(1) The Sumerian Watchers
"...Man and his early civilizations had a profoundly different mentality from our own, that in fact men and women were not conscious as are we, were not responsible for their actions, and therefore cannot be given the credit or blame for anything that was done over these vast millennia of time; that instead each person had a part of his nervous system that was divine, by which he was ordered about like any slave, a voice or voices which indeed were what we call volition and empowered what they commanded and were related to the hallucinated voices of others in a carefully established hierarchy."
"...The astonishing consistency from Egypt to Peru, from Ur to Yucatan, wherever civilizations arose, of death practices and idolatry, of divine government and hallucinated voices, all are witness to the idea of a different mentality than our own."
"The gods were in no sense 'figments of the imagination' of anyone. They were man's volition. They occupied his nervous system, probably his right hemisphere, and from stores of admonitory and receptive experience, transmuted this experience into articulated speech which then 'told' the man what to do."

"Throughout Mesopotamia, from the earliest times of Sumer and Akkad, all lands were owned by gods and men were their slaves. Of this, the cuneiform texts leave no doubt whatever. Each city-state had its own principal god, and the king was described in the very earliest written documents that we have as 'the tenant farmer of the god'."
     - Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

"... The Akkadians called their predecessors Shumerians, and spoke of the Land of Shumer.
"It was, in fact, the biblical Land of Shin'ar. It was the land whose name - Shumer - literally meant the Land of the Watchers. It was indeed the Egyptian Ta Neter - Land of the Watchers, the land from which the gods had come to Egypt."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven

"It was from that planet [Nibiru], the Sumerian texts repeatedly and persistently stated, that the Anunnaki came to Earth. The term literally means 'Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came.' They are spoken of in the Bible as the Anakim, and in Chapter 6 of Genesis are also call Nefilim, which in Hebrew means the same thing: Those Who Have Come Down, from the Heavens to Earth."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, Genesis Revisited

(2) The Egyptian Ntr

There is archaeological evidence of a strong cultural connection between Sumer and ancient Egypt.

"Ptah and the other gods were called, in Egyptian, Ntr - 'Guardian, Watcher'."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, The Wars of Gods and Men

During the fabled "First Time, Zep Tepi, when the gods ruled in their country: they said it was a golden age during which the waters of the abyss receded, the primordial darkness was banished, and humanity, emerging into the light, was offered the gifts of civilization. They spoke also of intermediaries between gods and men - the Urshu, a category of lesser divinities whose title meant 'the Watchers'. And they preserved particularly vivid recollections of the gods themselves, puissant and beautiful beings called the Neteru who lived on earth with humankind and exercised their sovereignty from Heliopolis and other sanctuaries up and down the Nile. Some of these Neteru were male and some female but all possessed a range of supernatural powers which included the ability to appear, at will, as men or women, or as animals, birds, reptiles, trees or plants. Paradoxically, their words and deeds seem to have reflected human passions and preoccupations. Likewise, although they were portrayed as stronger and more intelligent than humans, it was believed that they could grow sick - or even die, or be killed - under certain circumstance."
     - Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods

"'Deliver thou the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, from the Watchers, who carry murderous knives, who possess cruel fingers, and who would slay those who are in the following of Osiris.'
May these Watchers never gain the mastery over me, and may I never fall under their knives!'

"Who are these Watchers?

"'They are Anubis and Horus, [the latter being] in the form of Horus the sightless. Others, however, say that they are the Tchatcha (sovereign princes of Osiris), who bring to nought the operations of their knives; and others say that they are the chiefs of the Sheniu chamber.
'May their knives never gain the mastery over me. May I never fall under the knives wherewith they inflict cruel tortures. For I know their names, and I know the being, Matchet, who is among them in the House of Osiris. He shooteth forth rays of light from his eye, being himself invisible, and he goeth round about heaven robed in the flames which come from his mouth, commanding Hapi, but remaining invisible himself. May I be strong on earth before Ra, may I arrive safely in the presence of Osiris. O ye who preside over your altars, let not your offerings to me be wanting, for I am one of those who follow after Nebertcher, according to the writings of Khepera. Let me fly like a hawk, let me cackle like a goose, let me lay always like the serpent-goddess Neheb-ka.'"
     - The Egyptian Book of the Dead

