The Nephilim: Who Were They?
The identity of the Nephilim has come up in many churches, and has been known to cause controversy between many groups of Christians who share different views on the issue. Before I share my views on the Nephilim, I want to make clear that I am not opposed to anyone who disagrees or has a different opinion. The Nephilim have been debated over for thousands of years by Christians and Jewish scholars. Even many of the early church fathers shared different opinions on the Nephilim. As a Christian I am more concerned on what you believe about Jesus. The Nephilim debate is simply not a hill to die on. It is rather an interesting and confusing topic that requires much study.
Half-god, Half-man?
The Nephilim have made appearances in many books, TV shows, movies, and videogames. Many of which have derived the idea of the Nephilim from ancient myths and legends. But who were the Nephilim? The most popular meaning for the word Nephilim is half-god, half-man giants, or demigods. Much of ancient Greek mythology deals with demigods, and the Epic of Gilgamesh also mentions them. However, the word Nephilim comes only from the bible. The question is, does the bible teach that the Nephilim were half-god, half-men demigods?
Nephilim in the Bible
Now the book of Jude does not mention Nephilim, but I have noticed when people study the book of Jude, the Nephilim will likely come up. There is a certain verse in this book that leaves interpreters scratching their heads trying to determine whether or not the verse is referring to Satan and his demons, or the angels that begot the Nephilim.
Jude 6 “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the Great day;”
For some, the interpretation of this verse depends on the interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4
Genesis 6:1–4 “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of god saw the daughters of men, and they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants [Nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown.”
Note: The word Nephilim has been translated to giants.
The Two Most Popular Theory’s
The Enoch Theory
The most popular theory regarding this passage of scripture holds that the term “Sons of God” refers to angels in heaven. And “daughters of men” refers to human women. This theory teaches that during the days of Noah, angels came down from heaven and matted with human women. The children they produced were the Nephilim or Giants. These Giants were supposedly hybrid god-like monsters that corrupted mankind. Man’s sin with the angels and the giants was so great that God sent the flood to destroy them. Some proponents of this theory believe that Satan purposely orchestrated the plan to have angels mate with women, in order to corrupt the blood line of Christ. This theory also teaches that the Nephilim returned after the flood and once again attempted to corrupt the blood line of Christ by matting with women in the land of Canaan. This is believed because of the account in the book Numbers. In Numbers 13, Moses sends twelve spies into the land of Canaan to search the land and bring back a report. Two spies came back with a good report and ten spies came back with a troubling report. The ten spies gave two reports with the second briefly mention the Nephilim.
Numbers 13:32–33, And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants [Nephilim] (the descendants of Anak came from the giants [Nephilim] ); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.
However, Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33 are the only verses in the bible where we find the word Nephilim. The idea that the Nephilim were supposedly the offspring of angels and human women stems from Jewish mythology and Non-Canonical books. The most famous Non-Canonical book for this theory is the book of Enoch. Therefore I am going to refer to this theory as The Enoch Theory (no offence to Enoch).
“Sons of God”
Before I go into the next theory, it is important for us to establish that we can’t be entirely sure that the term “Sons of God” is referring to Angels or Watchers. Many who believe the Enoch theory will bring up that the term “Sons of God” refers to angels elsewhere in scripture. They are correct; however the term also refers to men in some passages of scripture. For example Job 1:6, and Psalms 29:1; and Daniel 3:25, all of these accounts have angels referred to as the Sons of God. Psalms 73:15 and Hos. 1:10, refers to men when mentioning the Sons of God. I bring this up because it is important for us to establish that the term “Sons of God” in Genesis, could either refer to men or angels, it does not specify which one specifically.
The Sethite Theory
Another theory held by many Christians, but not as popular as the Enoch Theory would be what I am going to call, The Sethite Theory. This theory teaches that the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:1–4 refers to the descendants of Seth, and the “daughters of men” would be the daughters of the descendants of Cain. The line of Seth and the line of Cain would intertwine causing man to turn away from God, just like the Israelites did when they married pagan peoples. God wanting to protect Noah and his family from the line of Cain, sent the flood to wipe out human kind ultimately protecting Jesus from Cains lineage.
