Fallen angel

In Second Temple literature (notably the Book of Enoch) a group of heavenly court members called the Watchers (bənē hāʾĔlōhīm) descend from heaven, become enamoured of human women, and engage in illicit unions that produce the Nephilim; leaders such as Samyaza and Azazel are named, and Azazel in particular is accused of teaching forbidden arts. Hebrew poetic passages (read later in tradition) about a celestial figure Hêlêl ben Šāḥar thrown down from the heights are part of the broader pool of motifs about divine beings expelled from the assembly. Christian theology later frames these expulsions as a way to account for the origin of evil among created, rational spiritual beings. Islamic reception contains similar motifs (stories of Iblīs and of Harut and Marut) but exegetical opinion varies on whether these figures are to be classed as angels, jinn, or another category.

Source texts do not offer a single consistent bodily description. Later Christian theology commonly treats angels as immaterial, rational intelligences without bodily limitations; by contrast the Book of Enoch narrates Watchers descending to earth and taking on relations with human women, an account that implies a capacity for physical interaction. Hebrew poetic imagery also associates these beings with celestial objects such as stars (the Isaiah/Hêlêl tradition), so descriptions often shift between non-corporeal intelligences and figures depicted with cosmic or star-like imagery rather than detailed anthropomorphic features.

In Enochic accounts the Watchers descend to earth, engage sexually with human women and beget the Nephilim, and they transmit forbidden knowledge and skills to humanity (Azazel is credited with teaching sorcery and illicit arts). The fall functions in later Christian thought as a metaphysical explanation for how originally good, rational spiritual beings could become sources of evil. Some Second Temple texts portray the offspring or the persisting spirits of these events as continuing to afflict the world (for example as hostile spirits), while later rabbinic and Christian authors often rejected particular Enochian details; Islamic texts contain comparable motifs (Iblīs; Harut and Marut) but interpretive positions differ.