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The Nephilim
- Thread starter Salty
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I think it’s easier to rule out rather than define.
Genesis 6:1 tells us that the sons of God “took wives for themselves”. Here we are dealing with intermarriage (not fornication). Verse 3 tells us that these offenders were “flesh”. Knowing that angles do not marry (from Jesus’ statements in Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25) I think it is reasonable to exclude the view that these “sons of God” were angles and the Nephilim the product of such intermarriage.
I lean towards the “sons of God” as referring to a godly people while the daughters of men refer to worldly people (although the population varies, I believe that God has always had a people). So (in my view) these righteous men married worldly women and their children were ungodly rulers (maybe the line of Seth and the line of Cain, although I wouldn't go that far).
Genesis 6:1 tells us that the sons of God “took wives for themselves”. Here we are dealing with intermarriage (not fornication). Verse 3 tells us that these offenders were “flesh”. Knowing that angles do not marry (from Jesus’ statements in Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25) I think it is reasonable to exclude the view that these “sons of God” were angles and the Nephilim the product of such intermarriage.
I lean towards the “sons of God” as referring to a godly people while the daughters of men refer to worldly people (although the population varies, I believe that God has always had a people). So (in my view) these righteous men married worldly women and their children were ungodly rulers (maybe the line of Seth and the line of Cain, although I wouldn't go that far).
I believe they were either descendants of Cain or descendants of fallen angels.
Sons of God (spirit beings, in this case fallen angels) interbred with human women. The offspring were some sort of "gigantic" beings - perhaps in size, but more often used of gigantic strength or supernatural ability. These were the "mighty men of mythology" Moses later writes - a half human, half "god" like Heracles or Achilles or Theseus or that ilk.
Again, Satan's imposters of the true God-man seed of Eve promised to come as the perfect redeemer in Gen 3:15. These were polluting the blood-line of humanity and MUST be destroyed lest the line of Eve (to Jesus) be tainted. Hence the flood destroying all but one family who were shown grace (and obviously NOT polluted)
After this time of the flood, ANY giants, powerful men, etc were called generically "Nephilim"
Again, Satan's imposters of the true God-man seed of Eve promised to come as the perfect redeemer in Gen 3:15. These were polluting the blood-line of humanity and MUST be destroyed lest the line of Eve (to Jesus) be tainted. Hence the flood destroying all but one family who were shown grace (and obviously NOT polluted)
After this time of the flood, ANY giants, powerful men, etc were called generically "Nephilim"
Why? What would stop such interbreeding. The demons/fallen angels or other spirit beings often had 100% human appearance, just as good angels (like those visiting Abraham) had normal bodies, appetites, sexual functions
That we, in the resurrection, will not be "married" has no bearing on the angels not having "sexual relations". Apples and oranges
That we, in the resurrection, will not be "married" has no bearing on the angels not having "sexual relations". Apples and oranges
The word 'Nephilim' occurs twice in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33).
The ending "-im" make it pleural so adding an "s" to Nephilim is unnecessary.
The Septuagint translated the term as gigas (“giant”).
Michael Heiser's book, The Unseen Realm talks a lot about Genesis 6 and how it is a pivotal episode in biblical history.
Rob
Genesis 6 And it came to pass, as humanity spread across the earth and had beautiful daughters, that the fallen angels took any they chose.
YHWH said, My Spirit shall not always superintend over man, for they are fleshly. I limit his days to 120 years.
There were Nephilim in the earth then, as the fallen angels interbred with human women - their offspring were these legendary "men of myth/story".
God saw the unbridled wickedness of man covering the earth, doing the unimaginable evil continually. And it repented YHWH that He had created man on the earth, grieving him deeply. So YHWH said, I will destroy mankind that I created . . .
YHWH said, My Spirit shall not always superintend over man, for they are fleshly. I limit his days to 120 years.
There were Nephilim in the earth then, as the fallen angels interbred with human women - their offspring were these legendary "men of myth/story".
God saw the unbridled wickedness of man covering the earth, doing the unimaginable evil continually. And it repented YHWH that He had created man on the earth, grieving him deeply. So YHWH said, I will destroy mankind that I created . . .
I can. The men in Sodom wanted to rape the angels.
...ugggh, I'm beginning to write like someone else ...
Please correct that in your mind to "....makes it plural..."
"Supernatural" is the layman's edition of the book, quicker read with out the tedium of innumerable source texts and cheaper.