Now personally I believe the Sethite theory; it fits the theme of scripture and makes the most theological sense in my opinion. I am not going to label anyone who believes the Enoch theory as a heretic, these arguments are not that important, we can disagree and that’s fine. I just believe that the Sethite Theory is more logical to believe than the Enoch Theory. And I will explain why.
Now before I dive any further, I must explain that there are more than two theory’s regarding what the Nephilim are. However I picked the two most popular and believed theory’s regarding this topic. Again there is no absolute truth as to what the Nephilim are. I can’t say with one hundred percent certainty that the Nephilim were the children of Cain and Seth’s intertwined family lines. Likewise proponents of the Enoch Theory can’t prove that the “sons of God” were angels who matted with women. Anyone who says they are one hundred percent correct on any one of these theory’s is gravely mistaken. The same goes for those who present other theories. I can say however that the topic of the Nephilim is one hundred percent complicated, and I’m sure most would agree with me on that!
The Word Nephilim
The word Nephilim is found three times in the bible and only in two passages. Once in Genesis, and twice in a single verse in the book of Numbers. That is it! The word Nephilim does not show up anywhere in the Hebrew alphabet. Many Jewish scholars were left to wonder what this word could mean. There is a Hebrew verb “naphal” which means to fall. This may be where Jewish scholars came up with the idea that the Nephilim, were fallen angels. This still does not make any since though. Were the Nephilim the children of the fallen angels or were they the fallen angels themselves?
Remember Moses wrote the first 5 books of the bible, and the word Nephilim only shows up in these 5 books. He is the only one to ever write the word Nephilim in the bible. Moses’s writing was in ancient times; the language of the Hebrews and their life styles would have been much more different than it would have been hundreds of years later. Many words change or lose their meaning over time. The people in Moses day would have known what the word Nephilim referred to. Many jews after that time period though, have struggled to understand the meaning of this word. The reality is, we can’t know for sure what the word Nephilim means.
The Book of Enoch
The book of Enoch is a work of Jewish mythology. The reason I name the angel matting theory after Enoch, is because this is the book where the theory originally came from. Now this book teaches that the watchers (a name that refers to the angels in heaven) wanted to procreate with women and made a vow to do so. This book teaches that the watchers or angels lusted after human women and the women’s fathers encouraged their daughters to stir up the watchers lust. The offspring that the women had with the watchers would be giants. These Giants committed lawless activities that threatened the destruction of human kind. God would then send the flood to cleanse the earth from the bloodshed and corruption caused by the watchers and the giants. It is believed that the account in Genesis is a shortened version of that story. Some proponents of this theory hold that Jewish mythology and non-canonical books can be used to understand the bible. Some even claim that the reason Enoch is not in the bible is because some people can’t handle it, and its content will scare people away from the holy scriptures.
Enoch is not Reliable
The notion that the book of Enoch was originally scripture and that it was taken out of the bible because people could not handle it is ludicrous. The book of Enoch was written somewhere between 300–200 BC. The book claims to have been written by Enoch. Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah. No written work survived the flood and Enoch lived thousands of years before 300–200 BC. The author of Enoch is therefore a liar. In Jesus’s day the jews considered the 39 books of the old testament to be scripture, and Jesus accepted this. The book of Enoch was not included with those 39 and neither was the apocrypha. The Jews regarded the book as only a work of mythology and fiction, they did not consider it to be scripture.
What about Jude?
Some people have been led to believe that the book of Enoch belongs in the bible and they will point out that the book of Jude includes a direct quote from the book of Enoch. They argue that the apostle Jude must have considered the book of Enoch scripture because he quoted from it.
Jude 14–15, “It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the Lord is coming with ten thousand of his holy ones, to execute judgement on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
A Quote From a Paraphrase
However just because Jude quotes from Enoch does not automatically make Enoch scripture.
