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Angels...what does that mean to people today. Guardians sent by god to watch over us, spirits that inhabit a parallel dimension or is there a more substantial explanation to their appearance in our history. Andrew Collins seems to think there is. Unlike most of the books that are published on Angels, this is not a New Age search for something to enrich our shallow lives, this is a pure historical detective work, a search for a historical reason for the existence of Angels.

A basic recap of the Biblical angle on these characters is in order. The Angels, known more often as Watchers, were the messengers of God, some of whom fell from grace by "knowing" mortal women. The offspring of this union was known as the Nephilim, giants who walk among men. Nowhere does the Bible state that the Watchers had any special powers, not un-natural ones at least. Nor does it state that they where immortal, in fact it almost implies they had a limited life span. Noah's birth is of interest, he is described as being a Nephilim, with Caucasian features rather than the dark appearance of his kin.

The problem with any work of this nature is trying to remove the later gloss of Christian dogma to try and find the original story. Angels have been made into some chubby little Cherubim by medieval artists and the realities of what they represent has been lost. Once you manage to separate embellished religious nonsense from the fragments of the original mythology a different picture begins to emerge. Apart from the bible itself Collins has found some useful sources. The book of Enoch, for example is a book that although was once part of the original teachings of the Christian way, fell out of popularity and was eventually lost. It never became part of the "official" bible and was rediscovered and finally translate in 1821. The Book of Enoch is an account of a mortals journey to the place where the Angels live in the sky. That all sounds a bit fanciful if we believe that they are some sort of spirit guardian of the Christian paradise. If however they where just a slightly advanced but secretive culture living in the mountains, it becomes a lot more plausible. Babylonian mythology comes under scrutiny from Collins new interpretations as does the later writings of the Angel cults which still thrive to this day amongst the Kurdish tribes of the area.

Before you dismiss this as a load of old von Daniken, at no point is Collins suggesting that there where aliens or some super race living unnoticed in the vicinity. More a race of what we call Culture Bringers, a common phenomenon through out ancient history, operating at a respectful distance, but imparting some of its knowledge on the budding civilizations on the plains below. Could this be the original Eden, or paradise itself. Collins study of linguistics from the area shows us the stem of many of the words we now use in a mystical sense that link into the story in a very matter of fact way.
The conclusions of the book are fascinating and hold up well to close scrutiny. Any book of this nature can only be the results of one interpretation of the facts, but after reading this I am quite prepared to fight from his corner of the ring.

Biblical re-interpretations are always a brave thing to undertake, but what Collins manages to do is unravel and re-examine facts with out in any way undermine anybodies faith. So are the Angels of the Bible a real race, up until now hidden from the distant gaze of modern historians. I think that they just might be, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Anyway Angels as a forgotten race is far more believable than a bunch of babies with blond curly locks, wings and harps, don't you think?

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