Weird Stuff in the Bible

Forbidden Knowledge of the Watchers
Genesis 6 & Enoch 7-8

Introduction
I watched a lot of School House Rock growing up, which means I learned that knowledge is power.
But that doesn’t mean that all knowledge is good. In fact, too much knowledge can be a very very bad thing. The Bible shows us that some knowledge is forbidden.
In Romans 16:19 (NKJV), Paul writes
For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.
What does it mean to be simple? In one sense, to be simple means to be dumb. To not know anything. And why would God’s Word tell us to be dumb? Aren’t there entire books of the Bible written to make us wiser?
But there are some things you simply don’t have to know. It’s OK not to know what it’s like to be high on drugs. It’s OK not to know what it’s like to be blackout drunk. It’s OK not to know what the horoscope in the newspaper says about your day. It’s OK to be simple concerning evil.
In fact, there are some forms of knowledge that are actually forbidden for mankind. Things that God has said humans are better off not knowing.
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Right there, the Scripture draws an epistemological boundary. It says some types of information belong to God, and therefore some knowledge is not ours to pursue.
Now, why is all this relevant? Because the Book of Enoch shows how in the pre-flood world, the Watchers or Sons of God descended to the earth and not only created the giants, but also shared forbidden knowledge with the humans of that day.
Not false knowledge. Forbidden knowledge. Things humans were not meant to know. Things that have a domino effect all throughout the rest of the Biblical story, including all the way into future prophecy in the book of Revelation.
Which I find to be weird, and I’d like to explore what it shows us about our Bible.
Turn to Genesis 6, and let’s get weird.
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Antediluvian mysteries
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and we’re currently in a series learning about the Book of Enoch and how it can help us understand our Bible better.
Last week, we started learning about what was going on in the antediluvian world. Antediluvian is a word that refers to the time before the flood of Noah. And from Genesis 6 and Enoch 6, we were learning why God sent the flood. We learned about how these angelic beings called the Watchers descended to the earth to literally marry and have children with human women. These children were the giants, and these giants gave the Watchers a ground-level advantage in their war against God.
But if you think that creating the giants was all they did, you’ll be surprised what you find out today. The Watchers shared secrets with humanity that we were not supposed to know.
So here is what Genesis 6 says about the antediluvian era. And I usually use ESV but to provide another view, I’m gonna go with the NKJV today:
Genesis 6:5-7 (NKJV)
4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
So note a few things that Scripture says about the pre-flood world:
Man was wicked and thought of evil continually
God not only decided to destroy man, but God determined that He must destroy all the animals as well.
Now that second point is quite weird. That’s very very strange. We know that humans were guilty. We know that the Watchers were guilty. We know that the giants are guilty. But why does God also highlight that He must destroy the animals? We’ll explore that today.
Genesis 6:11-12 (NKJV)
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Three more points to consider:
The earth was corrupt
The earth was filled with violence
All flesh was corrupted
So does that include the flesh of animals, not just referring to the people and the giants? What does corrupted flesh mean? Let’s answer those questions today in our study.
Last week, we read Enoch 6, which was about Semjaza and his band of the 200 Watchers who descended to the earth. We learned several of their names; I think it gave us 20 of them. This time, let’s learn more about what they did.

Botany Powers
Enoch chapter 7 says this: And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, 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 made them acquainted with plants.
Not only did the Watchers begin these relationships with the women, but they also taught them several things. It said charms, enchantments, the cutting of roots, and plants.
What are these things referring to? Well, charms and enchantments perhaps make you think of witchcraft. And that’s basically what this is, but with some specific angles on witchcraft. Remember that our Book of Enoch is based on Greek manuscripts. We have not yet discovered any Hebrew manuscripts, but thankfully, the Greek is the second-best thing we have to go off of, since we Bible people also know quite a bit of Greek.
The Greek word for charms here in Enoch is pharmakeia. It refers to drugs, poisons, magic potions and medicines. Guys, this was the origin of illicit drugs. Drug use. Chemicals that people put into their bodies to achieve a high or euphoric feeling. They didn’t call it stuff like meth or cocaine back then, but they had these kinds of things.