It is important to note that part of this verse from Enoch can also be found in the book of Deuteronomy, but it reads differently.
Deuteronomy 33:2 says — — And he said: “The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came with ten thousands of saints; From his right hand came a fiery law for them.
It is possible that the author of the book of Enoch used Deuteronomy 33:2 to create his own verse. The verse in Enoch could be a paraphrase from Deuteronomy. Now the verse in Jude and Enoch reads differently than it does in Deuteronomy; for instance in Jude’s verse it mentions that Enoch was a prophet. We know from Genesis 5:19–25 that Enoch was a righteous man who walked with God and was taken into heaven to escape death. The author of Enoch may have just written what many of the Jews already believed about Enoch and placed it in his book.
Just because one verse in a non-canonical book is true, does not mean that the entire book is true. Jude more than likely saw a verse in the book Enoch that just happened to be true, and he under the divine inspiration of God placed that quote in his epistle. Much of Jewish Mythology depends on and derives things from the Old Testament scriptures.
Why The Sethite Theory Makes Sense
The Sethite Theory fits the theme of scripture and does not derive its premise from non-canonical books. In order to understand how this works we must start from the beginning. In Genesis 4, we learn that Cain was jealous of his brother Abel. Chiefly because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cains. Cain gave into his sin and killed his brother Abel, and because of this, God cursed Cain and sent him away as a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. God also gave Cain a mark saying that anyone who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold. Later Adam and eve had another son and they named him Seth, and Eve says, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” In other words Seth took the place of Abel as the seed of promise.
Remember what God told the serpent in Genesis 3:15
(God speaking to the serpent) “And I will put enmity Between you and the Woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
This verse has been referred to as the first gospel ever given to mankind. Out of Eve’s descendants would come a savior who would crush the head of the serpent (Satan). The children of the serpent are those who practice iniquity. And the children of the woman are the children of God, or Sons of God. Many believe that this verse is referring to the conflict between Christians and non-believers. Christians have been persecuted and hated by mankind for almost two thousand years. This verse also may likely refer to the nation of Israel. The entire known world has hated Israel for thousands of years. In fact Israel is still to this very day the most hated nation on the planet. God picked the weakest nation on the planet and the most discriminated people (the Jews) to be the people and nation in which he would bless the earth with his Son Jesus.
It is important to understand that Jesus came from Abraham, who was a direct descendant of Seth. Cain and his family were cursed. If you study the genealogies in Genesis you will find a stark contrast between the line of Seth and the line of Cain. The descendants of Seth are regarded highly and the years of their lives are numbered. They also called on the name of the lord. The line of Cain on the other hand was filled with evil men, one by the name of Lamech even took two wives for himself and bragged about killing people. Cains descendants don’t have the years of their lives numbered. It would make sense in this case that the term “Sons of God” could be referring to the descendants of Seth.
The Gibborum
If the “Sons of God were Sethites, than who are the Nephilim? This is a great question. Were they the children of the pagan marriages between Cainites and Sethites? When taking a closer look at the verse you will find that the Genesis account does not explicitly say that the Nephilim were there offspring. The Gibborim on the other hand are stated as their offspring.
Genesis 6:4, “There were giants [Nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown.”
When it describes the mighty men, the Hebrew word used is Gibborim. Later Genesis 10:8–10 mentions a man named Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter and possibly a king. He is described as a “gibbor” in the Hebrew language which is the same as the word “gibborim” but smaller. Some people think he was a Nephilim, and that the Nephilim and the gibborum are the same thing. The Gibborim could just be mighty men. We still don’t know what the Nephilim are; all we know is that in order for the Nephilim to be the descendants of “The Sons of God” and the “daughters of men” they would have to be the same as the gibborim.
Are the Nephilim Giants?
