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The Pagan Origins of the Watcher Myth

3/28/2014

21 Comments

 
My book review of The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Tradition seems to have gotten a bit off track. I started out reading the book and going along well, but then several chapters in I began to realize that I was spending a lot more time researching the references in book’s chapter notes than I was actually reading the chapters. Each is so short that it can do little more than suggest interesting avenues for research, and I’ve found that the sources the chapters link me to—especially Jan M. Bremmer’s brilliant discussion of the connections between the Watchers and Greek mythology in a piece called “Remember the Titans!”—have been much more enlightening.
But I would be remiss in discussing the Watchers and the Nephilim if I didn’t draw your attention to the latest appearance of these creatures, in the new Russell Crowe movie Noah. There, the Watchers descended and had sex with mortal women, and their children are now large stone giants who guard Noah and his Ark. The movie has been blasted repeatedly for the liberties it takes with the biblical narrative, but I haven’t heard any complaints about the depiction of the Nephilim. You’d think that would raise hackles among religious conservatives since of all the movie’s liberties, this one is probably the most blasphemous of all. Although putatively based on the Genesis narrative of 6:1-4, the idea of stone giants who protect the inhabitant of the Ark comes right out of the pagan flood myth from the Epic of Gilgamesh!

When Gilgamesh seeks out Utnapishtim, the poem’s Noah figure (= Xisithrus), in Tablet X, the ale-maid Siduri tells him that he needs to seek out Urshanabi and his “stone things,” which most translators believe refer to animate stone giants, the only creatures that can cross the waters of death. Gilgamesh, in a rage, destroys these stone men and has to find another way to get across the waters to reach the place where Utnapishtim lives in immortal repose so Utnapishtim can tell him the story of the Flood and the Ark.

Surely incorporating Mesopotamian mythology into the biblical story should raise more cries of blasphemy than Noah’s veganism, which at least could be traced back to the literalist belief that the descendants of Seth tried to maintain the peaceful, vegan lifestyle of Eden before the Fall and the introduction of death (remember: no one ate animals in Eden!), in contradistinction to the sons of Cain, who embraced the sin of the post-Eden world. Somehow that fact angered conservative Christians all the more because it seems too close to modern liberalism, despite its close connection to early rabbinical and Christian interpretations of the Genesis narrative. Even the film’s condemnation of industry and technology in favor of ecological stewardship is, if not exactly biblical, entirely in keeping with the Watchers narrative from 1 Enoch, where industrial arts are specifically condemned as the product of the fallen angels and their sinful ways—especially metallurgy and cosmetics—in turn leading directly to the Flood. If the story in the movie is not precisely that of Genesis, the outline of the film’s narrative would have been close to what the early Church Fathers would have recognized, except for the pagan stone giants.

So while we’re on the subject of pagan influences, I want to discuss some interesting material that I read in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Tradition and the sources I found through it. Anathea Portier-Young briefly addresses in her chapter the connection between the Watchers myth and Greek mythology, specifically the way that the story reverses and inverts the values of the Hellenistic culture in which it was written. Specifically, she notes that Prometheus was bound and punished for delivering the arts and sciences, which the Greeks considered good. According to the play Prometheus Bound these were, among others:

  • Astrology and astronomy (454f.)
  • Writing and mathematics (459f.)
  • Herbal medicines and potions (478f.)
  • Divination (484f.)

In 1 Enoch these same arts are now the gift of the demonic Watchers. The Watchers taught herbal medicine (1 Enoch 7:2, 8:3), metallurgy (8:1), astrology and astronomy (8:3), and divination (8:3). The only one of the Promethean arts not diabolized here is writing, which is reserved for Enoch the scribe, who records the true history of the cosmos.

The punishment of the Watchers, too, is a very close parallel to the punishment of the Titans, the old gods who fought against the Olympians and were chained beneath the earth, and who were very early in Greek mythology confused with the Giants, who also rebelled against the gods.

