Nephilim: The Biblical Evidence

In the first article of the Nephilim series, we explained how Scripture reveals the pro-creation of angels and women. If this is still in doubt for you, you can read the article entitled ‘Nephilim-Giants: Did Angels and Women Procreate’ or watch the video here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpDuE8OJlc4&t=19s

In this video we will examine the biblical evidence for the Nephilim which is fundamentally speaking about the existence of giants. But first some brief definitions.

I. Definitions

In the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the word Nephilim (Genesis 6:4) is ‘gigantos’ translated ‘giants’ in English, and the Septuagint or LXX as it is also called, is the most commonly quoted version of the Old Testament quoted by the apostles. In the Hebrew version, the word Nephilim in English is translated from the Hebrew ‘nephi’ and has two possible meanings, to ‘fall upon’ or ‘from the fallen ones’, but perhaps both meanings are implied as these giants were the offspring of fallen angels who fell upon their enemies, meaning to conquer them by virtue of their great size and strength. 

In the OT, the term ‘sons of God’ refers to angels, the beney 'elohim (בני אלהים), beney ha'elohim (בני האלהים), and beney 'elim (בני אלים): Obvious examples are Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:4.  All speak of angels. Satan is an angel, a fallen angel and according to Job, presented himself before God with the other angels. Genesis 6:2 also makes a distinction between ‘sons of God’ and ‘daughters of men’. 

And a few words to those who hold to what is called the ‘Seth Theory’, that the ‘sons of God’ refers to Seth the son of Adam. For over 400 years the Church taught that fallen angels produced children who were giants. In the early 4th century Constantine declared the Roman world to be Christian and started converting pagan temples for Christian use. Julian who is called the apostate, became emperor of the Roman Empire in 361. He claims to have followed Christian teachings for 12 years, but after this he went on a campaign to re-establish paganism as the main religion of Rome. He considered himself to be a reincarnated form of Alexander the Great.

This is the man who influenced Cyril of Alexandria and Julius Africanus to reject the orthodox position, and put together the Seth theory. This theory seemed more acceptable to pagan Romans and continued in popularity throughout the Dark Ages or Medieval period, as the influential Augustine of Hippo adopted this view. The theory has absolutely no basis in Scripture and denies the 45 references to giants in the Bible.

II. Well-known Biblical References to Giants.

Where to begin? Most people are well-aware of the story of David killing a giant called Goliath from 1st Samuel 17. This giant is said to be 9ft 9inches, or 3 meters tall. However, many are not as aware of four other giants who were related to Goliath in 2nd Samuel 21:15-22. In the case of Goliath we are told the size and weight of his armor and weapons, and these weapons are described in a similar way for the giants in 2nd Samuel.  

16 And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels and who was armed with a new [sword], said he would kill David. 17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David's rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, saying, "Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished." 18. In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha. 

19. In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod. 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. (2 Sam 21:16-22)

In the case of Goliath we are told the size and weight of his armor and weapons, and these weapons are described in a similar way for the giants in 2nd Samuel. One of the giants is also described as having six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

What is obvious from this text is that these men were different to other people living at that time. Their sheer height and strength, and of course physical abnormalities, are given in Scripture as evidence that they were different. In this text we are also introduced to the name 'Rapha', a name that is important to this study. All of these giants were said to be descendents of Rapha. This name is mentioned as one of the sons of Benjamin (one of the initial tribes of Israel and Jacob's son) in 1 Chronicles 8:2, but in the earlier listing in Genesis 46:21 he does not exist. 

A strange anomaly in the Bible, but as we will see, immediately after the flood there were no giants mentioned to be in the land of Canaan. The implication is that after Satan heard God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:13, he knew he had 400 years to prepare a race in Canaan to stop the Jews ever getting there, and therefore, stop the coming Messiah. Is it likely that one of Benjamin's sons was the father of a race of giants? Do humans suddenly begin producing giants? No.

Furthermore, the vast majority of giant races we are going to discuss represent tribes which were many generations after the original Nephilim. The Epic of Gilgamesh suggests that some of the Nephilim survived the global flood, however the Genesis 6 account only tells us they were in the land ‘and also afterward’. We shall see that post-flood tribes have two main sources. The Bible never mentions any female Nephilim, but that does not mean that both male and female progeny came from the mating of angels and human women. If this is the case, then perhaps the first generation of Nephilim were of much greater stature, and over the generations and pro-creating with humans, became smaller in size.  In fact, we simply do not know the answers to these enquiries. 

III. Post-flood Giant Tribes and their Roots

Post-flood giants have two common sources, the sons of Anak and the Rephaim. Obvious, the word Repha is the root of Rephaim and Rephaites. 

The picture gets clearer when we study the creature killed under Moses command, a very famous king by the name of Og. Before the conquest under Joshua the Israelites had several battles. One famous one, which the prostitute Rahab mentions, concerns, to quote Genesis 6, ‘a man of renown, a hero of old’.  Rahab tells the spies (Joshua 2:10) that she has heard how the Israelites completely destroyed the Amorite kings Sihon and Og. Deuteronomy 3: 11 tells us, 

Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and 6 feet wide. (About 3.5 x 2 meters) It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but would you bother to mention a man's bed unless there was something very unusual about it? And why bother to keep it? Og was different, and as we shall see, so were a lot of others. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia offers the following references of giant races who descended from the Rephaites.

REPHAIM 

ref'-a-im, re-fa'-im (repha'-im, from rapha', "a terrible one "hence "giant," in 1 Chronicles 20:4, yelidhe ha-rapha', "sons of the giant"; the King James Version, Rephaims): A race of aboriginal or early inhabitants East of the Jordan in Ashterothkarnaim (Genesis 14:5) and in the valley of Rephaim Southwest of Jerusalem (Joshua 15:8). They associated with other giant races, as the Emim and Anakim (Deuteronomy 2:10, 11) and the Zamzummim (Deuteronomy 2:20). 

