Watcher (angel)

A Watcher (Aramaic עִיר ʿiyr, plural עִירִין ʿiyrin, Greek: ἐιρ or ἐγρήγορος, egrḗgoros[a]) is a type of biblical angel.

The apocryphal Books of Enoch (2nd–1st centuries BC) refer to both good and bad Watchers, with a primary focus on the rebellious ones.

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 Genesis 6, according to which angels mated with human females, giving rise to a race of hybrids known as the Nephilim.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

And these are the names of their chiefs: Shemihazah—this one was their leader; Arteqoph, second to him; Remashel, third to him; Kokabel, fourth to him; Armumahel, fifth to him; Ramel, sixth to him; Daniel, seventh to him; Ziqel, eighth to him; Baraqel, ninth to him; Asael, tenth to him; Hermani, eleventh to him; Matarel, twelfth to him; Ananel, thirteenth to him; Setawel, fourteenth to him; Samshiel, fifteenth to him; Sahriel, sixteenth to him; Tummiel, seventeenth to him; Turiel, eighteenth to him; Yomiel, nineteenth to him; Yehadiel, twentieth to him.

[15]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.

[20] Chapter 18 presents the Grigori as countless soldiers of human appearance, "their size being greater than that of great giants".

According to Jonathan Ben-Dov of the University of Haifa, 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.

[37] Amar Annus from the University of Tartu argues that the Watchers were intended as polemical representations of the Mesopotamian Apkallu, who gave wisdom to man before the Flood (which is portrayed as a corrupting influence in Enochian literature).

In Kevin Smith's 1999 religious satire Dogma, the character Bartleby (played by Ben Affleck) is mentioned to have formerly been a Watcher.

In Darren Aronofsky's 2014 Biblical epic Noah, there are a large number of Watchers and they are depicted as having been cast out of Heaven after deciding to help mankind.

Looking in on us from way out there, the protagonist of the 1972 Hawkwind song The Watcher feels his "sense all disgusted:" although man had the chance to do the right thing, "avarice destroyed your sphere."

At one point in this episode, a picture is shown that is implied to be a painting of a grigori—it is, in fact, a classic depiction of the archangel Michael besting Satan.

In his Sigma Force novel The Bone Labyrinth (2015), James Rollins describes Atlantis' creators as Watchers, a superior hybrid species of early humans and neanderthals who disseminated knowledge and possibly interbred with people throughout the world.

In Lauren Kate's book Fallen, a group called 'The Watchers' studied angels who consorted with mortal women, but more closely, Daniel Grigori the sixth archangel.

(Eleventh Grave in Moonlight, 2017) In Ichiei Ishibumi's Japanese light novel series High School DxD, the Grigori is an organisation of fallen angels, the leaders of which are some of the Watchers named in the Book of Enoch.