The Fall of Sophia 1Enoch 42

 The Fall of Wisdom

In this study we will look at the fall of wisdom in the 1st book of Enoch:

1Enoch 42.1 Wisdom found no place where she could dwell, and her dwelling was in Heaven. 

42.2 Wisdom went out, in order to dwell among the sons of men, but did not find a dwelling; wisdom returned to her place, and took her seat in the midst of the Angels.

42.3 And iniquity came out from her chambers;  those whom she did not seek she found, and dwelt among them, like rain in the desert, and like dew on the parched ground.

The Book of Enoch even contains what appears to be a proto-Gnostic Sophia myth. In 42.1–3 we read of the discomfiture of Wisdom (Hokma; Greek: Sophia)

Enochic Judaism, even denies that Wisdom dwells on earth, which is consistent with the Enochic view that the world is a place of iniquity (1 En. 42:1–3). Boccaccini argues that the poem contains “a direct attack against the sapiential myth of the torah as the earthly embodiment of heavenly wisdom

the indications that the rebellious angels are thought to have attempted to kidnap heavenly wisdom and deliver it to humans– “Wisdom found no place” among humankind (42.1-2), but the rebellious angel “showed them all the secrets of their (the angels’) wisdom.

 

This wisdom could be obtained only by revelation, as wisdom resides in heaven

wisdom and injustice have repositories like the powers of nature of which he is here speaking

. Wisdom found no place to dwell, i.e. on earth, and returns to heaven; cf. Job xxviii. 12-14, 20-24; Baruch iii. 31.

28:12-14

“But where can wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
13 Man does not know its value,
Nor is it found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me’;
And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

20-24

“From where then does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living,
And concealed from the birds of the [f]air.
22 Destruction[g] and Death say,
‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’
23 God understands its way,
And He knows its place.
24 For He looks to the ends of the earth,
And sees under the whole heavens,

Baruch 3:31 No one knows the way to her
    or is concerned about the path to her.

Wisdom is here personified as in Prov. viii. and ix.—2. Cf. Prov. I. 20 sqq.; viii. 1 sqq.; ix. 1 sqq.; Son of Sirach xxiv.

 He gave humans knowledge about writing with ink and papyrus, and therefore many went astray from of old and forever and until this day” (69.8). In the Samilitudes’ tradition, writing is not safe for humans. It causes death and destruction (69.11). The fallen angels also tried to pass along other scientific secrets, the “hidden things,” to humankind, resulting in unrighteous activities involving the use of metals, which contribute to idolatry as well as to warfare.\7/ Enoch, on the other hand, is permitted to write and to convey heavenly wisdom to the righteous who dwell on earth.\8/

Why could wisdom not find a dwelling place in heaven? 

Where is the chambers located from which iniquity come from?

1Enoch 42.1 Wisdom found no place where she could dwell, and her dwelling was in Heaven. [Wisdom did not stay in her dwelling place in the Pleroma]

42.2 Wisdom went out, in order to dwell among the sons of men, but did not find a dwelling;[rejected by sinful mankind] wisdom returned to her place, and took her seat in the midst of the Angels [Wisdom did not return to the Pleroma but dwelt among the 7 archangels in the hebdomad].

42.3 And iniquity came out from her chambers; [iniquity came forth from the chambers of Wisdom. This would be Error in the Gospel of Truth. In the gospel of Philip there are two types of Wisdom Sophia and Echmoth (Wisdom¹ is one thing, and death² is another. ‘Wisdom’ (in Aramaic) is simply ‘wisdom’ (in Greek), yet the wisdom of death is (itself) dead. This which is the wisdom with death, which is from the acquaintance with death—this is called the minor wisdom.The Gospel of Philip)]  those whom she did not seek she found, and dwelt among them, like rain in the desert, and like dew on the parched ground.

Sophia is raised to the Ninth sphere above the Demiurge, and his seven powers until her deficiency is corrected, even as Wisdom takes her place in the heavens according to 1 Enoch 42.1–2

Extracts from the Works of Theodotus:

47 The Savior became the first universal creator. “But Wisdom,” second, “built a home for herself and she erected seven columns.”

And first of all she put forward a god as an image of the Father, and through him she made “the heaven and the earth,” that is, “the heavenly things and the terrestrial things,” the things on the right and the things on the left.  (Excerpt. ex Theodot 47)

Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars (Proverbs 9:1):

These seven pillars being interpreted of the planetary heavens, or the seven archangels ,...

 the habitation of the Sophia herself was placed above the Hebdomad in the Ogdoad (Excerpt. ex Theodot. 8, 47). Ogdoad meaning -number 8.

It is said further of the same divine wisdom

 (Proverbs 8:2):

She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, Beside the way, where the paths meet.

This meant, according to the Gnostic interpretation, that the Sophia has her dwelling-place "on the heights" above the created universe, in the place of the middle the boundary, between the upper and lower world, between the Pleroma and the physical universe. She sits at "the gates of the mighty," i.e. above the realms of the seven Archons, and at the "entrances" to the upper realm of light. 

The Sophia is therefore the highest ruler over the visible universe, and at the same time the mediatrix between the upper and the lower realms. She shapes this mundane universe after the heavenly prototypes, and forms the seven star-circles with their Archons under whose dominion are placed, according to the astrological conceptions of antiquity, the fates of all earthly things, and more especially of man. She is "the mother" or "the mother of the living." (Epiph. Haer. 26, 10). As coming from above, she is herself of pneumatic essence, the mētēr phōteinē (Epiph. 40, 2) or the anō dynamis (Epiph. 39, 2) from which all pneumatic souls draw their origin.

Religion and Female Body in Ancient Judaism and Its Environments:

1 Enoch 42 not only states that wisdom was unable to find a place on earth. Her negative counterpart was successful 

 And iniquity came out from her chambers; those whom she did not seek she found, and dwelt among them, like rain in the desert, and like dew on the parched ground.

This is a clear adaptation of personified folly from Proverbs 9 (although the word is not used in this chapter). the opposition between wisdom and folly personified as women, so important to Proverbs, is oddly never adapted in early Jewish literature in a wisdom text but rather in an apocalypse.

The location of her chambers is not stated but the fact that iniquity is opposed to wisdom whose domicile is heaven suggests that she emerges from the netherworld. this would fit with the association between the house of folly and Sheol in Proverbs (9:18 cp 7:27 2:18 )

Also the account of iniquity nurturing the land with water can be understood as a sort of reverse image of wisdom in Ben Sira 24 since there she is situated beside abundant waters. the imagery of water vivifying the world in 1 Enoch 42 may convey iniquity as a sort of teacher not unlike personified folly (Prov 9:17) [Religion and Female Body in Ancient Judaism and Its Environments]

James 3:15  This wisdom is not one, from above, coming down, but is earthly, born of the soul, demoniacal!

In 2 Enoch 30:8, the author states ‘And on the sixth day I commanded my Wisdom to create man…’. Thus, Sophia, in this source as well, creates Adam.