Who is the Angel Zotiel? | Ep 17 Enoch Explained: Book of Enoch Bible Study

The Book of Enoch makes a reference to an angel named Zotiel. Who is this angel and why does Enoch mention him?

We think since Enoch wrote his book before the Flood when the only language on earth was Hebrew, looking at the name Zotiel in Paleo Hebrew may help us identify him.

Part 17 of a verse-by-verse study of the Book of Enoch (also known as 1 Enoch). This episode covers Enoch 32:2.

Thanks for watching, and hope you enjoy.

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Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction
0:16 Is Zotiel Azazel (Satan)?
1:48 Azazel’s judgment
3:02 Importance of names in Hebrew
3:39 The name Zotiel in Hebrew
4:41 Zotiel doesn’t mean “little one of GOD”
5:22 Spelling in ancient manuscripts
6:37 Name Theory #1
8:56 Hebrew meaning of the name Satan
11:31 Name Theory #2
14:16 Name Theory #3
15:45 Not a cherub of the Garden of Eden
17:51 The alternate translation
20:10 Ge’ez version of niqqud
20:54 Parable for the future?
23:15 New free resource!

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Links & Resources:

Download this episode for free on our Downloads page

Read the Book of Enoch Free Online

Free PDF Download of the Book of Enoch

Audio-only edition of the Book of Enoch Bible Study series – free to stream or download

Questions about Enoch?

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Transcript:

Carlos: We left off with Enoch going over the Erythraean Sea and then taken far from there, but he wound up taken over the angel Zotiel.

Dawson: Yes, we think that Zotiel is another name for the angel Azazel and Azazel …

Carlos: Another name for?

Dawson: Satan.

Carlos: Satan.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: All information points to it being Azazel as we study.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: The more we look into it, the more it’s Azazel.

Dawson: Yes. One of the common theories out there is that the angel Zotiel is a principality, so along the lines of how Daniel talks about the prince of Persia or the prince of Greece, but a couple problems with that. One is that Enoch doesn’t say, you know, the prince of this place called Zotiel.

Carlos: It doesn’t speak with much respect.

Dawson: Yes, that’s another point. So, in Enoch, when he’s introducing angels, the majority of the time – is that Lucky? Come here, Lucks.

Carlos: Okay. Lucky came in.

Dawson: Hi Luck. Lucky doesn’t want to talk about Zotiel. She wants to play. So, kind of a common theme in Enoch is when he’s referring to angels is he speaks about them with great respect. So, it’s Michael, the holy and honored angel who was with me, or Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me. So, he doesn’t – not all the time, but a majority of the time, enough where it’s unusual that if there’s only one mention of this angel Zotiel, he is talking about him …

Carlos: And no respect.

Dawson: … with no respect. Just, I passed over the angel Zotiel.

Carlos: Now there’s one more point we want to add to where we’re heading is, if you’re reading the book of Enoch, it hasn’t been that long. It’s just, it’s pretty fresh in your mind that Father had just put Azazel in a cauldron.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Tied his hands, tied his feet, and blindfolded him, in jagged rocks, I believe. So, he can’t even use his gifts of the spirit that were taken away from him. Amen. He can’t use, he can’t see far and wide no more in the spirit. It’s over. He’s bound. His gifts taken away. Only – he’s only allowed to do what Father allows him to do. So, he comes over, he goes this, and flew over the place of the angel, and we’re about to write his name here.

Dawson: Zotiel. Yeah.

Carlos: What’s the name?

Dawson: Zotiel.

Carlos: It’s not Hebrew.

Dawson: It’s not Hebrew. Just one quick note. One quick note. The reason that Carlos says he put Azazel in a cauldron is because it says that Azazel is bound in Dudael, and “dud” is a Hebrew word, which means cauldron.

Carlos: Cauldron, hole, prison.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Pit.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Any one of those qualify.

Dawson: So, we’re going to take a look at the name, and the reason we’re taking a look at the name is because when Father names you, and Father named all of the angels, it typically has something to do with your role, like what you do for Father. Like an example would be Uriel. He’s in charge of the luminaries, and his name means light, light of God.

Carlos: A short just went up with Adam.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: As soon as He created, give it a name, Adam.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Amen. So …

Dawson: Yeah, names mean something.

Carlos: It means something.

Dawson: And Enoch would have been written in Hebrew originally, but like Carlos has said, Zotiel is not Hebrew. So, we have a full copy of Enoch preserved in Ethiopian, and like we’ve talked about before, the Ethiopian alphabet derives from the Hebrew alphabet. So, we’re going to take those Ge’ez, those Ethiopian letters, and convert them to Hebrew, and see what we can find.

