A watcher (Aramaic עִיר ʿiyr, plural עִירִין ʿiyrin, Greek: ἐιρ or ἐγρήγορος, egrḗgoros) is a type of biblical angel. The word is related to the root meaning to be awake. It occurs in both plural and singular forms in the Book of Daniel, where reference is made to the holiness of the beings. The apocryphal Books of Enoch (2nd–1st centuries BC) refer to both good and bad Watchers, with a primary focus on the rebellious ones.Barker, Margaret. (2005) . "Chapter 1: The Book of Enoch", in The Older Testament: The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity. London: SPCK; Sheffield Phoenix Press. Barker, Margaret (2005) . The Lost Prophet: The Book of Enoch and Its Influence on Christianity. London: SPCK; Sheffield Phoenix Press. .
Good watchers in Daniel In , , there are three references to the class of "watcher, holy one" ("watcher", Aramaic ; "holy one", Aramaic ). The term is introduced by Nebuchadnezzar who says he saw "a watcher, a holy one come down (singular verb) from heaven." He describes how in his dream the watcher says that Nebuchadnezzar will eat grass and be mad and that this punishment is "by the decree of the watchers, the demand by the word of the holy ones" ... "that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men." After hearing the king's dream, Daniel considers for an hour and then responds:
Lutheran Protestant reformer Johann Wigand viewed the watcher in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as either God himself, or the Son of God. He promoted Trinitarian thinking by linking verse ("The sentence is rendered by decree of the watchers") with verse ("this is the interpretation, O king, and it is a decree of the Most High that has come upon my lord the king:").
Scholars view these "watchers, holy ones" as perhaps showing an influence of Babylonian religion, that is an attempt by the author of this section of Daniel to present Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian gods recognizing the power of the god of Israel as "Most High".: "... of the watchers, the decision by the words of the holy ones' may reflect the influence of the Babylonian belief" The Greek Septuagint version differs from the Aramaic Masoretic Text: for example, the Aramaic text is ambiguous about who is telling the story of verse , whether it is Nebuchadnezzar, or the watcher in his dream.: "14 of the MT the reader wonders who is telling the story, the watcher or Nebuchadnezzar. For a brief moment it does not seem to matter because the dream and its reason ('so that the living might know..."
Books of Enoch The first Book of Enoch devotes much of its attention to the fall of the watchers. The Second Book of Enoch addresses the watchers (Gk. egrḗgoroi) who are in fifth heaven where the fall took place. The Third Book of Enoch gives attention to the unfallen watchers.
The use of the term "watchers" is common in the Book of Enoch. The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 6–36) occurs in the Aramaic fragments with the phrase irin we-qadishin, "Watchers and Holy Ones", a reference to Aramaic Daniel.: "Exceedingly common in 1 Enoch is the term 'watchers,' which gives its name to an entire book of Enoch (1 En 6–36). It occurs in the phrase 'irin we-qadishin, "watchers and holy ones," The Aramaic irin "watchers" is rendered as "angel" (Greek angelos, Coptic malah) in the Greek and Ethiopian translations, although the usual Aramaic term for angel malakha does not occur in Aramaic Enoch.
Some have attempted to date this section of 1 Enoch to around the 2nd–1st century BC and they believe this book is based on one interpretation of the Sons of God passage in , according to which angels mated with human females, giving rise to a race of hybrids known as the Nephilim. The term irin is primarily applied to disobedient watchers who numbered a total of 200, and of whom their leaders are named; but equally Aramaic iri ("watcher" singular) is applied to the obedient archangels who chain them, such as Raphael (1 Enoch 22:6).
Rogue watchers in the Book of Enoch
In the Book of Enoch, the watchers (Aramaic עִירִין, iyrin) are angels dispatched to Earth to watch over the humans. They soon begin to lust for human women and, at the prodding of their leader Samyaza, defect to illicitly instruct mankind and procreate among them, arriving Mount Hermon. The offspring of these unions are the Nephilim, savage giants who pillage the earth and endanger humanity.
Samyaza and his associates further taught their human charges arts and technologies such as weaponry, cosmetics, mirrors, sorcery, and other techniques that would otherwise be discovered gradually over time by humans, not foisted upon them all at once. Eventually, God allows a Great Flood to rid the earth of the Nephilim, but first sends Uriel to warn Noah so as not to eradicate the human race. The watchers are bound "in the valleys of the Earth" until Judgment Day ( "And the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day.") (NRSVue).
The chiefs of tens, listed in the Book of Enoch, are as follows:
The book of Enoch also lists leaders of the 200 fallen angels who married and commenced unnatural unions with human women, and who taught forbidden knowledge. Some are also listed in Book of Raziel (Sefer Raziel HaMalakh), the Zohar, and Jubilees.
