Dead Sea Scrolls

**The** **Dead Sea Scrolls**
refers to the **Qumran Caves Scrolls** – manuscripts found in
the Qumran Caves near the Dead Sea, or more broadly, to manuscripts
from a larger number of sites from the entire Judaean Desert, around
1947 none very far from the Dead Sea. The texts have great
historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they
include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later
included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and
extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity
of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism.

Roughly 40% of the texts found in the dead sea scrolls are copies of
works that later show up in hebrew scriptures. Approximately another
30% are texts from the Second Temple Period which ultimately were not
canonized in the Hebrew Bible, like the Book of Enoch, the Book of
Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152–155,
etc. The remainder (roughly 30%) are sectarian manuscripts of
previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs
of a particular group (sect) or groups within greater Judaism, like
the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher on Habakkuk, and The
Rule of the Blessing. While there are various texts, this page will just focus on the most relevant ones, the book of enoch and the book of jubilees.

Note that while both the dead sea
scrolls and the kabbalah are non-dogma additions to judaism, the dead
sea scrolls are ancient, coming from old testament times, whereas the
kabbalah was invented around the year 1180.

References to the dead sea scrolls show up a few times in the games. In soul hackers, the main villain group the phantom society is depicted as an ancient group who has controlled aspects of society from ancient times, with a goal of control and harvesting of souls. They are composed of the grigori from the dead sea souls as leading members. This likely being a theme about the potential dangers of new technology, in reference to the dead sea scrolls story of the watchers giving humanity information that led them into war and strife, due to them not being ready for it. Contrasted against the watchers, the good side in soul hackers is associated with native american spirituality, likely in reference to the idea of more respect for nature, contrasting the creation of dangerous tech. Azazel of the grigori shows up again in soul hackers 2, still presiding over the phantom society, but now in a more remote way, and less involved in the events.

References also show up in Sj and IV with the character of mastema, and in iva with hallelujah being implied to be a nephilim.

## The book of Enoch

The book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah,
 although modern scholars estimate the older sections (mainly in the
Book of the Watchers) to date from about 300 BC, and the latest part
(Book of Parables) probably to the first century BC.

The first part of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim. The remainder of the book describes Enoch's visits to heaven in the form of travels, visions and dreams, and his revelations. It consists of five sections. The Book of the Watchers, The Book of Parables of Enoch, The Astronomical Book (also called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries), The Book of Dream Visions, and The Epistle of Enoch.

**The book of the watchers**. This first section of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers (also called grigori), the angels who fathered the Nephilim and narrates the travels of Enoch in the heavens. The introduction to the Book of Enoch tells us that Enoch is "a just man, whose eyes were opened by God" and who was informed by the sons of god. It discusses God coming to Earth on Mount Sinai with His hosts to pass judgement on mankind. It talks about how all things have their time and place and so the sinners shall perish and the great and the good shall live on in light, joy and peace.

The first section of the book depicts the interaction of the fallen angels with mankind; **Semyaza**, (or Shemhazai) compels the other 199 fallen angels to take human wives to "beget us children". He said to the others "I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin." and so they swore an oath together to do it. And they descended to earth on mount Hermon. This procreation results in the creation of the **nephilim**, who are giants who are half angel. the giants were seen as harmful to mankind, consuming their resources, and ultimately turning to mankind themself. Note the relatively small number of fallen angels compared to how many are implied to exist in later stories.

It also discusses the teaching of humans by the fallen angels, chiefly **Azazel**. Azazel taught them about weapons and magic, and various other things. It goes through a list of various things that various beings taught them, and the temptations they implied, leading them into violence. One of the things listed was cosmetics, which ties to in iva where an angel calls it an invention of demons. The implication being that many of these things humans were not yet ready to know. Note how in SMTIV azazel shows up in late game mikado in a sidequest teaching people things. Note that a theme in iv is also about whether it is better to withhold some knowledge at times for the greater good, or leave it to individuals to decide what to do with it. Both iv and the dead sea scrolls expand the idea of knowledge of good and evil being given to humans with other knowledge it may cause harm to have.

Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel
 appeal to God to judge the inhabitants of the world and the fallen
angels. Uriel is then sent by God to tell Noah of the coming cataclysm and what he needs to do. God then commands raphael to imprison Azazel, sealing him in the desert until the end of days in which he was cast into the fire. God also inspired the sons of the fallen angels to go to war with eachother until their ruin was caused.

God then sends michael to bind semyaza and the other angels, until the end of the world for the final judgement.

**Other**. The Book of Parables appears to be based on the Book of Watchers, but
presents a later development of the idea of final judgement and of eschatology,
 concerned not only with the destiny of the fallen angels but also that
of the evil kings of the earth. The Book of Parables uses the expression
 *Son of Man* for the eschatological protagonist, who is also
called “Righteous One”, “Chosen One”, and “Messiah”, and sits on the
throne of glory in the final judgment. Note how angels call humans son of man in some megaten games. It details the final judgement of the grigori. The remaining books also detail events from the time of the original across history, often overlapping with biblical events or the history of judaism.

## Second book of Enoch

The **Second Book of Enoch** (usually abbreviated **2 Enoch**, and otherwise variously known as **Slavonic Enoch** or **The Secrets of Enoch**) is a pseudepigraphic text (a text whose claimed authorship is unfounded) of the Old Testament. It is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. The text has been preserved in full only in Slavonic. Although the second book of enoch was not part of the dead sea scrolls, its similar tone has gotten it associated with it.

The Second Book of Enoch also known as *The Book of the Secrets of Enoch*
 is most noted for its description of multiple heavens and accounts of
battles between angels and demons. This account is thought to have been
known by and influenced the apostle Paul who described his experience of
 being taken up to the third heaven.

The book details enoch being escorted through the different levels of heaven, and being given divine knowledge unknown even to the angels. It also details him being given an angelic body, ultimately tied to him becoming the angel metatron. And details the interactions of his descendants. It also details the creation of the angels from a fire cut off from the rock (foundation) of the heavens. Satanael sought to raise his throne above that of god, and so was cast down. During enoch's journey, god tests the obedience of angels by causing them to bow to enoch, and some refused, being identified as the angels of satanael. This is seen as an early source of the story of the war in heaven. The levels of heaven are:

1. The first heaven is just above the firmament (Genesis 1:6-7) where
the angels control atmospheric phenomena such as the storehouses of snow
 and rain and the waters above.

2. In the second heaven, Enoch finds
darkness, a prison where rebel angels are tortured. Note that this realm of darkness and punishment exists within the heavens themselves.

3. In the third
heaven, he sees both paradise represented as the garden of eden (also
guarded by angels) (as in 2 Corinthians 12:2) and hell where bad men are
 tortured.

4. The fourth heaven is the place of movements of the Sun and
 of the Moon, which are described in detail. There is also on this level
 a heavenly choir made up of soldier angels whose singing is wonderful
and marvelous. Note the depiction of heavenly bodies as within heaven. Which is why in iva the realm of yhvh is associated with space as well.

5. In the fifth heaven, Enoch finds some Grigori, soldiers
 of satan who look like human beings but were giants. They were in a
state of limbo, having not yet been condemned and Enoch convinced them
to repent.

6. In the sixth heaven, he sees the angels in charge of
governing the cosmos and people. These are the archangels who are above
angels, measure all life in heaven and on earth, and the angels who are
(appointed) over seasons and years, the angels who are over rivers and
sea, and who are over the fruits of the earth, and the angels who are
over every grass, giving food to all, to every living thing, and the
angels who write all the souls of men, and all their deeds, and their
lives before the Lord’s face;

7. In the seventh heaven, Enoch, now
guided by Gabriel, is allowed to enter and sees the Lord on his throne
face to face but only from a distance. This is where the legions of
God’s angels live in beautiful light.