Carlos: Let’s see.

Dawson: So, the first letter of Zotiel is the letter zayin.

Carlos: Zayin. Nice zayin.

Dawson: The next letter is tet. Next letter is alef, and the last letter is …

Carlos: Lamed.

Dawson: … lamed. So …

Carlos: Zotiel.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Okay, so let’s get to what we believe it is not right away. If we look up Zotiel online, or if you ask any AI, it comes up with “little one of God”.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Critical error.

Dawson: And it actually will tell you online that it means little one of God in Hebrew.

Carlos: No, no, no, no, no.

Dawson: But that’s not true. The whole theory on that is…

Carlos: It’s Aramaic.

Dawson: Yes, it’s based on the fact that zuti and zuta is Aramaic for little. So, for them to say that’s Hebrew, that’s…

Carlos: That’s as close as you get.

Dawson: Yeah, not true at all. So, let’s see if we can figure out what this means. Now, one thing I want to mention is that it is a common scribal occurrence in ancient manuscripts for them to switch the letters. So that’s one of the first things that …

Carlos: How about an example?

Dawson: An example would be the name Isaac. In the Bible, it appears over a hundred times spelled with the tsade, but there are a few instances they spell Isaac wrong with a shin.

Carlos: With a shin, amen.

Dawson: So, there are plenty of examples. Sometimes the quf is switched with the kaf, and that’s because the writers who are copying the manuscripts, they go based on sound. And so, we think that something similar may have happened with this name Zotiel.

Carlos: So, there might have been a letter switch up.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Now, don’t start a new religion on this. And remember, our salvation is based on Yeshua, the Mashiach, being in our heart.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Who came for our salvation. Amen?

Dawson: Yes. Not on …

Carlos: Not on this.

Dawson: Not on Hebrew, not on any of this stuff.

Carlos: No.

Dawson: But it’s still fun to look at.

Carlos: It’s feasting on Father’s word.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Amen.

Dawson: So, we’re going to show you a couple different variations of this name and what it could mean in Hebrew if we apply some of these Hebrew roots and things like that. So, the first variation that we looked at is what if this zayin is actually a shin? So that’s the letter shin, which in – not in ancient Hebrew, but in later Hebrew has the sound “shuh” and also “suh”. So, is it possible that this name is Sotiel? So that’s a shin, the tet again, and then the alef and the lamed. Now this variation is very interesting because this, as you probably recognize, if this is …

Carlos: If this is Hebrew.

Dawson: If this is his name and this is Hebrew. This is El. This is God. So, this would kind of match the format of a lot of the names of the archangels, Raphael.

Carlos: Uriel.

Dawson: Uriel. So, the question is, what does this (shin-tet) mean? And this is a root word in Hebrew. It’s actually two separate root words. One of them means someone who revolts, someone who turns away. So, a rebel, which is interesting if this is Azazel, right?

Carlos: A rebel.

Dawson: Another root word spelled shin-tet is someone who wanders and roams to and fro, which also sounds like Satan.

Carlos: Okay, we’re just saying everything …

Dawson: We’re just saying, yeah, the more we looked at this for many reasons, not even just the name, but the more we looked at it, the more it does sound like …

Carlos: And again, as we said, they wrote Isaac so many times this way, and then so many times that way. So …

Dawson: Yeah. So, you can imagine taking these words from the original Hebrew, which Enoch would have written in, and then, you know, centuries later …

Carlos: Put into Ge’ez and then back into …

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Yeah.

Dawson: So, this is actually – so in addition to it meaning – one root meaning to roam to and fro and to wander.

Carlos: To wander.

Dawson: Or to rebel and to revolt. This is actually also the root word for Satan. Satan is – we’re going to talk about the meaning of Satan’s name, and also Carlos is going to tell us why we don’t worry about this creature.

Carlos: We do not worry.

Dawson: Okay, so Satan is shin, tet, nachash. Now, what does this name mean by the letters?

Carlos: Bite. Right away.

Dawson: It’s a bite.

Carlos: Bite.

Dawson: What does he bite?

Carlos: Everything you’re holding.

Dawson: Yeah, so the letter tet is a picture of a container. We believe in this word and in this name, because it’s also a word, that it’s representing everything that’s yours, that he comes to devour.

Carlos: Everything. Steal, kill, destroy. Everything.

