Who were the Nephilim in the Bible? Sons of God, Daughters of Men
“When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with men forever, for they are mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were upon the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God united with the daughters of men and begot children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-4)
Actually, it is plausible that the Nephilim were in part both fallen angels and giants. According to Genesis 6, the Nephilim were the children of the relationships between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Christian scholars have theorized that the “sons of God” were fallen angels (demons) who bred with human females or possessed human males who then fathered children with human females. Being descended from a partial angelic heritage, the Nephilim were considered “mighty men who were from of old, the men of renown”.
Why would fallen angels breed with humans? As for a clear motive, one consideration is that the fallen angels, or demons, were trying to distort the human lineage to stop the coming of the Messiah. God had assured mankind that the Messiah would one day “crush the head” of Satan (Genesis 3:15). The fallen sons of God in Genesis 6 may have sought to prevent this and make it impossible for an innocent “seed of the woman” to be born.
The Nephilim in theology
According to Hebrew doctrine such as the Book of Enoch, the Nephilim were a race of giants and superhumans who performed acts of exceptional evil. His great size and power likely came from the merging of (fallen) angelic “DNA” with human eugenics. There are actually only two explicit references to the Nephilim in the biblical text. First in Genesis 6:4, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God mated with the daughters of humans and had children by them. These were the heroes of old, men of renown. ” And second in Numbers 13:33, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We looked like grasshoppers to our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
The Nephilim and the Great Flood
Christian scholars speculate that the Nephilim were one of the main causes of the great flood in the age of Noah. Immediately after the reference to the Nephilim, Genesis 6:5-7 says, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of men had become upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil. all time. The Lord was saddened that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled And the Lord said: ‘I will exterminate from the face of the earth the men whom I have created, the men, the beasts, the reptiles and the birds from heaven, because it saddens me I have made them’”. Then God flooded the entire earth, killing everyone and everything except Noah, his family, and the animals in the ark. Everything else d even the Nephilim.
Were the Nephilim in the Land of Canaan?
Although the great flood in Genesis killed the Nephilim of that time, it is theorized that the demons continued to breed with humans sometime after the flood as well. After the Hebrews explored the land of Canaan, they told Moses: “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We looked like grasshoppers to our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” This biblical quote does not mention that the Nephilim were actually there, only that the explorers believed they had seen the Nephilim. It is possible that they simply observed abnormally large people in Canaan and fearfully thought they were the Nephilim. Either way, these “giants” were defeated by the Israelites through their conquest of Canaan (Joshua 11:21-22).
Could the Nephilim come back?
According to the scriptures, God has prevented fallen angels from mating with humans by banishing all those who performed such an act to darkness. Jude 1:6 informs us: “The angels who did not keep their positions of authority, but forsook their own house, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” Fallen angels who mated with human women are presumed to be the ones “bound in eternal chains,” making the return of the Nephilim mercifully unlikely.
Additional commentary and questions answered by James Emery White
What does the Bible say about the Nephilim?
The Bible refers to the marriage between the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”, and shortly thereafter, references to another antediluvian (before the flood) dynamic being the presence of the Nephilim.
The “sons of God” were not fallen angels, as their marriage to human beings women would not only have violated the created order, but it is highly doubtful that a demon (which is what a fallen angel would have been) would be referred to as a demon. a “son of God.” Nor would they have been righteous angels, because they would not have sinned against God in this way. Jesus settled the matter, anyway, when he taught that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Most would see the phrase “sons of God” as referring to godly men, and “daughters of men” as referring to sinful women (note that they are not called “daughters of God”), certainly women of the bloodline. of Cain. . So here you have the intermarriage of the men of Seth with the women of Cain – a loss of the purity of God’s people. You could also read the “sons of God” as royal figures, whose kings were called in those days, who set themselves up as deities. The key is that here the men were crossing God’s marital boundaries.
So who were the Nephilim? The Bible notes that they were the “heroes of old, men of renown.” Beyond the reference in the Noah story in Genesis 6, they are also mentioned in Numbers 13 as the large people that Caleb, Joshua, and the other spies encountered when exploring the Promised Land.
However, the mention of its size was clearly an exaggeration on the part of the spies who wanted to argue against the positive report offered by Caleb and Joshua. So here they were simply powerful men of wealth, strength, or courage. The Hebrews The word literally means “the fallen ones” indicating that in the eyes of other men they were heroes and princes, but in the eyes of God they were those who chose a life of sin. from the Nephilim being fallen angels, or the offspring of fallen angels and humans, do they originate? The non-canonical, pseudepigraphic writing is known as I Enoch (6:1-7:6). This legend was later taken up and promoted by the Jewish historian Josephus (Antiques 1.3.1). Furthermore, a Greek translation of the Old Testament in the third century erroneously translated “sons of God” as “angels of God.” And while “sons of God” can refer to “angels of God” in other contexts (eg, Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7), it clearly does not fit here.
(excerpt from Dr. James Emery White’s blog – The 3 Biggest Questions People Have After Watching ‘Noah’)