Category Archives: Nephilim

The Nephilim In Christian Fiction

http://www.mikeduran.com/2012/04/why-christian-fiction-writers-love-the-nephilim/

I’ve been curiously fascinated with the Nephilim for years. I’ve written some blog posts about these creatures, and I have more research I’d like to share in the future.

I’m not a huge reader of speculative fiction. No, there’s nothing wrong with it, but, I find myself reading it sparingly because I’m more of a romance, women’s fiction, and suspense reader. I came across this article that stated that there was in over-abundance of speculative fiction submissions (in the Christian market) that featured the Nephilim. This article is old (2012), but, I’m assuming this fact may still exist today?

Have you read any of these titles? If so, what did you think of them? I’m thinking of reading a few of them, just to see that I think! On one of the covers (Dark Sentences), the creature looks like a gorilla. I’m assuming this creature is supposed to be a Nephilim? Not sure since I have not read the book. I just assumed the Nephilim looked more like humans than animals. Double rows of teeth, six digits on each hand and foot…humanistic face. These creatures have crossed my mind for awhile now. Not sure when I’ll stop thinking about them, wondering about them. I guess they are soul-less, right?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Last of the Nephilim, Oracles of Fire Series #3   -     By: Bryan Davis
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Noah – The Movie – I Hated It! :-(

Is Hollywood in need of scriptwriters? Can I quit my job and be a scriptwriter for Hollywood??

When one of the publicists for the movie, NOAH, contacted me last year, asking if I’d help promote this movie, I eagerly said YES! I thought the movie trailer looked AWESOME and the special effects looked utterly AMAZING!

BUT…I honestly thought I could’ve written a better script than the one I saw performed yesterday when I saw NOAH.

****SPOILER ALERT – I’m going to talk about the entire movie.

There was so much stuff in this movie that I hated that I don’t know where to begin! First off, only one of Noah’s sons had a wife. It was some girl they rescued in the barren, forsaken land. They found her amidst a bunch of dead people. She was wounded and and her injuries barred her from having children. So, fast forward about ten years and one of Noah’s sons has taken her as his mate. His other son (I believe it was Ham?) was jealous that his brother had a wife, his dad Noah has a wife…all of the animals are in twos…he’s like, Dad, what about me, where’s my mate? Noah’s response: the Creator’s given us all we need. So basically his son was supposed to be left without a mate??

The very least they could do was have the three sons to be married like in the Bible. Also, before the ark was built and when Noah receives his vision of the flood, he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do. He is going to visit his wise grandfather, Methuselah, when they find this barren girl (mentioned in the previous paragraph). The bad people come after Noah and his family. They run into the valley of the rock people. Yes, the rock people, people made out of rocks. The rock people throw Noah and his family, plus the barren girl into a pit to die.

A sympathetic rock person rescues Noah and his family and becomes their protector. The protector tells Noah that the rock people are fallen angels. These angels came down from heaven as beams of light, feeling sympathetic toward the plight of Adam and Eve. God didn’t appreciate their allegiance toward Adam’s and Eve’s plight, so, He changed them from beams of light into beams of mud – mud and rocks.

After finding his grandfather, Methuselah, and drinking some magical tea, Noah realizes he must build an ark! Meanwhile, the rock people want to seek forgiveness from the Creator. So, they decide to help Noah build the ark. So, while Noah and his family are building this ark, these rock creatures are helping them – it looks pretty ridiculous.

Then you have some guy named Tubal-Cain(sp?) who is the king of Cain’s descendents. This line of descendents are the bad people in the movie. Lots of evil lurking among these people. Ham finds himself sympathetic to Tubal Cain, since he feels that Noah has turned against him.

Tubal-Cain wants to get onto the ark once the flood waters come. He chops his way into the ark and is a stowaway. Yes, there’s a stowaway on the ark. Ham secretly gives Tubal-Cain nourishment since he’s still mad at Noah. Ham had met a girl among Tubal-Cain’s people, and he wanted to bring her onto the ark. While running amidst the rain to catch the ark before it left, her foot is caught in a trap. Ham tries to rescue her, but Noah refuses to help and the girl gets trampled to death.

Oh, the rock people. After the rain starts, the rock people help protect Noah and his family from the Tubal-Cain evil people who are trying to take over the ark. The rock people (the Watchers) are then granted forgiveness from the Creator and miraculously go back up into the sky as beams of light.

Meanwhile, after the rain has stopped, Noah now feels (or I believe the Creator has told him?) that all mankind must perish, including all of those on the ark.