8. The Eighth heaven is just below
 the upper firmament in which are stuck the constellations here lives
Muzaloth, the changer of the seasons and the mover of the constellations

 9. The ninth heaven is the upper firmament in which are stuck the
constellations and the changer of the seasons.

10 The tenth and final
heaven is where God’s throne resides and God's face may be seen up
close. Here he holds court.

## The book of Jubilees

The **Book of Jubilees**, sometimes called **Lesser Genesis** (**Leptogenesis**), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters, considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is known as the *Book of Division*. *Jubilees* is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

It was well known to Early Christians, as evidenced by the writings of Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos.
 The book was the major canonical literature of the ancient Jewish
community indicated by the dominance of the number of copies found
amongst all that were originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls.

*Jubilees* covers much of the same ground as *Genesis*, but
often with additional detail, and addressing Moses in the second person
as the entire history of creation, and of Israel up to that point, is
recounted in divisions of 49 years each, or "Jubilees". The elapsed time
 from the creation, up to Moses receiving the scriptures upon Sinai
during the Exodus, is calculated as fifty Jubilees, less the 40 years
still to be spent wandering in the desert before entering Canaan – or
2,410 years.

Four classes of angels are mentioned: angels of the presence,
 angels of sanctifications, guardian angels over individuals, and angels
 presiding over the phenomena of nature. Enoch was the first man
initiated by the angels in the art of writing, and wrote down,
accordingly, all the secrets of astronomy, of chronology, and of the
world's epochs. As regards demonology, the writer's position is largely
that of the deuterocanonical writings from both New and Old Testament
times.

The *Book of Jubilees* narrates the genesis of angels on the first day of Creation and the story of how a group of fallen angels mated with mortal females, giving rise to a race of giants known as the Nephilim, and then to their descendants, the Elioud. Their hybrid children, the Nephilim in existence during the time of Noah, were wiped out by the great flood.
 However, Jubilees also states that God granted ten percent of the
disembodied spirits of the Nephilim to try to lead mankind astray after
the flood under the watch of the angel mastema.

According to this book, Hebrew is the language of Heaven, and was
originally spoken by all creatures in the Garden, animals and man;
however, the animals lost their power of speech when Adam and Eve were
expelled. Following the Deluge, the earth was apportioned into three
divisions for the three sons of Noah, and his sixteen grandsons. After the destruction of the Tower of Babel,
 their families were scattered to their respective allotments, and
Hebrew was forgotten, until Abraham was taught it by the angels.

*Jubilees* also contains a few scattered allusions to the Messianic
 kingdom. Robert Henry Charles wrote in 1913: "This kingdom was to be
ruled over by a Messiah sprung, not from Levi – that is, from the Maccabean family – as some of his contemporaries expected – but from Judah.
 This kingdom would be gradually realized on earth, and the
transformation of physical nature would go hand in hand with the ethical
 transformation of man until there was a new heaven and a new earth.
Thus, finally, all sin and pain would disappear and men would live to
the age of 1,000 years in happiness and peace, and after death enjoy a
blessed immortality in the spirit world."

## Major Figures

**Enoch** is a figure in Biblical literature. "In the seventh generation from Adam," he was considered the author of the *Book of Enoch* and also called Enoch the scribe of judgment. The Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken by God.
The text reads that Enoch "walked with God: and he was no more; for God
took him" (Gen 5:21–24), which some Christians interpret as Enoch entering Heaven alive.

The books of enoch dictate how enoch was brought to heaven, and showed to the throne of god, similar to the story of dante's paradiso. At the end of this, he was taught secrets unknown even to the other angels, and became the angel metatron, the highest angel in heaven, in command of other angels, and immediate mouth of god. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, and the Rabbinic
kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated
God's revelation to Moses, in particular, the dictator of the Book of Jubilees.

