The Origin of Evil and the End of the World

Lloyd D. Graham

To a large extent, Judaeo-Christian beliefs have shaped the values and morals of the
Western world. It is therefore somewhat surprising to find that the Old Testament lacks
an account of the origin of evil, other than possibly attributing it to God (Isa 45:7), and
that neither it nor the New Testament provides a convincing reason for the fall of Satan
and his cohort from heaven. One possible allusion – the desire of Lucifer to exalt himself
above God, resulting in his being cast down (Isa 14:12-15) – occurs in a context that
shows it to refer to the ambitions of a particular King of Babylon. So is there, then, no
explanation of evil that dates to Old Testament times? There is, and yet – despite its
prominence in apocryphal literature and some scriptural allusions to it – the story remains
little known. A passage in Genesis mentions it as follows:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that
they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose ... 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 bare children to them, the same became mighty men which
were of old, men of renown. And God looked upon the earth ... [and said:] The end of
all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them ... (Gen
6:1-13)

These profoundly important events are described in much greater detail in Old Testament
pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, such as the Book of Enoch (1 En) and the Book of
Jubilees (Jub). Such sources describe how two hundred heavenly beings, all drawn from
the angelic order known as Watchers (Heb. ‘irin, “those who are awake”), ensured their
own damnation by forsaking their heavenly estate in favour of sexual liaisons with mortal
women:

And it came to pass, when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were
born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the
heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: “Come, let us choose
wives from among the children of men, and beget us children”. And Semjaza, who
was their leader ... and all the others together with [him] took unto themselves wives,
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 they made them
acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants ... who
consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them,
the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against
birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink
the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. (1 En 6:1-7:6)

Thus the immediate consequences of this forbidden intercourse were twofold. The
first outcome was that the fallen angels imparted their heavenly knowledge of the
sciences and the arts to mortals:

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 And Azazel taught men ... the metals of the earth and the art of working them ...
Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings ... Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel
the knowledge of the clouds... (1 En 8:1-3); ...[they] revealed the eternal secrets which
were in heaven, which men were striving to learn (1 En 9:6-7). And the whole earth has
been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin. (1
En 10:8-9).

Such enlightenment parallels the outcome of the well-known Genesis story (Gen 3:1-7)
where Adam and Eve were induced to eat from the Tree of Knowledge by the Serpent (an
entity later identified with Satan, as in Rev 12:9). In fact, the story of Eve succumbing to
the temptations of the diabolical and phallic serpent can be viewed as a prudish
encryption of the Watcher legend that was moved to an earlier position in the Genesis
chronology in order to emphasise its singular importance. This view is supported by a
passage (1 En 69:6) in which one of the fallen Watchers is credited with leading Eve
astray, and also by the inclusion of Samsapeel as a leader of the Watchers (1 En 6:7). The
latter is cognate with Samael, the angel of death who from the late Rabbinic period
onward provided Judaism with the major name for Satan; it is Samael who planted the
forbidden Tree in the Garden of Eden (3 Baruch 4:9), who tempted Eve through the
serpent, and who went on to seduce and impregnate her (Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer 13 & 21).
If the view proposed in this paragraph is accepted, then the fall of the angels and the fall
of man become two aspects of a single event.
The second outcome of the fall of the angels was the giant and monstrous offspring
(Heb. nephilim, “fallen ones”) born to Watcher fathers by human mothers, monsters that
turned against humanity and the other creatures of the Earth. A passage in Jubilees (Jub
7:21-25) identifies the nephilim with the mighty men of renown (Heb. gibborim) of
Genesis 6:4. One of God’s avenging archangels arranged the destruction of the nephilim
by inciting them to battle each other; when the giants perished, their souls became the
evil spirits and demons that have afflicted mankind ever since (1 En 15:8-16:1; Jub 10:5).
The fallen Watchers – now the princes of evil – were imprisoned in torment until the Day
of Judgement, and God instigated the Flood in order to purge and purify the earth.

