There were Nephilim in the Land

The book of Deuteronomy and Joshua document an interesting king in the history of the Israelites taking their promised land. This person of interest is King Og, a remnant of the last of Rephaites, who was considered to be of the Nephilim. The Nephilim were a tribe or race of people, in the first books of the Bible, from Genesis to 1 Samuel, that were surrounded in mystery and controversy. King Og of Bashan, in Deteuronomy 13:1, identified in scripture as being of the Nephilim, was said to have had a bed of iron that was more than 13 feet long. Scholars are yet to conclude whether this was actually his bed or his sarcophagus. Either way, scripture gives us physical anatomical attributes of a giant. Goliath, the champion of the Philistines was also described as a giant. But no record of him being of the Nephilim is provided in scripture.

Who were the Nephilim? Some theologians say the Nephilim were a race of cultural giants and warriors. There are others who say the Nephilim were a race created by angels who left heaven and sinned by taking on earthly wives. Thus, creating a hybrid human that was an abomination to God's creation. The Nephilim are first introduced to us in Genesis 6, just before the introduction of Noah and the Flood.

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4

The mere mention of the Nephilim creates more mysteries than answers. Who and what were the sons of God? There are two general rationalizations made as to who the sons of God are. The first is that the sons of God are quite literally angels who left heaven and sinned by mingling and reproducing with human women, the daughters of men. The other is that the sons of God were righteous men who were descendants of Seth and married women who worshipped other gods. Ancient Jewish interpreters believe the correct translation of sons of God to be angelic beings. The etymology of the Hebrew word for Nephilim, means the fallen ones. Taken literally, the race of fallen ones (Nephilim) could have descended from fallen angels who deserted their ranks.

There are arguments which stray from the true account of Noah and state that God sent the flood primarily because of the existence of the Nephilim. I believe the literal translation is accurate. The men on the earth were simply wicked to the core. And it so happens there were Nephilim running around. The emphasis of the flood was to purge the earth of the wickedness and save the one righteous man, Noah, and his family.

Some other puzzles surface throughout the Bible as to who the Nephilim are. In the book of Jude, there is a reference to the angels who did not keep their positions of authority. These are the fallen angels in chains who may have been responsible for the genealogy of the fallen ones (Nephilim).

6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. Jude 1:6

Also, the book of Jude actually references the book of Enoch,

 ¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Jude 14-15

Quoted from Enoch 1:9

9. And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of ⌈His⌉ holy ones
To execute judgement upon all,
And to destroy ⌈all⌉ the ungodly:
And to convict all flesh
Of all the works ⌈of their ungodliness⌉ which they have ungodly committed,
And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners ⌈have spoken⌉ against Him. Enoch 1:9

Here again are two trains of theology which don't agree. It is believed that the author of Jude was in fact referencing the Nephilim, from the book of Enoch. Other theories consider this a reference to the angels who rebelled in heaven with Satan. The book of 2 Peter also mentions the angels sitting in dungeons in hell.

4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 2 Peter 2:4

My NIV Archaeological Study Bible commentary, for 2 Peter 2:4, points back to Genesis 6:4 for both 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6. Again more questions than answers. If we go back and look at Genesis 6:4, the Nephilim were in the land before the flood. All men, except for Noah and his family on the ark were wiped out by the flood, correct? Look closely at Genesis 6:4, it states,“ 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward“. The purpose of the flood in Genesis 6 was to wipe out all tainted and wicked gene pools. The exception being Noah and the seven occupants with him on the ark. The Nephilim were a pre-Flood and post-Flood race. From the account of Noah in Genesis, the bloodline of the Nephilim did not sneak onto the ark. God's cleansing of the wicked was absolute. The only way the Nephilim could exist after the flood is if their bloodline was re-established. But from where?

In the book of Numbers, Moses sends explorers into the land of Canaan, which the Lord was giving to the Israelites. When the explorers reported back here is there account of what they saw.

27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." Numbers 13:27-29

The scouts reported seeing Anakites in Canaan, the Anakites are descendants of Anak. And who were the descendants of Anak?

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Number 13:31-33

They saw the Anakites, descendents of the Nephilim there! Somehow the Nephilim were re-introduced to creation. God wanted the Nephilim wiped out as the Israelites entered the land. Rather than taking the land of the Nephilim, the Israelites became rebellious to God. God's plan was for the Israelites to cleanse the land and destroy the Nephilim they encountered. The Israelites instead chose to rebel and complain to God that they would slaughtered by the Nephilim. Did you wonder why God was being so brutal in the taking of land? He was wiping out tainted bloodlines. This time he wasn't using disasters, in keeping his promise to Noah, He was leading the Israelites into battle to remove the demonic influence.

The plot seems to thicken in the book of Deuteronomy. More Nephilim!