Giants is a bad translation of Nephilim. Personally I believe that the translators picked the word Giants to refer to the Nephilim because of their interpretation of Numbers 13:33. Recall to mind that in Numbers 13, Moses sent 12 spies into Israel to search out the land. 2 spies came back with a good report and 10 came back with a bad report. Now Caleb one of the two good spies had started encouraging the Israelites and Moses to take possession of the land. Immediately the other spies gave another report even more troublesome than the last. In this second overexaggerated report they mentioned the Nephilim and put them on par with the descendants of Anak. I believe that this has led interpreters to believe that the Nephilim were giants. However the Nephilim are never mentioned again in Old Testament scripture, and they also don’t appear in the conquest narratives. There is zero evidence that the children of Israel encountered the Nephilim when they conquered Canaan. This second report was clearly overexaggerated. The Israelites did encounter giants in the land of Canaan, but again the Nephilim are never mentioned, unless they were actually giants.
After the Flood
The idea that angels and giants corrupted mankind during the days of Noah can be debunked. Throughout human history humans have proven themselves to be some of the most vile, despicable, and evil beings to ever walk the face of the earth. The notion that humans could not become corrupt in the days leading up to the flood, unless giants and fallen angels taught them to do those things, is ridiculous.
Ask yourself this, what were the two big things God took away from mankind after the flood?
He took away long life, and the common language. Remember it was not long after the flood that people united against God to build a tower for themselves called babble. In response to this God removed the common language. Also more than 1600 years of human history occurred before the flood. That is almost one third of human history lost. Think about it; long life, one language, and pagan marriage. It would make perfect sense that human beings were corrupt and desperately evil by the time the flood hit the earth. They did not need angels to teach them how to go to war and sin.
What did Jesus say about Angels?
In Matthew 22:23–33, Jesus was tested by the Sadducees who don’t believe in the resurrection. They tell of a scenario were a woman was married several times and then she died along with all the men she married. They tried to trick Jesus by asking him; “in the resurrection which man would she be the wife of?” Jesus told them that they were mistaken and do not know the scriptures or the power of God. He says
Matthew 22:33, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.
It seems that Jesus implies that angels don’t marry. So if angels don’t marry, why in the world would God give angels the sexual desire for women? Remember in the book of Enoch the watchers were enticed by seeing the women and disobeyed God in order to be with the women. There is absolutely no reason for God to give angels sexual desire. Angels are spirit beings.
This kind of reasoning makes way for several questions.
Do angels have gender?
Does God have gender?
What is the purpose of gender?
Answer: The purpose of gender is to procreate and have children. All angels in the bible may have male names, however in ancient times, many names were gender neutral.
A Supporter of the Enoch Theory may answer that the demons (after they were cast out of heaven) changed their nature to sexual while the good angels stayed single in heaven. Ok, But remember angels, demons and Satan can only do what God allows them to do. We know this from studying the book of Job. Would God allow demons to intermarry and create half god monsters with women, deceiving human kind into worshiping other gods? God could have allowed that, but did he? Does that sound like something God would allow?
We know from reading scripture that demons and angels can take on physical form, but can they poses the unique aspects of our human body? It is highly unlikely that Demons matted with women. Some supporters of the Enoch theory don’t necessarily believe that demons matted with women but rather possessed the men who matted with them. They also believe that these demons gave the men strange reproductive powers to produce Giants. However in just about every case in the bible when a demon possessed someone, the demon did harm to that man or woman’s body and nearly killed them. The idea that God allowed demons to create life through man’s sexual reproduction is far-fetched. Demons tend to destroy, not create.
I believe that Jesus Christ was the only supernatural God like birth in all of human history. However he was not a Nephilim or a half-god, rather he was fully God and fully man at the same time. God creates, Satan destroys.
