Our commentary
Who were the Watchers?
Our own look at a common question, by David Dell. The background on this page is ours, not a summary of the book.
“Watcher” is a rare word in the Bible, but an important one. It names heavenly beings who observe human affairs, and in later Jewish tradition it became the name for angels who fell.
The Watchers in Daniel
The word appears in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 4, where watchers are holy messengers carrying out heaven's decree:
“I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;” Daniel 4:13 (KJV)
“This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” Daniel 4:17 (KJV)
The sons of God in Genesis 6
Genesis 6 is the passage most people mean when they connect Watchers with fallen angels:
“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Genesis 6:2 (KJV)
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4 (KJV)
The word translated “giants” here is the Hebrew nephilim; we look at it in Nephilim and UFOs.
Who were these “sons of God”? Elsewhere in the Old Testament the phrase refers to heavenly beings (compare Job 1:6), and many early Jewish and Christian readers took Genesis 6 the same way. Another long-standing reading, advocated most famously by Augustine (City of God XV.23), says they were the godly line of Seth. Faithful Christians hold both views.
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” Job 1:6 (KJV)
The Book of Enoch
The ancient Jewish text called 1 Enoch expands Genesis 6 into a full story. It calls the rebel angels the Watchers and says two hundred of them “descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon.” 1 Enoch isn't part of most Christian Bibles, though it is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, so it's best read as historical background to how Genesis 6 was understood rather than as Scripture. The New Testament knew the tradition: Jude quotes Enoch (Jude 1:14–15) and speaks of angels who left their place:
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Jude 1:6 (KJV)
Sources: Daniel 4; Genesis 6; Job 1:6; Jude (KJV) · Sons of God · Augustine, City of God XV.23 · Book of Enoch · 1 Enoch, tr. R.H. Charles (1917)