Nephilim
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The Nephilim (/ˈnɛfɪˌlɪm/; Hebrew: נְפִילִים Nəfīlīm) are mysterious beings or people in the Bible traditionally imagined as being of great size and strength.[1] The origins of the Nephilim are disputed. Some, including the author of the Book of Enoch, view them as offspring of fallen angels and humans.[2][3] Others view them as descendants of Seth and Cain.[4][5][6]
This reference to them is in
A similar or identical
Etymology
The
The majority of ancient biblical translations – including the
Origins of belief
Archaeologist
Brand et al. argues that the Nephilim refer to elite or royal warriors from legendary antiquity, who do not necessarily have abnormal stature or divine parentage. They view the Nephilim in Numbers 13-14 as autochthonous elite warriors who dwelt in pre-Israelite Canaan.[17] Ellen White believes that their purpose, narratively speaking, is to die so that God's chosen, who are the "underdogs", could prevail. [27]
The Anakites, who are associated with the Nephilim,[28] are mentioned in the Egyptian Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom[29] (2055–1650 BC) as one of Egypt's political enemies in Canaan.[30]
In the Hebrew Bible
In the Hebrew Bible, there are three interconnected passages referencing the nephilim. Two of them come from the Pentateuch. The first occurrence is in Genesis 6:1–4, immediately before the account of Noah's Ark. Genesis 6:4 reads as follows:
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.[9]
Where the Jewish Publication Society's translation simply transliterates the Hebrew nephilim as "Nephilim",[9] the King James Version translates the term as "giants".[31]
The nature of the Nephilim is complicated by the ambiguity of Genesis 6:4, which leaves it unclear whether they are the "sons of God" or their offspring who are the "mighty men of old, men of renown". Richard Hess takes it to mean that the Nephilim are the offspring,[32] as does P. W. Coxon.[33]
The second is Numbers 13:32–33, where ten of the Twelve Spies describe the Anakites, a Rephaite tribe, as descendants of the Nephilim:
And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.[9]
Outside the Pentateuch there is one more passage indirectly referencing nephilim and this is Ezekiel 32:17–32. Of special significance is Ezekiel 32:27, which contains a phrase of disputed meaning. With the traditional vowels added to the text in the medieval period, the phrase is read gibborim nophlim ("'fallen warriors" or "fallen Gibborim"), although some scholars read the phrase as gibborim nephilim ("Nephilim warriors" or "warriors, Nephilim").[34][35][36] According to Ronald S. Hendel, the phrase should be interpreted as "warriors, the Nephilim" in a reference to Genesis 6:4. 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. They placed their swords beneath their heads and their shields upon their bones, for the terror of the warriors was upon the land of the living.[35]
Brian R. Doak, on the other hand, proposes to read the term as the Hebrew verb "fallen" (נופלים nophlim), not a use of the specific term "Nephilim", but still according to Doak a clear reference to the Nephilim tradition as found in Genesis.[37]
Interpretations
Giants
The earliest translations of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, composed in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, renders the said word as gigantes. In Greek Mythology the gigantes were beings of great strength and aggression but not necessarily of great size.[38] The choice made by the Greek translators has been later adopted into the Latin translation, the Vulgate, compiled in the 4th or 5th century AD, which uses the transcription of the Greek term rather than the literal translation of the Hebrew nefilim. 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.[1]
The decision of the Greek translators to render the Hebrew nefilim as Greek gigantes is a separate matter. 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. It seems then that the authors of Septuagint wished not only to simply translate the foreign term into Greek, but also to employ a term which would be intelligible and meaningful for their Hellenistic audiences. 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. First and foremost, both nefilim and gigantes possessed an ambiguous identity, being a mixture of the human and divine. They were also viewed with fascination and moral contempt. Secondly, both were presented as impersonating chaotic qualities and posing some serious danger to gods and humans. Lastly, both gigantes and nefilim were clearly connected with the underworld and were said to have originated from earth, and they both end up closed therein.[1]
In
The
Fallen angels
All early sources refer to the "sons of heaven" as angels. From the third century BC onwards, references are found in the
The earliest statement in a secondary commentary explicitly interpreting this to mean that angelic beings mated with humans can be traced to the rabbinical Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and it has since become especially commonplace in modern Christian commentaries. This line of interpretation finds additional support in the text of Genesis 6:4, which juxtaposes the sons of God (male gender, divine nature) with the daughters of men (female gender, human nature). From this parallelism it could be inferred that the sons of God are understood as some superhuman beings.[2]
The New American Bible commentary draws a parallel to the Epistle of Jude and the statements set forth in Genesis, suggesting that the Epistle refers implicitly to the paternity of Nephilim as heavenly beings who came to earth and had sexual intercourse with women.[3] The footnotes of the Jerusalem Bible suggest that the biblical author intended the Nephilim to be an "anecdote of a superhuman race". Superhuman, in this context, refers to the extremity of their wickedness.[42]
