The “Nephilim” taught man about agriculture, cuneiform writing, mathematics, sacred geometry, war, astrology, and occult magic."Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone." - The Necronomicon
"We convoke the Nephilim and they come to us, strangers with the eyes of men..." -- The Coming of the Watchers.
The mysterious passage quoted above, one of the Old Testament's most evocative and tantalizing, shines out of the dust of Genesis. It can probably be taken as an attempt by the Bible's authors to explain, and legitimize, the countless tales of gods and heroic demigods which far pre-dated the Scriptures in the ancient Near East and around the world. These mighty beings, Genesis would have us believe, have no connection with older, rival gods and goddesses; they are descended from the One God, fathered by his angels on human women.The Bible, however, has seen many changes in its few centuries, and many translations throw different lights on the same material. The word given as "giants" in most modern versions is not always so. In several, notably the New English Bible, it is rendered in the original Hebrew: “Nephilim”.
Translation and reinterpretation have not been the only causes of change in the Bible. A wide body of material which was originally accepted as canonical was excised by the Councils of 633 and 637 CE for various reasons, mostly censorious. (For example, the Council banished the Infancy Gospels, wherein a cruelly arrogant Christ Child kills several innocent townspeople who merely got in his way.)
Much of this material survives under the collective name of Apocrypha - from the Greek apokryphos, "hidden secret" - under which name it was commonly included as an appendix in Bibles up to about the year 1600. We are fortunate that it does, as it is not only fascinating work of great antiquity but reflects traditions far older than itself. It is within the Apocrypha, notably the two Books of Enoch (not to be confused with the Liber Logaeth of Dr. John Dee, sometimes called by that name, about which more later) and the Book of Jubilees, that we find the full legend of the “Watchers” and the “Nephilim”, banished by fearful and bigoted Church Fathers from the Bible in use today. The Apocryphal books tell us this: Originally the angels, or Sons of God, all surveyed the world and its beings from on high, and among them were those called the “Igigi” (Grigori) or “Watchers”.
"The Watchers" can be translated with several shades of meaning, and depending on the translator means "observers" or "sentinels, sleepless ones"; whether they are vigilant or simply curious, they watch. Some texts say they were tempted by the beauty of human women ("the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair..."), while others grant them a compassionate Promethean urge to guide and teach or a touching desire for family and companionship; There were, we're told, no female Watchers.
Whatever their motive, two hundred of the Watchers, led by the great angel Semjaza-Azazel, (Anu), defied divine direction, descended to Earth and took a personal hand in humankind's creation and education.
Crafts and sciences, arts and letters, and the many skills of magic - all of which are described as "secrets...made in heaven", intended only for the Celestials to know - were shared with our distant ancestors."
And Azazel taught men to make swords and daggers and shields and breastplates...bracelets, and ornaments, mining and the metals of the earth, and the art of making up the eyes and beautifying the eyelids (angels invent eye shadow). (Read More ...)
