Watchers

Overview

"Watchers" renders the Aramaic word 'ir (plural 'irin), "wakeful one," a class of heavenly beings. In the Bible the word appears only in Daniel 4 (verses 13, 17 and 23). Outside the Bible, Jewish writings of the Second Temple period use the word for angels, both obedient and rebel. It is best known from the Book of the Watchers, the first section of 1 Enoch, where it names the angels who fall.

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In Daniel 4

King Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a watcher and holy one who comes down from heaven and orders the great tree cut down (Daniel 4:13-14). The sentence, the dream says, is by the decree of the watchers and the word of the holy ones, so that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men (4:17). The Old Greek translation of Daniel renders "a watcher and a holy one" with the single word "angel," while Theodotion's Greek version simply transliterates the Aramaic. A translator's handbook on Daniel notes at 4:13 that scholars almost invariably take the watcher as an angel, though some see a special class of angels. See Book of Daniel.

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In 1 Enoch

1 Enoch is a Jewish writing of the Second Temple period, not part of the Hebrew Bible. The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36) survives in Aramaic fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was probably composed in the third century BC, in stages; the oldest Qumran copy dates to the first half of the second century BC. It joins "watchers" with "holy ones," the pairing found in Daniel 4. It tells of two hundred Watchers who descend on Mount Hermon under Shemihazah, swear an oath, take human wives, and father giants, and of their judgment (1 Enoch 6-11). In the account the Watchers ask Enoch to draw up a petition for them and read it in the presence of the Lord of heaven (13:4). The book of Jubilees tells a variant in which the Watchers were first sent to earth to teach humanity and fell later (Jubilees 4:15; 5:1-6).

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Watchers and Genesis 6

Genesis 6:1-4 does not use the word. The Book of the Watchers retells that story with Watchers as the offenders. Whether the sons of God of Genesis are the beings Enoch calls Watchers is the question surveyed in Giants. This entry takes no side.

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A Mesopotamian connection

Some scholars link the Watchers to the Mesopotamian sages called Apkallu. A ritual text quotes an incantation that addresses the sages' guardian figurines as massaru, "watchers," and Amar Annus argues the Aramaic term was adapted from this Akkadian word. Other scholars propose different derivations. Siam Bhayro, for example, derives it from the Akkadian verb baru, used in divination for reading omens and also meaning "to watch over." The question is open.