The Time Line Does Not Make Any Sense
In Revelation 12:1–12 we see a dragon being cast out of heaven to earth. We also see the dragon pulling a 3rdof the stars of heaven with him. Many theologians have interpreted the dragon in this passage as Satan being cast out of heaven along with a third of the angels that joined him. Jesus even said that he saw Satan cast out of heaven like a bolt of lightning. We know that the serpent in the garden of Eden was under demonic influence and was more than likely possessed by Satan himself. This would mean that all the demons cast out of heaven along with Satan were already on the earth before man began to multiply. If they were on the earth already, than why believe that they were in heaven and left God to be with women hundreds of years later? The Enoch theory does not make any sense when comparing it to the timeline. I can imagine some would argue that there were still angels in heaven who had not rebelled against God that would eventually fall for the desire of women. This still does not make any sense. It is more logical to believe that angels and demons had one choice at one time. Follow God or follow Satan. Human women very likely had nothing to do with their decision.
Also if angels mating with women was such a big issue that it caused the Israelites to fear entering Canaan. Than why didn’t Moses warn them in the law to beware of matting with Demons? Moses warned and instructed the children of Israel on just about every sexual sin imaginable, yet no were in the law does he warn women to beware of fallen angels. He does however warn the Israelites not to intermarry with pagan nations. In fact he makes very clear that if the Israelites marry pagan people, then their hearts would be turned away from God.
Giants are human not supernatural
The book of Enoch teaches that the Giants produced were 300 Cubits tall. Now if a cubit is 18 inches or 45 centimeters, this would make them 450 Ft tall. Goliath was 6 cubits, meaning he was about 9–10 feet tall. Obviously the Giants in the book of Enoch are no were near in comparison to the giants in the land of Canaan. In fact there is zero historical evidence that there were giants that big in size. I mean we found dinosaurs bones yet we can’t find something big enough to stomp on a dinosaur!
The notion that the devil used the demons to corrupt the human blood line does not make any sense, because how do you corrupt a blood line that is already corrupted with sin. Even if the Enoch Theory was true, it would not harm the process of Jesus being born of a virgin. Unless of course the Giants procreated with women. This however would be impossible. Again the book of Enoch teaches they were 450 feet tall, procreation with a Giant that big would probably not work. But that is beside the point.
Never in human history has there been any human bones found surpassing eleven feet. Some people will say that there had to be something supernatural in the DNA of these giants, because growing 9–10 feet tall can only be done by supernatural means. This is one of the most stupid arguments I have ever heard. Recently in the United States we had a man named Robert Wadlow whom was 8 feet and 11 inches. He was a giant. Now Robert Wadlow’s parents were not fallen angels, they were normal people. He just had a problem with an abnormally high level of growth hormones. If you travel to many third world countries today you will find giant like people and many others with disabilities, birth defects, and odd features. This is because of genetics and a lack of modern medicine. This is mainly a result of the fall of human kind. The fall affected everything; including our genes.
You will not only find Giants, but there are also people smaller than toddlers. Some people are stuck together from birth and both share one body. Throughout human history, people with defects like these have been regarded as monsters and outcasts. Products of demons and witches. The reality is those defects are all genetic. Some however would argue that the giants in Canaan and in Genesis had to be of supernatural origin because the genetic strain had not been badly affected by the fall at that point in time. To them I would say that sin affects everything very fast. If you were to take a glass of water and put one drop of gasoline in the glass, the water becomes corrupted really fast. I can imagine that there were many defects in the human genes early on in human history.
Conclusion
Overall the theories concerning the Nephilim are confusing and can become very heated debates. It is important to once again make clear that issues like these don’t really matter. Christians have wrestled with Genesis 6:1–4 for all of church History, which is why it is no surprise that it is still around today. The Enoch theory has been held by many faithful scholars and Bible teachers, even by early church fathers like Ambrose, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Clement of Alexandria, as well as many Jewish scholars. Many Christians also believe the Sethite theory. Church leaders such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther all believed in the Sethite theory. In the end we can conclude that we can’t know for sure what the Nephilim were. They could be children of angels; they could be giants; Do I think they were any of those things? No. My answer for the identity of the Nephilim is simply one word: Complicated! Christians should learn to laugh about Strang topics like the Nephilim. It is a fun and interesting study that can cause headaches. What truly matters is what you believe about Jesus Christ, Gods Word, and Gods wonderful plan of redemption for the human race.