Some Christian commentators have argued against this view, citing Jesus's statement that angels do not marry.[43] Others disagree since Jesus also compared angels to men, thus implying the former's ability to have sex.[44] Angels are also never explicitly described as being incapable of marriage. The absence of marriage among angels can be thus compared to wilful celibacy.[45]
Evidence cited in favor of the fallen angels interpretation includes the fact that the phrase "the sons of God" (Hebrew: בְּנֵי הָֽאֱלֹהִים; or "sons of the gods") is used twice outside of Genesis chapter 6, in the Book of Job (1:6 and 2:1) where the phrase explicitly references angels. The Septuagint manuscript Codex Alexandrinus reading of Genesis 6:2 renders this phrase as "the angels of God" while Codex Vaticanus reads "sons".[46]
Another modern view that aligns with the fallen angel interpretation includes Nephilim being the offspring of
Second Temple Judaism
The story of the Nephilim is further elaborated in the
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 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." And Semjaza, 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." 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." Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 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 ...[48]
In this tradition, the children of the Nephilim are called the Elioud, who are considered a separate race from the Nephilim, but they share the fate of the Nephilim.
Some believe the fallen angels who
In addition to Enoch, the Book of Jubilees (7:21–25) also states that ridding the Earth of these Nephilim was one of God's purposes for flooding the Earth in Noah's time.[51] These works describe the Nephilim as being evil giants.
The New Testament
Descendants of Seth and Cain
References to the offspring of
Orthodox Judaism has taken a stance against the idea that Genesis 6 refers to angels or that angels could intermarry with men.
Likewise, a long-held view among some Christians is that the "sons of God" were the formerly righteous descendants of Seth who rebelled, while the "daughters of men" were the unrighteous descendants of Cain, and the Nephilim the offspring of their union.[4] This view, dating to at least the 1st century AD in Jewish literature as described above, is also found in Christian sources from the 3rd century if not earlier, with references throughout the Clementine literature,[57] as well as in Sextus Julius Africanus,[6] Ephrem the Syrian,[58] and others. 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).[59][self-published source?]
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. Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:5); according to these sources, these men had begun to pursue bodily interests, and so took wives of "the daughters of men", e.g., those who were descended from Cain or from any people who did not worship God.
This also is the view of the
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. But these [wise men] err in what they say. God forbid such a thing, that angels who are spirits, should be found committing sin with human beings. Never, that cannot be. And if such a thing were of the nature of angels, or Satans, that fell, they would not leave one woman on earth, undefiled ... But many men say, that angels came down from heaven, and joined themselves to women, and had children by them. This cannot be true. But they were children of Seth, who were of the children of Adam, that dwelt on the mountain, high up, while they preserved their virginity, their innocence and their glory like angels; and were then called 'angels of God'. But when they transgressed and mingled with the children of Cain, and begat children, ill-informed men said, that angels had come down from heaven, and mingled with the daughters of men, who bear them giants.
Offspring of Orion
In
Arabian paganism
Fallen angels were believed by Arab pagans to be sent to earth in form of men. Some of them mated with humans and gave rise to hybrid children. As recorded by Al-Jahiz, a common belief held that Abu Jurhum, the ancestor of the Jurhum tribe, was actually the son of a disobedient angel and a human woman.[64][65]
Fossil remains of giants
Alleged discoveries of Nephilim remains have been a common source of hoaxing and misidentification.[66]
In 1577, a series of large bones discovered near
In 1869, the Cardiff Giant, a hoax intended to fool believers in Nephilim, was supposedly discovered in Cardiff, New York. [71]In popular culture
The name and idea of Nephilim, like many other religious concepts, is sometimes used in popular culture. Examples include the
In the video game series
There are several movies, videos, documentaries, and podcasts on Nephilim.[75][76]
See also
- Alien abduction
- Anakim
- Asura
- Book of Giants
- Cain tradition
- Cambion
- Demigod
- Emim
- Hybrid (biology)
- List of angels in theology
- List of giants in mythology and folklore
- Maryannu
- Neanderthal
- Nephele
- Pre-Adamite – Belief that humans existed before the biblical character Adam
- Quinametzin
- Rephaim
- Serpent seed
- Titan (mythology)
References
- ^ ISBN 978-3110550788
- ^ a b Kosior, Wojciech (2010). "Synowie bogów i córki człowieka. Kosmiczny 'mezalians' i jego efekty w Księdze Rodzaju 6:1–6". Ex Nihilo. Periodyk Młodych Religioznawców (in Polish). 1 (3) 2010: 73–74. English version of the paper (translated by Daniel Kalinowski) is available at the Internet Archive.
