Date of Award
Summer 8-22-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
Organizational Unit
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Religious Studies, Joint Ph.D. Program in Study of Religion
First Advisor
Alison Schofield
Second Advisor
Pamela Eisenbaum
Third Advisor
Eric Smith
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
Angels, Avesta, Demons, Enoch, Nephilim, Yazatas, Zoroastrianism
Abstract
The Zoroastrian texts of the Avesta and the Second Temple era apocalyptic text of 1 Enoch represent two of the world’s most enduring and influential articulations of the concepts of good and evil forces in monotheistic religious contexts. This dissertation applies Bruce Lincoln’s theory of weak comparison to compare the depictions of good and evil intermediate beings – angels, fallen angels and Nephilim in 1 Enoch and yazatas and daevas in the Avesta – to explore how both of these corpuses use these beings to address questions of evil while maintaining their monotheistic natures, and to define and explore their own positions in an often chaotic and hostile world. The dissertation provides an overview of the crucial texts of the Book of the Watchers from 1 Enoch and the Yasna, Yashts and Vendidad from the Avesta and their place in the Jewish and Zoroastrian traditions, before comparing in detail their depictions of evil and good beings and the ways in which these beings relate to and interact with both God and humanity. The dissertation ultimately concludes that while both traditions have many similarities, particularly in their depictions of evil as a chaotic force which ruptures the natural order of the cosmos, they differ sharply in their understanding of the nature and morality of intermediate beings and how they should relate to humanity, which can be best explained by the traditions’ differing histories and how they ultimately incorporated polytheistic elements and tropes into their own particular moral frameworks, as well as the nature and purpose of the texts themselves.
Copyright Date
8-2026
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Christopher Brent Ghan
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
208 pgs
File Size
1 MB
Recommended Citation
Ghan, Christopher Brent, "And There Was Battle in Heaven: Angels, Demons and Depictions of Good and Evil in the Avesta and 1 Enoch" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2818.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2818
Included in
Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Other Religion Commons