Dawson: Yeah, and he is, as you know, a serpent. And that is the letter nachash, which is a serpent.

Carlos: And he comes in nehoshet power.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: The glistening one.

Dawson: Yeah. So, this is actually, in Hebrew, it’s not just the name Satan, but it’s the word “adversary”. And this word “Satan” is used to describe…

Carlos: Always adversary.

Dawson: Yeah, it’s used to describe even men. So, men can be adversaries. So technically, it’s a title. It’s a title of our adversary.

Carlos: Amen. Now, is there another way of spelling Satan?

Dawson: I don’t believe so.

Carlos: No?

Dawson: No.

Carlos: There we go.

Dawson: Yeah. So, if this is actually Zotiel, then it would have the meaning of rebel of God or someone who God has caused to roam to and fro and to wander.

Carlos: A wanderer of God, a rebel of God.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: That’s what it would mean.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: If it was in Hebrew.

Dawson: If.

Carlos: If it was in Hebrew. We are not saying that’s what it means. We’re saying possibility because we’re looking into this angel.

Dawson: Right. That’s one possibility.

Carlos: No honor is bestowed upon him and buried in a terrible place.

Dawson: Right.

Carlos: Now, there’s one more.

Dawson: There’s actually two more.

Carlos: Well, that’s true. Two more, but …

Dawson: Two more.

Carlos: One more that I really like.

Dawson: Yes, well …

Carlos: Everyone has their favorite.

Dawson: Everyone has their favorite idea.

Carlos: You can have yours.

Dawson: So, we’ll save yours, your favorite for last. I think your favorite is my favorite too. But the next two have something in common, which is that we believe that this letter zayin is actually the Hebrew, is for the Hebrew word this, that, or which. If you were to look in a dictionary, you would see that the Hebrew words zeh, zoh, zu, zot, all of these words.

Carlos: That, this, that one.

Dawson: That, this, which, who, all have that same meaning.

Carlos: As in that angel.

Dawson: Yeah, so that’s something. That’s something. So, this would be this. We’ll just say this, or that, or which. And this will make sense in just a second. Now, that kind of takes care of that part. But what about the rest of it is the question.

So, two options here. The first one is that something else that we commonly see in Hebrew manuscripts and biblical manuscripts is that this letter alef will be added in the middle of words. It’s rare, not as common as with vavs and yods, but it does happen.

Carlos: But it happens.

Dawson: Where it’s added for sound. So, if this name doesn’t actually have the alef in the original Hebrew, that leaves us with the root word “tul”. So that’s a tet, and that’s a lamed.

Carlos: If, if this was added.

Dawson: Yes, if this was added by our Ethiopian friends. So, this word “tul” in Hebrew, it means to hurl, to – like the way you hurl a spear, to cast out. So, this name would have the meaning of this one is cast out. This one is hurled away.

Carlos: Hurled away.

Dawson: Yeah. So, when Enoch says …

Carlos: It’s a possibility.

Dawson: It’s a possibility. When he says, “I passed over the angel Zotiel,” literally he would be saying, I passed over the angel which was cast out.

Carlos: Cast out.

Dawson: Hurled out.

Carlos: Which was hurled away, which was forced out.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Any way you want to look at it, it could be used in all those ways.

Dawson: Yeah. There’s a scripture that says that even if the righteous fall seven times, they are not tul. They’re not cast out.

Carlos: Never. No.

Dawson: Yeah. But the angel Azazel, cast out. So that’s one possibility.

Carlos: There’s another one. There’s one more with the tet.

Dawson: There’s one more where, yeah, the tet, we think – we call this our favorite because we think it’s probably the most likely.

Carlos: My favorite.

Dawson: Yeah. I’ll take it. Where this tet was actually a tav.

Carlos: Whoa, now we get somewhere. If it was a tav.

Dawson: Now, if you know a little Hebrew, you know how easy that is to switch the two, because they both make exactly the same sound, “tah”. It’s a T. So very likely that this could be the letter tav, and that this aleph is actually part of the word. And this lamed is also part of the word. So, it would be zo or zu, tal. And this means, in Hebrew, curse. Okay. So, this, this one is cursed.

Carlos: I was taken far away, and I passed over the angel.

Dawson: Which is cursed.

Carlos: Cursed of God.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Amen. To me, that’s the closest. Pick your favorite.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Amen.

Dawson: Yes. Now, one major theory that we want to talk about, like we said, if you look up the name Zotiel, it’ll tell you it means little one of God, which is not Hebrew. It’s Aramaic.

