Watchers

The Watchers are heavenly figures portrayed as overseers of the world who violate their assigned role and position in the divine realm. Instead of remaining in heaven, they descend to the human world, form improper relationships with human women and father children, and share forbidden and dangerous knowledge. These actions are used in apocalyptic traditions to explain the origin and spread of violence, injustice, and disorder in human society. The Watchers are derived from earlier ancient Near Eastern ideas about divine beings who supervise the world, such as the Apkallu, and their stories also show clear similarities to Greek myths about gods or semi-divine figures who transgress boundaries between divine and human realms. In Jewish and Christian apocalyptic writings, the Watchers reflect a negative interpretation of those earlier traditions and function as literary explanations for how corruption enters the world through rebellion within the heavenly order itself.