In megaten, metatron shows up as a high ranking angel in many of the games, identified explicitly as enoch in overclocked, implying that in at least some worlds they are implying that metatron used to be human. His mechanical design likewise implies this, since in the early games angels who began as humans tend to appeal in these mechanical forms. In most games he has a speaking role in, such as overclocked and nocturne or iva acts as the voice of god, speaking for him, and being a high ranking angel associated with direct interaction with him. In strange journey he is also depicted as a piece of yhvh.

**Grigori**. Watcher (grigori) is a term used in connection with biblical angels. *Watcher* occurs in both plural and singular forms in the Book of Daniel (4th–2nd century BC), where reference is made to their holiness. The apocryphal Books of Enoch (2nd–1st centuries BC) refer to both good and bad Watchers, with a primary focus on the rebellious ones.

In the Books of Enoch, the first Book of Enoch devotes much of its attention to the fall of the Watchers. The Second Book of Enoch addresses the Watchers (Gk. *egrḗgoroi*) who are in fifth heaven where the fall took place. The Third Book of Enoch gives attention to the unfallen Watchers. In the Book of Enoch, the Watchers are angels dispatched to Earth to watch over the humans. They soon
begin to lust for human women and, at the prodding of their leader Samyaza, defect en masse to illicitly instruct humanity and procreate among them. The offspring of these unions are the Nephilim, savage giants who pillage the earth and endanger humanity. Some translations just render it as angel.

Samyaza and his associates further taught their human charges arts and technologies such as weaponry, cosmetics, mirrors, sorcery,
 and other techniques that would otherwise be discovered gradually over
time by humans, not foisted upon them all at once. Eventually God allows
 a Great Flood to rid the earth of the Nephilim, but first sends Uriel to warn Noah so as not to eradicate the human race. The Watchers are bound "in the valleys of the Earth" until Judgment Day. (Jude verse 6 says that these fallen angels are kept "in everlasting chains under darkness" until Judgement Day.)

The grigori as a whole show up as the villains in soul hackers. Being the figures tied to the phantom society, a group which has existed since ancient times working for control and to take people's souls. The phantom society does not have much in the way of alignment associated with it, though its figures are depicted as dark chaos. In later games, the grigori are just lumped in with other fallen angels on the chaos side. Strangely, a seperate demon called watcher that is just an eyeball shows up in the early games on the law side.

**Semyaza** is a fallen angel of
apocryphal Jewish and Christian tradition that ranked in the heavenly
hierarchy as one of the Grigori / Watchers. The name "Shemyaza(z)"
means "the (or my) name has seen" or "he sees the
name". He is the leader of the fallen angels in the book of
enoch who comes to earth to reproduce with humans. The half angels were ironically implied to be
rather large, in contrast with hallelujah being rather short. These
fallen angels also gave humans various knowledge, such as that of war
that lead to a corrupt society. One piece of knowledge was ironically
makeup, which note that the angel in IVA says that it is an invention
of demons. Azazel is another one of the angels from enoch. This book
implies that the flood of noah was to erase the corruption these
angels brought.

Strangely, in soul hackers, azazel is depicted as the one in charge, and Semyaza as an underling. Working for Azazel, Shemyaza took a human form and was assigned as the factory manager at Algon Microelectronics.
 His task was to insure that the krypto chips were at maximum
production. Shemyaza found this job to be unbearable because he was a
battle and murder loving psychopath and thus unsuited for an office life
 style. He gained a fearful reputation from his workers who believed him
 to be machine like and totally devoted to his work, unaware that the
negative feeling they got from him was his repressed desire to go nuts
and massacre them all.

After defeat by the spookies, he initially seems content with his death, declaring that Azazel and Satanael can still kill them. Then he suddenly realizes that Nemissa is standing before him, and begins to panic as he dies, since she could still compromise their plans.

