Who were the Nephilim in the Bible? | Rephaim Giants in the Bible verses

Is God Mean | Episode 3

Who were the Nephilim Giants in the Bible?

Were the Nephalem human, demons, or a hybrid race?

There is an ancient theory that fallen angels married human women to produce offspring known as the Nephilim. The theory assumes that Satan orchestrated this in order to contaminate the human bloodline and prevent the coming of the Messiah through the seed of a woman as prophesied in Genesis 3. Some believe this angelic rebellion is what we see documented in Genesis 6 with the marriage of the “Sons of God” to the daughters of man. Many speculate this unholy union led to hybrid offspring that became the race of giants in the earth. They say this is where Biblical characters like Goliath came from. Others believe that the Nephilim are the ones who built the ancient wonders of the world like the pyramids, and some even believe that the Nephilim are linked to alien encounters. Is any of this true? Does the Bible really document half angel/half human hybrids, or were they just humans? Or something else entirely? Are they still here? If they’re gone, could they come back? More importantly, what does any of this have to do with God’s harsh actions in the Old Testament?

Did rephaim giants in the Bible really exist?

In the previous video we uncovered who the Sons of God are in Genesis 6; whether they were angels or man. We looked at the nature of spiritual bodies and investigated whether or not it’s really possible for a spiritual being to impregnate a human woman like some claim Genesis 6:4 suggest. We also compared some of the opposing interpretations of that highly debated passage. We covered a lot! So if you haven’t watched that video yet, I highly suggest you go do that first as this video is going to build on the foundation that video laid. Let’s jump in!

Important note
Throughout this study I may briefly reference extra-biblical texts from time to time to explain different theories and where they come from. This, however, should not be taken as an endorsement of the truthfulness of these books. There are many ancient texts that have a lot to say about this topic. Such as The books of Enoch, Jasher, Jubilees, Esdras, and The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, along with many ancient Mesopotamian and Arabic texts and legends. Although there is a wealth of information in these works my study will not focus on these texts or spend much time looking at them. This is simply because I do not put much weight in them and view them only as mythologies. The Bible is the only authoritative work, and thus I’ve chosen to have this study revolve singly around the Bible.

The Nephilim origin

We’re picking up in Genesis 6:4 that says:

Genesis 6:4
4 The Nephilim[e] were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. (HCSB)

If we continue along the angel view theory of Genesis 6 that we began investigating in the last video, this scripture tells that angels and women married and had offspring together. Were those offspring the Nephilim mentioned here in verse 4? Let’s investigate to find out. The word Nephilim in the Hebrew is actually Nephalem, and it’s a pretty ambiguous word. We don’t know much about it because It only appears in two scriptures in the entire Bible. Some scholars believe that it could originate from the word “Naphal” which means “To fall”. So some translate Nephilim as “the fallen ones.” Others think of them as bullies who would “fall on” their enemies or “those that cause others to fall down”. However, strictly speaking, the plural participle would be either nophelim or nephulim, and not nephilim. So some scholars have pointed out that the related Aramaic language (which small portions of the Old Testament were written in) has a noun that would be nephilin in its plural form, and in Hebrew would translate to Nephilim. This Aramaic word means “giants” and is also the Aramaic word for the constellation Orion, the giant hunter of mythology. Honestly, it’s all somewhat speculative as there is no way for us to confirm one way or another. Either way, the greek translators decided to use the word “gigantes” which in english translates as “giants” which is what most of us read in our English Bibles. The greek translators may have chosen that word because of the context Nephilim is used in the only other place it appears in the Bible; The book of Numbers:

Numbers 13:33

32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.(kjv)

So Moses sent spies to check out the land of Canaan to see if the children of Israel could take the land, and this is the report that the spies bring back. That there are men of great stature that made them look like grasshoppers in comparison. They then relate these men of great stature to the Nephilim found in Genesis 6:4. It is likely because of this connection that the Greek translators chose to translate Nephilim as giants.

Giants In The Bible

Joshua displaced the Nephilim from Canaan

It also seems to imply that these giants were somehow descended from the Genesis 6 Nephilim. So many people conclude that this union of Angels marrying human women lead to this giant race of beings. Hereditary clans of giants. I know this sounds like a sci-fi movie, but the Bible is pretty clear that there were giants around in the Old Testament. We all know Goliath, there was also Ishbibenob, Saph, Lahmi, the unnamed giant with 24 fingers and toes, Og the king of Bashan whose bed was over 13 feet long, Sheshai, Ahiman, Talmai, and many more.

The BIble actually mentions entire tribes of giants that were surrounding the promised land that Joshua and later David had to wipe out before inheriting the land. These tribes are listed as the Amorites, Emim, Zamzummim, Raphaim, Nephilim, and the Anakim. Now the terms Nephilim and Raphaim may just be generic terms for giants, but all of the others seem to be specific family clans of giants. Although there are some significant differences between the Nephilim and Rephaim that we will be discussing more in depth in a later video.