10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. 11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. 12 Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the LORD gave them as their possession.) Deuteronomy 2:10-12

The Anakites, who were descendents of the Nephilim, were considered Rephaites. What's a Rephaite? The first mentioning of the Rephaite is the Rephaim, from the book of Genesis. Where a King Kedorlaomer defeated the Rephaim. Again, this event occurs in biblical history after the flood.

5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim Genesis 14:5

The Rephaites are mentioned another time in Genesis, chapter 15, verse 19. Where Abram is promised land in a convenant with God. A portion of the land is that of the Rephaites. Most Hebrew scholars agree that the name Raphaim means the dead ones. The Rephaites were also revered as giants. Were these titans comprised of human genetic material or were they in fact an incursion from angels that sinned? If the Nephilim were titans made up of human genetic material, how did they survive the flood? Man was wiped out according to the book of Genesis. If the Nephilim were not on the ark then the only way they could cheat death would be through supernatural means. Or in other words, the Nephilim were made up of supernatural genetics not intended for God's creation. That is, angels broke from there ranks and sinned in producing children with earthly mothers. In order to be in the land before and after the flood, the fallen angels would have had to invaded our physical realm, not once but twice. The Nephilim at time of the flood, were completely wiped out by God, and then a second incursion after the flood to re-introduce the wicked bloodline.

One interesting ancient book, Enoch, seems to hold some answers, but its own origin and content creates even more perplex questions. The book of Enoch, as far as scholars can tell, existed as far back as three centuries before Christ. Based on the book of Jude, the book of Enoch was widely read and accepted in the church at the time of Jesus and his disciples. Some believe that the book of Enoch may have existed as far back as Moses or Noah. However, there is no conclusive evidence to support the Book of Enoch existed prior to three centuries before Christ in the Greco-Roman period. Moses mentions the Nephilim as if the reader is supposed to clearly understand what they are. We no longer possess the first hand knowledge nor the texts which identify the Nephilim.

A prophetic Internet site made the astounding correlation that the book of Enoch existed back during the time of Moses and possibly even Noah. In my own research, I contacted, Marilyn Lundberg, Ph.D, Associate Director of West Semitic Research. Marilyn reported to me that the earliest copies of Enoch are from Qumran, among the Dead Sea Scrolls. These works on Enoch are considered part of what is called the pseudepigrapha, books that were written in the name of early biblical characters during three centuries before Christ. They were not in existence during the time of David and Solomon. The longest version is "an Ethiopic translation of a Greek translation of its Aramaic original."Fragments in Aramaic were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This doesn't totally discredit the book of Enoch, it just opens more questions. It holds that the book of Enoch was in existence at the time of the disciples and may have pre-dated them, as far as we know, by 300 years. Peter and the author of Jude seem to have knowledge of the book of Enoch. I provided below the content from the book of Enoch, chapters 6 and 7, which is the focus of the Nephilim controversy. There are more references throughout Enoch, this is the focal point of the fallen angel origins of the Nephilim. Fallen angels desired beautiful earthly women, broke from their ranks and consummated with them.

1 Enoch The Rebellion of the Watchers
Chapter 6 The Conspiracy
1.And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2.And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'
3.And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.'
4.And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.'
5.Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
6.And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
7.And these are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.
8.These are their chiefs of tens.

Skipping over to Chapter 7, the plot of fallen angels is revealed.

Chapter 7 The Dead and its Results

1.And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.
2.And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells:
3. Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them,
4.the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.
5.And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood.
6.Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

Somewhere in the 3rd or 5th century the theory of the descendants of Seth, being the sons of God, originated. I am cautious to point to the book of Enoch as being the missing link, if you will, to glue the Nephilim from Genesis 6 to the book of Jude. I do believe the disciples were versed in who the Nephilim were. And based on our own current Bible, the geneology of the Nephilim could very well point to angels who sinned and mated with earthly wives. The other argument is how did the angels accomplish this? Forgive me but I will have to pull from the book of Enoch. I believe the fallen angels may have fully subjugated extremely wicked men, from the time of Noah (my theory) and used the powers of darkness (as depicted in the book of Enoch) to alter already existent genetic material.

There are many interesting enigmas in the supernatural book of our human history, the Bible. The Nephilim are definitely at the top of this great mysteries of the Bible list. I believe when examining the history of the Nephilim in the Bible we should read it quite literally. The Nephilin were titans and giants with a supernatural, demonic, origin in the history of mankind.

Many consider the possibility of the Nephilim, the fallen ones, to be a mortal abomination from sinning angels and wicked men, as too far fetched. Is it any more far fetched than the Lord splitting the ground apart and having the earth open its mouth to swallow the rebellious (Numbers 16:31)? I believe the early church community clearly understood what the Nephilim were. They were mortal abomination offspring of the angels who sinned and broke from their ranks to take human wives. Now they sit in chains awaiting their judgement.