Nephilim Return II
Study By: Rob Skiba
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when [because] the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” – Genesis 6:4
Notice that it says that the “Nephilim” were on the earth as a result of the “sons of God” coming in to the daughters of men. The very structure of this sentence leads us to believe that there is a difference between the sons of God (in this case, the “Watcher” class of Fallen Angels) and their offspring, called the Nephilim (or “giants” in some translations). Thus, contrary to what some believe, I do not subscribe to the idea that the Nephilim are the Fallen Angels, but rather that they are the offspring thereof. In addition to the accepted canon of Scripture, both the Book of Jubilees and 1 Enoch seem to bear this out as well:
And all of them [the Watchers] together went and took wives for themselves, each choosing one for himself, and they began to go in to them and to defile themselves with sex with them. And the angels taught them charms and spells, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And the women became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: – 1 Enoch 7:1-3
According to the footnotes in Dr. A. Nyland’s edition of 1 Enoch, the author states:
Here the Greek texts differ from the Ethiopic. One Greek manuscript adds to this section, “And the women bore to the Watchers three races: first, the great giants who brought forth the Nephilim, and the Nephilim brought forth the Elioud. And they existed and their power and greatness increased.”
The Book of Jubilees makes a similar set of comparisons:
For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth, namely, owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which they chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness. And they begat sons the Nâphîdîm, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Nâphîl, and the Nâphîl slew the Eljô, and the Eljô mankind, and one man another. And every one sold himself to work iniquity and to shed much blood, and the earth was filled with iniquity.
And after this they sinned against the beasts and birds, and all that moveth and walketh on the earth: and much blood was shed on the earth, and every imagination and desire of men imagined vanity and evil continually. And the Lord destroyed everything from off the face of the earth; because of the wickedness of their deeds, and because of the blood which they had shed in the midst of the earth He destroyed everything. – Jubilees 7:21-25
There is a lot of information packed into that Jubilees passage! Let’s deal with the first paragraph and then we’ll come back to the second one.
Here in both the 1 Enoch passge as well as the Jubilees passage we see several different types of giants. I believe the first generation giants were the massively huge, 450 footers – the ones the Greeks called, the Titans. According to the Greek myths, the Titans were overthrown by the Olympians and imprisoned in Tartarus. Thus, like many other cultures before them, the Greeks clearly had several “classes” of gods. Notice what Josephus had to say:
For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begot 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 giants or Titans. – Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1
Now, going back to the Genesis passage, the word “Nephilim” comes from the Hebrew word, “nephal” which has a variety of meanings beyond simply “the fallen.”
Clearly the word, “fallen” applies, but so also does “born” and “abandon” – both of which would certainly be descriptive of the offspring of the Watchers, who grew up essentially as fatherless orphans. These “fallen” were also “killed” and “perished” and “wasted away” as ones “cast down” by God for being the “inferior,” “defected” abominations that were never meant to exist in the first place. See how all of those words can apply to “naphal?”
The Book of 1 Enoch states that the first generation angel-human-hybrids were destroyed within 500 years of their birth:
And 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 from amongst men [and cause them to go forth]: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have. And no request that they (the Watchers) make of thee shall be granted unto their fathers on their behalf; for they hope to live an eternal life, and that each one of them will live five hundred years. – 1 Enoch 10:9,10
Presumably, if they had five hundred years to fight, they also had five hundred years to procreate as their parents did. This would have produced second, third, fourth… generation hybrids of beings mixed with both their own seed as well as the seed of men. Thus, we would have other giants by different names, sizes and characteristics as stated above in the Book of Jubilees and the Greek version of 1 Enoch. These all existed in the Pre-Flood world.
In the Sumerian texts, I believe the second generation Nephilim are the Anunnaki (I say second generation because Enoch disqualifies the first generation by virtue of the fact that they killed each other off within 500 years) and the later generations were known as the Igigi. This will become more important to understand as we begin to bring this whole story into our present day. I truly believe that there is a reason why the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series and so many other shows and books are promoting the whole concept of the Anunnaki and their possible return as we get closer to the year 2012. These “mighty men of renown” may indeed return in the very near future.
