A Critique of Dr. Jordon B. Cooper: The Nephilim and The Seth Theory

I was asked recently to critique the late Dr Michael Heiser’s book, ‘The Unseen Realm’. In my research several YouTube videos appeared including those by Dr Jordon B Cooper who, not only critiqued Heiser’s work on the divine council, but offered a presentation of the Seth theory as opposed to Heiser’s interpretation of the Nephilim in Genesis 6. This led me to two other videos he posted, one regarding the genocide in Canaan, and the other from around 2019 entitled ‘who were the Nephilim’.

My interest in the Nephilim and Seth theory is not to argue theological points which some may regard irrelevant, but both evangelical and apologetic in nature. The issue of the Nephilm is tied intrinsically to the global flood and conquest of Canaan, two events which atheists claim prove that the God of the Old Testament is guilty of mass genocide. As a university lecturer, I had classes of up to 100 students, 50 % of whom claimed to be atheists and knew the criticisms of celebrity atheists such Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hutchins. Scripture gives clear and compelling reasons for God’s actions and commands, which I have outlined in my video entitled ‘Genocide in Canaan: Yes, No or Why?’ found here.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEfPE9isqZw

I had been intending to post a refutation of the Seth theory, and decided to critique Cooper’s videos for several reasons.

1. Having a large following, he is influencing a lot of people with his opinions which are largely based on the works of Augustine, a theologian who I would argue made a radical departure from early church theology and Scripture.

2. That the Seth theory disregards a great deal of biblical evidence, has no basis in reality, and as a result, adherents of this theory have nothing of consequence to say in response to atheist critiques of God’s character.

3. That adherents of the Seth theory either intentionally, or ignorantly ignore the biblical evidence for giants, perhaps because the 45 references to them in the Old Testament refutes them completely.

In this video/article I will be begin by critiquing Cooper’s 2019, 10 min video entitled ‘Who were the Nephilim’ as it gives an overview of his position, and then move to the one hour video, entitled ‘A critique of heiser’s interpretation of the nephilim’ posted in 2022. 

Within the first minute of his short video, Dr Cooper uses the term ‘conspiracy’ and states that the Nephilim are just mentioned ‘offhand in the Bible and they’re not really explained much in depth, it’s like ‘oh by the way this thing happened.’

I was shocked by this statement as I presume Dr Cooper has read the Bible and understands that Genesis 6 is but one reference of 45 verses which speaks of giants. 

To say they are ‘not really explained in depth’ is either genuinely ignorant from lack of study, or purposely denying their revealed genealogies, the specific tribes who were of Nephilim blood, how angels pro-created from the book of Jude, the imprisonment of the fallen angels who committed the initial act in Peter, etc, etc. Perhaps Dr Cooper didn’t see the three little words in Genesis 6:4, which reads; the Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and these words, ‘and also afterward’. 

Now obviously, the 40 plus references to giants ‘after’ the flood will render his Sethite theory null and void, but rather than accuse him of deliberately leaving these passages out, let’s just say he missed those three little words, has never heard of the battle where Og was killed, or heard the story of David and Goliath, and Goliath’s brothers, all of whom were descendents of the Nephilim.

Cooper then goes on to argue that there are no biblical grounds for the claim that angels procreated with human woman and quotes Jesus’ words about angels not marrying. This is a common argument made by those who have failed to do proper exegesis of Jude 3-10 where the apostle describes exactly how the fallen angels changed their bodies and went after strange flesh. I admit that a reasonable knowledge of Greek may be necessary to fully understand the testimony of Jude, however, if you are not aware of Jude’s explanation, please watch my first video in the Nephilim series on this channel entitled ‘Did women and angels pro-create?’ found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpDuE8OJlc4&t=27s

At minute 08:30 Cooper suggests that the seed of the serpent, prophesied in Genesis 3:15, are the ‘descendents of Cain’. This statement is seriously flawed. Firstly, the ‘seed of the woman’ refers to seed as ‘according to its kind’, natural offspring. Jesus was the natural offspring of the seed of Mary which is clearly stated in Scripture such as Romans 1:3. As a side note, the fact of women having ‘seed’ was not discovered until the 19th century. Women were considered to be like a garden and their wombs either fertile or barren soil into which a man planted his ‘seed’. The term ‘seed of the woman’ is not used throughout Scripture, rather terms such as the ‘woman’s child or children’. ‘Seed’ however is used of men to refer to semen such as when Onan spilt his seed on the ground in Genesis 38. God prophesied that Mary’s seed (ovum) would bring forth the Messiah, 3000 years before men knew woman had seeds at all. 

