What are the Nephilim?
Our question this week concerns the Nephilim. What are they? What, if any, relevance do they have in scripture and in our lives today? Did they die in the flood?
There is a lot there, more than meets the eye. So, we will address these over the next couple weeks.
By my account, cultural fascination with the subject has peaked recently. I admit mine has. Podcasters and theologians have waded into the deep end of the pool to discuss the vagaries of this fascinating subject. Social media influencers freely offer their judgments. Important for us, this is not a novel idea. Even though we have been prone to ignore such things, it has been around since the beginning.
The Nephilim appear early in the Genesis account of creation, and their presence and activity among men has had lasting and devastating consequences. In fact, the supernatural worldview of the first century, the worldview of our Lord Jesus and His Apostles, considered the Nephilim as responsible for the proliferation of evil as Adam’s fall (Dr. Michael Heiser, Reversing Hermon; Enoch, The Watchers, & The Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, p. 107 - 109).
In Genesis 6:1 we read, “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.” 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.”
As we work through this passage, there are several points to consider:
First, the sons of God translates the Hebrew word Elohim. There are 3 ways to interpret this. The Sethite view sees the sons of God as men from the line of Seth (mentioned in Genesis 5) who married women from the line of Cain (mentioned in Genesis 4). There is also the royalty view, which argues that the sons of God were nobles who thought of themselves as divine or were considered to be divine by their subjects. The most viable and coherent option however, is to identify these entities as the divine beings who left their former position of authority (Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4). This is the earliest known position among both Jewish and Christian writers. It is also consistent with other Old Testament passages such as Deuteronomy 32:8 and Psalm 82:1, where Elohim refers to heavenly beings other than Yahweh.
Second, the Nephilim are descendants of these divine beings. They are the offspring of fallen angels and the women they seduced. This should not be that hard to accept when you look at its purpose. In the proto-evangel of Genesis 3, God told Eve that her offspring would perpetually be at war with the serpent’s offspring, locked in conflict until the serpent’s head is crushed (3:15). Despite the figurative nature of the promise, it opens us up to the idea that divine beings would produce human offspring. And those offspring would oppose God’s purpose to save the world. It seems clear to me that Genesis 6:1–4 describes how that war was initially carried out. (https://www.logos.com/grow/who-or-what-were-the-nephilim/)
Third, the Nephilim are giants. They are, according the Genesis 6:4, mighty men of old, which translates the Hebrew word gibbor, meaning giant. They were men of the name, men of renown. And not famous for good things mind you. According to the narrative, they gave men the tools and the knowledge to do evil in the sight of the Lord. This knowledge and these tools so filled the earth with violence, so corrupted the heart and imagination of man, God regretted creating mankind and was grieved at what His image bearers had become (Genesis 6:5 & 6).
I get it, for us moderns, and especially in the west, it seems impossible that fallen angels could assume human flesh and do and produce what this passage describes. But hear me out…
The relevance of this supernatural occurrence is found in the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:34). Dr. Heiser asks, “How is the virgin birth of God as a man more acceptable? What isn’t mind-blowing about Jesus having both a divine and human nature fused together? For that matter, what doesn’t offend the modern scientific mind about God going through a woman’s birth canal and enduring life as a human, having to learn how to talk, walk, eat with a spoon, be potty trained, and go through puberty?” (https://www.logos.com/grow/who-or-what-were-the-nephilim/)
This is far more shocking than what we read in Genesis 6. And yet, this is exactly what Scripture affirms. God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). We have no problem accepting that because it defines Christianity. We have to believe it or we cannot call ourselves Christians.
Oddly, we have set aside the war between Eve’s offspring and the serpent’s as peripheral. We have dismissed it as crude and unscientific. We don’t have to make this a primary issue or even a test of fellowship. But belief in Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God means fully trusting the whole of God’s revelation to us in Scripture. Belief in His virgin birth, His vicarious death and bodily resurrection means fully embracing the supernatural.
Stay tuned for more.
There is a lot there, more than meets the eye. So, we will address these over the next couple weeks.
