Who Are the Nephilim?
The mysterious beings of Genesis 6
Alexandre Cabanel, CC0,, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The Nephilim, the product of the sons of god mingling with the daughters of Adam, the great biblical giants, “the fallen ones,” the Rephaim, “the dead ones”—these descriptions are all applied to one group of characters found within the Hebrew Bible. Who are the Nephilim? From where do the “heroes of old, the men of renown” come?
Genesis 6:1–4 tells the readers that the Nephilim, which means “fallen ones” when translated into English, were the product of copulation between the divine beings (lit. sons of god) and human women (lit. daughters of Adam). The Nephilim are known as great warriors and biblical giants (see Ezekiel 32:27 and Numbers 13:33).
It was once claimed that the mating of the sons of god and the daughters of Adam that resulted in the Nephilim caused the flood, and this caused the Nephilim to have a negative reputation. This was believed because the next verse (Genesis 6:5) is the introduction to the flood narrative and because their name means “fallen ones.” It is unlikely that this interpretation is correct because Genesis 6:4 presents nothing but praise for the Nephilim and no criticism is present. In addition, the name “fallen ones” is likely a reference to their divine paternity transforming—falling—into the human condition, albeit an almost superhuman condition.
Genesis 6, Ezekiel 32, and Numbers 13 are the only passages that mention the Nephilim by that term. So where do the names Rephaim and “the dead ones” originate? The first thing to recognize is that these are not two separate titles, but rather a name, Rephaim, and a meaning, “dead ones.” The Bible refers to two groups as the Rephaim. The first are dead people who have achieved an almost divine status, similar to the concept of Saints. The second is a term that is applied to races of biblical giants. It is this second usage that is often conflated with the Nephilim.
The Rephaim appear in Deuteronomy 2:11; 3:11; 2 Samuel 21:19 and Joshua 11:22 and almost always take the form of one member of the Rephaim (Anaqim, Og, Goliath) being in opposition with Israel or its representative. In this sense, the Rephaim live up to their name, as their purpose in each narrative is to die. The juxtaposition of the mighty biblical giants defeated by the underdog, God’s chosen, is foreshadowed in the very name attributed to these characters.
Ellen White, Ph.D. (Hebrew Bible, University of St. Michael’s College), formerly the senior editor at the Biblical Archaeology Society, has taught at five universities across the U.S. and Canada and spent research leaves in Germany and Romania. She has also been actively involved in digs at various sites in Israel.
This Bible History Daily article was originally published on November 19, 2014.
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To shed light on some questions: Nephilim are mentioned as those who nearly achieved divine status, but fell from grace; as the serpent was made in the full pattern of wisdom and beauty, but also fell from grace. Also, the scriptures mention eight Adamic souls who were saved from the flood thus preserving the bloodline necessary to accomplish prophesy, but the command was given to bring two of every flesh.
The standard Jewish interpretation of the use of the term “elohim” is that it refers to those raised over others, i.e., like rulers, aristocrats, powerful people, the pagan view of gods, etc. However, all of those powers admired and even worshipped as divine by pagans (including divinized humans such as their own very human kings and pharaohs) have no real power or divinity, only G-d does. This is what monotheism implies, and the Torah makes explicit.
The term elohim in itself is used at times in the Torah for clearly human beings, in the sense given above. Ms. White as a scholar of the Hebrew Bible ought to know that, but apparently does not. She should consult more respectfully the ages-old Jewish exegetical tradition, but it is usual amongst Christian and modern secular scholars that they think that they can entirely ignore the ancient and still modern Jewish scholarship. Thus they end up imposing their own Christian or secular agendas on the text. Even so, just checking her Bible Concordance will show her that elohim is a term often used for powerful human beings too. The ancient Jewish tradition knew this very well.