Jesus Christ is the natural offspring of Mary, ‘a descendent (genome) ‘of the seed’ (spermatos) of David according to the flesh (sarx). This is a literal translation of Romans 1:3.

There is no way that Cain can be called the offspring of the serpent. However, fallen angels aligned with Satan who produced offspring with human woman are natural offspring. Furthermore, to state that Cain is the offspring of the serpent is to also claim that Jesus came to crush the authority of the descendents of Cain, rather that Satan’s authority (Hebrews 2:14). Such an idea is ridiculous in the extreme.

We now move to the longer 1 hour video which critiques Michael Heiser.

At 11:00, Cooper admits he isn’t 100% sure of his position and states that there are ‘pretty good arguments to read the text’ of Genesis 6:1-6 ‘in a bunch of different ways’. I would agree with this statement, but only on the condition that one interprets the passage in isolation to the rest of Scripture. Surely the words ‘and also afterward’ would encourage every scholar to seek where the Nephilim are mentioned after the flood. He actually reads the word ‘giant’ but then goes into saying spiritual beings cannot reproduce and introduces Augustine at minute 20.

Cooper admits that the Sethite view has been the predominant position since the late 4th century. That fact in itself should be a large red flag. For the first 430 years of Christian witness the Church was basically united in the view that fallen angels procreated with human woman, producing the Nephilim, the seed of the serpent, and bringing untold evil into the world. These theologians did not simply dismiss the 45 verses of Scripture which attest to giants or the reasons why God commanded that everything that breathed be annihilated at the time of the flood and conquest of Canaan. The only thing which connects these two events is the existence of Nephilim, of giants.

Over the next ten minutes Cooper outlines the Sethite view as held by Augustine and others. Basically, that the line of Seth were all godly and therefore called ‘sons of God’ but Cain’s line were ungodly.  He asks the question of why this text was written in Genesis and concludes that Moses was just warning the children of Israel not to intermarry with those who were not Israel. One has to wonder why Moses, under the inspiration of God, didn’t just use the names Seth and Cain, rather than ‘sons of God and daughters of men’, but of course, we know that the term ‘sons of God’ (beniy eloheim) most commonly refers to angels as in the book of Job.

So the Seth theory goes like this. Cain murders his brother and is sent away, with his wife and kids to the land of Nod. Scripture states that Cain thought his punishment was too great and suggests that maybe someone will come and find him and kill him, but the Lord assures him that anyone who kills him will suffer His vengeance seven times over. Is it possible that Cain repented?

So…according to the theory, these godly sons of Seth saw that the ungodly daughters of Cain were beautiful, took whichever ones they chose, married them and produced the Nephilim, produced giants, and, as a result of this, ‘every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart became only evil all of the time’ (6:5) so, God commanded Noah to build the ark, Noah preached for 100 years and not a single person repented. All of this was the result of intermarriage!

So, Mr Cooper. Were the godly daughters of Seth all ugly? These so-called godly men packed up and went off to find Cain in the land of Nod, saw that these girls were beautiful, took the ones they wanted, married them and produced giants. Does intermarriage create giants, or are we just ignoring the fact of the Nephilim being giants? 

But you may quote Genesis 4:26 that ‘at that time men began to call on the name of Yahweh’. Do you realize that the word ‘chaw lal’, translated men began, means to profane, defile, desecrate, or pollute and this is directly before the verb to call. Furthermore, the sentence is all inclusive, all men. Added to this is the fact that several of Cain’s sons have ‘el’ in their names. Mehujael can mean ‘God gives life’, and Methushael means ‘man of God’. Why would a man so depraved use such names for his children? Do you believe that a person could possibly repent, or do you believe that evil is passed down from generation to generation and all of Cain’s descendents were therefore cursed?

At minute 20 Cooper speaks about Seth’s line as the ‘line of faith’ and quotes Hebrews. But Hebrews 11 never mentions Seth at all, only Enoch who was taken away. One wonders why Seth himself wasn’t ‘taken away’, but perhaps Seth was too busy with the ungodly women he found in the land of Nod.

From around minute 27 Cooper tries to defend Augustine saying he takes the Seth theory from the context of Genesis. He tells us that the Jews were in the wilderness for 40 years. At this point I want to ask very loudly… ‘why were they in the wilderness’? Numbers 13:26-33 tells us of the report of the spies. They brought back fruit and reported the land was ‘flowing with milk and honey’. There was just one major problem. Canaan was full of Nephilim, descendents of Anak who came from the Nephilim, giants who had fortified the cities, people of great size and strength. 

Were the spies lying? The answer is no. Moses and the Jews had already been attacked by Og and Sihon, and even the prostitute Rahab knew of this incident, indeed Deuteronomy 3:11 tells us the size of Og’s bed, about 3.5 meters long and over 2 meters wide. Why would Moses record the size of a man’s bed unless the man was far greater in size that other human beings?

