255

Azazel has always been a hard angel to explain with Milton's commentators. Newton, who is perhaps the most qualified to speak on such questions, writes, "The name is used for some demon or devil by several ancient authors," and translates the Hebrew as a sneer-" brave in retreating." But Milton certainly never thought of his devils as cowards. Now, it is only in the Book of Enoch that Azazel is mentioned as one of the leaders of the fallen angels." The word is in Leviticus 16:8, but is rendered by "scapegoat." Jonathan and Raschi in Walton's Bible make of Azazel the name of a place in the desert where the goat is sent. Milton, had he thought about the subject at all, would probably have adopted either sensebut for the Book of Enoch.15 I suggest, therefore, that Milton got his Azazel from the Book of Enoch. One special phrase in the Miltonic text that has particularly exercised the commentators is "as his right." Milton must have meant it, to risk the inelegant jingle, “ Azazel as his right." Now we have, an Enoch (in Goar's text):

16

Primus Azael [the name is variously given as "Azael," "Azalzel," or "Azazel "] qui gladios, thoracas, et omne bellicum instrumentum, et terræ metalla conflare, aurum quoque et argentum qua tractarent arte mulienem mundum compositiori adimverint; qua polirent etiam, et electis lapidibus nitorem adjicerent, et colores fucarent, instruxit.

Azazel evidently was the chemist, jeweller, and goldsmith of the infernal band; he dealt in women's ornaments, but also in men's weapons. So I suggest further that he was

14 See Encyclopedia Biblica and Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, art. "Azazel."

15 Irenæus (Haer. I, 12) and Origen (Cels. VI, 305) render Azazel as Satan which does not fit in with Milton either.

16 I am indebted to Mr. F. A. Pompen, of Heerlen, Holland, for a correction in the text as I gave it in 1920 in La Pensée de Milton, p. 239.

the maker of the "imperial ensign," and that this was the reason why he carried it "as his right." Note that

With gems and golden lustre rich emblaz'd

follows Goar's "et electis lapidibus nitorem . . . et colores. . . ."

The point is of interest because the fragment known to Milton" and more generally, the Book of Enoch, insist on a part of the myth which Milton used, against orthodox tradition: sensuality as a motive in the angel's fall. Not that Milton derived the idea from there; I have shown the importance of it in his scheme, and shall come back to it; but he would naturally be in sympathy with texts that bore him out.

It may be thought also that the five verses from Genesis quoted above are a slender basis for more than one hundred lines in Book XI of Paradise Lost, in which Enoch, who is but scantily referred to in the Old Testament,18 and given no prophetic part in the trouble period, plays a noble rôle

18

till at last,

Of middle age one rising, eminent
In wise deport, spake much of right and wrong,
Of justice, of religion, truth, and peace,
And judgment from above: him old and young
Exploded, and had seiz'd with violent hands,
Had not a cloud descending snatch'd him thence,
Unseen amid the throng: so violence

Proceeded, and oppression, and sword-law,

Through all the plain, and refuge none was found.19

17 In Syncellus (Dindorf edition, Bonn, 1829, pp. 20-24 and 42-47). For modern versions see Ad. Lods, Le livre d'Hénoch (Paris, Leroux, 1892), pp. 72-76; and R. M. Charles, The Book of Enoch, pp. 13-25. It comprises 6:1 to 10:14 of Enoch, the two fragments of Syncellus being consecutive in the text.

18 Jude 14 may also have helped Milton to his conception. 19 XI, 660-69.

Milton, however, would find ample material for the picture in the Book of Enoch.

The question of the "sons of God," and especially of who they were, is also interesting for Miltonic criticism. Milton was of course bound by his subject to reject the notion that they were angels, since his angels had to fall before man did. But he rejected it with a bad conscience. I have pointed out already that in the De doctrina he does not become too precise on the point. In Book XI of Paradise Lost he follows Augustine and orthodox tradition, and speaks of

that sober race of men, whose lives, Religious titl'd them the sons of God,20

but who fell to the lures of women. (This was surely the appropriate time to make Satan say

The Son of God I also am,

and claim his share of feminine booty.) But then Enoch had evidently made a deep impression on Milton's mind, and when off his guard he contradicts himself very beautifully. In Paradise Regained, in a burst of rhetorical ardor against Belial, he adopts the version that the "sons of God" were the fallen angels pure Enoch doctrine. Satan says to Belial:

Before the Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew,
False titl'd sons of God, roaming the Earth
Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men
And coupl'd with them and begot a race.21

This is all the more amusing for that comment of Satan's on the inspired writer's words: "False titl'd sons of God." Satan (or Milton?) corrects Moses. Finally, in the fifth

book of Paradise Lost, Milton again forgets his orthodoxy, and reverts to the Book of Enoch:

Meanwhile at table Eve

Ministered naked, and their flowing cups

With pleasant liquors crowned. O innocence
Deserving Paradise! if ever, then,

Then had the sons of God excuse to have been

Enamour'd at that sight; but in those hearts
Love unlibidinous reigned.22

The sons of God here are certainly the angels, Adam being already" enamour'd."

22 P. L., V, 443-49.

I

CHAPTER II

THE CHRISTIAN ERA

N Jewish speculation immediately before and about the beginning of the Christian era, there developed

a tendency to refer the origin of evil to the fall of nan, seen especially in the fourth Esdras. Paul is, to a certain extent, heir to this general tradition. But his importance is such that it is preferable to consider him separately.

1

I. PAUL

For Paul, Satan as yet seems to play no part in the fall of man: "by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." For Paul, as for the ancient Hebrews, the serpent who tempted Eve was merely a serpent, and Paul nowhere identifies him with Satan: "the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty."" Paul's chief interest is not in the myth, but in the human psychology of the Fall. He seeks the source of evil in man himself; and he finds it in "the flesh," that is to say, passion in general, and more particularly, sensuality. Milton, naturally, follows Paul as closely as he can, and grounds his own opinions as frequently as possible on this solid basis of Christianity; the De doctrina, in many of its most important parts is mainly a commentary on Paul; 3 naturally also Milton uses Paul,

1 Romans 5:12.

2 II Corinthians 11:3.

3

3 The necessary work on this has been done by Sumner in his edition of the De doctrina, as has most of the theological work. It is the historian of religions that must investigate Milton now.