"They had come to Egypt, the Egyptians wrote, from Ta-Ur, the 'Far/Foreign Land,' whose name Ur meant 'oldest' but could have also been the actual place name - a place will known from Mesopotamian and biblical records: the ancient city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia. And the straits of the Red Sea, which connected Mesopotamia and Egypt, were called Ta-Neter, the 'Place of the Gods,' the passage by which they had come to Egypt. That the earliest gods did come from the biblical lands of Shem is additionally borne out by the puzzling fact that the names of these olden gods were of 'Semitic' (Akkadian) derivation. Thus Ptah, which had no meaning in Egyptian, meant 'he who fashioned things by carving and opening up' in the Semitic tongues."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, The Wars of Gods and Men

"The Legend of Votan, who had built the first city that was the cradle of Mesoamerican civilization, was written down by Spanish chroniclers from oral Mayan traditions. The emblem of Votan, they recorded, was the serpent; 'he was a descendant of the Guardians, of the race of Can'. 'Guardians' was the meaning of the Egyptian term Neteru (i.e., 'gods'). Can, studies such as that by Zelia Nuttal (Papers of the Peabody Museum) have suggested was a variant of Canaan who was (according to the Bible) a member of the Hamitic peoples of Africa and a brother-nation of the Egyptians."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began

(3) Bene Elohim

"The sons of God (or children of God; 'bene elohim' and variants) are divine members of God's heavenly host...The title 'sons/children of God' is familiar from Ugaritic mythology, in which the gods collectively are the 'children of El'...The sons/children of God are also found in Phoenician and Ammonite inscriptions, referring to the pantheon of sub-ordinate deities, indicating that the term was widespread in the West Semitic religions."
     - Oxford Companion to the Bible

"The statement that the 'sons of God' married the daughters of men is explained of the fall of the angels, in Enoch, vi-xi, and codices, D, E F, and A of the Septuagint read frequently, for 'sons of God', oi aggeloi tou qeou ['angels of God']. Unfortunately, codices B and C are defective in Ge., vi, but it is probably that they, too, read oi aggeloi in this passage, for they constantly so render the expression 'sons of God'; cf. Job i, 6; ii, 1; xxxviii, 7; but on the other hand, see Ps. ii, 1; lxxxviii, & (Septuagint). Philo, in commenting on the passage in his treatise 'Quod Deus sit immutabilis', i, follows the Septuagint."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"Angels came late into Jewish theology, generally from the non-Jewish myths of the East. The early books of the Bible speak of some vague heavenly beings called malochim (singular, malach). Although malach is usually translated angel, its literal meaning is messenger."
     - Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

"The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur."
     - Genesis 16:7

"At first the angels are regarded in quite an impersonal way (Gen. xvi, 7).They are God's vice-regents and are often identified with the Author of their message (Gen. xlviii, 15-16). But while we read of 'the Angels of God' meeting Jacob (Gen. xxxii, 1) we at other times read of one who is termed 'the Angel of God' par excellence, e.g. Gen., xxxi, 11."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!'"
     - Genesis 22:11

"It is true that, owing to the Hebrew idiom, this may mean no more than 'an angel of God', and the Septuagint renders it with or without the article at will; yet the three visitors at Mambre seem to have been of different ranks, though St. Paul (Heb. xiii, 2) regarded them all as equally angels; as the story in Ge. xiii, develops, the speaker is always 'the Lord'. Thus in the account of the Angel of the Lord who visited Gideon (Judges vi), the visitor is alternately spoken of as 'the Angel of the Lord' and as 'the Lord'. Similarly, in Judges xiii, the Angel of the Lord appears...."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD.
'We are doomed to die!' he said to his wife. 'We have seen God!'"
     - Judges 13:19-22

Note that God (El) was referred to in the plural as Elohim in the earliest Hebrew texts.