Maybe you’ve wondered before: how did people discover drugs? Who was the guy who started smoking a marijuana plant or figured out how to extract certain chemicals from plants and turn them into narcotics and opioids and maybe even psychedelics?
It’s really fascinating if you ever research the origins of illicit drugs; they all go back to pagan religions; shamans and divination and ritual practices that are forbidden from the Bible. That’s where all this stuff comes from in secular history. But the Book of Enoch shows us that the Watchers were showing this stuff to people in the pre-flood world.
The other Greek words for these things include: epaoida, which was enchantments and means potions created from plants; hrizotomias, which was the cutting of roots and referred to people who cut roots for purposes of medicine or witchcraft; and batonas was “acquainted with plants” and referred to herbs or vegetation.
So the origins of potions and witchcraft and drug use go all the way to the pre-flood world. Mankind didn’t figure these things out on accident. They didn’t discover them through trial and error. They were taught these things by fallen angels. The Watchers.
So let’s talk about what this means. There was probably an exchange that took place. The Watchers wanted wives. I said last week that I believe the women were willing participants, and I think this back it up. The Watchers probably said: you give us children, and we’ll give mankind spiritual secrets.
This information that the Watchers shared was not fake. It was true; but it wasn’t stuff mankind was meant to know. There are ways to access the spiritual world that humans are not meant to partake in.
I remember being a kid and we had these ancient compendiums of information called phonebooks- and kids today won’t know what those are but you can ask your grandparents, we actually used to have these books full of all the local phone numbers, and I can remember flipping through there and occasionally you’d find numbers for psychics: people who could tell you your future through a crystal ball or by reading your palm. 1-800-CALL-CLEO.
And a lot of people used to blow that stuff off. “They’re fake. That’s not real.” And honestly, a lot of it probably was fake. But some people really do have spiritual connections with the demonic realm through those kinds of practices. This is why the Bible tells us to avoid it. Listen to these commands in Deuteronomy 18 for when Israel would enter the land of Canaan- and remember, the land of Canaan at this time was filled with Nephilim giants:
Deuteronomy 18:9-14
9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.
Now, these Deuteronomy instructions were after the flood. So maybe you’re wondering: if these practices of things like sorcery were forbidden knowledge from before the flood, how did they make a comeback after the flood? I mean, Noah wasn’t perfect but he probably wasn’t bringing how-to manuals on necromancy with him on the ark, right?
There are multiple ways this forbidden knowledge could have been brought back:
1- we know that they Nephilim returned after the flood. If they returned because of a second incursion of the Watchers after the flood, then a second visitation of Watchers would explain how mankind learned these secrets again.
2- we know from the Tower of Babel story and from Psalm 82 that there are Watchers in rebellion to God today; they could have taught these things to mankind.
3- remember: the demons came from the Nephilim. We’ve covered this before on the podcast and we’ll cover it again in this Book of Enoch study. So the demons who knew this information before the flood could have retransmitted it to mankind again after the flood.
4- There are ancient inscriptions and writings that existed before the flood that could have been rediscovered after. We’ll read about one of those possible inscriptions soon when we study Mount Hermon.
So just because this information was introduced to man before the flood does not mean it was lost in the flood. There are multiple ways it could have been reintroduced to mankind.
So just like we don’t know exactly how the Nephilim returned but we can have our theories, we can also have our theories of how this forbidden knowledge persisted in the post-flood world. And yes, some of these practices can be fake, but some are also real. The medium in I Samuel 28 actually did bring up the spirit of Samuel from the dead. I talked about this in episode 49. It really happened. Or if you think she conjured up a demon, fine; but she really did summon a spirit. She learned how because of this information.
So these practices are not forbidden because they’re false; they’re forbidden because, if done correctly, they can work. And that’s not all. We only read one verse. Let’s read a few more from chapter 7 and also cover chapter 8 today. I don’t want to have to come back and do a part 3 on sins of the Watchers.

Sins Against the Animals
Enoch 7, verses 4 and 5, say: the giants turned against them [which is man] 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.
This is maybe the most mysterious passage in the whole book of Enoch to me. And I’ll keep it short because it’s very speculative. What does it mean that they sinned against birds, beast, reptiles and fish? Is it talking about simply eating them?