Dates and Words The earliest reference to the Watcher story is probably Genesis 6:1-13,
and it may date from as long ago as the eighth or ninth centuries BCE. Early copies of the
Septuagint translation of 270 BCE (where the Old Testament and related apocrypha were
rendered into Greek) suggest that the Hebrew term bene ha-elohim – “sons of God” or
“sons of gods” – in Gen 6:2 was translated from the outset as “angels of God”. The Book
of Enoch contains the earliest detailed account of the full story. It dates to the period 200-
100 BCE, although 1 Enoch 1-36 (the Book of the Watchers) may have been written in
the third century BCE.
The term “Watcher” (Heb. ‘irin) occurs mainly in the Old Testament pseud-
epigrapha that deal with the fallen angels, but it is also found in the Book of Daniel, a
canonical book contemporary with 1 Enoch. There the phrase “a watcher and an holy
one” (Dan 4:13 & 23) is used to denote a particular class of angel, and precisely the same
phrase is found in some fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls (e.g., 1 QapGen II:1). Most
sources identify Azazel and Semyaza as the leaders of the fallen Watchers. The name
Azazel appears also in the canonical Old Testament (Lev 16:8-10), where it seems to
refer to a wilderness demon of Judaeo-pagan origin; in this respect, it resembles Isa 34:14,

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the single Old Testament reference to Lilith (see below). On delving deeper, it appears
that Azazel, Azzael, Azza, Ussa, Uzzaya, and even Semyaza (literally Shem-y-aza, ‘the
name Aza’) are cognate with al-‘Uzza, one of the three chief deities of pre-Islamic Arabia
(Qur’an 53:19). This name features in Lihyanite graffiti as early as the fourth century
BCE, and translates as “the Mighty”. In an unexpected twist, al-‘Uzza is unambiguously
female; for example, she was identified by the Nabataeans with Aphrodite/Venus, the
goddess of love and beauty. Perhaps this is why, as well as teaching the manufacture and
use of weapons, ‘Azazel taught […] bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony,
and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring
tinctures’ (1 En 8:1-2).
The Christian church later attempted to reinterpret the phrase “sons of God” in
Genesis 6:2 as “sons of Seth” and “daughters of men” as “daughters of Cain” so that the
Watcher story could be dispensed with. In contrast, Josephus (see below) specifies not
only that the males were angels but that the women were of untainted human lineage –
the daughters of Seth. The Church’s re-interpretation also sits oddly with other events in
the same epoch, where illicit heterosexual couplings (inter-generational incest, to be
precise) were tolerated by God and gave rise to normal offspring (Gen 19:30-38), while
“unnatural” unions were punished (Gen 19:1-26). Clearly, there was something more
abhorrent about intermarriage between “sons of God” and daughters of men than would
be warranted by unions between humans of opposite sex, whatever their lines of descent.

Retellings and Allusions In 1 Enoch, the Watcher story is first given in ch. 6-16,
recapitulated in ch. 64-69, and re-told in a disguised form in the Animal Apocalypse (ch.
86-89). In the Book of Jubilees, a work of 153-105 BCE, it is given in Jub 4:21-24; 5:1-
13; 7:20-27; and 10:1-15. As in 1 Enoch, the fallen Watchers were imprisoned within the
earth until Judgement Day. In the final version given in Jubilees, the prince of the
nephilim-derived evil spirits is called both Mastema and Satan, and – in a duplication of
the imprisonment of the Watchers – these spirits too were bound in the earth until
Judgement Day. In this account, God granted Mastema’s request that a tenth of the evil
spirits should be left free to roam the earth while the remainder were bound. As a remedy
for their corrupting activities, though, God ordered one of his loyal angels to instruct
Noah in the science of medicine (Jub 10:10-14).
The Watcher episode features in sources other than 1 Enoch and Jubilees,
appearing also in Wisdom 14:6, some Dead Sea Scroll texts, the Ethiopic Kebra Nagast,
and in the Book of the Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, a Slavonic work written after 100 CE).
Aspects of the Watcher story are also mentioned in the canonical New Testament (e.g., 1
Pet 3:19-20; 2 Pet 2:4-5; Jude 1:6; Rev 12:9; Rev 20:1-3). There are also references in the
writings of first century Christians like Tertullian, and (as already mentioned) the works
of their Jewish contemporary, Josephus. The author of the pseudo-Clementine homilies
resolved some of the theological difficulties inherent in the Watcher story by proposing
that the angels were not overpowered with sensual passion while in their purely spiritual
state (Hom 8:9). He maintained that the angels asked God to endow them with human
bodies so that they could descend to earth and rectify the wickedness of mankind. Once
they had taken human form, however, they also acquired the weaknesses and passions of
mortal men and gave themselves up to the gratification of their lust.
Reuben’s admonitions in the apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (c.

