There is a story of the fall of the angels that is older than, and different from, the now better-known one of Lucifer rebelling out of pride. It is the story of the Watchers, angels who come down to earth out of desire for the daughters of men and bring forbidden knowledge with them. Told in the First Book of Enoch, it influenced Second Temple Judaism, some New Testament authors and the earliest Christian writers.
The starting point: Genesis 6
Everything begins with four enigmatic verses in the book of Genesis. Shortly before the flood narrative we read that «the sons of God» saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and took as wives as many as they chose. The text adds that at that time the Nephilim were on the earth, which the Greek translation renders as «giants», and that they were «the heroes of old, men of renown».
The passage is very short and explains neither who the sons of God are nor what happened. It is precisely this silence that has generated very different interpretations.
The Book of the Watchers
The first section of the First Book of Enoch, known as the Book of the Watchers, develops the story at length. Aramaic fragments of this text were found among the Qumran manuscripts, a sign that it was read and copied in antiquity. The complete version has survived in Ge'ez in the Ethiopian tradition.
The story follows a few precise stages:
- Two hundred angels, called Watchers, decide to unite with human women.
- Fearing that he alone will pay for the sin, their leader Shemihazah makes them swear together on Mount Hermon, binding themselves by a pact of mutual curses.
- From these unions the giants are born, who consume humanity's resources and then turn against people.
- The earth cries out, and the archangels bring the lament before God.
- God orders the punishment of the Watchers and announces the flood.
The forbidden arts
One of the most interesting elements of the story is the list of knowledge the Watchers teach humanity. The text presents it as the root of corruption.
| Watcher | Knowledge attributed |
|---|---|
| Azazel (Asael) | metalworking, weapons, ornaments, cosmetics, precious stones |
| Shemihazah | spells and the cutting of roots |
| Other leaders | signs of the earth, the sun and the moon, observation of the stars |
The message is ambivalent. On the one hand, technique and knowledge are described as gifts stolen from heaven; on the other, the text acknowledges that human civilisation also has a spiritual origin. Many readers have noticed the parallel with the Greek myth of Prometheus, who steals fire from the gods, although the two stories arose in different contexts.
The punishment
The punishments are entrusted to the archangels:
- Raphael binds Azazel hand and foot and casts him into darkness, in a place in the desert called Dudael, covering him with stones until the day of judgement.
- Gabriel is ordered to set the giants against one another.
- Michael binds Shemihazah and his companions beneath the earth for seventy generations.
Enoch, the righteous man, is charged with bringing the Watchers the announcement of their condemnation. They ask him to intercede for them, but the petition is rejected: those who should have interceded for humanity cannot have a man intercede for them.
The text also explains the origin of evil spirits: when the giants die, their spirits remain on earth and become spirits that torment humanity.
The echo in the New Testament
The myth left traces in Christian texts. The Letter of Jude explicitly quotes a prophecy of Enoch and speaks of angels who did not keep their position, held in chains in darkness. The Second Letter of Peter recalls that God did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them into the dark abyss. The name Azazel also appears in Leviticus, in the rite of the scapegoat sent into the desert, although the relationship between that name and the Watcher remains debated.
Later readings
Over time the angelic interpretation of Genesis 6 was called into question. In Christianity the reading spread that the «sons of God» were the descendants of Seth, the righteous line, who mingled with the descendants of Cain. Augustine supported this view, and in rabbinic Judaism non-angelic readings also prevailed. The First Book of Enoch remained canonical only in the Ethiopian Church.
The symbolic value
The Studio Esoterico Cornelio reads the myth of the Watchers as a reflection on the relationship between knowledge and responsibility. Some themes remain relevant:
- knowledge separated from wisdom can become destructive;
- a collective pact to share guilt does not make it lighter;
- the descent of the spiritual into the world can be a gift or a fall, depending on intention;
- justice, in the story, restores an order that desire had broken.
In short
- The myth of the Watchers develops the few verses of Genesis 6 on the «sons of God» and the Nephilim.
- In the Book of the Watchers, two hundred angels led by Shemihazah descend on Mount Hermon and father the giants.
- Azazel and the others teach humanity metals, weapons, cosmetics, spells and astronomy.
- The archangels carry out the punishment, and Enoch brings the Watchers the announcement of their condemnation.
- The story, taken up by Jude and the Second Letter of Peter, is a reflection on knowledge and responsibility.