E.g., the great Jewish exegete, Rashi (i.e., Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzhak, 11th century), comments on the Gen. 6:2 reference to the bnei elohim (sons of elohim) who “saw that the daughters of men were good and they took for themselves wives …” that the terms bnei elohim should be translated “sons of princes and rulers.” He grants that another explanation is that the terms apply to angels who mingled with humanity — but even he makes no reference to “fallen angels” since this would of course contradict the teaching that is standard Biblical Judaism that the angels have no separate will from G-d’s. However, Rashi does not agree that angels are being referred to. He says: “Whenever the word elohim occurs in the Scriptures it signifies authority, and the following passages prove this: (Ex. 4:16) ‘and thou shalt be his (elohim) master,’ and Ex. 7:1 [in which G-d [Tetragrammaton] says to Moses:] ‘See, I have made thee [like a] (elohim) a master’.” (I put my own comments in brackets.) The ArtScroll Series of translations and commentaries on Scripture, has in its vol. 1(a) on Bereishis: Genesis / A New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources, by Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, Second Edition(1986), the following discussion of Gen. 6:2 (on its p. 180; I again interpolate my clarificatory comments in brackets): “There are several interpretations of the expression Bnei elohim. Our translation [‘Sons of the rulers’], as usual, adheres to Rashi and the majority of commentators who follow Targum [the 2nd century Aramaic translation], which reads ‘a master’) and understand it as referring to the judges, potentates, and the sons of nobility, basing themselves on the interpretation of elohim in Exodus 22:7 ‘and the owner of the house shall come near to elohim, the judges’, while ‘daughter of man’ is interpreted as maidens of lower rank. Ramban [Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, 13th century] cites this interpretation and comments that ‘if so, the Torah relates that the very judges who should have administered justice committed open violence while no one interfered.’ This follows, also, the view cited in the Midrash: ‘The verse indicates that aristocratic youths took as wives the daughters of people who were powerless to resist. These marriages were the outgrowth of unrestrained passion and demonstrate man’s moral descent to oppression and license, as Rav Shimon bar Yochai: ‘the sons of the nobles’.” This clarifies why this account of the brutal seizures of women by the ruling classes comes just before the account of the sins of the generation of the Flood, characterized in those sentences as typified above by hamas, violent robbery even including murder.
The discussion of bnei elohim’s meaning continues on in R. Zlotowitz’s commentary, but this is sufficient to indicate that the usage elohim does not necessarily refer to G-d or even gods, but above all means higher powers mastering others, including social powers and natural powers attributed to gods or angels. The Torah itself affirms explicitly by terming G-d Elokim, however, that all these powers are subsumed within G-d, the One G-d, Creator of heaven and earth, which is why the term when applied to G-d takes only a singular verb: only G-d, the sum of and transcending all powers, rules supreme. There are no “fallen angels” that can escape G-d’s sovereignty. The “fallen angels” thesis only emerged in the first century BCE amongst sectarians, to explain the evil of humanity in quasi-polytheistic ways. It never occurred to earlier generations and was not taken up by mainstream Judaism and Rabbinic commentators.
This isn’t rocket science. The Nephilim are the same as the Greek Titans. They are represented by the constellation Orion.
“Shemhazai repented and set himself in the southern sky…head down, feet up…the constellation named Orion by the Greeks.” Graves/Patai “Hebrew Myths”
The story of Noah is a cosmic myth as are most OT stories. “On Earth as it is in Heaven, The Cosmic Roots of the Bible”
Quite unbelievable how the scholars are so indoctrinated and intoxicated by their limited traditional education that they just don’t get it. And ignorance is perpetuated. The Nephilim have nothing what so ever to do with a literal race of human beings. Think, for God’s sake (literally speaking). Think.
Ellen White, Ph.D. (Hebrew Bible, University of St. Michael’s College), is the senior editor at the Biblical Archaeology Society. Forget what you have learned so you can see, and learn, and teach truth not lies.
to the author: Your description and narrative of the giants is misleading and wrong. I am disappointed by your lack of knowledge on this subject. The second comment above, David’s is correct.
I am going through your Articles,with studious mind
You narrow-minded literalists–Ellen, Elaine, David, et all–keep humanity imprisoned in darkness. Yehi Or.
There is nothing that says the Nephilim were the product of the sons of God/daughters of men. It says they were on the earth at the time the sons of God had children with the daughters of men (an event that also presents with too little information to be dogmatic about any interpretation). Also since they appear in Numbers (after the flood) it is likely a title or adjective used to describe large people. They certainly couldn’t exist both before and after the flood if they were a race of people outside of Noahs family.
It’s hopeless. No wonder hundreds of millions of people now refuse to read the Bible. Think, people, think.
Hold on everyone. Take a time out and read 1 Enoch.