Did the Watchers corrupt the DNA of the animal kingdom?

Revision: March, 2019

Did the Watchers corrupt the DNA of the animal kingdom?

^{Read: The Book of Enoch
Messianic Prophecy Edition}

^{“Time-Capsule to the Last Generation”}

Did the angels who sinned before the flood, alter the DNA of the animal kingdom?

Here’s what the Book of Enoch says about the giants (notice the Watchers are NOT included)

“Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood.” (Enoch 7:3-5)

Many believe genetic engineering is what is implied here when the giants sinned “against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish”. In this view, the sin of the giants was to corrupt the DNA of the animal kingdom. But is that what it says? Notice the sins “against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish”, is preceded by the mention the giants were eating human flesh! Notice too the sins “against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish”, is immediately followed by the mention the giants were eating each other and drinking blood! The context would suggest the sins against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, was in eating them. I know that’s not as dramatic as genetic engineering, but that IS the context.

Why, you ask, would eating birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish be sinful? Well, remember that before the fall of Adam and Eve, God had provided for them that “you may surely eat of every tree of the garden” (Genesis 2:16). After the flood God then informs Noah and his family, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:2-3). Before the flood, God had not provided that animals should be consumed for food but rather a vegetarian diet was commanded to our first parents. The giants had no interest in pleasing God and proceeded to consume what God had not previously allowed, thus they sinned “against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish”.

That’s the way I understand it. The Bottom line is this... there is no authoritative Scripture which says the angels created chimeras or corrupted the DNA of the animal kingdom, or that the angels copulated with beasts resulting in new species.

There is a modern way of reading Scripture which is called being “anachronistic”. When we are anachronistic in understanding the Bible we see in ancient times a mirror for our own time. Seeing gene-slicing in Enoch is anachronistic. Anachronistic Bible interpretation is always exciting and cool and almost always wrong. It is done by projecting modern realities into the ancient past in an effort to interpret a passage. When we do this we can “see” all kinds of cool stuff! Seeing astronauts in Ezekiel 1, comes to mind.

It is tempting to look at the sins of the giants against the animals in terms of modern science and gene-manipulation. But the Scripture of Enoch does not bear this out.

Revision: March, 2019