The barren girl who Noah’s son has taken as a wife? Sometime before boarding the ark, Methuselah has healed her womb and she’s pregnant. Noah says since man is supposed to perish forever then, if she has a son, then he’ll be the last man to die on this earth – then mankind will be gone forever. If she births a girl, then Noah is supposed to kill her child, since a girl can give birth to babies. The girl (Noah’s son’s wife) tries to escape the ark, with her husband (Noah’s son). They build a raft (again, the rains have stopped by this time). Noah throws some fire onto their raft, burning it, preventing them from leaving so that he can kill the baby if she births a female. She gives birth to female twins. Noah is about to plunge a knife into one of the twins, but, he finds he can’t do it.

They finally land on solid earthly ground. Ham goes off by himself. I mean, he’s by himself since he has no mate, and he doesn’t want to stay with his family. I mean, come on, he has no mate. Maybe he should’ve stayed around and gotten together with one of the twins after they grew up??

Also, Noah blesses the twin grandchildren that he was about to kill awhile back. It appears he has snakeskin – I believe it was from the original snakeskin from the Garden of Eden? I might be wrong about that, though. He uses this snakeskin during his blessing ceremony.

A HUGE plot hole that I saw was – well, Noah wanted to kill his grandchildren because he thought all mankind was supposed to die. If he killed his grandchildren then, afterwards, maybe going into years later, each one of his family would die, his youngest son being the last one to die. Then, mankind would no longer exist??

Hello…Noah, what about your son, the one who’s married to the girl who just gave birth to twins??? Is it not possible for her to get pregnant, again, and have other children??? Would you continue killing each female birth??? I’d think that you have two sons who stayed behind, plus the previously barren mom, plus your wife. Can’t all of them overtake you, imprison you, prevent you from killing future kids from this human race???? Maybe something was referenced and explained about this, that I somehow missed it?? I was trying to remember so many things to reference in this blog post that it’s possible that I missed a few details.

Also, sending the bird out to see if there was land onto which they could dock their ark? Noah’s son sends this bird out instead of Noah. Noah’s wife is hoping the bird will come back with evidence of dry land so that her son and daughter-in-law can leave before she births her baby since Noah is determined to kill a female newborn infant.

Also, you don’t see the Lord speaking directly to Noah, like He does in the Bible. Noah receives these visions he must interpret. Something to do with a seed from the Garden of Eden.

Oh, another thing I hated, they would put the animals to sleep on the ark by waving around this smoky incense. It made the animals tired. Wonder why that smoke stuff doesn’t work on the humans? So dumb….

If you were going to write a script about Noah, how would you do it?

What would I have done?

I realize you’d have to use artistic license to write a Noah script since there’s only a few chapters in the Bible referencing this event. But, I would’ve filled in the blanks with things that could have happened instead of making up such off the wall stuff and changing the Biblical text. If you’re going to write a book (or script) based upon a Biblical event, at least put the correct facts in the Biblical text into the scripted event. Then, realistically, fill in the blanks.

1. I’d have all three of Noah’s sons to be married when the boarded the ark. In the movie, the youngest son is around ten or twelve?? Too young to be married and the middle son has no one – yes no one – which made this a terrible movie. I might even show the three sons falling in love in my version of this movie.

2. Instead of the stupid-looking rock people, I’d have the Nephilim in my script. The Nephilim (or giants) were part of the evilness in the world and are mentioned in the Bible so, it’d only be logical to make them a part of the story.

I’d show the sons of God lusting after the daughters of men and then show how the Nephilim were born.

3. I wouldn’t have anybody (outside of Noah’s family) helping Noah to build the ark. I highly doubt he had any help.

4. My conflict in my script? Well, the conflict would somehow be played out between the Sons of God, Daughters of Men, Nephilim, and all the other bad people living during that time. I’d think of something. But, I tell ya, I wouldn’t have a villain stowaway on my ark. And I wouldn’t have fallen angels made out of rocks, I wouldn’t have fallen angels made out of rocks, I wouldn’t have fallen angels made out of rocks….

5. In my version, Noah wouldn’t be acting a fool, trying to kill his grandchildren. His sons would be re-populating the earth with mankind, just as God intended.

Before you mention that the author of the NOAH movie is an atheist, I already know that. But, if you’re going to base a movie on a Biblical event, then you should at least show the key events as presented in the Bible. You can still have the freedom to write your story and fill in the blanks, but, do it in a manner that’s logical to the event that you’re referencing.

I  knew about most of these things in the movie before I went. Why’d I go? I’d mistakenly thought I’d wanted to see the special effects – after all they looked amazing in the movie trailer! But, the ridiculousness of the story soured the appeal of the amazing special effects. I didn’t care about the special effects after seeing the ridiculous story.

So, did you see this movie? If you haven’t, are you going to see it?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

 

 

 

 

Sunday Brunch! Giants On The Earth – Part Two

Did you know that giants lived on this earth during Biblical times?

I blogged about the Nephilim awhile back. I wanted to add to that blog post by mentioning some other giants mentioned in the Old Testament.

