The Write Place

There is a niche and especially strange argument about an obscure Old Testament passage that has recently been getting some life (particularly in Reformed circles). In Genesis 6:4 we hear about an interesting group called “The Nephilim,” simply “The fallen ones.” Whether you find this interesting or not, this argument tells us a lot about who God is and what it means to be human. So, I hope you all learn something as I examine this very particular issue.

It’s long, but a pro-Nephlim as half-breeds argument by RightResponse Ministries and Haunted Cosmos can be found here.

What specific description does the bible give of the Nephilim?

“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in^[a] man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴ The Nephilim^[b] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”

They were giants, men of renown. In short, they were mighty men who ruled over others.

The argument is often made that they were so because they are half-breeds. The idea goes that these “Sons of God” are angels who married human women and produced children in an attempt to deny the promise for a chosen seed of the woman. The book of Enoch is often cited in favor of this view. Yet this book is not inspired and is a later work, dating to between the time of Malachi and the coming of Christ. This was a time without prophetic revelation from God. The particular thirst for the word of God coming before Christ led to a series of apocryphal writings trying to fill the gap. In any case, we must turn to scripture as our final authority.

However popular this is with some; this theory creates significant issues starting even from it’s conception of God. God alone creates life and opens the womb (Gen 1:11-13; 20-27, 25:21, 29:31,33:5, 48:4, Deuteronomy 7:13, 28:4, Joshua 24:3 Ps 127:3). We are also told that life reproduces “after it’s kind” (Gen 1:12, 19, 21) and to follow this principle (Leviticus 19:19). The pattern is established that kinds (equivalent to something typically like Family or Order) are limited to their own types. Jude 1:7 also alludes to this with it’s reference to the men of Sodom seeking “strange flesh” (likely for their lusting after the angels, who may be two persons of the trinity) and this also is behind the prohibitions on bestiality in Leviticus (Lev 18:23, if you’ve got the stomach for it). These laws make no mention of mixing with Angelic beings. Both would be a mixing of kinds, and these cannot produce life.

The Nephilim being the bizarre children of fallen angels and women would go against these clear realities in scripture. Spiritual entities are not bodied or sexed, neither can they create life, an ability ultimately only possessed by God himself. God alone produces “fruit” as a category, the reproduction of what comes before. This is why the miracle at Cana of turning water into wine is a display of Jesus’ divinity (John 2:1-11). It is only God who produces the production, especially when it comes to life or living things.

The mixing or experimenting by Angelic beings with humans would be incapable of producing life. No such activity could produce an offspring we would call the Nephilim. What check there would be for them not doing, so simply by rape or at will in general, is a real question for those holding this position if it is true. Why God would permit it (or actively open the woman and participate) is another.

It can be said also that since Angels are not bodied, they are not sexed and so cannot perform the act. This means any offspring would be from what amounts to virgin births. Angelic initiated virgin births would require they open the womb also, and negate part of the uniqueness of the virgin birth of Christ.

The argument is also made at times that Nephilim must have survived the flood. The only passage used for this argument.

Numbers 13:30-33
³⁰ But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” ³¹ Then 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 are.” ³² So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³ And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Notice though the spies who dissent make the claim, and obviously to dissuade Israel. These are not faithful witnesses, and this claim is not first given by Caleb or Joshua who are faithfully telling the truth. The claim to the continued existence of Nephilim also bears no logic by the biblical accounts. Unless God failed with the flood, all creatures that have the breath of life (Genesis 6:19, 7:15) outside of the ark was destroyed. The image of Genesis 8-9 is a mirror of Genesis 1, an image of a new creation after the destruction of the old. The earth began covered in water (Genesis 1:2), then after the flood Noah and his family wait for the water to recede. This is a new creation born out of a judgment. If there were still remnants of the pre-flood world, then this imagery is simply wrong, and God failed.

Genesis 5:7 shows the broad categories of life God is eliminating, all flesh which was now corrupted. Noticeably absent are any mention of the Nephilim, meaning they must fit in the category of human. Likewise in Genesis 6:3 the contention God shows is at humanity, not angels or some new half-breed. It would appear it is the action of “Mortals” that is in view here. The Nephilim of Genesis 5 would have been wiped out in the flood. These men are lying.