In iva he is depicted a bit nicer. In iva, Samyaza is the true form of Abe, the new leader of the Ashura-kai after Tayama's disappearance, and also a high ranking demon among Lucifer's army. When the party reaches the end of the Chaos Realm, he reveals himself to Hallelujah
 and tells how he fathered Hallelujah with a human mother. Samyaza goes
on to try an recruit Hallelujah to Lucifer's side as one who can kill God
 and create a world for demons. He is disappointed when Hallelujah
rejects his offer, but moves to eliminate the party due to the
expectations of Lucifer and the other fallen angels. After being defeated, Samyaza expresses shock at being outdone by his
own kid, with Hallelujah replying that a human father would be proud of
their child becoming someone better.

Obviously this interaction between him and hallelujah is a reference to the grigori fathering human children. And they are lumped in with other fallen angel figures, being an earlier story of such a nature. Although not that the grigori in the book of enoch, despite being depicted as bad do not have the same tone of pure evil that later christian demons are associated with.

**Azazel** is one of the leaders of the rebellious Watchers in the time preceding the Flood, according to the book of enoch.
 he taught men the art of warfare, of making swords, knives, shields,
and coats of mail, and women the art of deception by ornamenting the
body, dyeing the hair, and painting the face and the eyebrows, and also
revealed to the people the secrets of witchcraft and corrupted their
manners, leading them into wickedness and impurity until at last he was,
 at Yahweh's command, bound hand and foot by the archangel Raphael and chained to the rough and jagged rocks of [Ha] Dudael (= Beth Ḥadudo), where he is to abide in utter darkness until the great Day of Judgment, when he will be cast into the fire to be consumed forever. Note that although semyaza was the leader of the rebellion, azazel was described as the figure behind most of the temptations.

In soul hackers, Azazel is the true identity of Nishi, the vice minister of Amami City. He battles the protagonist and Nemissa in his office at the Amami Monolith. Nishi is the vice minister of the government and the general manager of
the "model city" project in Amami City, from his office at the Amami Monolith. He oversaw the true purpose of Paradigm X and Algon Soft: harvesting souls with the Krypto Chip. To that end, he employed Shemyaza as the factory manager of Algon Microelectronics, with the promise that he'd eventually confront the Spookies when they inevitably investigated the chip.

Upon his defeat, he initially reacts in disbelief that he could be
defeated by "mere beasts," but soon laughs it off stating that the
Phantom Society is eternal and his death will only be the beginning. Note this view of him as seeing humans as essentially just lower beings to be used for his own purposes. Unlike the mainline alignments, the phantom society is not depicted sympathetically at all, being an outright villain group. What their actual goals are beyond collecting souls and control is is left slightly ambiguous.

In IV, Azazel is fought in the Law-only Challenge Quest *Taste of the Forbidden Fruit*. He resides in Kiccigiorgi Forest, where he is spreading demonic knowledge to humans, similar to as the black samurai was doing. He calls flynn a puppet. At the beginning of the battle he mentions that he is merely giving
those who seek freedom the knowledge necessary to become free, believing
 that the sons of man who gain knowledge will have the potential to
become greater than angels. As Azazel is defeated, he will be humiliated
 at being defeated by a tool of God before crumbling. Note the radically different view he has of humans in iv as of soul hackers. Obviously this is a reference to giving humans information in the book of enoch. Note that too in the book of enoch this information was used for chaotic and violent ends, since much of it was seen as being given too quickly.

**Satanael** was the leader of the demons in the separate story of the second book of enoch. Satanael was seen as on the second day of creation wanting to raise his throne above that of god, and so for this being punished. He is also associated with the punishment of angels who refused to bow to enoch as god had commanded.

The name satanael was later used in bogomolism as the name of the demiurge. The Cathars held that the creator of the world, Satanael, had usurped
the name of God, but that he had subsequently been unmasked and told
that he was not really God.

In soul hackers, satanael shows up as a final member of the phantom society after azazel and semyaza were defeated, possessing spooky and ultimately killing him (except in new game+).