There are a number of researchers out there who say that the Watchers and the giants actually did some genetic experimentation on animals in those days, creating monsters and other kinds of hybrid beings. The Book of Jasher- which, like Enoch, is not Scripture, though Scripture refers a few times to the Book of Jasher- and it says that the Watchers “taught the mixture of animals of one species with another.” And there are other ancient sources that claim this as well; that when the ancient quote-unquote “gods” came down, they taught how to make different forms of animals. How they did it; I have no idea. This is something that scientists today experiment with with modern tech; I don’t have the slightest idea how stuff like this could have taken place in the ancient pre-flood world. So I’ll just leave this as speculation or highly mysterious, and I won’t make any claims as to how this could have happened.
I will say, though, if there was genetic meddling with the animals, that would help explain verses like:
Genesis 6:7
 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Because when I read that, I’m like: why has this made God sorry that He made the animals? They didn’t do anything wrong.
But if their DNA had been mixed up by the Nephilim or the Watchers, then this helps explain what God may have meant by that verse.

Metallurgy and More
Now there’s one more set of verses from Enoch I’d like to read today. I’ll read Enoch’s 8th chapter. It’s only two verses, but they’re a little long. And it’ll explain all the other areas where forbidden knowledge was shared. We’ll also see highlighted one of the Watchers named Azazel. (It’s probably pronounced Azaz-el, since most of the watchers end with an “el” sound). Azazel is the primary villain of this book other than Semjaza, who we talked about last time.
Enoch 8 - 1. And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. 2. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, 〈Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun〉, and Sariêl the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
So here are the different areas that were specified here as types of forbidden knowledge that was shared:
Azazel taught metallurgy; this was how you can melt down certain compounds to create metals, which can be shaped into weapons and armor. In other words, Azazel made it easier for men to kill each other. At this point in human history, people hadn’t started fighting with swords and knives yet. They were so primitive, they hadn’t figured out these things. Azazel showed them how they could produce these kinds of weaponry and shape metals.
This is probably the one point of Enoch that we have the most stories about in antiquity: how the quote-unquote “gods” came down and gave new weapons to mankind. I received an email this week from a listener named Noah who says this:
If you go back to your Greek mythology you'll see the gods coming down to mate with women to make supernaturally strong men and women  called demigods. Greek mythology also says that certain gods brought forbidden knowledge to men, such as fire and forging weapons.  In addition, my kids really like the movie Moana, which, while it doesn't go into super deep detail about Hawaiian mythology, it does say that one of their main heroes Maui is a supernaturally strong demigod who brought technological advancement and other things to mortals. 

So thank you Noah, that’s a great note and I’m glad he sent that as I was working on this episode.
One of the most famous “myths” of ancient times is the story of Prometheus. Here’s how wikipedia summarizes his story: “In Greek mythology, Prometheus (/prəˈmiːθiəs/; Ancient Greek: Προμηθεύς [promɛːtʰéu̯s])[1] is a Titan responsible for creating or aiding humanity in its earliest days. He defied the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge and, more generally, civilization.”
Sounds a lot like what the Book of Enoch says the Watchers did. It sounds like Azazel.
Genesis 4:22 might be a reference to this, although it doesn’t mentioned any fallen angels. It was talking about Cain’s descendants and
Genesis 4:22 says
And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron.
So again, it doesn’t mention Tubal-Cain learning this practice from Azazel. Azazel does get a mention later on in the Bible, but we’re gonna come to that in a later episode.
It also said Azazel taught women about makeup and cosmetics. It said he 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.” So this sounds like makeups and dyes.
By the way, I am not saying today that wearing makeup is a sin. Ladies, go right ahead and do your thing. The Bible doesn’t say makeup is a sin. It does say women should be more focused on their inward beauty than their outward beauty, so we shouldn’t emphasize our hairstyles and clothes more than our spiritual life. But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to do your hair and try to look nice. Just make sure you keep those things in moderation and not center your life around them.