In 1 Enoch we read of how the Watchers are punished for their sins:
And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: For whom are these chains being prepared? And he said unto me: These are being prepared for the hosts of Azazel, so that they may take them and cast them into the abyss of complete condemnation, and they shall cover their jaws with rough stones as the Lord of Spirits commanded. And Michael, and Gabriel, and Raphael, and Phanuel shall take hold of them on that great day, and cast them on that day into the burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for their unrighteousness in becoming subject to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth. (1 Enoch 54:4-6, trans. R. H. Charles)
In Greek myth, the Titans are punished similarly more than once. First, their father Uranus (Sky) imprisons them, as Apollodorus relates:
After these, Earth bore him the Cyclopes, to wit, Arges, Steropes, Brontes of whom each had one eye on his forehead. But them Sky bound and cast into Tartarus, a gloomy place in Hades as far distant from earth as earth is distant from the sky. (Library 1.1.2 trans. James G. Frazer)
Although they escape and overthrow Uranus, Zeus in time will bind them again, where they remain in deepest Tartarus: “the gods overcame the Titans, shut them up in Tartarus, and appointed the Hundred-handers their guards” (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.1, trans. ).

It is widely believed that this story came to Greece from the Near East, probably via the Hittites, since the succession narrative of the gods is well known from Hittite sources. Just as in the Greek myth of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus, a sky god is castrated and overthrown, and his son is in turn overthrown by his son, the storm god Teshub (= Zeus). Hittite texts, and Jan Bremmer tells us, strongly suggest that the older race of overthrown gods had been imprisoned beneath the earth, for once a year during the festival of reversal—equivalent to the Roman Saturnalia, named for their equivalent of Cronus—the storm god Teshub brings these gods up to the surface for a feast.

Bremmer and Portier-Young both believe that these traditions are reflected and refracted in the story of the punishment of the Enochian Watchers, who are thematically the equivalent of the elder race of gods. In late version of Greek myths, the Titans and the Giants were confused and conflated. In the opening of the Orphic Argonautica, for example, the Titans and the Giants are equivalent: “I sang of […] the destructive acts of the Giants, who spilled their gloomy seed from the sky begetting the men of old…” (my trans.), and it was this Hellenistic version that helps to explain how the Sons of God beget the Giants and heroes of old and why 1 Enoch makes the earth prosecute the giants at the court of God (7:6), inverting the rage of Gaia (Earth) on behalf of the Titans in Greek myth, causing the birth of the Giants (Apollodorus, Library 1.6), as Portier-Young points out.

We keep coming closer to the site where the Watchers came to earth. We’ve moved from Greece to Anatolia, and from Anatolia we can connect the story to the succession of the gods reported in the Phoenician cosmology of Sanchuniathon, long recognized as being closely parallel to Hesiod’s Theogony (as Philo himself notes). This is an interesting text because it is all that remains of Phoenician mythology, preserved at quite a remove from the original. We have the texts in fragments preserved by Eusebius of Caesaria in his Praeparatio Evangelica, but not directly from the original. Eusebius was quoting Philo of Byblos, a Hellenistic writer of Phoenician extraction who translated and probably rewrote the original. Philo euhemerized Sanchuniathon, turning his gods into mortals, as was common among the followers of Euhemerus, who had done the same for Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus (Praeparatio Evangelica 2.45, quoting Diodorus 6; Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles, 3.105-108). The succession of the gods is very similar here, too, with generation succeeding generation.

Down to the middle nineteenth century, Sanchuniathon was considered a reliable source, but then his veracity was doubted, with many arguing that he was an invention of Philo, his cosmology a fabrication from Greek sources. The translation of Ugaritic Bronze Age texts in the 1920s and after demonstrated that Sanchuniathon’s work contains genuine Semitic elements, and Philo’s version represents the form in which they were known at the time that the Book of Watchers, the earliest section of the Book of Enoch.

Therefore, it is with interest that we read in Sanchuniathon’s fragments a story that pretty much duplicates the story of the Watchers as given in Genesis and Enoch. As the generations of the gods (here given as mortal kings) pass, we come to the creation of giants from miscegenation between the sons of the high gods and mortal women:
From Genos, son of Aeon and Protogonus, were begotten again mortal children, whose names are Light, and Fire, and Flame. These, says he, discovered fire from rubbing pieces of wood together, and taught the use of it. And they begat sons of surpassing size and stature, whose names were applied to the mountains which they occupied: so that from them were named mount Cassius, and Libanus, and Antilibanus, and Brathy. From these, he says, were begotten Memrumus and Hypsuranius; and they got their names, he says, from their mothers, as the women in those days had free intercourse with any whom they met. (trans. E. H. Gifford)
So, the sons of the gods taught the use of fire to mortals, had sex with their women, and produced giants who were associated with the mountains of the Anti-Lebanon range, the same range where stands Mount Hermon, the home of the Watchers. The euhemerizing has turned the gods of the mountains or on the mountains to human namesakes of the mountains, but the story remains recognizable.

