The Bible Nerd

Why, O why is the Nephilim the number two Bible nerd question?  If I had a dollar for every minute I have wasted on this topic, I would be able to buy a Nephilim.  I mean, seriously, the story is beyond belief:  angels came down, had sex with human women, creating a race of half human, half angelic giant people called Nephilim.  You can’t buy that kind of entertainment.  And we wonder why non believers think we Christians are nuts! I even had a group of students one time intentionally put a whole teaching about the Nephilim on their homework to see what their graders would say (and again, you know who you are, please report to the principal’s office).

We can thank three main Scriptures for all of this fun: Genesis 6:4, Numbers 13:33, and Jude 6 (and connected is Jude 14).  Genesis is where the fun begins, so let’s start there. Genesis 6:1-3 says, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”  We began to discuss this chapter in the post on Cain, where chapter 4 gives us the ungodly line of Cain, and chapter 5 gives us the righteous line through Seth.  Immediately following this passage about the Nephilim is the whole story of the flood and God’s judgment on man for his violence and sin.  Nestled in between the genealogies and the Flood are these verses about intermarriage.  When we looked at spiritual warfare, we discovered that “sons of God” can refer to either angels or God’s people (usually men).  The main question here would be which one is God talking about?

The Hebrew word “Nephilim”‘s meaning is debated by Hebrew scholars.  Many say that it comes from the root word “to fall” therefore meaning that these men are the “fallen ones”.  Others translate it as “giants” going back to the King James translation.  King James used “giants” based on the Numbers 13:33 verse, so that isn’t proof of etymology either.  The text says that the “Nephilim” were “mighty men” and “men of renown”.  Other translations call them “heroes of old”.  The context of Genesis would point to the sons of God being the godly line of Seth and the daughters of men being the ungodly line of Cain.  The intermarriage of the two lines brought the ruin of all people, ending up in mankind being totally evil and deserving of the flood (except Noah).  The most contextual, common sense interpretation has nothing to do with angels.  Boo, no fun.

We could drop the whole thing, but Numbers 13:33 won’t let us off that easy.  “And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”  When the scouts of Israel went into the promised land after leaving Egypt, they reported back the unusually tall people called the Anak, who descended from the Nephilim.  It doesn’t give their height or anything about the origin of the Nephilim, but does connect them with the Anakim.  If we are to believe that these are the SAME Nephilim as in Genesis, then it means that Noah was a Nephilim!  Only he and his family survived the flood (I guess his wife could have been one and then his children were half Nephilim???)  It could be that these were a tall people group (yes, some people are taller than others) and the name Nephilim was used due to Jewish tradition about the legendary heroes of old.  The name then was borrowed from the past and was not intended to mean the group mentioned in Genesis.

Jewish tradition you say?  The plot thickens.  Extra biblical, Jewish literature contains a Jewish tradition that believed that the “sons of God” referred to angels (as in Job 1 -3).  The most famous of these “stories” is in the Book of Enoch.  Talk about a wacky read!  The Nephilim are said to be REALLY TALL, in one text being around 135 meters tall.  Trippy.  There is so much in this book that is completely made up and unbelievable.  Finally, we find the dead end.  Nah!  Jude keeps this alive by not only referring to fallen angels, but then goes on to quote from the actual book of Enoch!  Jude 6 says, “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”  Jude 14 says, “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones…”    Ok, so what does it mean that these angels left their “proper dwelling”?  Could that refer to the sons of God in Genesis 6?  If that is in Jude’s mind, it makes sense that later he would go on to fully quote from the Book of Enoch to provide more backing to final judgment.

First, the part about angels never mentions the Nephilim, or anything specific enough to connect it to Genesis.  Second, quoting from the Book of Enoch doesn’t mean Jude was saying everything in it was correct.  Paul quotes from pagan poets in Titus 1:12 and isn’t saying that everything that poet wrote was correct.  Third, Jesus says of angels in Matthew 22:6, “But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”  Does this Scripture lead us to believe angels are asexual beings?  The bottom line is that there is lots of weird stuff in Jewish extra biblical literature, so we can’t use that as support for what the Jews believed about Genesis 6 with the same authority as the Bible.  Other Rabbinic writing agree with the interpretation that the sons of God were the line of Seth.

This would make a really cool movie though, right?  Fallen angel babies turning into giant, super power bad guys?  That is why this Bible Urban Legend just won’t die, but I am giving this legend a firm “lame” conclusion.  Not true.  Sorry.  The point of Genesis is that man’s sinful nature almost led to the destruction of our whole race if not for the mercy of God extended through Noah and his family.  What fun is that lesson though compared to giants?  Next up, Bible Urban Legend #1 —  Melchizedek.  Someone please shoot me now.