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70-200 CE) present a variation in which the Watchers are portrayed as sexual voyeurs,
which may go some way towards explaining their unusual name: “For thus [women]
allured the Watchers who were before the flood; for as these continually beheld them,
they lusted after them, and they conceived the act in their mind; for they changed
themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them when they were with their
husbands. And the women lusting in their minds after their forms, gave birth to giants, for
the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven” (Testament of Reuben 5:6-
7). Although the woman/angel union is here portrayed as mental, indulging this fantasy
during copulation was evidently potent enough to transform the offspring born to the
human parents. Later, the New Testament apocryphal work known as the Questions of
Bartholomew (c. 300-500 CE) insinuates that the fall of man was caused by intercourse
between Eve and Satan soon after the latter and his troop of angels were banished from
heaven. The idea of sexual transgression in the Garden of Eden between the leader of the
fallen spirits and the first mortal woman reinforces the link – proposed above – between
the fall of man (as told in Genesis) and the fall of the angels (as found in the Watcher
narrative).
There are strong echoes of the Watchers in the Persian story of the angels Harut
and Marut. These two angels of the highest rank fell in love with a mortal woman, to
whom they revealed the secret Name of God. As a punishment, they were hung upside
down in a bottomless pit near Babylon, from which they taught magic and sorcery.
Qur’an 2:102 indicates that these two angels did not actually sin, but simply carried out
the will of Allah in order to test the faith of the local people. Their occult teachings
carried repeated warnings to this effect.
In a curious twist, a Hebrew midrash published in 1625 CE – but claiming
Biblical antiquity – describes illicit unions in the days leading up to the Flood in terms
that nowadays are suggestive of genetic engineering:

And every man […] corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence. And
[…] the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the
field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with
the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it
was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
(Book of Jasher 4:17-18)

Possible Sources The main Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, which may date to
the early second millennium BCE, describes a war between the gods in which those allied
with Tiamat and her monsters (enormous serpents ... snarling dragons ... the worm ...)
were vanquished by Bel-Marduk. The gods were then divided into two groups by Marduk,
“three hundred above for the watchers of heaven, ... five times sixty for earth, six hundred
gods between earth and heaven”. The defeated rebel gods appear to have been the ones
assigned to earth. The Babylonians also believed in edimmu, violent vampire-like giants,
which were originally created as a result of intermarriage between human beings and the
spirit world. These demons “neither eat nor drink” but “are full of violence, ceaselessly
devouring blood”. Similarly, in 1 Enoch 15:11-12, we read that the spirits of the giant
nephilim “work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but
nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences”. In combination, a belief in edimmu
and earth-based rebel gods could account for some of the elements of the Enochian