There certainly are no shortage of opinions about this, but one thing is sure: ancient Pre and Post-Flood people (Nephilim?) left many sings and monuments for us to consider.
Just like in the Pre-Flood world, men are once again looking to become as the Divine. This was one of the three promises of the Serpent in the Garden:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die [promise of immortality]: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened [promise of “illumination” – greater understanding], and ye shall be as gods [promise of divinity], knowing good and evil. – Genesis 3:4,5 (KJV)
The Devil is truly the “Father of Lies.” Adam and Eve were already immortal! Death did not come until after they ate of the Forbidden Fruit. Their eyes were already open! They walked with God and saw Him as He is – in all His glory. If they lacked any understanding, all they had to do was ask God for it in one of their regular times of conversation. And they already were “as God” for we know that Adam was made in His image and likeness. So, in reality the Serpent promised them what they already had and thus stole from them those very things! And he’s still feeding us the same lies today. Play close attention to the words of Dr. Hugo de Garis, Dr. Kevin Warwick and professor Nick Bostrom in this video clip (specifically: 3:15 minutes – 7:45 minutes):
In addition to corrupting the seed of God’s previously approved, “very good” creation, another motive of the Fallen “sons of God” appears to have been to offer a counterfeit of what the Son of God offers to us.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when [because] the sons of Godcame in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men
In The Genesis Six Experiment blog topic, we learned that the term “sons of God” comes from the Hebrew phrase “be·nei ha·’e·lo·him” which is the exact same phrase used in the Book of Job as a reference to angels:
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. – Job 1:6 (KJV)
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. – Job 2:1 (KJV)
As you can see, the Bible itself tells us how we should interpret “sons of God.” They are angels. But just what exactly were Lucifer and his Fallen Angels really doing in Genesis 6:1-4? I believe that in addition to being an attempt to wipe out the seed that would one day crush the Devil’s head (Genesis 3:15), they were also offering a false salvation! When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they fell from a previously perfect existence into a fallen state. And just like in the Hegelian dialectic, the Devil has his own “Luciferian dialectic” in which he created the problem, which caused a reaction to which he then offered a solution. When fallen humans mated with Fallen Angels, the result was a counterfeit “son of god,” called the Nephilim. This is the direct antithesis of what Yeshua did for us:
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name of renown.” – Genesis 6:4 (NASB) – John 1:12 (KJV)
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. – Galations 3:26 (KJV)
Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” – Luke 20:34-36
Through Yeshua – who is the only begotten Son of God – we are given the power to become sons of God. That is the truth that the Devil and his Fallen Ones have counterfeited. Note in the Luke passage that our Lord says that we become “equal to the angels and are sons of God.” This (by the way) seems to settle the “Sethite Theory” argument once and for all. He is saying that the angels (not the children of Seth) are the sons of God and that we can become like them – if we do it His way. When we except Yeshua as our Savior, we become “born again” of incorruptible (or immortal) seed – which in this case, is His seed:
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever, – 1 Peter 1:23 (NKJV)
The alternative way of doing it produced Nephilim (fallen ones of fallen seed) who became the “mighty men” of renown:
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when [because] the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” – Genesis 6:4 (NASB)
The phrase “mighty men” in the above passage comes from the Hebrew word, “gibbor.” This word (like so many other Hebrew words) seems to require context whenever it is to be interpreted – especially if interpreting it as “giant.” Indeed, just like Nephilim (which comes from the Hebrew word, “naphal”), this word has a number of meanings:
champion, chief, excel, giant, man, mighty man, one, strong man,
Or (shortened) gibbor {ghib-bore’}; intensive from the same as geber; powerful; by implication, warrior, tyrant — champion, chief, X excel, giant, man, mighty (man, one), strong (man), valiant man.