Rob
Here's his website:
Dr. Michael Heiser | Biblical Scholar | Author | Semitic Languages Expert
I did read both of his novels "The Facade" and "The Portent" which purport to explain what UFO's are and who is behind them and found them to be a mish-mash of confusing ideas with no clear resolution. (Plus bad plotting and characterization. Maybe his scholarly works are better constructed.)
I know it seems harsh to say it and my intent is not to be but good grief. Believing angels interbred with women is like believing in UFO's, big foot, the lochness, ghosts under the bed, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
I agree. The problem is not an unbelief in the supernatural but rather an acceptance (or maybe an interpretation) of the nature of things as revealed in Scripture. The idea of angels having relations with women and producing a human/angel hybrid creature goes against (I believe) the nature of angels and prescribes them more power than as described in Scripture.
And what is believing that wooden staffs become snakes, believing the sun stands still as long as a man holds his hands up, that food falls from the sky every day, that a donkey can talk, that people can teleport (Enoch, Philip), etc. etc.
... The evil contagion spreading through humanity in Genesis 6:5 is linked to the story in Genesis 6:1-4 about the sons of God fathering their own earthy children known as Nephilim.
The Bible doesn't say much else in Genesis about what happened, but pieces of the story show up elsewhere in the Bible, and in Jewish traditions outside the Bible the New Testament authors knew well and quoted in their writings.
For example, Peter and Jude write about the angels who sinned before the flood (2 Pet. 2:4-6 GNT; see also Jude 5-6). Some of what they say comes from Jewish sources outside the Bible. Peter and Jude say that the sons of God who committed this transgression were imprisoned under the earth--in other words, they"re doing time in hell--until the last days. They'll be part of God's final judgement, something the Bible calls the "Day of the Lord."
Peter and Jude's sources are well-known to Bible scholars. One of them was a book called 1 Enoch. It was popular with Jews of Jesus' day and with Christians in the early church, even though it wasn't considered sacred and inspired. But Peter and Jude thought some of that content was important enough to include in the letters they wrote.
These sources speculate that the sons of God either wanted to "help" humanity by giving them divine knowledge, and then got sidetracked, or that they wanted to imitate God by creating their own imagers. They also include an explanation for where demons come from. Demons are the departed spirits of dead Nephilim killed before and during the flood. They roam the earth harassing humans and seeking reembodiment. In books of the Bible that follow Genesis, descendants of the Nephilim of Genesis 6:1-4 are called Anakim and Rephaim (Numbers 13:32-33; Deut. 2:10-11). Some of these Rephaim show up in the underworld realm of the dead (Isa. 14:9-11) where the Serpent was cast down. The New Testament writers would later call that place hell.
Michael Heiser in Supernatural, What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World, Chapter: The Bad Seed
The Bible doesn't say much else in Genesis about what happened, but pieces of the story show up elsewhere in the Bible, and in Jewish traditions outside the Bible the New Testament authors knew well and quoted in their writings.
For example, Peter and Jude write about the angels who sinned before the flood (2 Pet. 2:4-6 GNT; see also Jude 5-6). Some of what they say comes from Jewish sources outside the Bible. Peter and Jude say that the sons of God who committed this transgression were imprisoned under the earth--in other words, they"re doing time in hell--until the last days. They'll be part of God's final judgement, something the Bible calls the "Day of the Lord."
Peter and Jude's sources are well-known to Bible scholars. One of them was a book called 1 Enoch. It was popular with Jews of Jesus' day and with Christians in the early church, even though it wasn't considered sacred and inspired. But Peter and Jude thought some of that content was important enough to include in the letters they wrote.
These sources speculate that the sons of God either wanted to "help" humanity by giving them divine knowledge, and then got sidetracked, or that they wanted to imitate God by creating their own imagers. They also include an explanation for where demons come from. Demons are the departed spirits of dead Nephilim killed before and during the flood. They roam the earth harassing humans and seeking reembodiment. In books of the Bible that follow Genesis, descendants of the Nephilim of Genesis 6:1-4 are called Anakim and Rephaim (Numbers 13:32-33; Deut. 2:10-11). Some of these Rephaim show up in the underworld realm of the dead (Isa. 14:9-11) where the Serpent was cast down. The New Testament writers would later call that place hell.
Michael Heiser in Supernatural, What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World, Chapter: The Bad Seed
Perhaps they were demons possessing sinful human flesh and doing sex acts....
Think that the way peter and Jude describe them though seems to support the idea of sons of God being celestial origins!
Just curious if that could be a reason behind the concepts of the greek gods and other gods, as mankind remembered garbled fashion these beings?
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