By my account, cultural fascination with the subject has peaked recently. I admit mine has. Podcasters and theologians have waded into the deep end of the pool to discuss the vagaries of this fascinating subject. Social media influencers freely offer their judgments. Important for us, this is not a novel idea. Even though we have been prone to ignore such things, it has been around since the beginning.
The Nephilim appear early in the Genesis account of creation, and their presence and activity among men has had lasting and devastating consequences. In fact, the supernatural worldview of the first century, the worldview of our Lord Jesus and His Apostles, considered the Nephilim as responsible for the proliferation of evil as Adam’s fall (Dr. Michael Heiser, Reversing Hermon; Enoch, The Watchers, & The Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, p. 107 - 109).
In Genesis 6:1 we read, “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.” 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.”
As we work through this passage, there are several points to consider:
First, the sons of God translates the Hebrew word Elohim. There are 3 ways to interpret this. The Sethite view sees the sons of God as men from the line of Seth (mentioned in Genesis 5) who married women from the line of Cain (mentioned in Genesis 4). There is also the royalty view, which argues that the sons of God were nobles who thought of themselves as divine or were considered to be divine by their subjects. The most viable and coherent option however, is to identify these entities as the divine beings who left their former position of authority (Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4). This is the earliest known position among both Jewish and Christian writers. It is also consistent with other Old Testament passages such as Deuteronomy 32:8 and Psalm 82:1, where Elohim refers to heavenly beings other than Yahweh.
Second, the Nephilim are descendants of these divine beings. They are the offspring of fallen angels and the women they seduced. This should not be that hard to accept when you look at its purpose. In the proto-evangel of Genesis 3, God told Eve that her offspring would perpetually be at war with the serpent’s offspring, locked in conflict until the serpent’s head is crushed (3:15). Despite the figurative nature of the promise, it opens us up to the idea that divine beings would produce human offspring. And those offspring would oppose God’s purpose to save the world. It seems clear to me that Genesis 6:1–4 describes how that war was initially carried out. (https://www.logos.com/grow/who-or-what-were-the-nephilim/)
Third, the Nephilim are giants. They are, according the Genesis 6:4, mighty men of old, which translates the Hebrew word gibbor, meaning giant. They were men of the name, men of renown. And not famous for good things mind you. According to the narrative, they gave men the tools and the knowledge to do evil in the sight of the Lord. This knowledge and these tools so filled the earth with violence, so corrupted the heart and imagination of man, God regretted creating mankind and was grieved at what His image bearers had become (Genesis 6:5 & 6).
I get it, for us moderns, and especially in the west, it seems impossible that fallen angels could assume human flesh and do and produce what this passage describes. But hear me out…
The relevance of this supernatural occurrence is found in the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:34). Dr. Heiser asks, “How is the virgin birth of God as a man more acceptable? What isn’t mind-blowing about Jesus having both a divine and human nature fused together? For that matter, what doesn’t offend the modern scientific mind about God going through a woman’s birth canal and enduring life as a human, having to learn how to talk, walk, eat with a spoon, be potty trained, and go through puberty?” (https://www.logos.com/grow/who-or-what-were-the-nephilim/)
This is far more shocking than what we read in Genesis 6. And yet, this is exactly what Scripture affirms. God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). We have no problem accepting that because it defines Christianity. We have to believe it or we cannot call ourselves Christians.
Oddly, we have set aside the war between Eve’s offspring and the serpent’s as peripheral. We have dismissed it as crude and unscientific. We don’t have to make this a primary issue or even a test of fellowship. But belief in Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God means fully trusting the whole of God’s revelation to us in Scripture. Belief in His virgin birth, His vicarious death and bodily resurrection means fully embracing the supernatural.
Stay tuned for more.
Posted in Ask Pastor Ben
Posted in Giants, Nephilim, Flood, Fall, Evil, Supernatural, Jesus, Incarnation, Resurrection
Posted in Giants, Nephilim, Flood, Fall, Evil, Supernatural, Jesus, Incarnation, Resurrection
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