It may be that the Ziggurat is the key to understanding the watchers and bringing them back to earth. In fact the last king of Babylon, before the invasion of the Persians under Cyrus the Great which ended the Captivity, was Nabonidus who was renowned for his reconstruction of the Great Ziggurat of Ur. In the Book of Daniel this mention of such forbidden magic is couched in a dream.ĭuring the Captivity many Jews would witness first hand the monuments and rituals of Babylonian gods and it would leave a lasting impression.

The Jewish people were only a minority in the Babylonian world that held great value on the type of magic and sorcery that the Jewish faith would condemn. During the time period of the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews (597-538 BCE) much of the Torah was being put into its final form. It is almost certain that some of the writers of the Torah were heavily influenced by Babylonian culture. The watchers/astrologers decree would be the reading of the omens in the skies which were interpreted by the holy one who was likely an affiliated priest. Instead of seeing the watchers in this context as mystical or extraterrestrial beings it may be easier to imagine them as representative of the once great Babylonian culture of soothsayers, diviners and astrologers which was in competition with ancient Judaism. 4:17) Here it becomes clear that the watchers and the accompanying holy ones are arbiters of the fates rather than messengers. However a few verses later new meaning is added “The matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones.” (Dan. 4:13) A revelation of troubling events to come is made to the dreaming king by the watchers as if in warning. In one instance the allusion to a heavenly being seems apparent, “a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven.” (Dan. The name watcher has gained a mystical connotation since the three times it is used in the Bible are during the prophetic dream of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. However the related verb ‘ûwr, “to be bare,” has a clear relation to wakefulness in the sense that the truth will be exposed through vigilant watching. The Hebrew word for watcher, Îyr, which has older Aramaic roots, could be interpreted as representing a guardian angel. The term “watcher” is used a few times in the Torah/Hebrew Bible to refer to a mysterious apparition. However a careful study of these texts shows the watchers to in fact be representative of earthly beings. One group of alleged alien visitors who appear in some ancient texts are known as the “watchers.” The watchers have also been regarded as a type of angel rather than an extraterrestrial entity. There are many incidents of unexplained phenomenon throughout history which have led people to believe that mankind has, at the very least, been visited by astronauts from another world. Over the past century a variety of theories have evolved to suggest that extraterrestrial beings helped shape our civilization.

Wieth watcher