This is suspiciously similar.

It gets more interesting when we read that the generations of the gods were responsible for teaching various industrial arts and sciences (including, from Thoth-Hermes, writing, as well as divination, astrology, and metalworking) and still more interesting when we see that the immediate next generation built two pillars and worshiped them, much as the Watchers and/or Sons of Seth built two pillars to preserve knowledge (Josephus, Antiquities 1.2.3). In the Phoenician tradition, as with many Near Eastern cultures, the pillars of temples were inscribed with magical formulae and the deeds of the gods. Euhemerus himself drew on this tradition in creating his fictional land of Panchaea just beyond the Near East: “In the middle of the bed, is placed a great golden pillar, whereon are letters inscribed, called by the Egyptians, sacred writing, expressing the famous actions of Uranus, Zeus, Artemis, and Apollo, written, they say, by Hermes himself” (Diodorus, Library of History 5.67, adapted from trans. by G. Booth). Hermes, of course, was also identified by the Arabs with Enoch and later made the lead actor in the building of the pillars attributed first to the Watchers and and later identified with the pyramids of Egypt!

Now here things get very interesting. Although the chronology is somewhat askew, Sanchuniathon next reports on the pantheon of the gods, which Philo makes to form after the events above. This pantheon is headed by Cronus, who overthrew Uranus. This Cronus he names as Elus (El), the chief Semitic god. He is surrounded by a court called the Eloim and all the gods had a pair of wings, just like angels. These are very obviously the same as Yahweh’s court of the Elohim (Psalm 82), found also in the Ugaritic ’l-h-m, the pantheon surrounding the high god Il. These are very similar to the Sons of God/the gods (bene ha’elohim) from Genesis.

Although the order of events differs in Sanchuniathon, most likely due to the euhemerizing process, all of the elements of the Genesis narrative are here: the pantheon of gods (= Sons of God), the teaching of the civilizing arts, the mating with mortal women, the birth of giants, etc. I believe that the events of the original Phoenician story would have been in the order given in 1 Enoch because we know from the pseudo-Sibylline Oracles (3.105-108) that euhemerizing accounts in Greek placed Cronus and the Titans after the foundation of civilization (since they were, for the euhemerists mortal kings), but that the canonical Greek myths placed them long before. Therefore, it seems likely that the euhemerists similarly renovated the Phoenician version.

What we see in 1 Enoch is an enormously complex text that serves multiple purposes, both within the Jewish community and against the Hellenistic and Babylonian milieu of its age. Nevertheless, it seems clear that the tradition upon which it drew predated Jewish monotheism and must have originally been a myth like those of Prometheus and the Phoenician gods involving the origins of civilization in the teachings of the gods who came to earth and mated with mortal women (cf. Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus, husband of the first woman, Pandora) and begat the heroes of the ancient golden age. Such a story was, of course, no longer acceptable after the rise of monotheism, and it had to be reworked—however incompletely—to demonize the pagan gods for the glory of the one God. It is, in any case, an amazing story of the persistence of tradition from time immemorial down to the present day, from the Bronze Age to the new Noah movie.

21 Comments
KIF
3/28/2014 06:59:43 am

The pagan origin of the myth is academic

What the myth was adapted into within Judaism is an entirely different subject matter

Reply
Walt
3/28/2014 07:36:46 am

Could you elaborate? How does tracing the origin of the Watchers back to paganism not devalue the Book of the Watchers within the Book of Enoch?