Whether we’re talking about great men of valor like David’s “mighty men” or a giant, the word certainly applies either way. Great men of valor are mighty just as much as a giant is. Therefore, we need to look at the context in order to determine whether we are talking about a brave man or a giant man. In this case, I believe the text clearly lends itself to the interpretation of “giant” – especially when you take the extra-biblical texts into consideration. The Septuagint version of Genesis 6:4 agrees:
Now the giants [Nephilim] were upon the earth in those days; and after that when [because] the sons of God were wont to go in to the daughters of men, they bore children to them, those were the giants [gibborim] of old, the men of renown. – Genesis:6:4
Though the Hebrew word, “raphaim” is the much more common term for “giant” in the Scriptures, in addition to Genesis 6:4, there are at least three other times where the word “gibbor” seems to be used in the same way:
Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” – Genesis 10:8,9
and
He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant. – Job 16:14
and
Therefore David ran and stood upon [Goliath] the Philistine [giant] and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead they fled. – 1 Samuel 17:51
We all know who and what Goliath was. In the 1 Samuel passage, we see the word translated as “champion” and it comes as no surprise in that context that the word “gibbor” is used in reference to a giant.
As the oldest book in the Bible, I do find the Job passage rather interesting. The Amplified Bible places that Scripture in the context of attacks unleashed on Job by Satan. So, I also find the association of a “giant” in this context to be quite enlightening as well.
And the situation with Nimrod is even more fascinating. It appears that through some sort of (sexual?) defilement Nimrod began to become a “gibbor.” There are at least three ways to look at this:
- Nimrod simply became a strong and powerful man (though other cultures say he was much more than that)
- Nimrod began to become a giant himself (through some sort of defilement)
- Nimrod began to become a giant hunter – or a hunter of giants (using the other definitions of chalal as in “to wound” or “pierce”).
That word “chalal” is Strong’s # 2490 and it finds 143 occurrences in the Old Testament. It is very interesting in terms of its other usages in Scripture concerning the idea of profaning, defiling, and prostituting:
And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. – Leviticus 18:21
Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it– he went up to my couch. – Genesis 49:4
Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness. – Leviticus 19:29
With these definitions in mind, I suspect all three of the above possibilities concerning Nimrod are true. The Septuagint just comes right out and says he was a giant:
And Chus begot Nebrod: he began to be a giant upon the earth. He was a giant hunter before the Lord God; therefore they say, As Nebrod the giant hunter before the Lord. – Genesis 10:8,9
If he is indeed the inspiration for so many other mythological characters throughout ancient cultures (as pointed out in previous blogs), then Nimrod most certainly was a mighty warrior, giant and possibly a hunter and subduer of giants as well. In fact, according to some, giants are even said to have helped Nimrod build the Tower of Babel. Ancient Arabic legends speak about the giant races being dispersed across the lands along with the people whose languages were confounded. And according to an Arabic manuscript found at Baalbek and quoted by Michael Alouf in his work, “History of Baalbek,” we see:
After the flood, when Nimrod reigned over Lebanon, he sent giants to rebuild the fortress of Baalbek, which was so named in honour of Baal, the god of the Moabites and worshippers of the Sun.
Apparently, even to this day – though I don’t personally believe this to be true – local tradition asserts that the Tower of Babel was actually located at Baalbek. Regardless, there does appear to be a “Nimrod connection” to that area that can be seen even to this day. Off to the south east of the base of Mount Hermon (in the Golan Heights), there are ruins of a place known as the “Fortress of Nimrod.”
Assuming any of the Arabic legends are true, we’ve just found evidence of giants who lived almost immediately after the Flood. There are more connections as you will soon see, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll come back to Nimrod in chapter 4. I just wanted to lay a foundation for what’s to come. Now that we have a solid understanding of the various players and elements contained in Genesis 6:4, let’s go back to the Pre-Flood world and work our way forward one step at a time.
