Nephilim Giants

I want to talk a little bit about the nephilim giants. Opening the bible in Genesis we only get six chapters in before we stumble across this word. What does it mean? Who were they? Where did they come from? How did they return after the world-wide flood? I am going to attempt to answer these questions using the bible, Septuagint, extra biblical text, and ancient mythologies from around the world. I will also interject a bit of my own speculation from time to time based on some of my own views of how things potentially went down. Of course, I must state up front that I could be entirely wrong on all aspects of this writing, therefore don’t take my word for it but rather read what I have to say and then look into all these things for yourself. Personally, I got tired of reading so many different points of view on these topics so that is precisely what I have decided to do.

What does Nephilim mean?

The word nephilim is found in the bible three times in two verses, once in Genesis 6:4 and twice in Numbers 13:33. The Hebrew word is Nephiyl which is translated to either nephilim or giants. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines nephilim as a biblical race of giants or demigods. It seems pretty clear that the nephilim were a people group of giants. We will get into that a bit more later.

The word nephilim is not the only word in the bible that is translated as giants. Rapha is used 11 times in the bible and it too is translated at giants, or Rephaim. Rephaim is used in describing a group or race of giants; this is basically the same definition that the Merriam Webster dictionary has as well.

We can conclude that both the words nephilim and rephaim are describing some sort of race or group of giants that lived in the ancient world.

Who were these giants?

Genesis chapter 6 tells us that they originally came from the intermixing with fallen angels and humans. The giants AFTER the flood are a bit trickier to pin down. It is my opinion that these giants and other nephilim were the same characters as the demigods from ancient mythologies. These demigods include Hercules, Perseus, Thor, and Achilles. I also feel that the ancient gods of mythology were the fallen angels themselves based on the abilities that the gods had and how those supernatural attributes line up with the biblical account of what angels are able to do.

Genesis 6: 4

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

This verse has been debated many times trying to figure out who the “sons of God” were. I have previously gone into detail on that topic so I will not do it here. What I would like to look at is the “the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown,” portion of the text.

            Merriam Webster defines renown as, “great fame and respect”. Not only were the ancient gods worshiped, but their demigod children were well respected and are still famous to this day. This would seem to indicate at least the possibility that some of the ancient legends and myths have some merit to them. I am sure that there have been embellishments over the centuries, but they could have some truth to them.

            Hercules was a man of great strength and wit. He was able to withstand the 12 labors that any one of these labors would have certainly killed a normal human. He was the son of Zeus, who in my opinion was possibly one of the original fallen angels, but could have been a third generation nephilim. I say that because Zeus did seem to possess some of the abilities that we see angels have in the bible. However, it is not unheard of that these abilities could have been possibly passed down, though a bit diluted in the children and grandchildren. If Josephus is correct, he says that the Greek Titans were the first generation nephilim. These were the ones before the flood, and according to Enoch, they were very, very large.

Josephus “Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1

“For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call titans.”

Enoch 7: 3

And the women became pregnant, and they bare large giants, whose height was three hundred cubits.

A cubit is commonly converted as 1.5 feet. That means this verse is saying that the original first generation nephilim were 450 feet tall. Thus, this would make sense taking into consideration the size of the Greek titans known in the mythology.

Jubilees also has something to say concerning the size of the offspring of the angel human hybrid nephilim.

Jubilees 5: 1

When the children of men began  to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, and the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful, and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they gave birth to their sons and they were giants.

            Isn’t it at least possible that the first generation nephilim could have been that Greek titans? Enoch says that this first generation killed each other off within 500 years, and the angels were bound in Tartarus for 70 generations.

Enoch 10: 9-12

To Gabriel said the Lord: ‘Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication and destroy the children of fornication and the children of the Watchers. Cause them to go against one another that they may destroy each other in battle: shorten their days. No request that (the Watchers) their fathers make of you shall  be granted them on their behalf; for they hope to live an eternal life, and that each one of them will live five hundred years.’ And the Lord said to Michael: Go, bind Semjaza and his team who have associated with women and have defiled themselves in all their uncleanness.  When their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations under the hills of the earth, until the day of the consummation of their judgment and until the eternal judgment is accomplished.

            If Noah was 600 years old when he went into the Ark, and the watchers came down during the days of Jared, then these first generation nephilim would have been long gone and only their DNA would have been left inside their grandchildren. But I think there was more to it than just that. I also believe that when the book of Jasher tells us that man began to sin against the beasts, fish and birds, and then the bible tells us all flesh was corrupt; there was some kind of genetic manipulation going on. These fallen angels taught man many secrets of heaven. And not long after this we read that men began doing these things. Therefore, I can conclude that since the original “titans” were already destroyed, what was left was a mixture of some angel DNA with some humans, but also some animal human hybrid beings.

