Nephilim
[7][8] According to Numbers 13:33, ten of the Twelve Spies report the existence of Nephilim in Canaan prior to its conquest by the Israelites.
[9][10] A similar or identical Biblical Hebrew term, read as "Nephilim" by some scholars, or as the word "fallen" by others, appears in Ezekiel 32:27 and is also mentioned in the deuterocanonical books Judith 16:6, Sirach 16:7, Baruch 3:26–28, and Wisdom 14:6.
[a][11][12] The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon (1908) gives the meaning of Nephilim as "giants", and warns that proposed etymologies of the word are "all very precarious".
[13] Many suggested interpretations are based on the assumption that the word is a derivative of Hebrew verbal root n-p-l (נ־פ־ל) "fall".
Girdlestone (1871, p. 91) argued the word comes from the hif'il causative stem, possibly indicating that the name 'Nephilim' is to be understood as 'those that cause others to fall down'.
[14] Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form: 'Ones who have fallen', grammatically analogous to paqid 'one who is appointed' (i.e., a deputy or overseer), asir 'one who is bound' (i.e., a prisoner), etc.
Wright states that belief in the Nephilim, especially as giants, originated from the Hebrews’ contemplation of Transjordian megalithic structures and cyclopean masonry walls of Canaanite cities, with some being 18 feet thick.
Nonetheless, he notes that ancient Canaanites were relatively short, before and after 3000 BC, with no significant findings of abnormally sized aborigines.
[23] Biblical professor Brian R. Doak believes that Nephilim lore is a polemic against the tropes of epic and heroism, commonly found in the worldviews of cultures similar to the Hebrews'.
[24] J.C. Greenfield similarly believes that Nephilim lore is based on "the negative aspects of the Apkallu tradition" in Sumerian mythology.
[25](p 73) Brand et al. (2023)[17] argue that the Nephilim refer to elite or royal warriors from legendary antiquity, who do not necessarily have abnormal stature or divine parentage.
[17] Ellen White believes that their purpose, narratively speaking, is to die so that God's chosen, who are the "underdogs", could prevail.
[26] The Anakites, who are associated with the Nephilim,[27] are mentioned in the Egyptian Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom[28] (2055–1650 BC) as one of Egypt's political enemies in Canaan.
The verse as understood by Hendel reads: They lie with the warriors, the Nephilim of old, who descended to Sheol with their weapons of war.
[12](p 622) The earliest translations of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, composed in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, renders the said word as gigantes.
From there, the tradition of the giant progeny of the sons of God and the daughters of men spread to later medieval translations of the Bible.
The Hebrew nefilim means literally "the fallen ones" and the strict translation into Greek would be peptokotes, which in fact appears in the Septuagint of Ezekiel 32:22–27.
Given the complex meaning of the nefilim which emerged from the three interconnected biblical passages (human–divine hybrids in Genesis 6, autochthonous people in Numbers 13 and ancient warriors damned in the underworld in Ezekiel 32), the Greek translators recognized some similarities.
[38] From the third century BC onwards, references are found in the Enochic literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls,[39] Jubilees, the Testament of Reuben, 2 Baruch, Josephus, and the Book of Jude (compare with 2 Peter 2).
[3][d] The footnotes of the Jerusalem Bible suggest that the biblical author intended the Nephilim to be an "anecdote of a superhuman race".
[44] Another modern view that aligns with the fallen angel interpretation includes Nephilim being the offspring of demon-possessed men and women.
The Greek, Aramaic, and main Ge'ez manuscripts of 1 Enoch and Jubilees obtained in the 19th century and held in the British Museum and Vatican Library, connect the origin of the Nephilim with the fallen angels, and in particular with the egrḗgoroi (watchers).
Some believe the fallen angels who begat the Nephilim were cast into Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6) (Greek Enoch 20:2),[f] a place of "total darkness".
An interpretation is that God granted ten percent of the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim to remain after the Flood, as demons, to try to lead the human race astray until the final Judgment.
References to the offspring of Seth rebelling from God and mingling with the daughters of Cain are found from the second century AD onwards in both Christian and Jewish sources (e.g., Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Augustine of Hippo, Sextus Julius Africanus, and the Letters attributed to St. Clement).
Holders of this view have looked for support in Jesus' statement that "in those days before the flood they [humans] were ... marrying and giving in marriage" (Matthew 24:38, emphasis added).
Some individuals and groups, including St. Augustine, John Chrysostom, and John Calvin, take the view of Genesis 6:2 that the "Angels" who fathered the Nephilim referred to certain human males from the lineage of Seth, who were called sons of God probably in reference to their prior covenant with Yahweh (cf.
In these sources, these offspring of Seth were said to have disobeyed God, by breeding with the Cainites and producing wicked children "who were all unlike", thus angering God into bringing about the Deluge, as in the Conflict: Certain wise men of old wrote concerning them, and say in their [sacred] books that angels came down from heaven and mingled with the daughters of Cain, who bare unto them these giants.
[65] Cotton Mather believed that fossilized leg bones and teeth discovered near Albany, New York in 1705 were the remains of Nephilim who perished in a great flood.
