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Asha / Shared knowledge

religion · Shared topic · Revision 0

Who Are the Watchers?

Who Are the Watchers?

Starting explanation, not independently reviewed

The current answer

How a Second-Temple book made fallen angels the source of evil, and where demons come from

What remains uncertain

This starting summary presents the original essay’s position. It has not received independent topic review. Its citations have been imported, not checked. Competing explanations and important objections may still be missing.

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Claims & evidence

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The Watchers are heavenly beings who, in the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 6-16, c. 3rd century BCE), descend to earth, take human wives, and father the violent giants called Nephilim.

Imported citation, not independently checked: 1 Enoch 6-16

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When the giants die (in the flood and in mutual slaughter) their bodies perish, but their hybrid spirits do not.

Imported citation, not independently checked: 1 Enoch 15:8-12

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The Book of the Watchers circulated widely; fragments survive in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and it framed how Jews and early Christians imagined the spirit world.

Imported citation, not independently checked: G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary (2001)

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The Book of the Watchers is part of 1 Enoch, which is canonical scripture only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox tradition, where it is read as the Bible.

Imported citation, not independently checked: A. Y. Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity (2005)

The strongest objections

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No objection has been independently reviewed yet. This is a gap to investigate, not evidence that the answer is settled.

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