THE NEPHILIM: DEMONS AMONG US

The Watcher Angels and the Book of Enoch

Nephilim? The term might be familiar. You may have read about the Nephilim in books, seen them on TV, or even encountered them in fantasy card games. They’re magical and powerful beings, associated with angels and demons.

Where did the Nephilim come from? The Bible has this to say:

"When men began to multiply on the Earth and daughters were born to them, the Sons of Heaven saw how beautiful the Daughters of Man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose... At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth...after the Sons of Heaven knew the Daughters of Men, who bore them sons."  ~Genesis 6:1-4

The Watchers

The fathers of the Nephilim were the “Sons of Heaven” known as the Watchers. This band of two hundred angels were sent to Earth to observe, but not interact with, the human race. Temptation struck when the Watchers saw how beautiful the “Daughters of Men” were. They soon seduced the human daughters, married them, and begat children. The result was the Nephilim, a race of hybrid angel/human creatures. This grave sin resulted in a curse being laid upon the Watchers and the Nephilim.

The Book of Enoch

The Book of Enoch tells the story of the Watchers and the Nephilim in considerable detail. It’s considered apocrypha (myth) by most Christian churches. Only the Ethiopian Catholic Church counts Enoch as part of its canon. Enoch tells us the leader of the Watchers was an angel called Samyaza. When the other angels came to him with a scheme to take human women as wives, Samyaza put up only a token protest.

The whole number of the angels, the Watchers, who descended from above, was two hundred. The first of their leaders was Samyaza.

The sons of man had multiplied in those days, and daughters were born to them, elegant and beautiful. When the sons of Heaven beheld the daughters of men, they became enamored of them. They said to one another: Come let us choose wives among the children of men.

Samyaza replied: I fear that I alone shall suffer for so grievous a crime. But all the Watchers answered Samyaza and said: We all swear, and bind ourselves by mutual execrations, that we will not change our intention. 

Emboldened, the Watchers took their sin a step further, and taught their human wives the magic of Heaven.

The Watchers took wives, teaching them sorcery, incantations, astronomy, and the dividing of roots. And the women conceived and brought forth the Nephilim, born of spirit and of flesh. 

The union of Heavenly spirit and Earthly flesh was not a happy one.

The children of the Watchers became evil spirits upon earth, turning against men in order to devour them, to eat their flesh, and to drink their blood. The Nephilim, who have been born of spirit and of flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon Earth.

Among the Watchers was a troublemaker known as Azazel. While his brethren taught their children magic like divination and astronomy, Azazel turned to the darker arts. To his sons, he taught skills of war and weaponry. To his daughters, he taught the arts of cosmetics and bodily ornamentation.

Azazel taught men to make swords, knives, shields and breastplates. He taught the fabrication of mirrors, the workmanship of bracelets and ornaments, the use of cosmetics, the beautifying of the eyebrows. He taught the use of all sorts of dyes, so that the world became altered. Azazel has disclosed to the world all the secrets of the heavens. The whole earth has been corrupted through his works.  

The Archangel Raphael descended from Heaven to punish the Watchers for their sins. Raphael banished the angels to a place under the Earth, Azazel apart from the others.

Bind Azazel hand and foot; cast him into darkness; and opening the desert which is in Dudael, cast him in there. 

Raphael sent a great Flood to wipe out the Nephilim. The extermination wasn’t complete, however. Many Nephilim escaped. Raphael hurled a curse after them: the Nephilim would have limited days, and experience no afterlife when they died. While alive, they were doomed to fight among themselves.

Incite the offspring of the Watchers one against the other. Let the Nephilim perish by mutual slaughter. Upon the death of the Nephilim, wheresoever their spirits depart from their bodies, let their flesh be without judgement. Thus shall they perish. 

Popular legend tells us the surviving Nephilim scattered across the Earth and settled among early humans. Because of their knowledge of magic, they became the shamans and sorcerers of ancient cultures.

The Nephilim. They survived the wrath of Heaven. Perhaps their descendants survive to walk among us today.