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Watcher episode. A Babylonian connection is supported by the fact that one of the
Watcher-human progeny in the Dead Sea Scrolls’ Book of the Giants is called Gilgamesh,
the name of the (oversized) hero in the eponymous Babylonian epic.
Various first-millennium BCE texts from Mesopotamia relate the story of the
Seven Sages (apkallu) who seem to have brought the arts of magic to Babylonia; they are
named in the Bīt mēseri incantation, whose earliest extant copy is neo-Assyrian. Since the
apkallu were emissaries from Ea/Enki, the god of civilization who resided in the
freshwater depths of the abzu (abyss), they were often characterised as fish-man hybrids
who were born in a river and emerged from the sea – an embodiment that probably dates
back to Kassite times (c. 1374-1155 BCE). After the Great Flood, the Bīt mēseri text
continues the series of named apkallu with four more, all “of human descent”. But the
last of these is described as two-thirds apkallu, which suggests that there was progressive
inter-breeding between apkallu and humans; later sages are fully human and are
designated as ummanu. The second and third post-Flood sages act in ways that anger the
gods. Their hybrid pedigree and the divine displeasure triggered by their behaviour invite
comparison with the nephilim; tellingly, the pre-Flood apkallu are often described in
Mesopotamian texts as “watchers.” Like the fallen angels, who were condemned to
imprisonment “beyond the abyss” until the Day of Judgement (1 En 18:10-19:3), the
troublesome apkallu were banished forever to the abzu.
The mention in Genesis 6:1 of “when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth” followed in short order by the Flood (Gen 7) suggests a connection with other
myths in which human overpopulation prompts a divinely-ordained global cataclysm.
The prototype for the biblical Flood story is in fact the Mesopotamian myth of Atrahasis
(c. 1790-1600 BCE); in this Akkadian tale, humans annoy the gods with their noise to the
extent that Enlil and the other deities decide to use a great flood to obliterate humanity in
its entirety. Indo-European myths may use war instead of water to achieve similar ends,
and demigods may be the instruments of such wars. In the Indian Mahabharata, for
example, the gods’ decision to initiate a war of depopulation is paralleled by their
decision to incarnate five battle-heroes known as the Pandavas – each the result of a male
god mating with a female mortal. Accordingly, the Pandavas and nephilim have elements
in common.
Greek theogony also shares some motifs with the Watcher story. In Hesiod’s
account from the eighth century BCE, the mating of sky-god (Uranus) with earth-goddess
(Gaea) produced the Titans, the Cyclops, and the Hundred-handed giants. Like the fallen
Watchers, the Cyclops and Hundred-handers were imprisoned within the earth; later, this
became the fate of the defeated Titans who had fought with Cronos against Zeus and his
Titan ally, Prometheus. The latter was subsequently punished by Zeus for bestowing a
number of favours, including fire, on mankind. Man was punished, too: the first mortal
woman (Pandora) was created so beautiful that – despite being warned – Prometheus’
brother allowed her to stay on Earth. Pandora subsequently unleashed evil into the world.
The protagonists of the subsequent Greek Heroic Age have some overlap with the
nephilim because these “mighty men, men of renown” are creatures of mixed divine and
human parentage – often the sons of male gods by human mothers – that revel in warfare.
As we have already noted, demigods frequently seem to be associated with large-scale
destruction; perhaps this is so because their mixed pedigree offends against the natural
order of things. Divine retribution for their actions – or mere existence – then targets

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them for extinction, as for example when (in the Hesiodic tradition) Zeus ordains the
Trojan War, or (in the biblical tradition) God decrees the Flood (Gen 6:7,11-14). Some
scholars argue for a Greek influence on the Genesis 6 narrative.