Another thing we saw mentioned here is that some of the Watchers taught astrology and constellations. Now, let me be clear so that no one gets superstitious. It’s OK to look up at the stars and say, “huh, some of those kinda look like a lion or a scorpion. Hey look, the Big Dipper.” That’s not wrong. That’s astronomy. And people of all human history would use the constellations as kind of their calendars so they would know when to plant their corn and when to harvest and probably when the next Marvel movie is coming out. The Bible even talks about constellations, such as in the Book of Job. Constellations themselves are not a sin to notice or talk about.
Astronomy is fine. What’s wrong is astrology, which is trying to tell the future or looking at Zodiac signs and trying to figure out what kind of day you’re going to have. All that is ridiculous. We shouldn’t try to interpret things by the stars or the moon. And this is where things like zodiac signs and horoscopes come in.
I remember back when I had a Myspace. And for the kids listening, if you don’t know what Myspace is, when you call your grandparents later to ask them about phone books, you can ask them what Myspace is as well. Myspace was like, the early competitor to Facebook. And I remember that, kind of like any social media, you can pick what information your want to have public and what information you want to have private. Location is optional. Relationship status is optional. Even a profile photo was optional. The only thing you had to put on- no option to turn it off, everyone had to put it on their profile- was their astrological sign.
You also had to be friends with Tom. He was, like, the creator of Myspace. But you could at least de-friend Tom if you wanted. I never did because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but you had the choice. But you couldn’t turn off your zodiac sign. If you were a Pisces or a Leo or a Taurus or a Sagittarius. It was ridiculous that any other information about you could be private, but zodiac signs were required. Why? I’m not sure. But the problem with zodiac signs are that these supposedly tell you your horoscope and can tell you things about your life.
Now listen, I’m sure like much so-called witchcraft, a lot of this astrology stuff is junk, it’s made-up, it’s stuff to fill space in the newspaper on a slow news day. But there might be something to some of it. As the great theologian Michael Scott once said, “I’m not superstitious but I am a little stitious.” I’m not sure if he’s a deeper scholar or thinker than Napoleon Dynamite, but I’m gonna follow that.
So when it comes to those things, even though most of it is probably just made up, I will be cautious. I’m not gonna freak out. If someone posts their horoscope on Facebook, I’m just gonna scroll right on by. I’m not gonna get mad, but I’m not gonna read it either. And if someone told me my horoscope for my sign says I’m gonna have a bad day or something, or if it says I’ll have a good day, I’m ignoring it. It has no bearing on my day; God will plan my steps. And if someone asks me what my sign is, I’ll say, “I don’t know” because I legitimately don’t know. It’s been too long since I had myspace to remember. I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff. I’m not living in fear of it, I just ignore it.
School House Rock says 3 is a magic number. There might be real magic somewhere out there, but 3 is just a number. 33 is just a number. Moana and Harry Potter and Narnia and Lord of the Rings are just movies. we don’t have to live in fear of these things. Some Christians get really mad about Harry Potter. You don’t have to watch it. And anything can be taken too far- including a lot of fantasy and sci-fi fanatics. I’m probably more afraid of Harry Potter fans than I am of Harry Potter. But just know this, there is real witchcraft in the world and we should avoid it, but the fallen angels were not teaching people about magic wands and riding on broomsticks.
So, we’ve covered a bunch of different areas of forbidden knowledge that the Watchers taught mankind in the antediluvian era. And one fascinating thread through all of it is how it persisted in the postdiluvian era, right up until today. And Revelation shows that it will continue to take place in the future. So let’s talk about that as we close down.

The Days of Noah Repeat
Because as we said last week, Jesus spoke of the time of the end as being as it was in the days of Noah- and this week’s episode was really a follow-up of that episode, so let’s look at His words again.
Luke 17:26-30 say
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Noah and Lot both lived in decadent times. The world kept on doing its thing, unaware of how close the end was, but it wasn’t a peaceful world. The Sodom of Lot’s days was sexually immoral and an abusive, violent society. And we could certainly make that comparison to our world today, with the sexual deviancy that’s celebrated on just about every modern show.