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- ^ a b New American Bible, footnotes p. 1370, referring to verse 6. "The angels too, who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in gloom, for the judgement of the great day. Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire."
- ^ a b Later Judaism and almost all the earliest ecclesiastical writers identify the "sons of God" with the fallen angels; but from the fourth century onwards, as the idea of angelic natures becomes less material, the Fathers commonly take the "sons of God" to be Seth's descendants and the "daughters of men" those of Cain. Jerusalem Bible, Genesis VI, footnote.
- ^ a b "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of the nobles would come to the daughters of man, and they would bear for them; they are the mighty men, who were of old, the men of renown." Genesis 6:4 (chabad.org translation)
- ^ a b "ANF06. Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius, and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arn". Retrieved 5 June 2015.
- Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- ISBN 978-9004395909. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- ^ a b c d Pentateuch. Jewish Publication Society. 1917.
- ^ "Numbers 13:33". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- JSTOR 3260551.
- JSTOR 23487889.
- ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1907). A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. p. 658
- ^ Girdlestone, Robert Baker (1871). Synonyms of the Old Testament: their bearing on Christian faith and practice. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. London, England: Longmans, Green. p. 91.
- ISBN 978-9004126688.
- JSTOR 3266588.
- ^ a b Brand, Miryam; Galbraith, Deane; Keiser, Thomas; Nguyen, Martin; Paul, Clarissa; Pinkus, Assaf; Stinchcomb, Jillian (2023). "Nephilim". De Gruyter.
- ISBN 978-9004116580.
- ^ ISBN 978-3161486562.
- ^ The Greek translation reads 'οι βιαιοι; the singular root βιαιος means "violence" or "forcible" (Liddell & Scott, eds. (1883). Greek–English Lexicon. New York, Harper – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
- ^ a b Stackhouse, Thomas (1869). A History of the Holy Bible. Blackie & Son. p. 53.
- ISBN 978-3161465758.
The rendering he fell upon, attacked [in Symmachus, Genesis 6:6] is something of a puzzle ... If it has been faithfully recorded, it may be related to the rendering of Aquila for the Nephilim in 6:4, οι επιπιπτοντες.
- JSTOR 3259820– via JSTOR.
- ^ Doak, Brian R. (2011). "The Last of the Rephaim: Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel". Harvard University – via Digital Commons at George Fox University.
- ISBN 978-0-8028-2491-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8028-2491-2.
- ^ White, Ellen (2024). "Who Are the Nephilim?". Biblical Archaeology Society. Archived from the original on 26 March 2024.
- ^ White, Ellen (2023). "Who Are the Nephilim?". Biblical Archaeology Society. Archived from the original on 27 August 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-567-04942-1.
- ^ Wyatt 2001.
- ^ "Genesis 6 in parallel Hebrew–English format". Mechon Mamre.
- ^ Hess, Richard (1997) [1992]. "Nephilim". In Freedman, David Noel (ed.). The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday.
- ISBN 978-0802824912.
- ^ Zimmerli, W. (1983). Ezekiel: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48. Hermeneia. Translated by Martin, J. D. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress. pp. 168, 176.
- ^ JSTOR 3260551.
- ISBN 978-0802824912. Retrieved 5 June 2015 – via Google Books.
- JSTOR 23487889.
- ISBN 978-0-19-530035-2.
- ISBN 978-0300181326. p. 256.
- ISBN 978-8120606722. p. 140.
- ISBN 978-1134536504. p. 105.
