Gen 6:1–4).

The first unit, 1 En. 1–5, establishes Enoch's status as a visionary with unique access to heavenly knowledge and records his exhortations about the value of cosmological phenomena as models for ethical behavior. The second, 1 En. 6–11, wholly concerns the fallen angels.