Araqiel (also Arkas, Arkiel, Arakiel, Araqael, Araciel, Arqael, Sarquael) taught humans the signs of the earth (geomancy). However, in the Sibylline Oracles, Araqiel is referred to not as a fallen angel, or watcher, but as one of the five angels who lead the souls of humans to judgment, the other four being Ramiel, Uriel, Samael, and Azazel. Armaros (also Amaros or Armoniel) in Enoch I taught humanity the resolving of enchantments (ambiguous but possibly spells and the undoing of them.) Azazel taught humans to make knives, swords, shields, and how to devise ornaments and cosmetics. (metallurgy, specifically in the context of war) Gadreel (or Gader'el) taught the art of cosmetics (camouflage), the use of weapons and killing blows (martial arts and weaponry). Baraqel (Baraqiel) taught the signs of the stars (astrology). Bezaliel mentioned in Enoch I, left out of most translations because of damaged manuscripts and problematic transmission of the text. Chazaqiel (sometimes Ezeqeel or Cambriel) taught humans the signs of the clouds (meteorology). Kokabiel (also Kakabel, Kochbiel, Kokbiel, Kabaiel, and Kochab), In the Book of Raziel he is a high-ranking, holy angel. In Enoch I, he is a fallen watcher, resident of the nether realms, and commands 365,000 surrogate spirits to do his bidding. Among other duties, he instructs his fellows in astrology. Penemue "taught mankind the art of writing with ink and paper," and taught "the children of men the bitter and the sweet and the secrets of wisdom." (I Enoch 69.8) Sariel (also Suriel) taught humankind about the courses of the moon (at one time regarded as forbidden knowledge). Samyaza (also Shemyazaz, Shamazya, Semiaza, Shemhazi, Semyaza and Amezyarak) is one of the leaders of the fall from heaven in Vocabulaire de l'Angelologie. Shamsiel, once a guardian of Eden as stated in the Zohar, served as one of the two chief aides to the archangel Uriel (the other aide being Hasdiel) when Uriel bore his standard into battle, and is the head of 365 legions of angels and also crowns prayers, accompanying them to the 5th heaven. In Jubilees, he is referred to as one of the Watchers. He is a fallen angel who teaches the signs of the sun. Yeqon or Jeqon () was the ringleader who first tempted the other Watchers into having sexual relations with humans. His accomplices were Asbeel, Gadreel, Penemue, and Kasdaye (or Kasadya), who were all identified as individual "satans".
The account of the Book of Enoch has been associated with the passage in Genesis 6:1–4, which speaks of Sons of God instead of Watchers:
Second Book of Enoch
The pseudepigraphon Second Book of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch) refers to the Grigori, who are the same as the Watchers of 1 Enoch. The Slavic word Grigori used in the book is a transcription of the Greek word ἐγρήγοροι egrḗgoroi, meaning "wakeful".Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. p. 474. The Hebrew equivalent is ערים, meaning "waking", "awake".
Chapter 18 presents the Grigori as countless soldiers of human appearance, "their size being greater than that of great giants". They are located in the fifth heaven and identified as "the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail rejected the Lord of light". One version of 2 Enoch adds that their number was 200 myriads (2 million). Furthermore, some "went down on to earth from the Lord's throne" and there married women and "befouled the earth with their deeds", resulting in confinement underground. The number of those who descended to earth is generally put at three, but Andrei A. Orlov, while quoting the text as saying three, remarks in a footnote that some manuscripts put them at 200 or even 200 myriads.
Chapter 29, referring to the second day of creation, before the creation of human beings, says that "one from out the order of angels" or, according to other versions of 2 Enoch, "one of the order of archangels" or "one of the ranks of the archangels" "conceived an impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the earth, that he might become equal in rank to [the Lord's] power. And [the Lord] threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the bottomless." Although in this chapter the name "Satanail" is mentioned only in a heading added in one manuscript, this chapter too is often understood to refer to Satanail and his angels, the Grigori.
The Mercer Dictionary of the Bible makes a distinction between the Grigori and the fallen angels by stating that in fifth heaven, Enoch sees "the giants whose brothers were the fallen angels."
The longer recension of 2 Enoch 18:3 identifies the prisoners of second heaven as the angels of Satanail.
Other sources and traditions
The Book of Giants The story of the Watchers is shown also in The Book of Giants.Nicholas J. Baker-Brian, Manichaeism: An Ancient Faith Rediscovered
The Book of Jubilees The term "Watchers" occurs in The Book of Jubilees (Jub. 4:15, 5:1).
Damascus Document A reference to the "fall of the watchers from heaven" is found in Hebrew in the Damascus Document 2:18 echoing 1 Enoch 13:10.
First Epistle to the Corinthians ("For this reason a woman ought to have authority over her head, because of the angels."), according to the early Church Father Tertullian, refers to the Watchers. He taught that the lust of the Watchers was the reason for Saint Paul's directive to Christian women to wear a headcovering. Tertullian referenced the case of a woman who was touched on the neck by an angel "who found her to be a temptation".
Philo of Byblos According to PrEv 1.10.1–2 of Philo of Byblos, Sanchuniathon mentioned "some living beings who had no perception, out of whom intelligent beings came into existence, and they were called Zophasemin (Heb. șōpē-šāmayim, that is, 'Watchers of Heaven'). And they were formed like the shape of an egg."
Kabbalah The Zohar makes reference to the "watchers" of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
Possible Babylonian/Aramaic origin According to Jonathan Ben-Dov of the University of Tel Aviv, the myth of the watchers began in Lebanon when Aramaic writers tried to interpret the imagery on Mesopotamian stone monuments without being able to read their Akkadian text.