Reply
KIF
3/28/2014 07:47:03 am

Judaism borrowed much from other earlier religious sources, but that's not an "explanation" in itself because what counts is how it was adapted within the framework of Judaism

Jason Colavito link
3/28/2014 08:07:11 am

When you say that's "what counts," it really depends on what your purpose is. If your purpose is understanding apocalyptic Judaism in its social and political context, then sure. But if you're interested in the continuity of tradition, then its momentary political uses aren't as important.

KIF
3/28/2014 08:21:45 am

The original past context within paganism of whatever religious theme Judaism borrowed was not of any importance

Reply
Dave Lewis
3/28/2014 10:06:29 am

In the essay "Watchers Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls" by Samuel Thomas it is noted that Gilgamesh is mentioned in the fragmentary "Book of the Giants" which was found among the dead sea scrolls.

In trying to understand how different cultures borrowed myths from each other, I relate the borrowing to "crossovers" in the various worlds of comic books.

I recognize that most Christians believe that G-d dictated the old and new testament to the people who wrote it down. The preponderance of the evidence indicates, hower, that the OT was redacted from many sources.

I apologize if this offends any here. Feel free to consign me to perdition "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
Mark 9:48 KJV

Reply
Drew
3/29/2014 02:47:22 am

Speaking of references Jason, I was flipping through Richard Dolan's new book and saw he was using you as a reference in his chapter going after the Ancient Aliens set. Surprised you have not mentioned it here (or maybe you did and I blanked on it).

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/29/2014 02:50:00 am

I haven't read his book. (I can't possibly read all of the ancient astronaut/UFO drivel!) What does he say about me?

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/29/2014 02:53:17 am

I just looked it up on Amazon. He didn't even spell my name correctly!

Gunn
3/29/2014 03:06:49 am

From my own admittedly narrow viewpoint (yet held by many), it doesn't seem to matter, historically, how and where all the information contained in the Bible came from. I have no problem with examining probabilities and similarities, yet my conclusion is that the final version of the Bible is what God was after...and He got the final version of the Word he wanted for this age of swollen population...and yes, with the help of inspired human communicators. I see the Bible as a work in progress until the wanted result was met, by none other than God Himself. The historical progression of God's Word may seem self-evident upon study (roots of paganism, etc.), but the final result is what really matters most.

Are we muddying the holy waters? Yes and no, depending on what one believes. There are writings, and there are Writings. We can see a progression through time, to reach a more vivid truth, and the Truth is what's important. But this truth is difficult enough to understand, without experiencing a questionable confusion of pagan references...which have long been considered and discarded anyway, as unimportant in the greater scheme of things.

God is a master bookmaker, having accomplished His design with SEEMINGLY considerable confusion along the way while working with fallible humans. Yet, His basic message of salvation is clear enough for today. Jesus, as God, claimed there is only one way to be saved, which is through the sacrifice He made of Himself.

The way of salvation may seem strange, but what other method of salvation might be less peculiar? There is a way to salvation, but the pathway is straight, and the gate is narrow. Faith in the Creator is required. I looked all around me, and Christianity offers me the best hope for the future--and with most of the important questions answered. What good is unproductive doubt? Either the Bible as we have it today is true, or else millions of people are wasting their time.

Is it good, then, to examine seemingly pagan influences along the way of salvation, in a historical context? Or can this examination pose further problems of doubt to the already over-skeptical? Myself, I seek Truth, not doubt. Is there a danger in looking back?

Ask Lot's wife.

Reply
Only Me
3/29/2014 05:30:24 am

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."
- Thomas Jefferson

Reply
Gunn
3/29/2014 02:11:37 pm

Yes, reason and fear, too. Not one or the other.

Jefferson wasn't right about everything. Questioning the existence of God is FOOL-HEARTY...according to the very Word of God...but then, what would you expect, right?

What does "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" mean? Is this a bad attitude, or a plea for being left alone, both, or what?

Well, it means different things to different people, I guess. But I would advise the wise person not to make the foolish mistake of "kissing God off" while beholding the sky with too much skepticism.

I know, it's personal, of course...but then there's the required evangelism, too.

Fear? Freedom to choose is meaningful to God, since, like the Tin Man, robots have no hearts. Reason and fear together sounds about right from one important angle, but let's not forget other important words and angles, like joy, peace, love, happiness, forever, etc. Ying and Yang, man.

