Credible Theories
One history · chapter 6 of 11

The Defection: The Watchers on Mount Hermon and Their Human Wives

The days of Jared · five generations before the Flood

A thought experiment

This series asks what history looks like if the old texts are records, not myths. Each claim rests on a quoted text. It is a reading, not an established fact.

Two hundred of the teachers break ranks. They land on the summit of Mount Hermon, swear an oath binding each other to the plan, and take human wives. Their leader is Semjaza. Their best-known officer is Azazel, who teaches metalworking, weapons, and cosmetics. Others teach astronomy, the signs of the earth, and the use of roots and drugs.

The Quran keeps a memory of the same thing in Babylon: two angels, Harut and Marut, who taught forbidden knowledge with a warning attached. Plato tells it as Atlantis, where Poseidon fathered a line of kings with a mortal woman, and the "divine portion" thinned with every generation. A later Christian book, the Cave of Treasures, gives a third version, where the "sons of God" were a human elite who came down a holy mountain.

What the texts say

1 Enoch 6:6 · CharlesAnd they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon.
1 Enoch 8:1 · CharlesAnd Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates.
Genesis 6:2 · KJVThe sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair.
Quran 2:102 · PickthallThe two angels in Babel, Harut and Marut.
Plato, Critias 121a · JowettWhen the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture.
If someone pushes backMany readers take "sons of God" as the line of Seth. Answer: the story uses both. The Sethites on their mountain were the Watchers' first students, and the Watchers came down to them.

Questions people ask about The defection

What happened on Mount Hermon in the Book of Enoch?

1 Enoch 6:6 says the Watchers, 'in all two hundred', descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon. They swore an oath binding each other to the plan and took human wives. Their leader was Semjaza.

What did Azazel teach humans?

In 1 Enoch 8:1, 'Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates.' This chapter adds that he taught metalworking and cosmetics, while other Watchers taught astronomy, the signs of the earth and the use of roots.

Are the sons of God in Genesis 6 angels?

Readers split. 1 Enoch reads them as angels. Many others take 'sons of God' as the line of Seth. This chapter uses both: the Sethites on their mountain were the Watchers' first students, and the Watchers came down to them.

Sources in this chapter

  1. 1 Enoch 6:6 · Charles · full passage
  2. 1 Enoch 8:1 · Charles · full passage
  3. Genesis 6:2 · KJV · full passage
  4. Quran 2:102 · Pickthall
  5. Plato, Critias 121a · Jowett

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