            We can see when the Watcher descended on Mt. Hermon from the book of Enoch. Considering the way the children were named it would make sense that they “fell” just before his birth. At least the first ten biblical names all have meanings based on what was going on. Jared means “shall come down”. I am taking this from Chuck Missler. He discovered a pretty amazing trend from the first ten patriarchs in the bible.

Adam – Man

Seth – Appointed

Enosh – Mortal

Kenan – Sorrow

Mahalalel – Blessed God

Jared – Shall come down

Enoch – Teaching

Methusealah – His death shall bring

Lamech – The despairing

Noah – Rest

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

            Here is the link to Chuck Missler’s site: http://www.khouse.org/articles/1996/44/

            Jared was born in 3540 BC or 460 years after Adam, so the angels would have had to come just before that or they were possibly coming down as he was being born so they named him descended or shall come down. The Flood occurred during the year 2348 BC or 1656 years after Adam. Doing the math here we can see that if we go on the assumption that the angels came down ON the birthday of Jared, giving them 5 year to take wives and have a first nephilim child, the 500 year life-span of that first generation of nephilim only puts us at the year 965 after Adam. That leaves us with a gap of roughly 691 years before The Flood, and about 91 years before Noah is even born. This gap had to have been filled with the second and third generations of nephilim. This would also make sense taking into consideration the ancient gods of antiquity. These second and third generation gods would still have had very long lifespans, and they most likely possessed some of their angel father’s supernatural abilities.

            It seems pretty fair to say that all of the nephilim from before The Flood were descendants of the fallen angels and humans that took part in the unnatural interbreeding experiment. It also seems fair to say that the second, third and so on generations of nephilim, were both male and female, known as the ancient gods, and were able to corrupt all the worlds flesh during the years leading up to The Flood. How were they able to corrupt all flesh?

The corruption of all flesh

            The Bible tells us the YHWH had become repentant of His creation of mankind because they had gone about corrupting themselves along with all other flesh.

Genesis 6: 12

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

            We know that this too included the animals of the world at that time as well based on another scripture found in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 15: 39

All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

            Some of the other sources confirm this idea of all flesh being corrupted.

Jasher 4: 18

And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on the earth all men and all animals.

Jubilees 5: 2-3

Because of them lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way. Men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walked on the earth were all corrupted in their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other. Lawlessness increased on the earth and the imagination and thoughts of all men were continually, totally evil. God looked on the earth, and saw it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders, and all that were on the earth had committed all manner of evil before His eyes.

Jubilees 7: 24

After this they sinned against the beasts and birds, and all that moved and walked on the earth, and much blood was shed on the earth, and men continually desired only what was useless and evil.

All of these passages seem to indicate that men had learned forbidden knowledge from the fallen angels and used it to mix the DNA of animals with each other and with humans. This also plays into the ancient mythologies if you take into consideration the Centaur, Minotaur, and Satyr. I always wondered where Homer got the idea for these types of creatures; I just never thought it would have had any relation to the biblical stories.

            Now we can see that it was an indirect action of the fallen angels, but NOT the fallen angels themselves that caused YHWH to flood the entire world. It was an act of MERCY on His part to help protect His original creation of mankind. Without his flooding of the entire world, none of us would be here, at least not in the physical state we are now. Maybe we would all be some type of animal human hybrids. The sad thing about this idea is that we seem to be creating these very same creatures in labs all over the world today and have been for at least the past few years.

            So not only did we see that the corruption of all flesh began with the mixing of angels and humans, but it continued AFTER the angels were punished and the first generation nephilim killed each other off. The continuation was due to the mixing of species through genetic manipulation. YHWH does not seem to like this because it is I direct cause of lawlessness, also known as sin.

How did the nephilim return AFTER the world-wide Flood?

            There seems to be two main ideas as to how the nephilim giants returned after the flood. The first seems pretty obvious. There was another incursion where more angels came to earth and again had sex with human women and therefore created more giants. I see how this would make sense. I mean it seems like a no-brainer, right. Well my biggest problem with this idea is that there is absolutely no mention of this happening again anywhere. There is nothing even remotely stated like this in the Bible, Jubilees, Enoch, or Jasher. What the book of Enoch does mention concerning this idea is this.

Enoch 68: 2-5

And on that day Michael answered Raphael and said: ‘The power of the spirit grips me and makes me tremble because of the severity of the judgment of the secrets, and the judgment of the angels. Who can endure the severe judgment which has been executed, and before which they melt away?’ And Michael answered again, and said to Raphael: ‘Who would not have a softened heart concerning it, and whose mind would not be troubled by this judgment against them because of those who have led them out?’ And it came to pass when he stood before the Lord of spirits, Michael said thus to Raphael: ‘I will not defend them under the eye of the Lord; for the Lord of spirits has been angry with them because they act as if they were the Lord. Therefore, all that is hidden shall come on them for ever and ever; for no other angel or man shall have his portion in this judgment, but they alone have received their judgment for ever and ever.

            The statements that the Arch Angel Michael makes here definitely seem to indicate that no other angels would ever commit such an act against YHWH. Even he is troubled by the thought of the punishment passed down from God on this group of angels.

