[First posted in 2015. Here is the original Introduction:
In December 2014, Sinaites had the privilege of celebrating Shabbat with guests who came all the way from Isabela & Bicol RP, and New Jersey USA. They were members of a faith community who believe in YHWH as God, who wanted to “church” with us. We explained we don’t “church” like Christians; we simply obey the 4th commandment, observe Sabbath like Jews do, by resting from our 6-day workweek, get together on erev or Friday sundown, and for our fellowship-dinner, we developed our own liturgy for Gentiles.
In the interchange of ideas during the Torah discussion, Sinaites explained our creed, including our view that there is no devil, and no fallen angels. The question that immediately came up from the ‘professor’ among our guests was:
“If there are no fallen angels, then explain the ‘Nephilim’ in the narrative account of the Flood.”
The answer to that is explained at length in this post, well-researched and written by Sinaite BAN. We hope this settles the question about Nephilim once and for all, not only for our honorable guests at our Shabbat but also for all our readers who have similar lingering doubts about what has come to be widely accepted and believed as ‘half-demon-half-human’ creatures called Nephilim.—Admin1.]
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Image from beforeitsnews.com
Just before the story of Noah’s ark, the Torah presents a cryptic narrative that has mystified and intrigued scholars for generations.
“And it came to pass when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters were born to them, and the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were attractive, and they took women, from all they chose.
And Yahweh said, “My spirit won’t stay in humankind forever, since they are also flesh; and their days shall be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days and after that as well, when the sons of God came to the daughters of humankind, and they gave birth by them. They were the heroes who were of old, people of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-4)
These words have sparked debates among biblical scholars for centuries. The appearance of these mysterious people in the Hebrew Scriptures is marked by evil, corruption, wickedness and perversion of every sort. Yet the passage in Genesis 6:4 is vague about their identity. The book of Noah talks about their descendants. However, the controversy rests on the identity of the “sons of God” in the book of Genesis.
Who or what exactly are the “sons of God” (benei elohim)?
Who were the nephilim? How are they related to each other?
And what does it all mean?
Contrary to beliefs, ‘Nephilim‘ does not describe a race of people. They are not described as having descended from anyone.
One thing that the term “sons of God” (benei elohim) does not mean is “sons of God.” The word elohim in Scripture, while generally referring to Yahweh, is in essence merely an expression of authority.
Similarly, the term “benei” does not necessarily mean “sons” but is often just a title. The term ‘Nephilim‘ means ‘giant’ derived from the Hebrew word “naphal” which means “fall.’ From where did they fall? It could be that they fell to a very low level of morality and brought down others with them. Another thought of naphal is, to fall upon or overthrow, referring to their warlike nature.
Torah describes Nephilim before and after the flood. If Nephilim were a race, it would contradict Scripture which states that only eight people survived the flood. The beginning of Genesis 6 is about subjugation of the weak by the powerful, and Yahweh giving them one hundred twenty years before he would destroy them with the flood.
So, who are the “sons of God”?
There are three proposed answers:
1. ‘Sons of God’ refers to fallen angels who lived on earth and married human women. The ‘Nephilim‘ were giants of extra human strength, who were offsprings of those marriages.
2. ‘Sons of God’ refers to descendants of Seth, who were godly, who sinned by marrying descendants of Cain, who would have been pagans. The ‘Nephilim‘ were simply ” heroes” not giants and may or may not have been offspring of mixed marriages.
3. ‘Sons of God’ would be better translated as kings or sons of nobles, and ‘Nephilim’ is best translated as “princes or great men”; that is, “sons of God” were royalty or aristocrats, who were generally immoral and married common women, possibly against their will or despite already being married.
Arguments for view 1:
- The phrase “sons of God” is used in Job 1:6 and 2:1 to describe angel and apparently, early Jewish writers interpreted this passage as referring to angels.
- Numbers 13:33 describes Nephilim as ‘giants’.
Arguments against view 1:
- “Sons of God” in Job passages refers to “good angels” and distinguishes them from Satan. Torah has no such thing as “fallen angels”. Angels were created by Yahweh to be HIS messengers and they do HIS bidding. No” fallen angels” have ever existed to oppose HIM. Even ” Satan” is merely the name of an angel, whose divinely assigned task is to tempt people to sin. There is only one Creator, YAHWEH, in charge of everything, with no forces opposing HIM. While description of Nephilim as angels or giants is perhaps the most popular reading, it is not necessarily the most literal one.