A Related Theme There are many myths about Lilith, who in Judaeo-Christian tradition
is credited as an alternative (or additional) source of the world’s demons. The name,
which means “wind-spirit”, first appears in a prologue to the Epic of Gilgamesh and
recurs as part of a triad of female furies invoked in Babylonian spells. When Lilith was
co-opted into Judaic lore during the Babylonian captivity (i.e., after 586 BCE), an
etymological confusion resulted in her being identified as a night-spirit. Later, Talmudic
and Kabbalistic speculation identified her (sometime during the third to tenth centuries
CE) as a female who was co-created with Adam (Gen 1:27) and before Eve (Gen 2:22).
In this elaboration, she refused to submit to Adam and left Eden. Lilith was reunited with
Adam after his and Eve’s expulsion from Eden, and bore him demonic offspring. When
Adam and Eve were later reconciled, Lilith lived in a cave near the Red Sea where she
copulated with lascivious demons and gave birth daily to hundreds more. In additional (or
alternative) stories, Lilith and three other female spirits (Naamah, Igrat, and Mahaath) are
seen as consorts to demons, seducers of men, killers of unprotected infants, and as
vampires. Lilith is often paired with Samael, the King of Demons, who in some versions
has been castrated; there are hints that these two were once an androgynous pair. In her
various guises, Lilith is at once a human-like creature who had intercourse with Adam to
become the mother of demons, a human mate for demons who begat more of their kind at
a prodigious rate, and a demonic succubus who takes unused human semen to impregnate
herself or her daughters to create more demons. No doubt many of these attributes are a
legacy of Lilith’s Babylonian origin. The Lilith themes have obvious overlaps with the
Watcher story, and some may well have been borrowed directly from this source. In the
Kabbalah, the two legends intersect in a passage on Lilith: “For 130 years Adam had
intercourse with female spirits, until Naamah came. Because of her beauty the sons of
God went astray after her, ‘Ussa and ‘Azel, and she bore from them, and from her spread
evil spirits and demons in the world” (Zohar 1:19b).

A Search for Meaning To recapitulate: the earliest explanation of evil in the Judaeo-
Christian tradition involves an original sin of lust on the part of angelic beings called
Watchers, which led to a transfer of forbidden skills and knowledge to mankind, but
which also led to the birth of monsters who ravaged the Earth, and whose malevolence
persists on Earth in the form of demons. Compared with orthodox rationalisations of the
Fall, the Watchers’ original sin engenders both more empathy (as a lapse of judgement in
the face of overwhelming temptation) and more abhorrence (in its breach of sexual taboo).
It is safe to say that traditional alternatives such as Lucifer’s pride (Isa 14:12-15), Satan’s
reluctance to pay homage to Adam (The Life of Adam and Eve and the Qur’an), or Eve’s
curiosity about the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6) pale in comparison. Oddly enough, the
Watchers’ position – pure spirits craving the pleasures of the flesh – would later find its
complete antithesis in certain Gnostic sects of the first few centuries CE, whose devotees
despised flesh as a prison of the spirit. In contrast, people today are more likely to feel
compassion for the angels who succumbed to the lure of physical pleasure.
Shorn of its lurid details, the mythic content of the Watcher story is a strong and

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perhaps surprising statement of the relationship between illicit desire, hidden knowledge,
and evil. Above all, though, the Watchers’ crime constitutes disobedience to God. To
those who regard the creator-God as a tyrannical Demiurge, such defiance constitutes a
laudable act of self-determination. The Watcher myth has sometimes been presented in
this light by Satanists, who point out that the forbidden knowledge imparted by the
Watchers to mankind serves as the basis for the arts and sciences on which our current
civilization is founded. Their Covenant of Samyaza says that the legacy of the gibborim,
known to the fearful as evil spirits or demons, are also known to the wise as “guardian
geniuses of the great of Earth, who shall inspire the best among Man to great heights, to
beautiful works of art, and to further discoveries of Earth and cosmos.” While this stance
may comfort those who are unable to view the rise of human civilization as anything
other than a virtue, it comes at the considerable cost of burdening us with an evil Creator.
One does, however, have to wonder about the divinity of a God who feels threatened by
the art of writing: “for men were not created for such a purpose, to give confirmation to
their good faith with pen and ink ... but through this their knowledge they are perishing,
and through this power it [death] is consuming me” (1 En 69:10-12). There is in fact a
fundamental tension in the myth between the works of man (as encouraged by the
Watchers) and the works of God, an opposition that is not alleviated by reversing the
moral polarity of the original account, as the Satanists have done. It is noteworthy that
one of the versions in the Book of Jubilees (Jub 10:10-14; see above) has been revised to
defuse this tension. In the sanitized account, useful arts such as medicine were imparted
to mankind not by the Watchers but by God’s loyal angels, in an attempt to afford us
protection against the demons.