Carlos: Also, the cherub that guards the garden.

Dawson: Yes, that is the number one theory on who Zotiel is.

Carlos: Everything, if you walk in the Holy Spirit, everything tells you that that angel does not guard the garden.

Dawson: This is not one of the cherubs.

Carlos: Oh, no.

Dawson: Yeah. And just logically speaking, that whole, that account that’s given to us by Moses in the book of Genesis, He drives Adam and Eve out of the garden because they sinned. And He places cherubim, plural.

Carlos: More than one.

Dawson: To guard the way to the Tree of Life. So, the Zotiel is a cherub of the Garden of Eden theory – where’s the other cherub?

Carlos: No, there’s more than one.

Dawson: Why is it just mentioning one? That’s one problem with it. Another issue with it is once you read the next part of Enoch, which we will do in the next episode, if the whole purpose of the cherubim was to guard the Tree of Life, the Tree of Life is not in the garden anymore when we get to the next part of Enoch.

Carlos: You’re going to find out it’s somewhere else.

Dawson: Yeah, we actually …

Carlos: It’s going to be transplanted the future.

Dawson: Yes, and we read about Enoch’s encounter with the Tree of Life a few episodes ago. So, we don’t believe there’s any need for the cherubim to be guarding the place. And even if they were, it’s a stretch to say that Zotiel is one of them. And the only reason why this theory exists is because Enoch mentions Zotiel and then he next mentions the garden. So, it’s just an assumption.

Carlos: I don’t believe the garden is inside the cauldron with him.

Dawson: Right.

Carlos: So, no.

Dawson: No, no, no.

Carlos: He’s not guarding the garden. He’s at the cauldron blindfolded and tied up.

Dawson: Yeah, definitely.

Carlos: Not going to happen. Father wouldn’t do that.

Dawson: Yeah. There is one more thing with the angel Zotiel. Some translators, they don’t translate it as the angel Zotiel. And in the Ethiopian manuscripts, it’s very clear it’s nothing but the angel Zotiel. In the Greek manuscripts, the old copies of Enoch, it’s Zotiel. So, they make the claim that there’s Aramaic fragments that are dubious.

Carlos: At best.

Dawson: Yeah, but even they admit they can’t really read them. It’s too hard to read them. But a lot of people just don’t like Zotiel, the whole notion of an angel named Zotiel who’s not in the Bible.

Carlos: Exactly.

Dawson: So, they assume what Enoch actually wrote is, I passed over the darkness. But again, this doesn’t match all of the manuscripts. And even if they’re right.

Carlos: Even if they’re right.

Dawson: Even if they’re right, Father – it does lead us back to Azazel because when Father bound Azazel, he literally says, “Bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into the darkness.” So, if they’re right, if they’re right about it being darkness, it still points to Azazel.

Carlos: Yeah, this angel is cursed.

Dawson: Yeah. Yeah. So, to kind of sum it all up, it’s an angel that Enoch passed over just a few chapters after.

Carlos: No homage paid.

Dawson: There’s no respect paid to him. We know that Azazel at this point is bound somewhere in the earth, and he could be passed over. We have a name, which there’s a lot of different ways we can look at it, but it all points to something bad.

Carlos: None of it’s good.

Dawson: One other note, interesting, is that in the book of Enoch, Azazel has two names. So, we’ll get to that when we get to chapter 69. But if this – if we’re correct, and Zotiel is Azazel, another name or title for Azazel, he instead of having two names in Enoch, he has three. So not too much of a big deal.

Carlos: Well, he’s called – how many names does he have in the Bible?

Dawson: Exactly. Satan.

Carlos: The thief.

Dawson: Yeah, the serpent.

Carlos: The serpent.

Dawson: The dragon.

Carlos: The dragon. Amen. So, it’s like …

Dawson: Lucifer.

Carlos: It’s not, it’s – we have a model for it in the in the Bible itself.

Dawson: We do.

Carlos: Amen.

Dawson: We do. One more thing that I want to say, and then …

Carlos: My favorite.

Dawson: That’s our favorite option, “zu-tal”. And in the Ethiopian, it is actually zu and not zo. Greek has it as zo.

Carlos: Amen. For those of you who still read Hebrew, the way they do dates, three dots below a letter.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Three dots. One, two, three, zu.