While portions of the angel view do require a bit of speculation, the existence of hereditary families of giants in the Bible is actually one of the strongest arguments for this view, in my opinion. This angel view of Genesis 6 is one of the only possible explanations given in the Bible of where the giants come from. The talk of giants is pretty straightforward in the BIble, and It would be very difficult to try to explain away their existence. This union of celestial beings with human women is definitely one of the most straightforward explanations of where they could come from. However, there are some other abstract and very speculative theories of where they could potentially come from.

Here is a list of scriptures documenting giants:
Genesis 6:4; 14:5
Numbers 13:28-33
Deuteronomy 1:28; 2:10–11; 20-22; 3:11-13; 9:2
Joshua 11:21; 12:4; 13:12-13; 14:5,12-15; 15:13–14; 17:15; 18:16
1 Samuel 17:4
2 Samuel 21:15–22
1 Chronicles 20:4–8
Amos 2:9–10
Isaiah 17:5

Where did the Giant’s come from?

Simple genetics of a more perfect earth

Nephilim and Rephaim giants in the bible battled God’s people

One of those theories being simple genetics. The earth in those days was very different from the way it is now, and it was much more conducive to life. People in those days were living nearly 1000 years, and fossils show that it was not rare for some life forms to be 40% larger back then than their modern-day counterparts. So maybe some people were just really big and that passed down through the generations and through some clans.

Genetic modification

Another theory is Genetic modification. Think GMO. Those that adhere to this view use the story of the cluster of grapes that was so large that it took two men with poles to carry them as an example of how they had genetically modified the grapes. However, that could also just be an example of how the earth was much more conducive to life and growth back then. But, those that believe in genetic modification believe that the Sons of God (angels) were teaching them how to mix species and genetically modify creatures as this is specifically mentioned in multiple extra-biblical texts (such as Jasher 4:18 and Enoch 86:1-5). Some of the theories in this camp get pretty out there. They believe that’s how some of the more ferocious carnivore dinosaurs came to be. They also think that Sons of God were teaching them all kinds of celestial technologies, and that’s how so many of the ancient wonders of the world like the Pyramids came to be. They think the verse that says, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:37 KJV) could possibly refer to all of the genetic mutations that scientists are starting to experiment with now to create hybrid beings. Just as in the days of Noah that we will once again have hybrid beings thanks to genetic modification sciences. Again, I’m not sure that I personally buy into all that, but I am taking it into consideration.

Adam and Eve’s firstborn

There are many theories out there, and I can’t cover all of them in this video but I’ll give you one more. Some say Adam and Eve had children before Cain while they still lived in the Garden of Eden before they had sinned. If this were true, when Adam and Eve sinned that sin wouldn’t have been held against their children that were already in the Garden of Eden. Thus, when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden their first born children could have remained with perfect genetics not tainted by sin. It is assumed these children would probably have been larger and stronger than the lines of humanity corrupted by sin. People that believe this view think that it is this pre-fall offspring of Adam and Eve that are the “Sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6, and that is why their union with fallen lines of man, the “daughters of cain” led to the birth of Giants. I also do not subscribe to this theory, because although the Bible does not explicitly tell us that Cain was Adam and Eve’s firstborn, I think the context clues of Eve’s proclamation after having Cain makes it pretty clear it was her firstborn, and we know that Cain was born outside the garden.

Modern evidence for giants

The New York Times has published over 60 articles on giant skeletons

One thing is for sure, whoever you believe the giants are, whether a hybrid half human/half angelic race, genetically modified creatures, or just the product of an older more perfect world, the Bible talks about them a lot. And not only does the Bible talk about them, but so do scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, explorers, historians, and even journalists! The New York Times alone has published nearly 60 articles documenting the discovery of giant human bones. Now, I’m not going to get into all of that, because there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there surrounding this topic, and you have to be careful while sifting through the fiction to get to the truth. But, if you’re into that sort of thing there is no shortage of information for you to research regarding giant human skeletons, giant footprints discovered alongside dinosaur footprints, journal entries of encounters with giants from ancient explorers, and even historians like Josephus reference the giants in their works.

And even more convincing than those things are the thousands of megalithic structures from around the world; such as pyramids, temples, and tombs. These ancient wonders of the world have drawn so much attention as archaeologists admit that without our modern day tools and technology we couldn’t recreate these structures today. These structures are a sign of a higher intelligence and a capability that we humans don’t possess without the aid of modern technology. Where would these early civilizations have gotten that kind of advanced knowledge? If you watch the history channel you’ve probably seen ancient aliens with a guy telling you that it came from celestial beings who visited earth, and there’s a theory that is exactly what happened, but those celestial beings weren’t aliens, they were instead angels.

Personally, I don’t know a lot about all those things, so I’m going to stick with the Bible for my studies, but it is interesting to note that nearly every people group around the world has a mythology for two events; A global flood, and half man/half celestial demigods that came from “gods” sleeping with women. Some may say that’s coincidence, but others believe it is the result of many retellings of a universal truth.

How did the Nephilim return after the flood?

There’s one more issue that believers of the angel view have to tackle. If all the Nephilim were drowned in the flood how do they appear again after the flood? If the existence of giants is the strongest argument for the angel view, the giants continued existence after the flood is the argument’s greatest weakness.