The End of the World Perhaps the tension inherent in the authentic Watcher legend is
felt most keenly today in the conflict between environmental conservation (preservation
of the divine creation) and urban-industrial development (promotion of human progress).
Although initiated by lust, the Watchers’ actions led also to great human advancement,
just as today the selfish ambitions of those with ability (or in authority) underpin so many
of the material advances that benefit our species. However, it is important to remember
that the actions of the Watchers led not only to expanded human capabilities but also to
uncontrollable consequences that ultimately laid waste to the Earth. In this interpretation,
the ancient myth sounds a clear warning about the potentially cataclysmic consequences
of using our genius to interfere with nature, a warning that is more valid now than ever
before. Perhaps it is to us that Enoch refers in the opening words of his book, when he
writes: “from [the heavenly angels] I heard everything, and from them I understood as I
saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is to come” (1 En 1:2-3). The
Watcher myth provides an origin for evil in the world. It may also warn of the ultimate
and final evil: can we imagine a greater sin than the needless and self-inflicted ruin of our
entire planet?

© Lloyd D. Graham, 1999. v.10_15.08.21

First published in the online in Mythos Journal No. 8: Millennial Dreams – Myths of the End Time (Winter
1999). Republished in Lamhfada: An Online Magazine of Myth and Story, Vol. III, Issue 2, Summer 2002.

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Hosted at http://lloydg.deviantart.com/art/The-Origin-of-Evil-31179580 from Apr 2006 with a PDF version
hosted by Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/doc/15717047/The-Origin-of-Evil-and-the-End-of-the-World.

A short version of this essay appeared in Fickle Muses – An Online Journal of Myth and Legend, vol. 2, on
6 Jan 2008, and remained online until the domain was decommissioned in Jun 2021 [notice of closure at
https://www.heypublisher.com/publishers/fickle_muses ].

The long version (with minor revisions) was uploaded to Academia on 11 May, 2019, online at
https://www.academia.edu/440497/The_Origin_of_Evil_and_the_End_of_the_World. The lack of
references is unfortunate but reflects the formatting requirements of the journals in which the article
initially appeared. Small revisions (usually additions) to the original essay continue to be made as the need
arises.

POST-PUBLICATION UPDATES (to 2011)

For the scholarly, a detailed textual analysis of the key biblical passage (Gen 6:1-4) can be found in Jacques
T.A.G.M. Ruiten (2000) Primaeval History Interpreted: The Rewriting of Genesis 1-11 in the Book of
Jubilees, Brill, pp. 183-190. ISBN 9789004116580. See also Archie T. Wright (2005) The Origin of Evil
Spirits: The Reception of Genesis 6.1-4 in Early Jewish Literature, Mohr Siebeck, pp. 220-223. ISBN
9783161486562.

Update, August 2011: I have just learned that two academic books on the main topic of this essay are in the
pipeline. One is Dark Mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in Early Jewish Demonology by Andrei A. Orlov, due
Dec 2011 [ http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5288-dark-mirrors.aspx ]. The other is Sefer ‘Uzza wa-‘Aza(z)el:
Exploring Early Jewish Mythologies of Evil by John C. Reeves; there’s a great outline of the book here
[ http://religiousstudies.uncc.edu/people/jcreeves/sefer_uzza_waazazel.htm ].

For general readers: A short but interesting book on the Watchers is Joseph B. Lumpkin (2006) Fallen
Angels, the Watchers, and the Origins of Evil, Fifth Estate, Alabama. It makes a valiant attempt to
harmonize passages on evil from a variety of sources (canonical scriptures, Enoch, Jubilees, the Qumran
War Scroll and the Book of Jasher) into a single overarching narrative revolving around the Watcher story.