The Shocking Truth About Where Witchcraft Really Comes From – Michael Heiser

According to 1 Enoch 16, the transmission of heavenly knowledge by the Watchers—angelic beings who dwelled in heaven—to humans on earth represents a contamination of divine order, as this revelation mixes the distinct realms of heaven and earth inappropriately and leads to moral corruption. The Watchers, who were privy to secret heavenly knowledge, descended to earth in the days of Jared, swore an oath on Mount Hermon, took human wives, and produced giants known as the nephilim. They imparted forbidden knowledge such as sorcery, weapon-making, cosmetics, and astrology to humans, which was not the issue in itself, but how humans used these teachings for destructive and immoral purposes. This horrible combination was also the beginning of occultism, because those angels taught the women witchcraft, sorcery and divination, as there are no traces of occult practices before this event. This act of the Watchers was an attempt to imitate God and raise their own kingdoms without permission, echoing a Gnostic-like rebellion. Their offspring's hybrid nature further disrupted divine categories, causing spiritual consequences that plagued humanity even after the giants’ death. The resulting chaos and godlessness led to a cry for divine intervention, culminating in God's judgment and the flood narrative, with the Watchers bound and imprisoned until the final judgment. The account in 1 Enoch expands the brief Genesis 6:1-4 passage by providing the broader mythological and theological context familiar to Second Temple Judaism, where the fundamental problem is not knowledge itself but its misuse that exacerbates human sinfulness and corruption. #witchcraft #divination #michaelheiser #sorcery #occult #angels #jesus #judaism #hermon