"This want of clearness is particularly apparent in the various accounts of the Angel of Exodus. In Judges vi, just now referred to, the Septuagint is very careful to render the Hebrew 'Lord' by 'the Angel of the Lord'; but in the story of the Exodus it is the Lord who goes before them in the pillar of a cloud (Exod. xiii 21), and the Septuagint makes no change (cf. also Num. xiv, 14, and Neh. ix, 7-20."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night."
     - Exodus 13:21

"Yet in Exod. xiv, 19, their guide is termed 'the Angel of God. When we turn to Exod., xxxiii, where God is angry with His people for worshipping the golden calf, it is hard not to feel that it is God Himself who has hitherto been their guide, but who now refuses to accompany them any longer. God offers an angel instead, but at Moses's petition He says (14) 'My face shall go before thee', which the Septuagint reads by autoV though the following verse shows that this rendering is clearly impossible, for Moses objects: 'If Thou Thyself dost not go before us, bring us not out of this place.' But what does God mean by 'my face'? Is it possible that some angel of specially high rank is intended, as in Is. lxiii, 9 (cf. Tobias xii, 15)? May not this be what is meant by 'the Angel of God' (cf. Num. xx, 16)?"
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"He [the Lord] said, 'Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me'; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them."
     - Isaiah 63:9-10

"The Massoretic text as well as the Vulgate of Exod. iii and xix-xx clearly represent the Supreme Being as appearing to Moses in the bush and on Mount Sinai; but the Septuagint version, while agreeing that it was God Himself who gave the Law, yet makes it 'the angel of the Lord' who appeared in the bush."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up.'
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!'"
     - Exodus 3:2-4a

"By New Testament times the Septuagint view has prevailed, and it is now not merely in the bush that the angel of the Lord, and not God Himself appears, but the angel is also the Giver of the Law (cf. Gal. iii, 19; Heb. ii, 2; Acts vii, 30)."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator"
     - Galatians 3:19c

"The person of 'the angel of the Lord' finds a counterpart in the personification of Wisdom in the Sapiential books and in at least one passage (Zach. iii, 1) it seems to stand for that 'Son of Man' whom Daniel (vii, 13) saw brought before 'the Ancient of Days'. Zacharias says: 'And the Lord showed me Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan stood on His right hand to be His adversary'."
     - Hugh Pope, The Catholic Encyclopedia

Unlike the "messengers" who could be mistaken for humans in the Book of Genesis, Daniel's angel was resplendent in its divinity.

"I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist.waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves."
     - Daniel 10:5-7

"Later Biblical books developed the idea of malochim [messengers], but it wasn't until the Book of Daniel, written in the second century BC, that some of these heavenly creatures were given names. Daniel mentions Gabriel (geber is man, El is God) and Michael. The later non-canonical books built a whole hierarchy of angels, headed by Metatron, prince of the heavenly hosts."
     - Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews

Ca. 150 B.C.E., the author of the apocrypal 1 Enoch wrote of his spell-binding journey to heaven where he saw angels and their glory.

"And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos. Saraqael, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise."
     - 1 Enoch 20:1-8

Essene proselytes swore to "preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the angels." (Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Bk 2, Ch 8, Sn 7). The First Book of Enoch was the first piece of Jewish literature to describe a class of angels, the Watchers, who are positively evil and who lead the dead to a place of eternal torment.

