Azazel
During the late Second Temple period (after the closure of the Hebrew Bible canon), Azazel came to be viewed as a fallen angel responsible for introducing humans to forbidden knowledge, as described in the Book of Enoch.
[7] The translators of the Greek Septuagint understood the Hebrew term as meaning "the sent away" (apparently reading either עז אזל "goat that leaves" or "the mighty sent" or עזלזל v.s.
The Mishnah (Yoma 39a[12]) follows the Hebrew Bible text; two goats were procured, similar in respect of appearance, height, cost, and time of selection.
Having one of these on his right and the other on his left, the high priest, who was assisted in this rite by two subordinates, put both his hands into a wooden case, and took out two labels, one inscribed "for Yahweh" and the other "for Azazel".
The high priest then laid his hands with the labels upon the two goats and said, "A sin-offering to Yahweh" (thus speaking the Tetragrammaton); and the two men accompanying him replied, "Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever."
Men were stationed at intervals along the way, and as soon as the goat was thrown down the precipice, they signaled to one another by means of kerchiefs or flags, until the information reached the high priest, whereat he proceeded with the other parts of the ritual.
39a) that during the forty years that Simeon the Just was High Priest of Israel, the thread actually turned white as soon as the goat was thrown over the precipice: a sign that the sins of the people were forgiven.
[13] However, he did not see the sending of the goat as honoring Azazel as a deity, but as a symbolic expression of the idea that the people's sins and their evil consequences were to be sent back to the spirit of desolation and ruin, the source of all impurity.
So would the crowd, called Babylonians or Alexandrians, pull the goat's hair to make it hasten forth, carrying the burden of sins away with it (Yoma vi.
), and the arrival of the shattered animal at the bottom of the valley of the rock of Bet Ḥadudo, twelve miles away from the city, was signalized by the waving of shawls to the people of Jerusalem, who celebrated the event with boisterous hilarity and amid dancing on the hills (Yoma vi.
[1] The Vulgate contains no mention of "Azazel" but only of caper emissarius, or "emissary goat", apparently reading עז אזל goat which leaves: 8 mittens super utrumque sortem unam Domino et alteram capro emissario 9 cuius sors exierit Domino offeret illum pro peccato 10 cuius autem in caprum emissarium statuet eum vivum coram Domino ut fundat preces super eo et emittat illum in solitudinem English versions, such as the King James Version, followed the Septuagint and Vulgate in understanding the term as relating to a goat.
The modern English Standard Version provides the footnote "16:8 The meaning of Azazel is uncertain; possibly the name of a place or a demon, traditionally a scapegoat; also verses 10, 26".
Most scholars accept the indication of some kind of demon or deity,[15] however Judit M. Blair notes that this is an argument without supporting contemporary text evidence.
Although not explained by the Quran itself, Muslim exegetes such as Hisham ibn al-Kalbi and Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi[23] usually linked the reason of their abode to a narration related to the Watchers known from 3 Enoch.
[24][25] In the first book of Enoch, Azazel is portrayed as one of the two hundred angels who, after descending to Earth in lust for human women, resided on Mount Hermon and fathered the giants, sometimes identified with Nephilim, prior to the Flood.
Afterwards he corrupted humanity- by the reckoning of the author- by teaching men the art of crafting metal weapons and armour and women the means of beautifying themselves with hair dyes, face paints, and other cosmetics.
[4] In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the name Azazel occurs in the line 6 of 4Q203, The Book of Giants, which is a part of the Enochic literature found at Qumran.
[26] Despite the expectation of Brandt (1889)[further explanation needed][27] to date no evidence has surfaced of Azazel as a demon or god prior to the earliest Jewish sources among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
[28] The Book of Enoch brings Azazel into connection with the Biblical story of the fall of the angels, located on Mount Hermon, a gathering-place of the demons of old.
[29] Here, Azazel is one of the leaders of the rebellious Watchers in the time preceding the Flood; he taught men the art of warfare, of making swords, knives, shields, and coats of mail, and taught women the art of deception by ornamenting the body, dyeing the hair, and painting the face and the eyebrows, and also revealed to the people the secrets of witchcraft and corrupted their manners, leading them into wickedness and impurity until at last he was, at Yahweh's command, bound hand and foot by the archangel Raphael and chained to the rough and jagged rocks of [Ha] Dudael (= Beth Ḥadudo), where he is to abide in utter darkness until the great Day of Judgment, when he will be cast into the fire to be consumed forever.
Many believe that this same story (without any mention of Azazel) is told in the Book of Genesis 6:2–4: And it came to pass [...] that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
The Book of Enoch 8:1–3a reads, "And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates; and made known to them the metals [of the earth] and the art of working them; and bracelets and ornaments; and the use of antimony and the beautifying of the eyelids; and all kinds of costly stones and all colouring tinctures.
The latter might be identified with Greek kings and generals, who suppressed the Jews with military forces, but learned how to make their weapons by this specific expelled creature.