I was having a conversation with somebody at my church about the Nephilim, and he told me to read:

2 Samuel 21:20-22

NIV

20 In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 21 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him.

22 These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

This huge, giant man had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each hand. A descendent of Rapha – the Rephaites were a race of giants in the old testament. I’m not sure if all of them had extra digits on their fingers and toes. When I read this scripture, I wondered about these people. Was this whole race of giants doomed? Were they even considered human?

When I asked about the Nephilim on Facebook, somebody pointed out that some churches don’t talk about them because they can’t agree on what they were. Although they’re not mentioned much in church – I want to talk about them.

What are your thoughts concerning this race of people during Old Testament times? I feel weird and confused when I think about them. Why? Because, they seem so other-worldly, non-human, that I almost feel like I’m reading a science fiction novel – only, I’m not – I’m reading the Bible.

In Deuteronomy, Og, a king, was the last of the Rephaites and he slept in a bed that was nine cubits long – which equals about fourteen feet!

Does that mean these giants were about fourteen feet tall and had extra digits on their fingers and toes?  Was this entire race of people doomed since they were born of sin? Please comment about these huge, thought-provoking people! 🙂

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Deuteronomy 2:11

New International Version (NIV)

11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites.

Deuteronomy 3:11

New International Version (NIV)

11 (Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide.[a] It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

 

Sunday Brunch – Giants On The Earth – Who Were The Nephilim?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l0Jv-SLk81k/TL-fYNTpCdI/AAAAAAAAD1M/42f6PY69cnA/s1600/BIBLE.jpg

From the blog archives:

Did you know the Bible tells of Giants on the earth? Giants – like in the fable Jack And The Beanstalk…

Genesis 6:1-4
1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when 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.

Numbers 13:31-33 – 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Some translations use the word Nephilim instead of giant. Who were these gigantic people? Some teach that they were the offspring of fallen angels – these angels lusted after human women and they had intercourse with them and the women bore these huge, wicked children. Who knows? From the little bit of research that I was able to do, it appears that the term Sons of God is interpreted a couple of ways and that makes it debatable about the paternity of these huge creatures.

I’ve always thought the Nephilim were the offspring from fallen angels. Why? I guess because they were so huge, much larger than regular humans, coupled with the fact that it appears they were wicked, too. I also read that the Nephilim pop up again in the book of Numbers, so I’ve provided that scripture, too. So, it’s possible that the Sons of God appeared again and did the same thing again with human women? The Nephilim mentioned in Genesis were killed during the flood, so the scriptures can’t be talking about the same group of giants?

I just try to imagine how large these people were…were they twice the size of regular humans, maybe three times larger than the average human? The ones in Numbers state that the regular people were like grasshoppers compared to these giant people! Grasshoppers?? Reminds me of Gulliver’s Travels or Jack And The Beanstalk!

I’m just sitting here, trying to imagine what they would have looked like, giants stomping upon the earth, doing all sorts of wicked things to people. Frightening thoughts I’m having, but, just makes me stop and wonder, makes me wish I had a vivid snapshot of the way the world was back then…

Did you know about the giants in the Bible? Do you think the Nephilim/Giants were the offspring of fallen angels? Please comment!

– See more at: http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2010/10/giants-on-earth-who-were-nephilim.html#sthash.fBgaBok3.dpuf

It Takes Two Men To Carry One Cluster Of Grapes?

It Takes 2 Men to Carry One Cluster of Grapes PODCAST

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. Come checkout our Christian romance titles at BOOKS | (ceceliadowdy.com) 

Rocky Road Dreams is a Christian novel that is perfect for church and Bible study women’s groups. Rocky Road Dreams is about Kyle Baxter. Kyle is an alcoholic who has recently fallen off the wagon. Through his faith in Jesus, he tries to live a better life as he reconnects with Melanie, his childhood friend.

Melanie runs her own health food and vitamin business on the Outer Banks. As she spends time with Kyle both of them go on a long road trip as they seek answers to questions about their lives. Kyle’s mother died when he was three, and he doesn’t know very much about her. His search for answers takes him on a journey which will change his life forever.

Rocky Road Dreams is available on Amazon.com as an e-book. The book can be read via the Kindle app – which can be downloaded onto most Smart Phones. 

Now, let’s talk about those large clusters of grapes! 

Numbers 13:23-25
23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. 24 The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.

If you read my blog post last Wednesday, you’ll see that I was talking about the Giants/Nephilim in the Bible. A few verses before the verse that I quoted in Numbers, you’ll see that the spies that Moses sent out were to bring him samples of the food that was growing in the land of Canaan (also known as the land of milk and honey). They went to Hebron and cut down one cluster of grapes and two men had to carry this one cluster on a pole between them! Can you imagine how huge those grapes were? Plus, this is where the Giants were living, too. I’ll bet those grapes were as big or bigger than the apples that we eat today!