"And all the angels shall execute their commandst
And shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory,
And the children of earth shall tremble and quake;
And ye sinners shall be cursed for ever,
And ye shall have no peace."
     - 1 Enoch 102:3

The Book of Jubilees "was also known in early times as the Apocalypse of Moses, for it allegedly was written down by Moses at Mount Sinai as an angel dictated to him the histories of days past. (Scholars, though, believe that the work was composed in the second century BC)."
     - Zecharia Sitchin The Stairway to Heaven

"For in his days the angels of the Lord descended upon earth - those who are named The Watchers - that they should instruct the children of men, that they should do judgment and uprightness upon earth."
     - The Book of Jubilees

"According to the Book of Jubilees, the Watchers are the sons of god (Genesis 6) sent from heaven to instruct the children of men; they fell after they descended to earth and cohabited with the daughters of men - for which act they were condemned (so legend reports) and became fallen angels. But not all Watchers descended: those that remained are the holy Watchers, and they reside in the 5th Heaven. The evil Watchers dwell either in the 3rd Heaven or in Hell."
     - A Dictionary of Angels

"According to the Book of Jubilees, Enoch...testified about the Watchers who had sinned with the daughters of men; he testified against them all." And it was to protect him from the revenge of the sinning angels of the Lord, that 'he was taken from amongst the children of men, and was conducted into the Garden of Eden."
     - Zecharia Sitchin The Stairway to Heaven

"And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers called me -Enoch the scribe- and said to me: 'Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives: "Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth: And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children, The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain".'"
     - 1 Enoch 10:3-8

As recounted in the Dead Sea Scrolls, "200 angels known as 'the Watchers' once descended from heaven to sample the pleasures of earth. In time, each of the 200 took an earthly spouse. These unions produced children of extraordinary size, who quickly devoured the world's food. To satisfy their enormous appetites, the angel-children roamed the earth, slaughtering every species of bird, beast, reptile and fish. Finally, the ravenous creatures turned on one another, stripping flesh from the bones of their fellows and slaking their thirst in rivers of blood. As this wave of destruction washed over the earth, the anguished cries of humankind reached four powerful archangels - Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael - who upon orders from God enacted a swift retribution. First Uriel descended to earth to warn Noah of a coming deluge, advising him to prepare an ark to carry his family and a menagerie of creatures to safety. Raphael then fell upon the leader of the Watchers, bound him hand and foot, and thrust him into eternal darkness. Next, Gabriel charged with slaying the dissenters' offspring, encouraged the monstrous angel-children to fight one another. Finally, Michael trussed up the remaining Watchers, forced them to witness the deaths of their progeny, and condemned them to eternal torment. Only then did the heavens open up and wash away the last traces of the destruction that the fallen angels had wrought."
     - Cosmic Duality

"I saw Watchers in my vision, the dream-vision. Two (men) were fighting over me, saying...and holding a great contest over me. I asked them, 'Who are you, that you are thus empo[wered over me?' They answered me, 'We] [have been em]powered and rule over all mankind'. They said to me, 'Which of us do yo[u choose to rule (you)?' I raised my eyes and looked.] [One] of them was terri]fying in his appearance, [like a s]erpent, [his] cl[oa]k many-colored yet very dark...[And I looked again], and...in his appearance, his visage like a viper, and [wearing...] [exceedingly, and all his eyes...]"
"[I replied to him,] 'This [Watcher,] so is he?' He answered me, 'This Wa[tcher...] [and his three names are Belial and Prince of Darkness] and King of Evil.'"
     - "Testament of Amram" (4Q535, Manuscript B)

"These spirits were locked away in the earth, but Mastema persuaded God to keep out one in ten to tempt humanity until the judgement and to commit all forms of transgression.
"In the Day of Judgement all such spirits will be consigned to eternal torment and humanity renewed in spirit back to the generations of Adam:

'And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst the children of men till their days draw night to a thousand years ...
And there will be no old man ...For all will be as children and youths.'

"The Tree of Life, fragrant and wonderful to behold will be returned to the centre ground, and the New Jerusalem will be built by God - just as later described in Revelation."
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

Jewish religious authorities, concerned that the growing worship of angels would be a threat to the belief in one God, excised works like that of Enoch and Book of Jubilees from canonical literature, making them part of what is now known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.

The mysterious "egregors" of later magical tradition are really another way of referring to the Watchers.

Hyperlinks

• Satan and the Forces of Chaos
  
• The Sons of Snakes