            Based on the fact that there are no other mentions of angels-human copulation, and the words spoken by the angels Michael, I cannot take this scenario as a plausible one.

            Before I go on to the second theory, and the one that I personally think makes the most sense, I would like to state that previously I had thought that maybe the book of Jubilees had a third possible way that the nephilim could have returned after the flood. It is a position held by Dr. Ken Johnson. He states it in his book Fallen Angels. He says that the book of Jubilees is describing Canaan (which is Kainam in Jubilees). Here is the verse.

Jubilees 8: 3-4 (Kainam)

He found writing which former generations had carved on a rock, and he read what was on it, and he transcribed it and sinned because of it, for it contained the teachings of the Watchers, which they had used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven. He wrote it down and said nothing of it, for he was afraid to speak to Noah about it or he would be angry with him because of it.

            I assumed these writings could have contained a way to make yourself into a type of nephilim, which they very well could have been. But I thought that this character would have been Nimrod from Genesis 10: 8. Dr. Ken Johnson seems to think this was Canaan, but Rob Skiba pointed out to me that this could NOT have been the case because Cannan was born to Ham, and this child (Kainam) was born to Arpachshad who was the son of Shem. Kainam could have found these writings, hid them from Noah, and later give the information to Nimrod in order for him to become a “mighty man” (Gen. 10:8).

            The latter would also make sense with the third theory, which is nephilim DNA made its way onto the ark in the three wives of Noah’s sons. If these genes are dormant, then the theory with Nimrod would make sense if all his brothers were nephilim but his nephilim DNA was dormant. Obtaining the knowledge of the Watchers, and being able to make himself a nephilim through some kind of ritual with that knowledge could have possibly allowed him to become one of the strongest types of nephilim; allowing him to become king of the world Nimrod.

            I know there are a lot of people that will not like the idea of nephilim DNA making its way onto the ark, but this theory make the most sense in my opinion. I say this because we see a direct line of giants that go all the way back to the ark, the offspring of Ham in particular.

Genesis 10:6

And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

Genesis 10: 15-19

Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,  Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,  Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,  Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered  and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.

Deuteronomy 20:16-17

“But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you,

            It seems pretty clear that aside from King Nimrod, all the groups of nephilim came from Ham. Ham was the son of Noah and he was saved from The Flood on the ark. In my eyes this is a clear cut situation. The sons of Noah were pure through the lineage of Noah. Noah’s wife was pure because she was married to Noah and in marriage two become one. The only place the nephilim DNA could have come from would be through the three wives. This makes sense too because Ham is not infected but immediately after they step off the ark Noah curses Canaan.

Genesis 9: 24-25

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan;

            We can see that Canaan was born either ON the ark or immediately after they got off the ark because he is mentioned in the same verse as the others getting off the ark.

Genesis 9: 18

And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

            Notice that he is the only grandson of Noah mentioned. Also notice that YHWH specifically mentions Ham being the father of Canaan here and two more times BEFORE the rest of the lineages of any of Noah’s sons.

            Since I don’t see any mention of giants in the lineage of Shem, I am not sure what ever happened with Kainam. I do think that he shared those Watcher writings with Nimrod and they are what caused him to become a giant. The Septuagint states this pretty matter of fact.  

The giants after the flood seemed to have some deformities.

2 samuel 21: 20

And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

            Maybe this is something Noah noticed about Canaan once they got off the Ark and it is the reason he cursed him. We can also see that giants are born to other giants. This idea also supports the nephilim DNA being dormant in some but active in others.

Numbers 13:32

There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

            We can also see that the nephilim were giants after the flood as well.

Amos 2: 9

“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, Whose height was like the height of the cedars,

            So the post flood nephilim had double rows of teeth, six fingers and toes, could get up to 36 feet tall (the height of the cedars in Lebanon), and they were very strong. We do see that they seem to get smaller the further away from the flood we get. That also plays into the idea of nephilim DNA on the ark. The more diluted it gets the weaker the genes are.

Deutonomy 3:11

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

            Taking into consideration the length of a cubit discussed earlier, a bed that is 9 cubits long is roughly 13-14 feet long. That would make this man about 12 to 13 feet tall. Considering his bed was made of iron, he was most likely very heavy as well. Later we read about Goliath and he is only 9-10 feet tall.

I simply do not see any biblical evidence for a second incursion with any new fallen angels. The best, most biblically supported theory for the post flood nephilim seems to come from the fact that they can be traced back to the Ark, and come from Ham’s lineage. I have heard others say that they have traced Gog and/or Magog back to Japeths line, but I have yet to look into that idea.

These are the nephilim giants the way I see them. I acknowledge that I could be wrong on some of these ideas, but I also want to state that it seems pretty clear what the Bible is trying to tell us about these beings. I hope you enjoyed this journey of discovering who the bible and extra biblical text say the nephilim really are.

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