Myth of the Week 005

The story of the Watchersor Grigori in Genesis 6:1-4 tells of heavenly beings who once descended to Earth, intermarried with humans, and produced thenephilim, who were born half-angel and half-man. Jewish tradition regards those heavenly beings as wicked angels,but the myth may be a fragment of pagan mythology about gods interbreeding with humans to produce heroes.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels, detail from the triptychThe world before the flood, by Hieronymus Bosch c. 1514.

“When human bei...