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
We had an interesting conversation about this in church. My main concern was that if fallen angels mated with women at one point in time, what’s stopping them.from doing it now? Were those passages allegory or literal? I guess we’ll understand it better by and by. But in the mean time, watch out for fallen angels. Lol!
Hi, James
I know what you mean. One thing I’ve noticed, and not sure if it pertains to the Fallen Angels, is that things were ‘different’ during the Old Testament. Meaning, God seemed closer to people. When I read the OT, I notice how God speaks directly to people, you can actually hear his voice – for example – Moses and the burning bush – God speaking directly to Cain – asking where his brother Abel was. There just seemed to be a closeness – a closeness that’s not readily seen nowadays. I’m not implying that it doesn’t exist, but, I just notice this closeness is not there for most people.
I kinda sense the fallen angels had more freedom in the OT? They could be more closely connected to people? I’m rambling, no way to prove this. Perhaps with Jesus coming to Earth, somehow, that extinguished the FA ability to father children?
My understanding is that the “sons of God” refers to the godly line of Seth, as opposed to Cane. Why there were giants, and what that means is unknown. But I don’t believe they would have been called sons of God if they were fallen angels. Nowhere in Scripture are we told that angels have any physical characteristics that would allow them to mate with the human race. But if you see the consistency of the admonition for Christ’s line to not intermingle with other peoples it makes sense. As believers we are called sons of God as well. Noah came from Seth’s line, and through him came the Messiah. Much less mysterious and very practical in that perspective.
Hi, Kay
Still mysterious to me. But, I guess some Biblical things will remain a mystery until we get to Heaven!
The Nephilim were those called “Noldor elves” (etymology N-ph-L-dior) by Tolkien. I’ve written a book about the Nephilim… find excerpts and the book in the source attached below.
Who were the biblically-mentioned Nephelim, “the men of old, men of renown”? What was so renowned about the Nephelim?
Were they the Noldor, who are mentioned as the politically most important of the “awakened” elves?
Indeed, that is what we find!
In Aramaic culture, “niyphelah” refers to Orion [the constellation of the 7 stars – correlated to the seven sons of the Noldo Feanor, see 1.5.4.5], and so nephilim seems related to Noldor. Niyphelah is obviously related to the term Nephele – In Greek myth: “Athamas [Adam] took as first wife the cloud goddess Nephele [related to the term Nephele, the Noldor was the leading reigning house], by whom he had 2 children, the boy Phrixus and the girl Helle [p1s of hell]. The Noldor i.e. Nephel-Dior – related to the root NBL (Nebel = Mist e.g.: nebelwerfer; cognate to novelty as well… indeed the term “nobility” as well – from here sprang; that is why men of renown) – a most ancient nobility created out of Atlantean remnants – were, with some exceptions – allies of Melkor, as Tolkien uses the term “misty mountains” to depict Melkor’s base, which proves that the political plan of creation became pro-logic! This resulted in the Noldor being led by Cain/Melkor… so deeply associated with the elven legacy was Cain that the language of the elves, for Tolkien, is Quendi (Cain-dio)! And here we even find the etymology of Noldor (Nephele-Dior i.e. Nol-Dor) – the emerging nobility… who, after “the creation” – would, by and large, defect, desisting from serving the sublogical commissions of the p0s, and thus become known in bibles as “mighty warriors, men of renown”, “heroes of old, men of renown” etc. – the Nephilim!
The people of Feanor1, since they had defected from the Creationist p0s, would be called “The fallen angels”…
Source(s): http://www.djedefsauron.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245:men-of-old-men-of-renown-the-history-of-the-nephilim-part-1-origins-beyond-4600-bc&catid=52:the-mysteries-of-middle-earth&Itemid=65
I like simple. Simple is normally closest to the truth. Nephilim = Neanderthal. hearsayandheresy.blogspot.com