Only Me
3/29/2014 03:05:27 pm

Remember the difference in the definitions of "fear". Jefferson was referring to blind obedience due to abject terror. God-fearing means to hold Him in reverence. Two different things, based on context.

The quote was Jefferson's way of saying "don't believe everything you're told"; find out for yourself, question for the sake of knowledge. No one likes to be played for the fool. Also, since God gave us reason, it would honor Him more to actually use it, as opposed to wasting such a gift. Jefferson, like many of the Founders, believed in Providence; he wasn't literally questioning whether God existed or not.

Dave Lewis
3/29/2014 07:46:40 am

I really appreciate it that you stated that this is your personal viewpoint. I have no problem with that. I get irritated when folks portray their beliefs as facts.

Reply
Discovery of America
3/29/2014 09:24:25 am

Religious fundamentalism and belief in the Rosslyn myths...

Reply
Michael Heiser link
3/29/2014 06:08:37 am

Yes - "origins" is quite the wrong word. Gen 6:1-4 is a polemic against the Mesopotamian apkallu and Mesopotamia's positive portrayal of its own knowledge as divine, which knowledge survived the flood. A literary-theological polemic does not mean origins. It is most typically a response to a certain perspective (in this case religious / worldview) of a set of ideas accepted or presumed in common. A word like "origins" (for so much of this discussion about the Bible and ANE culture) makes the mistake of presuming that the appearance of an idea in literature means that's when it was born within the culture. Not so. That's the same mistake as assuming that a *language* was invented when *writing* was invented. People were talking long before they developed writing. Two related, but distinct, items.

The essay in this book by Frohlich on Mesopotamian antecedents mentions (I think once) the best article on this subject to date: Amar Annus, “On the Watchers: A Comparative Study of the Antediluvian Wisdom in Mesopotamian and Jewish Traditions,” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 19:4 (2010): 277-320. The polemic nature of the Gen 6:1-4 is made stunningly clear. his article supersedes everything done to date concerning the apkallu. Some new material in here from Andrew George's magisterial critical edition on Gilgamesh published a few years ago. Unfortunately, this article is not in public domain. You'd need to find a library that subscribes either to the ATLA Religion database of JSTOR to get it in PDF (or hard copy, if the library subscribes to JSP).

All the above aside, the book Jason is reviewing is well worth the investment. It's not very expensive and the essays are of good quality.

Reply
Dave Lewis
3/29/2014 07:56:26 am

Mike Heiser wrote: Gen 6:1-4 is a polemic against the Mesopotamian apkallu and Mesopotamia's positive portrayal of its own knowledge as divine, which knowledge survived the flood.

Would that idea be accepted by a majority or minority of OT scholars?

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/29/2014 08:04:29 am

I have to thank you, Mike, for the reference to Annus's article. Although my library's JSTOR doesn't have that database, the article was accessible through EBSCO, and I've started reading it. It's extremely interesting and makes a great case for a Mesopotamian background for the Watchers/Sons of God story. I do wonder, though, if the specific association of the Watchers with the mountains of Anti-Lebanon wasn't from a preexisting parallel myth on the order of the Phoenician one.

I should say, though, that you are of course right about the use of the word "origins." It's not as though the Watchers sprang into existence on one given day in 304 BCE, or whatever date. Rather, the story we have is a revision and repurposing of traditional materials for polemical purposes. On the other hand, you can't really condense all of that nuance into a headline.

Reply
KIF
3/29/2014 09:27:33 am

Frohlich - all very well and good - but he does not go beyond the storytelling level. He does not mention WHY the Book of Enoch was written WHEN it was written or anything else important.

Reply
KIF
3/29/2014 09:23:09 am

The pagan origins of the myth is not of any importance - but how it was adapted into the framework of Judaism

Reply
Steven
10/18/2015 04:03:09 pm

Actually, the recent Noah movie gives no information regarding the mating of the Watchers to human women. Instead, the Nephilim are portrayed as angels who simply taught man various skills (the leader of the stone giants is named Samyaza, who in the book of Enoch is actually a Watcher, not a Nephilims son of a watcher). According to the movie, God turned them to stone simply for teaching mankind. This, as far as I know, has no basis in any ancient texts.

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