It is probable that they were all of the same stock, being given different names by the different tribes who came in contact with them. The same Hebrew word is rendered "the dead," or "the shades" in various passages (Job 26:5 margin; Psalm 88:10 margin; Proverbs 2:18 margin; Proverbs 9:18 margin; Proverbs 21:16 margin; Isaiah 14:9 margin; Isaiah 26:14, 19 margin).  

The word translated Rephaite in 1 Chronicles 20:4 is yeldhe ha-rapha, literally, ‘sons of the giant’ and is a reference to the four killed which I mentioned earlier. Other giant races include the Emites and Anakites as in Deuteronomy 2:10-11 which states, 

The Emites used to live there - a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. Like the Anakites they were considered Rephaites. (Deuteronomy 2:10-11)

We also have the Ammonites in Deuteronomy 2:20 who are given the same description. Rephaim is also known as the place of the spirits, and demons, so this tribal name has close associations with the demonic.

What of the sons of Anak, known as the Anakites and Anakim. Deuteronmy 2:11 states that they were considered to be Raphaites. Their name is mentioned in Numbers 13:33. They are the ancestors of the Nephilim and the very giants who were in the land when Moses and the Jews arrived at the banks of the Jordan.

Anak is the son of Arba (Joshua 15:13). Arba has a city named after him as is said to be the greatest of the Anakim (Anakites) in Joshua 14:15. However, like the rest of the Rephaim he has no recorded roots, he is not listed as a descendent of Noah. We are given a list of the tribes in Genesis 10, including the inhabitants of Canaan, but the Anakites and Rephaim are not mentioned, indeed they don't exist until after Abraham. If these are merely tall humans, then where is their human ancestry recorded? It is not recorded because they have no human male ancestry, they are the progeny of human women and angels who transformed into males who could impregnate them.

In Genesis 15:13 God prophecies to Abraham that his descendents would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years and then brought to Canaan. At some time during this period the Anakites appear, take over Canaan and fortify the cities. Abraham had already fought the kings of Canaan with his 318 men and conquered them and there is no mention of giants in those battles.

But this does not mean that there were no other giants prior to Abraham whose descendents also gathered in and around Canaan. For example, we have the Amorites. This tribe go back to before the time of Abraham, to about the 22nd century BC and the Sumerian empires of Ur. They are mentioned in every ancient text (Egyptian, Sumerian for example) as a fierce warrior people, from whom others built walls to keep out, walls up to 170 miles long, however, no ancient text states categorically that they were giants or taller than other people, that comes later. Their roots go back to Noah's son Ham, the son who was cursed by his father for the incident about Noah being naked.

The Bible also says that at least some of them were giants, but only after Moses encounters them, and this is the only place where giants have a human ancestry, the ancestor being Canaan, and only tribes are mentioned rather than a proper lineage. 

Amos 2:9 exaggerates their size saying; I destroyed the Amorite before them, though he was as tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. 

Another fascinating reference to them is in Genesis 15:16. Abraham has just finished fighting the kings of Sodom and is in this region. The Lord puts him into a dream and tells him that his descendents will be slaves in a foreign country for four hundred years, and afterwards come back to Canaan. And then this strange verse.

In the fourth generation your descendents will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.(Genesis 15:16)

What sin is the Lord speaking of? It is certainly not about the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah as Abraham himself witnessed their destruction. Remember Sihon, the king who helped mighty Og. He was the king of the Amorites, a king closely allied to the Rephaim.

I realize that I am speculating at this point, however, I solemnly believe that Satan tried to stop God's promise to Abraham because he knew without doubt that from Abraham ‘all generations would be blessed’. Satan tried to corrupt the whole of humanity before the flood, and was very nearly successful, only eight survived the flood and Enoch was 'taken away’, but here he is given 400 years to prepare for the children of Israel coming back to Canaan.

There is no doubt in my mind that Scripture testifies to the fact that there were many tribes of giants in Canaan by the time Moses arrived with the people. The only giants associated with human ancestry are also the only tribe in which the strange verse about their ‘sins reaching their full measure’. Were the Amorites a tribe of human ancestry who willingly participated in Satan's plan? The reference in Amos 2:9 surely exaggerates their size, but the meaning is clear; they were much taller and stronger than other people, a people associated with cedar and oak trees.

IV. In Conclusion

The Old Testament does not have one or two stories of giants such as Goliath. There are dozens of verses referring to entire tribes of people of great size and strength in Canaan, and if we are to be true to Scripture, we cannot simply ignore such references. Genesis 6:4 tells us that: 

The Nephilim were in the land in those days (the flood) - and also afterward - when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were heroes of old, men of renown.

Please not the word order here. The words ‘and also afterward’, meaning after the flood, come before that statement that ‘the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them’. The word order of the verse states that this procreation of fallen angels and human women occurred both before and after the flood. Those who hold to the Seth Theory, fundamentally ignore the statement of this verse, and in turn, never comment on the 45 references to post-flood giants, some of which we have discussed.

In the next article in this series I will be examining the dozens of references to giants in other cultures and especially the practices and atrocities performed by those who were under the authority and demonic influence of these creatures. There is a huge amount of evidence of their existence, and the depth of depravity in their practices may shock you. However, if we do not understand these things, we can never provide a reasoned argument for why God ordered the genocide of all but eight people at the time of the global flood, or of specific tribes and races in the land of Canaan under Joshua’s command.

Steve Copland