His more important appearance is as the ultimate persona that appears in the last fight in persona 5, where the cheers of millions of Tokyo citizens heal the Phantom Thieves, and lead to the transformation of arsene. His ultimate attack that finishes Yaldabaoth off is the Sinful Shell, an attack that combines the power of the Seven Deadly Sins into one. Note that while both come from non canon works, the satanael from the dead sea scrolls is not from the same lore as yaldabaoth. So it seems it was more the use of alternate analogues to a god and demon that didn't involve directly naming yhvh and lucifer. The only tie in those characters have is in bogomolism, where satanael himself is seen as the demiurge.

**Nephilim** were the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" before the Deluge, according to Genesis 6:1-4 of the Bible. The word is loosely translated as *giants* in some Bibles and left untranslated in others. All early sources refer to the "sons of god" as angels, though the bible doesn't explicitly identify them as such. The book of enoch is written according to this interpretation.

In the book of enoch they were in the form of giants and were seen as a corrupting influence, as well as using up all the resources of man, and ultimately turning to eating mankind. The flood was utilized both to wash away the corruption of man as well as to destroy the nephilim. However, in the book of jubilees, god grants a tenth of the souls of the nephilim the power to tempt mankind until the final judgement under the watch of the angel mastema.

In iva, hallelujah is implied to be one, being a half human whose father was the demon semyaza. Unlike the nephilim in the lore though, he is not giant, but actually rather short. Although he has demonic powers, and by extension the ability to stand up to demons even when not able to summon, his nature is shown to be a bit more human, with him aging naturally in the normal human way.

**Remiel**. An angel of whirlwinds, thunder, hope, and earthquakes who has various
apocalyptic functions. He is charged with leading souls to judgment and
is often called the angel of "true visions." He is believed to be a
fallen Watcher as Ramiel in the book of Enoch. While he is an Archangel in Christian and Islamic lore as Remiel. In this same work, Ramiel is also the name of an angel, and is described
 as "one of the holy angels whom God has set over those who rise" from
the dead, in effect the angel that watches over those that are to
resurrect.

Strangely, remiel is one of a few angels on the law side who is associated with the fallen watchers. Whether this association is meant to be on purpose versus the fact that many angel names show up altenately between demons or angels is unknown. In-game his biggest role is in devil survivor where he shows up as a spirit inside of amane who wants to help the protagonist go down a lawful path to become the messiah.

**Raguel** is an Archangel of Judaic and Islamic lore whose name means
"Friend of God." He is also known as Raguil, Rasuil, Raguhel, Ragumu,
Rufael, Suryan, Askrasiel, and Thelesis. Raguel is referred to as the
archangel of justice, fairness and harmony. He appears in the Book of
Enoch where Raguel is one of the seven archangels whose function is to
take vengeance on the world of the luminaries who have transgressed God's laws.

Interestingly, like remiel he is one of the few angels in-game who themselves bear banners that correspond to the aesthetics of the order of messiah. While the aesthetics of the religions themselves tend to only be donned by humans, with angels (or for the side of chaos, demons) tending to wear any number of things, he has a flag that is blue and white in keeping with the blue cross logo.

**Sariel** is an angel from jewish tradition. In 1 Enoch, there is a fallen Watcher named Säraquyael and Säräqael one of the seven holy angels who is "of eternity and trembling". In Kabbalistic lore, he is one of seven angels of the earth. Origen identified Sariel as one of seven angels who are primordial powers. In Gnosticism, Sariel is invoked for his protective powers. He is commemorated in the calendar of the Coptic Orthodox Church on 27 Tubah. 4 month 23 day of the year

According to the Book of Enoch, Sariel, was one of the leaders of angels who lusted after the daughters of men. They descended to the summit of Mount Hermon, in the days of Jared, to acquire wives and lead men astray. Sariel specifically taught men about the course of the moon. In the book of 2 Enoch he is listed, with the name of Samuil or Sariel, as one of the angels that brought Enoch to heaven. He shows up as a law aligned angel in a few of the games, and has a grim reaper like appearance.

