For believers, angels are usually seen within scripture as divine beings that protect,
help and even teach humans. We see many examples of this throughout the bible,
such as when an angel gives wisdom to Hagar, telling her to return to Sarai,
her master or when the angels instruct Lot to leave Sodom and Gomorrah and never
look back. For the most part, angels can be seen in the bible as delivering good sense,
providing motivation or even indirectly saving people’s lives by either altering their course
or nudging them in the right direction. You might say that what can be learned from
angels isn’t any specific knowledge, but rather advice or merit that either brings believers
closer to their god or helps them navigate or avoid an otherwise disastrous situation.
But what about those angels of a different variety… those who have not only betrayed
their creator, but also taken it upon themselves to become involved with humanity’s affairs by
educating them in dark arts, forbidden magic and the holy secrets of heaven.
In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, we see angels known as ‘Watchers’, who were tasked by God to
observe humanity, become infatuated with the mortal women. This leads the Watchers,
led by the chief angel Sumyaza, to descend upon the mortal women and to take them for
themselves. Many readers focus only on this unholy union between man and angel,
as well as the subsequent birth of the hideous monsters known as Nephilim,
but one key part of this narrative that’s often overlooked here is how the Watchers don’t just
turn tail and run after having their way with the women, but rather, stick around to teach,
share and in effect, corrupt mankind with knowledge that was not meant for them.
It is in chapter 7 of the Book of Enoch where we are told,
“And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one,
and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them
charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.”
What we see here is argued by some commentators as the origins of witchcraft. There is an assumption
here that without the intervention of the Watchers, that mankind - specifically women
in this example - would not have any reason nor inclination to dabble with ‘charms’ and
‘enchantments’. In this example, not only were the bodies of women defiled by the Watchers,
but so were their minds, for they became enticed by these ‘charms’ and ‘enchantments’, to the point
that they lost sight of God and favoured the teachings of these bad angels instead.
Unfortunately, the Book of Enoch does not go into detail as to exactly what these charms
and enchantments were, but again, some have used this passage as sort of an umbrella to encapsulate
all facets of witchcraft or black magic. You may also notice that whilst the text is not explicit
with what the charms and enchantments entailed, it is specific enough to mention the ‘cutting of
roots’ and that perhaps a lot of this knowledge shared by the angels pertained to the creation
of forbidden concoctions, potions or some kind of amalgamation of leaves, herbs and plants that
mankind could use to achieve various advantages. Of course, the idea here is that if mankind was
meant to possess this knowledge, then the creator God would have divulged this information to them,
suggesting to us that this was something that mankind was not meant to know.
It might be said that once upon a time, the pre-flood mankind according to this narrative
regarded plants as nothing more than features of nature - perhaps aesthetically pleasing
elements that were a testament to their god’s design. However, it wasn’t until the Watchers
were these plants repurposed and presented to man in a way that made them use the plants
for the purposes of evil. According to this narrative, if it wasn’t for the fallen angels,
mankind would likely not have ever considered using plants in this fashion and so, through this,
man is corrupted. Some may draw parallels here to Adam and Eve becoming tempted by the serpent,
where they are enticed by the fruit and become knowledgeable of good and evil. In the same way,
mankind is tempted by an entity with bad intentions, they are taken unawares in the
absence of God and they ultimately fail him by choosing to indulge.
So, with this example, we can gather that the fallen angels had some advanced knowledge when
it came to herbology, agriculture and perhaps even alchemy to some extent. They opened
man’s eyes to the potential and potency of the resources around them and for better or worse,
gave mankind magic - or, as commentators might imply, black magic or evil magic - abilities and
knowledge that humanity had no right wielding yet, had come to wield it all the same.
In the subsequent chapter, we learn of another wicked angel named Azazel - an angel who,
as far as the book tells us, is less concerned with the beauty of mortal women, but far more
interested in weaponry - more specifically, the teaching of weapons unto man. We are told,
“And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates,
and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them,
and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids,
and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.”
Here, we are led to believe that these fallen angels were responsible for the creation of
weapons and that it was they that taught men to make them in the first place. In some essence,
we might believe that the world therefore was once a pretty peaceful place and that not only did man
have no desire to wage war on another, he had no means to do so either. By placing a sword in his
hand and pointing him in the right direction however, the text leads us to believe that man
was easily corrupted by the angels, again, just as easily as Adam and Eve were corrupted by the
serpent. It doesn’t take much for mankind to become enticed by the arsenal produced by the
angel Azazel and likewise, it doesn’t seem to take too much for them to learn how to use it.
Through this, it might be said that fallen angels can teach man how to fight, they can give man an
advantage over another and they can give them the resources (no matter how deadly) in order
to maintain that advantage. The men are given swords, knives, shields and breastplates - state
of the art weaponry at the time, that allowed man to not only defend himself, but to conquer
nations. In the same vein, some commentators believe that it is these same sorts of angels that
provide mankind with modern technology today, specifically weaponry, in that they prompt,
nudge or incite man in some capacity to create such disastrous tools capable of mass destruction.