The Jews were in the wilderness because they refused to believe the Lord that they could conquer these giants, even though they had already won a battle against them.

Why Dr Cooper, do you omit all of these facts and turn Genesis 6 into a discourse about intermarriage? This sounds exactly like the kind of thing Rudolf Bultmann would have to say, a liberal theologian who wanted to take the supernatural out of the Bible. 

This is exactly what you state at minute 33. You claim that Moses was teaching that the absolute evil which led to the flood was all caused by intermarriage of Sethites (“the children of God”) and Cainites (“the other line, those who follow the devil”). Would this be the same Moses who fought the descendents of the Nephilim or some other Moses? Then you say the Sethite view ‘doesn’t come from nowhere’ but what Moses was teaching’. This would have to be one of the worst cases of eisegesis I have ever heard.

Cooper then doubles down on this stuff stating that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Yes, but the text also states that Cain would be a ‘restless wanderer on the earth’. Cain pleads that this is more than he can bear, to be hidden from God’s presence, a wanderer and whoever finds him will kill him. 

The Lord puts a mark on Cain to distinguish him from his own people, and Cain leaves the area. Where in the text is it even implied that Cain’s descendents are all evil and why name your son ‘man of God’ or ‘God gives life’ if your whole clan are ‘following the devil’ as you claim? 

At the end of this video Cooper states that he believes the Sethite view is the correct view. 

I have some questions for Dr Cooper and all who hold this Sethite theory.

1. Do you actually believe the 45 verses in Scripture which reference giants and the specific tribes of these giants? They are all listed in my video about genocide in Canaan if you are not aware of them, and my video entitled ‘biblical evidence for the nephilim’ studies these 45 verses and passages.

2. Goliath’s brothers are described in 2 Samuel 19, as are the size of their weapons and specific physical features, such as six fingers and toes on each hand and foot. These giants were not first generation Nephilim, but perhaps even 10 to 20 generations later, so most likely much smaller than former generations. Why do you ignore these biblical facts?

3. If you believe the Scriptures regarding giants then please explain how they came to exist after the flood. Scripture states that Noah’s son Ham, whose son Canaan was cursed by his father (Genesis 9:20-26) became the ancestor of the Cannanites, Egyptians and other ungodly nations who worshipped demons. Will you state that giants did not exist after the flood, and these 45 verses are metaphors, analogies and shouldn’t be taken to mean anything more than a prohibition regarding intermarriage? 

4. Who were the Rephaim and why do those associated with them, such as Anak, have no recorded male genealogy?

5. Please explain why God gave very specific lists of those tribes which must be completely annihilated in Canaan, men, woman and children, whilst Joshua was to offer peace to other tribes in Canaan? The lists are found as the descendents of Anak in Deuteronomy and Numbers. I realize that you have attempted to address this issue in another video I listened to, and after giving other Lutherans views which were rather pathetic, gave a 10 minute speech which basically said, well, we just don’t know and must simply accept the fact that we don’t know. Please take a few minutes to watch my video entitled ‘Genocide in Cannan: Yes, No or Why’ so that you can offer a biblical answer to both Christians and atheists on this topic.

In Summary

Those who stand by the Seth Theory can only do so through ignoring the 45 references to the Nephilim and their descendents in Scripture. If this is a deliberate ignoring of the facts in order to hold a denominational view, then I consider it dishonest and unworthy of any person considered to be a Christian theologian.

Some denominations, especially Lutheran and Calvinists put Augustine on a pedestal as if good theology began with this man. Nothing could be further from the truth. Luther was an Augustinian monk and Calvin quotes the man over 1700 times, indeed Calvin is just an Augustinian parrot. 

Yet it was Augustine who departed from early church theology, introducing his inherited sin/guilt which led to the heresy of the immaculate conception, Mariology, and eventually the twisted monergistic doctrines of TULIP. Augustine was a philosopher, not a theologian, and he promoted his Gnostic monergism which is utterly unbiblical.

And finally. I would ask you, Dr Cooper if you have ever opened a Systematic Theology textbook which is not Lutheran? In this regard I would offer you a free copy of my Practical Systematic Theology: Reclaiming the Doctrine of the Early Church. In the introduction of this book I state that ‘if we believe that all Scripture is inspired by God, and there is one verse or passage of Scripture, when correctly interpreted within its context which contradicts us, then we have got it wrong’.

That is the standard I expect from men who claim to be theologians and biblical teachers. I hope you get to see this video/article and that you will attempt to answer the questions posed to you.  

Steve Copland