**Kazfiel**. According to the demonic compendium he is "The sinful 'angel of the oath'. His original name was Biqa, meaning 'good person'. He
 attempted to coerce Michael to tell him the sacred name of God, but was
 denied. After the Fall, he was given the name Kazbiel, 'he who lies to
God'."

He shows up as a law aligned angel, and has a speaking role in several games. In overclocked his model is even used as the standard angel model that shows up in amane's ending. Interestingly, even his compendium depicts him as primarily a fallen angel, giving no indication of an interpretation of him that is not. Whether that design was explicit or accidental due to the angel being designed before the lore was known is unknown. But it does give a potential implication of the rebellious nature even of the angels who remain angels, or perhaps of the idea that some angels repented and were brought back to their former positions. Since the games do not elucidate on it, the reasoning behind why this is the case is unknown.

**Mastema** is an angel who persecutes evil in Jewish mythology. He carries out punishments for God, as well as tempting humans and testing their faith. In the Zadokite Fragments and the Dead Sea Scrolls, he is the angel of disaster, the father of all evil, and a flatterer of God. He first appears in the literature of the Second Temple Period as a personification of the Hebrew word *mastemah*, meaning "hatred", "hostility", "enmity", or "persecution".

According to the Book of Jubilees, When God is ready to destroy all the nephilim after the flood and Noah
 prays that his descendants be released from their attacks, Mastema
intervenes, beseeching God to allow him to retain and control one tenth
of these demons in order to use them to tempt mankind. Later, Mastema counsels God to test Abraham just as Satan in the book of Job wants permission to test Job. As such he is often seen as the same entity as satan, or an interpretation of satan.

The strange account in Exodus 4.24 where Yahweh meets Moses by the way and tries to kill him is retold in a way that attributes the attack to Mastema instead (Jubilees 48:1-3). It is claimed that Mastema aided the Egyptian priests that opposed Moses. Mastema is also said to have been chained while the Israelites left Egypt, but then let go to encourage the Egyptians to chase after the Israelites and so come to their doom in the Red Sea. The deaths of the firstborn of the Egyptians are attributed to "all the powers of Mastema".

In strange journey he appears as an angel working for the law side, without much indication given to him in any particular role. His appearance in game doesn't seem that influenced by his lore aside from in that it is in continuation with the games giving a lot of time to angels with darker interpretations. For instance, he is not seen as having any power over demons. His aesthetic does however represent his nature as an angel with darker duties.

His appearance in Iv is a bit more related to his lore though. Since angels represent order, and demons chaos in megaten, in SMTIV, rather than being on the side of law, he is shown as commanding demons, and being on the neutral side in reflection of his role as having power over demons (since him as an angel + chaos demons balances to a neutral group). Since in his lore he was behind tempting people to test their faith, in this he is interpreted as thinking that a more neutral balance is the proper reflection of order, so that good can be shown in a more individual light. And that by extension the demonic influence has its place. Allowing people the freedom to test and show their own individual goodness. And it puts him at odds with the archangels, similar to how he would be in his lore. So him being on the side of neutral here has a similar tone to his lore based role, although no overt indication of it having to do with testing people deliberately is shown, nor actively trying to lead them into corruption. Interestingly, he insists that this is the true will of the lord.

Since mastema is equated to satan, it is also worth noting that the idea of mastema commanding demons may also relate to the fact that in some games satan is shown commanding demons rather than other angels. Such as mtii, the majin tensei games, and imagine. Although this connection between satan and demons should not be thought of as exclusively tied to a potential dead sea scrolls reference, but also tied to the nature of satan in general, that being conflating the christian and jewish versions, among other things.

## Other

**Noah's Ark.** some recently revealed parts of the dead
sea scrolls revealed that contrary to more recent art, that noah's
ark was often described as pyramid shaped, at least on top. This
would match with the meggido ark's appearance in II. The relation in game may be unintentional however.