The angels of God and the daughters of men
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ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ τὰς θυγατέρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὅτι καλαί εἰσιν, ἔλαβον ἑαυτοῖς γυναῖκας ἀπὸ πασῶν ὧν ἐξελέξαντο.
Swete’s frozen Codex-A reading gives ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ, “the angels of God”, where the Vaticanus-tradition text behind Brenton’s main translation instead reads οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, “the sons of God” — Brenton’s own footnote independently confirms the Alexandrinus reading with “Alex. angels of God”. Two verses later (6:4) both witnesses agree on οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ for the second mention, so the variant is specific to this verse alone. Whichever word stood here, this single sentence is the seed of the whole Watchers tradition: heavenly beings who see, desire, and take human wives, expanded at length in 1 Enoch 6–16 (where they are named Watchers and Semyaza leads them) and in Jubilees, and echoed at 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 (“angels who did not keep their own position”). The Great Library’s own Enoch volume takes up that reception history directly.
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