The Days of Noah were violent times as well. And we can start with weapons. The Watchers introduced a new way for humans to hurt ourselves. And as technology has advanced over the thousands of years since, so has our weaponry. We figured out bows-and-arrows, guns, rockets, missiles, atomic weapons. Did Watchers have anything to do with those advancements? I doubt it, but they at least got the ball rolling. We’re now in the atomic age and it’s hard to imagine us getting any more destructive.
Another thing we learned about today was pharmakeia. This is the first type of forbidden knowledge that was shared with humanity by the Watchers, and it referred to a type of witchcraft where potions and chemical compounds were created from plants and roots. Also known today as drugs. And speaking of roots, the word Pharmakeia has the same root as where we get our word “pharmacy,” AKA the drug store.
I am not saying you’re sinning the next time you pop a Tylenol in your mouth. All things in moderation. Some drugs have their place. But using them for intoxication can open you up to the spiritual world in a dangerous way.
I want to mention a study I once saw- and I apologize that my episode is going a few minutes long today, but like I said, I don’t want to do a part 3, I want to get all this covered now. I know a lot of people downplay the dangers of marijuana today. So this is probably gonna make some people mad. But there have been numerous studies again and again over the years where they take some potheads and give them marijuana but where scientists have removed the THC without telling them. The potheads still reported that they got high when the consumed these drugs.
Now, the medical community points at this to highlight what’s called “The Placebo Effect.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28771093/ But I’m not so sure that’s what’s going on. What if there could also be a spiritual realm that people are tapping into when they use these kinds of intoxications? What if they’re opening themselves up to demonic influence in some way? And so it’s not necessarily the THC causing that, but spiritual intent behind it? So I’ll just put that out there and see if I get any letters this week. But I’d encourage all listeners: don’t play around with Pharmakeia.
Those who engage in Pharmakeia are mentioned in the book of Revelation as it describes the tribulation period.
Revelation 9:20-21 say
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
The word “sorceries” right there is pharmakeia. The full definition is:
the use or the administering of drugs
poisoning
sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
So whatever it was that Semjaza and Azazel showed mankind, it will continue right up until Jesus comes back.
We also spoke today about genetic engineering, which is claimed in some places to have taken place in some way in the pre-flood world. All the Book of Enoch says is that animals were sinned against; the Bible tells us all flesh was being corrupted on the earth.
The mixing of seed absolutely takes place today in laboratories around the world. Dr. Rick Renner, in his book Fallen Angels, Giants, Monsters, and the World Before the Flood, says: “Take, for example, the mixing of human DNA with that of pigs to create the first human-pig hybrid embryos. By isolating certain human chromosomes and fusing them with the genetic material of swine, researchers are “growing” things like hybrid human hearts, livers, kidneys, and pancreases for organ-transplant patients. While many such hybrid experiments are done with the sincere hopes of helping those in desperate need of a transplant, the potential dangers and ethical violations of such endeavors, unchecked, are troubling to contemplate.” (Page 139)
Or perhaps you remember this quote from the great gentleman and scholar Napoleon Dynamite: “Have you heard of a liger? It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.”
Guys, he may have been talking about the antediluvian world! So, in other words, Napoleon Dynamite was a theologian and prophetic voice, we just didn’t realize it. So when Uncle Rico said he could throw a pigskin a quarter mile, does that mean he’s part Nephilim? And when he said he could throw a football over them mountains, was he talking about Mount Hermon? I’m just asking questions.
Now on a more serious note, are these things like sorcery and hybridization also the specific things Jesus was implying would describe the world of the end when He said it would be as it was in the Days of Noah? It’s hard to say; but remember, the Book of Enoch was Jesus’ history book. And Enoch said his book was addressed to the people who would be here at the End of the World Coming of the son of Man. The time that Jesus referred to when He said: “Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
And it wasn’t just the days of Noah that saw the Watchers tempting people with forbidden knowledge. This was also how Satan tempted Eve. Recall that he said these words to her in the garden of Eden: “…in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
One of the oldest deceptions was tricking mankind into knowing things they shouldn’t know. There are types of things that God says we’re just better off not knowing.
So when it comes to righteousness, be wise; when it comes to evil, be dumb.
And if being simple concerning evil sounds weird, I hope you’ll be a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.