- ^ The author does not present this episode as a myth nor, on the other hand, does he deliver judgment on its actual occurrence; he records the anecdote of a superhuman race simply to serve as an example of the increase in human wickedness which was to provoke the Flood. Jerusalem Bible, Genesis 6, footnote.
- ^ Matthew 22:30
- ^ Bob Deffinbaugh, "The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men", Genesis: From Paradise to Patriarchs
- ^ S. Heiser, Michael (2021). "Who Are the Nephilim and What Is Their Origin?". Logos.
- ^ Swete, Henry Barclay (1901). The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. Greek text: 'οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ'
- ^ "Genesis 6:4 Commentary". BibleRef. Archived from the original on 26 March 2024.
- ^ Carnahan, Timothy R. "Book 1: Watchers". Academy for Ancient Texts. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
- ^ R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St John, p. 239. "He may be Uriel, if it is legitimate to compare 1 Enoch xx. 2, according to which he was the angel set over the world and Tartarus (ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ κόσμου καὶ τοῦ Ταρτάρου). In 1 Enoch, Tartarus is the nether world generally."[verification needed]
- ^ https://www.logos.com/grow/where-do-demons-come-from/
- ISBN 978-90-04-49806-8.
- ^ "1.9 In 'He comes with ten thousands of His holy ones' the text reproduces the Masoretic of Deut. 33² in reading אָתָא = ἔρχεται, whereas the three Targums, the Syriac and Vulgate read אִתֹּה = μετ' αὐτοῦ. Here the LXX diverges wholly. The reading אתא is recognised as original. The writer of 1–5 therefore used the Hebrew text and presumably wrote in Hebrew." R. H. Charles, Book of Enoch: Together with a Reprint of the Greek Fragments, London 1912, p.lviii
- ^ "We may note especially that 1:1, 3–4, 9 allude unmistakably to Deuteronomy 33:1–2 (along with other passages in the Hebrew Bible), implying that the author, like some other Jewish writers, read Deuteronomy 33–34, the last words of Moses in the Torah, as prophecy of the future history of Israel, and 33:2 as referring to the eschatological theophany of God as judge." Richard Bauckham, The Jewish world around the New Testament: collected essays. 1999 p. 276
- ^ "The introduction ... picks up various biblical passages and re-interprets them, applying them to Enoch. Two passages are central to it The first is Deuteronomy 33:1 ... the second is Numbers 24:3–4."[verification needed] Michael E. Stone, Selected studies in pseudepigrapha and apocrypha with special reference to the Armenian Tradition (Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha No 9) p. 422.
- ^ e.g. Michael Green, The second epistle general of Peter, and the general epistle of Jude, p. 59
- ISBN 978-0674791510) [page needed]
- ^ "Kitãb Al-Magāll or the Book of the Rolls. One of the books of Clement". Retrieved 5 June 2015.
- ^ Commentary in Genesis 6:3
- ^ Rick Wade, Answering Email, "The Nephilim". Archived 31 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The 'Holy Angels'". Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Sunday Schools Department. Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in Amharic)
- ^ The Amharic text of Henok 2:1–3 (i.e. 1 En) in the 1962 Ethiopian Orthodox Bible may be translated as follows: "After mankind abounded, it became thus: And in that season, handsome comely children were born to them; and the Offspring of Seth, who were upon the Holy Mount, saw them and loved them. And they told one another, 'Come, let us choose for us daughters from Cain's children; let us bear children for us.'"
- Peake's commentary on the Bible1919
- ^ Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon p. 658; Strong's H5307
- ^ Reed, Annette Y. ""Fallen Angels and the Afterlives of Enochic Traditions in Early Islam"".
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(help)[permanent dead link] - ISBN 978-0815650706p. 35
- ^ Mikkelson, David (20 January 2019). "Are These Giant Human Skeleton Photographs Real?". Snopes. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ Library of Universal Knowledge. Vol. 7. American book exchange. 1880. p. 64.
- S2CID 194301745.
- ISBN 978-0691089515.
- ^ Rose, Mark (November–December 2005). "When Giants Roamed the Earth". Archaeology. 58 (6). Retrieved 15 October 2014.
- OCLC 604139167.
- ^ "Nephilim". MTG Wiki. Archived from the original on 19 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ "Antarktos Rising". Amazon.
- ^ "Nephilim Roleplaying". Chaosium.
- ^ "IMDb search on Nephilim". IMDb.
- ^ "Evidence of 'biblical giants' found in northern Israel". "The Jerusalem Post".
External links