Spirituality & Religious StudiesNephilim
The Nephilim are mysterious beings or humans mentioned in the Bible. Traditionally understood as beings of great size & strength, or alternatively as beings of great power & authority.
The 1st biblical reference to them happens in Genesis 6:4. According to Numbers 13:33, 10 of the 12 spies reported the existence of Nephilim in Canaan before its conquest by the Israelites.
Interpretations vary vastly across traditions. Second Temple texts like 1st Enoch & Jubilees picture the Nephilim as offspring of fallen angels (Watchers) & of human women, portraying them as evil giants whose corruption led to the flood that’s told in the book of Genesis.
Some viewed the Nephilim as the descendants of Seth intermarrying with Cain’s lineage. Just to put this into perspective, Seth & Cain are biological brothers (half or whole, depending on the story). Their descendants married each other. It would be like marrying your cousins. Not 1st or 2nd cousins. But cousins nonetheless.
While others support the fallen angel theory. This was later supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Islamic tradition links them to the giant tribe of ‘Ad. While other theories link them with the Sumerian Apkallu myths or elite Canaanite warriors.
Over time, the Nephilim have been reimagined in popular culture: they appear in novels, films, video games, & conspiracy theories unrelated to religion. They are often pictured as powerful hybrids, ancient gods, or remnants of a lost superhuman race. Or the race of giants that Goliath descended from.
In the Bible, 3 interconnected passages refer to the Nephilim. 2 of them are in the Torah (Old Testament). The 1st appearance in Genesis 6:1-4. This is immediately before the Noah’s Ark story. Genesis 6:4 says: The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, & also after that when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men & they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
A few things hit differently in this passage:
- Heavenly beings can have biological human children? How is this physically possible? If, after all, they’re spiritual beings?
- Why would God give/allow these “angels” the ability to even have kids in the 1st place? In modern times, we don’t think of angels as having the ability to have kids. Even the fallen ones. We do tend to think that Satan himself is the only 1 that can somehow have kids (the Antichrist).
- Who, exactly, were these “men of renown”? Like we, personally, just want 2-3 of the names. Is it some guys we’ve never even heard of? Or would it confirm some names we already know? Like yep, our fav demigod Hercules made the short list. But some decisions happened on the editing room floor. Sorry Herc!
“Those days” were a period when the human population on the earth had started to really take off. This was when people began “to be plentiful on the Earth.”
The 2nd is Numbers 13:32-33, where 10 of the 12 spies describe the Anakites (a Rephaite tribe) as descendants of the Nephilim. Outside the Pentateuch, there are 1 more passage indirectly referencing nephilim & this is Ezekiel 32:17-32.
The earliest translation of the Bible (the Septuagint), which was composed in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, gives the said word as gigantes. In Greek mythology, the gigantes were beings of great strength & aggression. But not necessarily of great size.
The Vulgate (compiled in the 4th or 5th century AD) transcribes the Greek term rather than translating the Hebrew nefilim. From there, the tradition of the giant progeny of the sons of God & the daughters of men spread to later medieval translations of the Bible.
From the 3rd century onwards, references are found in Enochic literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Jubilees, the Testament of Reuben, 2 Baruch, Josephus, & the Book of Jude.
The New American Bible commentary draws parallels between the Epistle of Jude & the statements in Genesis. This suggests that Jude refers implicitly to the paternity of the Nephilim as heavenly beings who came to earth & had spicy adult time with human women.
The story of the Nephilim is elaborated in the Book of Enoch. The Greek, Aramaic, & main Ge’ez manuscripts of 1 Enoch & Jubilees acquired in the 19th century (held in the British Museum & the Vatican Library) connect the origin of the Nephilim with the fallen angels, & in particular with the egregoroi (watchers).
In this tradition, the kids of the Nephilim are called the Elioud. They’re considered a separate race from the Nephilim. But they end up sharing the same fate as the Nephilim.
Some believe the fallen angels who sired the Nephilim were cast into Tartarus (II Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6), a place of “total darkness.” An interpretation is that God granted 10% of the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim to remain after Noah’s deluge, as demons, to try to lead the human race astray until the Final Judgment.
The Book of Jubilees also says that ridding the Earth of these pesky Nephilim was 1 of God’s purposes for flooding the Earth in Noah’s day. It describes the Nephilim as being evil giants.
A long-held view in some Christian sects is that the “sons of God” were the formerly righteous descendants of Seth (Adam & Eve’s 3rd kid) who rebelled. While the “daughters of men” were the unrighteous descendants of Cain. The Nephilim were their offspring. This view dates to at least the 1st century AD in Jewish literature. It was found in Christian sources from the 3rd century.
Some individuals & groups (including St. Augustine, John Chrysostom, & John Calvin) take the view of Genesis 6:2 that the “angels” who fathered the Nephilim referred to certain human males from Seth’s lineage. They were called sons of God in reference to their prior covenant with Yahweh (Deut. 14:1, 32:5). In these sources, these men had begun to pursue bodily interests, & so took wives of “the daughters of men.”
This view is also held by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This is supported by their own Ge’ez manuscripts & Amharic translation of the Haile Selassie Bible (1 Enoch & Jubilees also), which count as canonical by this church. The “Sons of Seth” view is the view presented in a few extra-biblical, yet ancient texts.
In these sources, these kids of Seth were said to have disobeyed God by breeding with the Cainites & producing wicked kids “who were all unlike.” This angered God into bringing about our boy Noah’s flood.
If you subscribe to the ancient alien theory, then you’ll be familiar with Zacharia Sitchin. In his The Earth Chronicles series, Mr. Sitchin makes the claim that the Nephilim were an extraterrestrial race called the Anunnaki. The Anunnaki came down from the 12th Planet (Nibiru) & mated with (or at least genetically messed with) human women. They also gave humanity a few things: civilization, makeup, weapons, warfare, & farming. (Our founder is currently reading The 12th Planet right now, as of the date this posts. They are about done with it, like 2 more chapters!)
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