The argument is also made that the demons are the spirits of these children once deceased. However, the fire is reserved for the devil and his angels, no mention of Nephilim Spirits is given (Mt 25:41). There are passages discussing human Spirits in hell (Matthew 3:12, Mark 9:48, Mark 9:44-49, Revelation 14:10,11 Isaiah 34:10, Daniel 12:2), but no category is given for anything like Nephilim Spirits.

This also would raise the question of where these fallen angels are, if they are the ones who impregnated the daughters of men. Are they just sitting by as their children cause havoc? Where are their supposed children from their marrying women today? Sure, there were giants on the earth in those days, but so were they in the days of David. Goliath and his relatives were giants (1 Samuel 17:4-7, 2 Samuel 21:19-21). Any casual fan of the NBA, can you tell we have giants among us today. The tallest man in the world, Sulemana Abdul Samed is reportedly 9 ft 6 inches and Robert Wadlow was 8 ft 11 inches. Though uncommon, people still get surprisingly large even today.

Angels we are told, cannot marry nor are given in marriage (Mt 22:30), and no demonic entities marriage could be recognized since this requires man and woman who model the relationship of God and his people (Gen 2:24, Ephesians 5:22-33). Marriage demands a physical reality and union, that of a man and a woman in covenant (Mal 2:14).

So who are these “Sons of God” mentioned as the fathers of the Nephilim? The term “Sons of God” is at times angelic (Job 1:6, 38:7), but also often used of Godly people (Hosea 1:10, Luke 3:38, John 1:10 Mt 5:8, Romans 8:14-19,2 Corinthians 6:18). I am unaware of any place where the term is used of fallen angels. Instead, these Nephilim are called “Men of renown,” they are clearly still human not a mixing of two kinds (the Hebrew attests to this calling them אַנְשֵׁ֥י, men of in construct). All flesh corrupted it’s way because of the presence of sins corruption. Plants grew thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18), animals ate each other, and the heart of man was wicked continually (Genesis 6:5, 8:21, Jeremiah 17:9). The line of Cain the murderer became morally corrupt as you can see in Genesis 4-5. Studying the same chapters of Genesis, we see the line of Seth eventually produces Noah.

Lastly if this unholy union had indeed been the case, one would expect repeated warnings throughout scripture concerning them. You do not find these anywhere. Instead, you find repeated warnings against marrying unbelievers. Which fits neatly with the theory that what is at play is the ungodly children of unfaithful men and women ruling as tyrants, and the natural consequence of spiritual apostasy that we are told follows. We see frequent warnings in scripture about marrying with the unbelieving world (Genesis 24:3, Ezra 9:2, Deuteronomy 7:3, Exodus 34:16, Joshua 23:12-13, Judges 3:6, 14:3, 1 Kings 11:2). In the unbelieving world we have seen time and again might makes right. Without God, all that remains is the hunt for power. It appears these mighty men were ungodly apostates who ruled by the dictum “might makes right.”

Being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27. 5:1, 9:6), humanity and human nature has a distinct dignity in creation. The mixing of it with other kinds (physical or spiritual) is impossible and would create the impossible scenario of an image bearer having partly or non-image bearing children.

So why do people find the Angelic spawn version of the Nephilim appealing? I don’t know for sure but the odd pleasure I see in its proponents tells me it is not merely intellectual. Whether it is the longing for an enchanted world in a materialistic (increasingly post-materialistic) culture, or a desire to hold to an old idea in the face of a foundationless society, I cannot say. Regardless their position creates numerous problems. The most scriptural conclusion is the that the Nephilim were fallen men, corrupting the faith through their romantic practices.

God not only made the world good, but orderly, including creating life according to it’s kind. Though corrupted, much of that order still remains to his glory and for our good. We are called to be holy as God is holy, and to treat our children as such, yes even if we are married to an unbeliever, praying they would come to faith (1 Corinthians 7:14). As Christians we are called to be unstained from the world (James 1:27). As Sons of God, we should take our calling as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers seriously, living in a way worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1-6).