I did some more research about the Giant people that appear in the Old Testament. The Nephilim mentioned in Genesis were killed in the big flood that God caused to wipe out every living thing on the earth with the exception of the inhabitants of Noah’s Ark.

The people that Moses’s spies saw when gathering the grapes, the Giants/Nephilim, were descendants of a man named Anak. Anak was a Raphaite. The Anakites or Rephaim were Giants that are mentioned in the Old Testament several times. It appears that they finally died off because there is a scripture Deuteronomy 3:11 which states:
11 (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide.

As I think about it further, and as I mentioned yesterday, I’m assuming the Fallen Angels appeared again sometime after the flood and infiltrated the bloodline of Anak somehow?

If you are interested, here are all of the scripture references of the Anakites, Nephilim, and Raphaim. Look them up if you want:
Genesis 6:1-4
Genesis 14:5
Genesis 15:20
Numbers 13
Numbers 13:33
Deuteronomy 2:11
Deuteronomy 2:10-11,20
Deuteronomy 2:18-21
Deuteronomy 3:11,13
Joshua 12:4
Joshua 13:12
Joshua 15:8
Joshua 15:13
Joshua 17:15
Joshua 18:16
2 Samuel 5:11,22

2 Samuel 21:20–21
2 Samuel 23:13
1 Chronicles 11:15
1 Chronicles 14:9
1 Chronicles 20:4

Most of the scriptures just give these giant people a brief mention. I’m assuming all were evil people like the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis, especially since Moses’s spies were told to get rid of the different people living in the land of Canaan, which included these Giants! I got most of this research from Wikipedia, so, use at your own risk! I did look up all of the scriptures but this is NOT a subject matter in which I’m an expert! If I have any facts that are wrong, then feel free to correct me! I’m willing to learn!

It’s possible that the grapes were the same size as the ones that we see today, but the clusters were bigger – so big that 2 people had to carry them!

What do you think about all of this? Can you imagine living in a land with these gigantic people with gigantic clusters of grapes? Almost makes me feel like I’m not on this earth when I read about it because the concept is so foreign. I’ll bet God’s earth looked a LOT different back in those days! Leave a comment!

If you enjoyed this podcast then please share it with all of your friends and church buddies. Check out our other Biblical blog posts!

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. Come checkout our Christian romance titles at BOOKS | (ceceliadowdy.com) 

Rocky Road Dreams is a Christian novel that is perfect for church and Bible study women’s groups. Rocky Road Dreams is about Kyle Baxter. Kyle is an alcoholic who has recently fallen off the wagon. Through his faith in Jesus, he tries to live a better life as he reconnects with Melanie, his childhood friend.

Melanie runs her own health food and vitamin business on the Outer Banks. As she spends time with Kyle both of them go on a long road trip as they seek answers to questions about their lives. Kyle’s mother died when he was three, and he doesn’t know very much about her. His search for answers takes him on a journey which will change his life forever.

Rocky Road Dreams is available on Amazon.com as an e-book. The book can be read via the Kindle app – which can be downloaded onto most Smart Phones. 

ROCKY ROAD DREAMS BOOK LINK

Giants On The Earth – Who Were The Nephilim?


Genesis 6:1-4
1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when 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.

Numbers 13:31-33 – 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants[d] (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Some translations use the word Nephilim instead of giant. Who were these gigantic people? Some teach that they were the offspring of fallen angels – these angels lusted after human women and they had intercourse with them and the women bore these huge, wicked children. Who knows? From the little bit of research that I was able to do, it appears that the term Sons of God is interpreted a couple of ways and that makes it debatable about the paternity of these huge creatures.

Hold on a second. Do you like chaste, refreshing Christian stories? Try my books! Download today and spread the word by sharing this link with your friends and your church buddies! Now back to the Nephilim…

I’ve always thought the Nephilim were the offspring from fallen angels. Why? I guess because they were so huge, much larger than regular humans, coupled with the fact that it appears they were wicked, too. I also read that the Nephilim pop up again in the book of Numbers, so I’ve provided that scripture, too. So, it’s possible that the Sons of God appeared again and did the same thing again with human women? The Nephilim mentioned in Genesis were killed during the flood, so the scriptures can’t be talking about the same group of giants?

I just try to imagine how large these people were…were they twice the size of regular humans, maybe three times larger than the average human? The ones in Numbers state that the regular people were like grasshoppers compared to these giant people! Grasshoppers?? Reminds me of Gulliver’s Travels or Jack And The Beanstalk!

I’m just sitting here, trying to imagine what they would have looked like, giants stomping upon the earth, doing all sorts of wicked things to people. Frightening thoughts I’m having, but, just makes me stop and wonder, makes me wish I had a vivid snapshot of the way the world was back then…

Do you think the Nephilim/Giants were the offspring of fallen angels? This inquiring mind wants to know!

~Cecelia Dowdy~