In another interpretation, fallen angels here might also be regarded as being responsible for
teaching man combat, or giving man some devious strength so that he might achieve his own selfish
agenda, one that serves himself and not the sentiments of his god. Violence - or at least,
the ability to carry it out, therefore is suddenly not a part of human nature, but rather, something
that is given to us by the fallen angels. It is another corruption of humanity, one that by some
suggestion is not entirely our fault, but rather can be attributed to the influence of evil angels.
You’ll also notice here that Azazel makes known to man the metals of the earth,
and whilst it is not clear what this passage means exactly, some have made efforts to connect this
to science and creation. Through metals, Azazel revealed to man the many things that can be built,
he shows them how metal can be utilised to form machinery and structures and most importantly,
he shows man how to meld metals into weapons. Just as plants were shown to women to make concoctions
of charms and enchantments and poisons, metal is shown to man so that he might make shields,
swords and armour and use these against other men to maim and kill. Another interpretation
is that Azazel opens man’s eyes to gold - that which he comes to crave, desire - even worship!
There is some suggestion here that Azazel gave man the concept of trade, set the value of
gold itself and even encouraged man to collect it, spend it and steal it. This might further
be reinforced by Azazel teaching man to make bracelets and ornaments, further encouraging
man to become obsessed with possessions and to prioritise these objects over God.
What’s more, we also see Azazel teach the ‘beautifying of the eyelids’. Some interpretations
of this line suggest that Azazel wasn’t just focussed on corrupting men by leading them to
violence, but was also focussed on corrupting the women, imploring them to wear masks of deceit or
to appear deceptively in the eyes of man. In another idea, Azazel encourages women to use
their beauty against man, to manipulate him by ‘beautifying themselves’, whether through
witchcraft or cosmetics, and to ultimately seduce man away from his righteousness and
his god. Through this, some arguments suggest that the fallen angels not only taught man and woman a
variety of concepts from witchcraft, commerce, war and deception, but also encouraged humanity to use
these things against each other. In a way, it’s almost as if they deliberately corrupted man not
to spite God and certainly not to better humanity, but rather simply for their own entertainment.
In the same chapter, we learn that it was Samyazza who taught the enchantments and
root cuttings - that the principle leader of the Watchers was also
the same being that gave the world witchcraft, sorcery and dark magic.
Then we learn of Armaros, an angel who taught the ‘resolving of enchantments’, or perhaps,
even more conjurings and magic that was not meant for the eyes or ears of humans.
We learn of Baraqijal, an angel who taught astrology,
and showed man how the positions of celestial bodies would have an influence on their own
affairs and the natural world. The suggestion with this verse is that
astrology was not something that the god of the pre-flood world wanted humans to understand.
In addition to this, we learn of the angel Kokabel, who taught mankind the
constellations - another feature of the known universe that the pre-flood god did
not want people to grasp. With this idea, we are led to believe from the Enochian
narrative that our understanding of the stars and their alignments came
from the fallen angels and that this, like everything else, was ‘forbidden knowledge’.
We are then told about Ezeqeel, who possessed the knowledge of clouds and that this angel gave
us the ability to understand and even predict the weather. Before this, we know from ancient
civilizations that deities were believed to be responsible for the rain, sun and seasons and that
depending on the god’s mood, the yield of crops being produced would either be bountiful or
meagre. There’s no reason to believe that in this narrative, people didn’t think the same
thing about their god, so when this fallen angel tells them how to predict the weather, they stop
basing their crop yield upon the mood of god and more importantly, stop being grateful for him
We are then told about the angel Araqiel, who taught mankind the signs of the earth,
which may suggest that this angel taught man more about the ground,
about the soil and about the very nature of earth itself. By understanding this, it might
be said that man came to be aware of the earth’s ecosystem and that whilst God created the earth,
the earth kind of took care of itself. Whilst purely speculation, some might say that with
this knowledge, the humans of the pre-flood era grew complacent with their worship of God, for no
longer were they really that impressed with god when they learned how intricate the planet was.
We then learn of two angels; Shamsiel and Sariel, who teach mankind about the sun and
the moon respectively. Like with Araqiel teaching man about the earth, it might be said that once
man learned how interesting and complex the sun and the moon were, as well as the influence this
star and satellite had on the earth, they were far less concerned with their God,
especially considering that these elements worked automatically without his continued involvement.
From what we can tell from the Enochian account, much of what humanity learned
in the pre-flood era carried over into the ‘new world’. There were still accounts of witchcraft,
there was certainly war and bloodshed and as far as the forbidden knowledge goes, much,
if not all of it was available to man after the deluge too. Either mankind managed to relearn what
they had gathered (much as mankind was still aware of good and evil from the days of Adam
and Eve), or God didn’t bother removing this knowledge now that man had already learned it.
Another argument comes from a later chapter in the Book of Enoch where God tells Enoch to
tell the Watchers that though they did know some secrets that were not meant for man,
those secrets weren’t even all that great. We are told,
“And now as to the Watchers who have sent thee to intercede for them,
who had been aforetime in heaven, (say to them): “You have been in heaven,
but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones.”
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