Dawson: Yeah, the modern Hebrew uses the vowel pointing and the Ethiopian language, they actually do something different. I’ll show it on screen because it’s kind of cool. They just build in the vowel pointing into the letters. So, it’s very obvious which sound you’re talking about. One just quick note before we go, and I’d like to ask if you have anything else you want to tell us, is if we’re right and this angel, Zotiel, is indeed Azazel, I think it’s pretty cool that Enoch just kind of casually says that he passed over Zotiel on his way to paradise.

He doesn’t make a big deal, and I made it. I had to try to bypass danger, and I was scared to death. And he just says, I passed over and I got there.

Carlos: I believe Father was the same before as He is now, as He’s always going to be. And let the wicked be forgotten. Let their names not be written. So, I’m fine. He changed his name and let it be forgotten. I think that’s what He did.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Praise the Lord, and I don’t mind forgetting.

Dawson: Yeah, and one day we’ll kind of be in the same situation because all of these entities, these principalities, and these demons, and all these things.

Carlos: Including Gog.

Dawson: That Enoch talks about, that the whole Bible talks about, they’re going to be locked away for a thousand years while Yeshua is here. And like we talked about in a few episodes ago, they’ll be at the corner of darkness and hell. So, the Kidron and the Gehenna, and the lake of fire.

Carlos: Right in the corner. Yeah, that’s where they’re going.

Dawson: And we’ll just pass by it on our way to the paradise of God in His holy city on Mount Zion.

Carlos: Sea of glass.

Dawson: Yeah, so looking forward to that day. But here’s a little, perhaps a little model of that in the book of Enoch.

Carlos: Amen. Those of you who’ve been studying the angels, we don’t ascribe mystery to them. We don’t lift them up. We’re trying to give you the Word of God. And what our Father has said to us, what’s ours is ours.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: And what is in ours, all complete. Father, let us know in the future if it’s important. But this is what He gave us and we’re trying to make the best we can out of it.

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Amen. There’s a special blessing for those who study Enoch and a special blessing for those who hear it. So, we’re going for every blessing we can.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: Amen.

Dawson: Amen. One more thing, one more thing.

Carlos: One more thing.

Dawson: This whole study of the angel Zotiel inspired me to create a new free resource on fathersalphabet.com.

Carlos: Get ready for this.

Dawson: Which is Paleo Strong’s. It is a Strong’s dictionary of all the Hebrew and Aramaic words in the Old Testament, but with Paleo Hebrew. So that’s a new free download for you guys. Go grab a copy.

Carlos: When you look at it, you have the actual Strong letters, but in – you’re going to see this, you’re going to see this, you’re going to see this (Original Hebrew script).

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Oh, you’re not going to see the – you’re not, you’re not going to see this with three letters (Aramaic script with niqqud).

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: Right?

Dawson: Yeah.

Carlos: You’re not going to see that. Yeah. It’s not going to happen. You’re going to, you’re going to have Paleo the way Father meant it to be.

Dawson: Yeah. So hopefully it’s a good resource for you guys. And …

Carlos: Amen. By the way, if you do use this (Aramaic script with niqqud), it’s fine.

Dawson: Yes.

Carlos: We don’t care. This is just for those who want to look at Father’s word, its original use and its original letters, its original meaning so that no one can add to it or take away from it.

Dawson: Yeah. It’s a beautiful thing.

Carlos: It’s a beautiful thing.

Dawson: Go to the website, check it out and get a copy.

Carlos: Amen. Free download.

Dawson: Yeah. So, shalom everybody.

Carlos: Shalom unto Jerusalem.

Dawson: Amen.

Carlos: Amen.

End of Transcript

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In this video: Enoch explained, Book of Enoch, 1 Enoch, Who is the angel Zotiel, Zutiel, Ge’ez manuscript, Enoch in Greek, What’s the meaning of the name Satan, Who is Azazel?

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About the series:

Our Book of Enoch Bible Study series offers a down-to-earth look at this often sensationalized text. Instead of focusing mainly on fallen angels, our goal is to learn the heart of our Father and gain understanding of the Old and New Testament Scriptures that parallel Enoch’s words. Throughout this series, we’ll read together and discuss:

• Life before the Flood
• How sin and transgression caused GOD to destroy His creation,
• Enoch’s epic prophecies covering the history of humanity and Israel,
• The many passages in Enoch that point to YASHUA HA MASHIACH (JESUS CHRIST),
• The ancient calendar of Israel,
• End-times prophecies and how Father will protect us through the days to come, and
• What life will be like in Millennium.

Enoch is a remarkably full book that sheds light on everything from Genesis to Revelation, so, in our view, to understand Enoch is to better understand the entire Bible.

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