- Numbers 13:33 could be an exaggeration of the faithless spies.
Arguments for view 2:
- Humans are referred to as ‘children of God’ elsewhere in Scripture .(Deut. 14:1, Isaiah 43:6)
- Genesis 5 describes godly descendants of Seth, Enoch, and Noah, while Lamech, Cain’s descendant was also a murderer (Genesis 4:23)
- To say the Nephilim were not ‘offsprings of the marriages’ view, Genesis 6:4 does not explicitly say the Nephilim were offsprings, only that they showed up at the same time the intermarriages were happening.
Arguments against view 2:
- Seth-ites do not sound godly, since Noah and his family were the only ones spared from the flood. However, ‘sons of God’ may refer to previous generations, previous to those whose sin brought about the flood.
- This interpretation requires that phrases “men” and “daughters of men” have two different meanings, within the same sentence. “Men” and “daughters of men” in verse 1 would refer to all mankind and their daughters but “daughters of men” in verse 2 would refer to ‘Cainite’ women.
Arguments for view 3:
- Contemporary rulers referred to themselves as “sons of God” as an Egyptian king was called “son of Ra.”
- Hebrew word in the phrase “son of God” is ‘Elohim‘ which can be translated as “judge” or other human authority.
- Early translation of “sons of Elohim” rendered it as “sons of nobles” or sons of kings.
- The word ‘Nephilim‘ is associated in Genesis 6:4 with “Gibborim,” meaning mighty man of valor, strength, wealth, or power.
Arguments against view 3:
- While pagans referred to royalty as “sons of God,” Israelites did not, and nobles were not referred to as “sons of God”.
- This interpretation seems forced in a stretching of the meaning of the text; it seems clear that “sons of God” does not have to refer to angels, whether fallen or not.
Regardless of which interpretation, one accepts, the fact is Nephilim appeared both before and after the flood of Genesis 6:4. If Nephilim were giant offspring of humans and fallen angels, the fallen angels could have come back after the flood and had more offspring. If Nephilim were heroes or nobles, society after the flood could produce heroes and nobles just as society did before the flood.
Aside from the 3 proposed answers, there is a different thought that says that benei elohim means people who were at least to begin with, on a spiritually high level. They are later called Nephilim, for they or their descendants fell from their spirituality, became corrupted, and eventually brought Yahweh’s wrath upon themselves because of their robbing, murdering, and raping without hesitation.
To sum up, we end up with reasons why these beings are called Nephilim:
- They fell from their greatness.
- They caused the world to fall.
- They caused the hearts of people to fall, trembling before their great stature.
- Nephilim is Hebrew for giants which they were, either in stature, in authority, or in spiritual greatness.
These are some of the commonly suggested interpretation of the Nephilim in 6: 1-4, which, up to this time, have mystified, caused debates, and intrigued scholars. No one can really explain this story as it is cryptic and all interpretations are a matter of conjecture. As in an extremely common mythological theme such mixed divine-human breeding produce beings who are bigger and stronger than regular humans.
This does not come up again in the story till thousands of years later.
Image from www.godawa.com
When Moses sends men to scout the promised land, they see giants, the”Nephilim” (Numbers 13:33). This is what scares the spies, and their fear infects the Israelites, changing the destiny of the wilderness generation.
A generation later, Joshua, eliminates all giants from the land except the Philistines, particularly the city of Gath (Joshua 11:21-22).
And later still, the most famous Philistine giant, Goliath, comes from Gath and David defeats him.
We can read all these stories without noticing that they are connected accounts, building up to a climatic scene. We miss something that way. Such widely distributed stories are there because Scripture is not a loose collection of stories. It is an intricate, elegant, exquisite, long work with continuity and coherence.
When we know our Scripture well, we read this story about giants in creation and we are aware that they will play a part in the tragedy of the wilderness generation, that Joshua will defeat them, and that David will face the most famous of them.
Image from canvasfellowship.wordpress.com
This narrative of the Nephilim is a reminder
that we cannot learn the Torah
without learning the rest of the Tanach as well.
BAN@S6K
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