Fallen angels return

As always, there are several theories out there of how they reappeared, one theory among Jewish tradition is that angels descended again on Mt. Hermon and once again mated with women starting the process all over again. The obvious weakness to this argument is, “well then why isn’t it still happening today?” Some answer that by saying because after seeing the punishment the fallen angels received after their transgressions all the other angels were too scared to follow in their footsteps. Others say it no longer happens because God blocked physical demonic intervention.

Nephilim in the future

However, some suggest that the angels who get released during the tribulation, as Revelations 9 predicts, could lead to the birth of more Nephilim. There are several ancient non-biblical texts that suggest this (4th Esdras 5:8-9 and The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra 4:29-32), and some traditions claim the Antichrist himself will be a hybrid. Although, the only way to arrive at these conclusions is by pure speculation, or via non-biblical ancient texts, as the Bible never mentions (to my knowledge) these assumptions. But for those that do take the extra-biblical texts seriously, they say that the threat of hybrid offspring could help explain why Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it would be terrible for pregnant women and nursing mothers during those times. To me, it seems pretty obvious that Jesus was just acknowledging that with the global meltdown and intensified suffering that it would be a very difficult time to parent a child.

Will demons parade themselves as aliens after the rapture?

Some people believe that after the rapture Satan will use the lie of “alien abduction” as a deception to fool the masses and to give a secular explanation for the disappearance of potentially millions of people. Because of this they believe these spirits mentioned in Revelations chapter 9 that are released during the tribulation will claim themselves to be aliens.

Perpetuated through Ham’s wife

Another theory is that Noah’s son Ham married a woman that came from a family line that had been contaminated by this mixing of angels with humans. I really don’t believe this theory, because if the angel view is accurate, and there really was a half man/half angel race contaminating the planet, and part of the purpose of the flood was to wipe out that demonic race before it destroyed humanity, then why would God allow it to still live on through Ham’s wife after the flood? That seems completely counterproductive. Which, God’s ways are higher than my ways, but from my current perspective that seems like it would have been an oversight, and we all know that God doesn’t make mistakes. So I don’t believe this one.

Others think that the half man/half angel hybrid race only existed before the flood, and the giants that we see after the flood are just results of genetic mutation or modification and not an actual descendant of the ancient hybrid race.

The flaws in the Sethite Theory

Let’s start by looking at the weaknesses in each theory. The first problem that I see with the sethite theory, and all the variations of that theory that have the Sons of God being human men, is simply the jump you have to make to assume that the sons of God is referring to a specific subgroup of humanity. It just seems like a very unnatural reading of the text. The second weakness is the existence of giants. With the sethite view we are never given an origin story in the Bible for the giants, and with as much as the giants are talked about it does seem odd that we’d never be told how they arrived on the scene. We’ve looked at some theories out there that try to explain this in this video, but they are purely speculation. I do have to say though, that if the giants are just human that would make it easy to explain how they appeared even after the flood.

The flaws in the Angel View

Now let’s look at some of the weaknesses of the angel view and all of its variations. So I always grew up hearing that satan is just a counterfeiter. I learned that he can’t create on his own, but that he just tries to counterfeit everything that God creates, and while we don’t have a verse (that I’m aware of) that explicitly states this, when you study his actions throughout the bible that accusation seems to be true. So the idea that the satan would actually have the power to create his own race just seems to contrast everything I’ve always believed about the satan. It just doesn’t sit quite right with me. However, saying that it just doesn’t sit right with me is a far cry from having actual Biblical evidence against it. Still, it’s a hard pill for me to swallow.

One explanation I heard that did help me with this concept a little is that it was God who created biology and gave human beings the ability to reproduce, and that the satan was forced to work within the confines of the biology that God had already created because he lacks the ability to create his own. Even with this theory the satan never created his own biological rules or realities, but simply worked with what God had already put in place. In this way, the satan would once again just be attempting to counterfeit God’s creation. That explanation did help me be a little more accepting, but still it somehow just doesn’t feel quite right to me personally. I think that if this theory IS true then I believe they had the option to choose to live righteously and honor God and avoid judgement. I don’t think God would allow a race to be created without them being given the opportunity to choose to love Him. However, it is clear that none of them made that choice as the Bible clearly tells us that Noah was the last righteous man on earth. They obviously were all born with a thirst for evil like their parents.

The second weakness with the angel view is the appearance of giants again after the flood. If giants are supposed to be a hybrid of angels and humans then how did they reappear after the flood. Again, we explored some theories in this video, and again they were all pure speculation.

A third theory

Honestly, I would never think less of anyone for believing any of the variations of either the sethite view or the angel view. Both have the Bible as the basis for their arguments and I can’t prove or disprove either one. I believe it is folly to allow this issue to cause division and strife among the body of Christ.

There is a third view that kind of combines the angel view and the sethite view together that I personally believe more effectively handles the weaknesses that both of these arguments present on their own. But I’m out of time on this video, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next video where I break down the third and final view that we are going to cover on Genesis 6 concerning the Sons of God and the Nephilim. Don’t miss it! I’ll see you in the next video!