The watchers story in Enoch derives from the sixth chapter Genesis, where the "Origin of the Nephilim" is described and the " Sons of God" who beget them are mentioned:
The term irin is primarily applied to disobedient Watchers who numbered a total of 200, and of whom their leaders are named, but equally Aramaic iri ("watcher" singular) is also applied to the obedient archangels who chain them, such as Raphael (1 Enoch 22:6). This book is based on one interpretation of the Sons of God passage in Genesis 6, according to which angels married with human females, giving rise to a race of hybrids known as the Nephilim. The dating of this section of 1 Enoch is around 2nd-1st Century BCE. The Aramaic irin "watchers" is rendered as "angel" (Greek angelos, Coptic malah) in the Greek and Ethiopian translations, although the usual Aramaic term for angel malakha does not occur in Aramaic Enoch. It occurs in the Aramaic fragments in the phrase irin we-qadishin, "Watchers and Holy Ones", known from Aramaic Daniel. The term "Watchers," is common in the Book of Enoch found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Book of the Watchers is the name for one section of the book (1 Enoch 6-36). Dead Sea Scrolls and Pseudepigrapha Book of Enoch For example, in the Aramaic text it is ambiguous who is telling the story of verse 14, whether it is Nebuchadnezzar himself, or the watcher in his dream.
The presentation in Daniel of these "watchers, holy ones" may be a depiction of Babylonian religion, that is an attempt by the author of this section of Daniel to present Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian gods recognising the power of the God of Israel as "Most High." The version of this dream and its interpretation differs from the Aramaic of the Massoretic Text to the Greek of the Septuagint. Nebuchadnezzar then describes how in his dream the watcher says that Nebuchadnezzar will eat grass and be mad and that this punishment is "by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones" in order that "the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men." After hearing the king's dream Daniel considers for an hour and then responds:ĭaniel 4:23 And whereas the king saw a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and his portion with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him KJV The term is introduced by Nebuchadnezzar who describes how he saw "a watcher, a holy one come down (singular verb) from heaven." The singular verb indicates that "a watcher, a holy one" are two titles for the same being or class of being. In Daniel 4:13, 17, 23 there are three references made to a the class of "watcher, holy one" (watcher, Aramaic `iyr, holy one Aramaic qaddiysh).
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