Who Were The Nephilim?

Genesis chapter 6 begins with a tale of intermarriage between “sons of God” and “daughters of men”. This union created giants, or “nephilim” in Hebrew. This intermarriage was so evil that it prompted a terrible punishment from the Lord and led to the great Flood. The question is, who were these giants? This is not a topic that is commonly discussed but I believe it is worth investigating.

Let’s start by taking a look at the passage itself:

Genesis 6:1: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

There are a few interesting things about this passage. First, no “daughters of God” married “sons of men” – it went strictly the other way. Second, the union resulted only in sons. None of the children became “mighty women” and there is no evidence that any daughters were born to these couples. That in itself is quite strange and hints that something very unusual is going on. Some have said that the “sons of God” referred to godly men and “daughters of men” referred to sinful women, and that the passage is simply speaking about the dangers of marrying unbelievers. But if that is the case then why weren’t any daughters born to these couples and why did their offspring become giants? Verse 4 clearly says that each one of these children became “mighty men” of extraordinary ability. All of these facts make it highly unlikely that this is a simple case of believers marrying unbelievers. I think that something else is going on – something quite unusual and disturbing.

We can learn a little more about what is going on by examining the passage’s key words. In Hebrew, they are:

Mighty men: 1368. Powerful, warrior, tyrant, champion, chief, giant, mighty, strong.

Giants: 5303. Hebrew: “nephil”. “It means a bully, a tyrant, a giant. It appears three times in the OT (Gen 6:4, Num 13:33). Since the etymology is uncertain, there is much speculation among reputable scholars concerning the nature of these individuals. Until more evidence becomes available, perhaps it is wise to do as the RSV and NIV translations did: render it “Nephilim”.

Right away we can see that we’ve stumbled across a mystery. The very definition of the Hebrew word “nephil” is fraught with uncertainty to the point that scholars recommend the world remain untranslated. That’s quite remarkable! Once again, if these people are simply humans then why all the mystery? There are lot of excellent, clear, and well-understood Hebrew words that could have been used in this passage if the author intended to describe sinful people, but they were not used. There is clearly something significant going on here.

For the record, the only other use of the word “nephilim” (giants) in the Bible can be found here:

Numbers 13:33: “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Notice the description of these beings. The Israeli spies reported that the nephilim were giants of extraordinary size, which matches the description in Genesis 6. These were clearly not normal people and the Israelites were terrified at the sight of them. Of course, this just deepens the mystery. What is going on here?

I believe the key to understanding this passage can be found in the use of the phrase “sons of God”. Each nephilim had two parents: a “son of God” and a “daughter of man”. The phrase “daughter of man” literally means “female”, so that’s easy enough to understand. But who were the sons of God? As it turns out, that phrase is used in three other places in the Old Testament. All three occur in the book of Job, and in each case the phrase refers to angels:

Job 1:6: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.”

Job 2:1: “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.”

Job 38:4: “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

As you can see, in each case the beings called “sons of God” refers to angels, not men. It’s true that in the New Testament believers are called “sons of God” (John 1:12) but at the time when Genesis 6:1-4 was written that was not the case. Job is one of the oldest books of the Bible and it is not a stretch to imagine that the Hebrew phrase “sons of God” carries the same meaning in both Job and Genesis. Therefore, if “sons of God” means “angels” in Job then it means “angels” in Genesis 6 as well. (In this case it refers to fallen angels, or demons. If the nephilim were half-demon and half-human then it’s no wonder they were beings of terrible power and breathtaking evil!)

It’s also worth noting that the difference between a “son of man” and a “son of God” is that sons of men are born while sons of God are created. A son of God would be a being that was created directly by God Himself, which would include Adam and the angels. Once Christ appeared He made it possible for others to become “sons of God” by becoming Christians, but that was not an option in the Old Testament. Aside from Adam all humans are born from human parents, not created by a direct act of divine will.

Some have objected to this interpretation, saying that in the New Testament Jesus says that angels are not given in marriage. This is true: in Heaven angels do not marry. However, the Bible never says that angels are incapable of intermarrying with humans. It is clear that they are not allowed to do this, and that this act is a greatly evil one that damns the angel for eternity. It’s not surprising that angels don’t marry in Heaven because in Heaven the Lord’s will is done. Demons, however, have no interest in doing the Lord’s will.

I believe Genesis 6 teaches that in the days before the Flood demons intermarried with humans and produced a new race of powerful, evil beings. This race (which was composed only of men) was destroyed by the Flood, which wiped out everyone except for the line of Noah. What’s particularly interesting about this is that Noah’s genealogy did not include any of these “sons of God”. This is critically important because the Messiah had to be a pure human. If He was part demonic then He obviously could never have been God!

The nephilim were actually a clever plan by Satan; he was trying to corrupt the genetic line of mankind in order to make it impossible for the Messiah to ever come. God solved that problem by wiping out the nephilim with a Flood that destroyed everyone. In this context the Flood makes a lot of sense – it was important for everything to be wiped out in order to destroy the nephilim and preserve the sanctity of our genetic code. (Of course, Satan wasn’t content with just trying this one time; he later tried it again in the land of Canaan in order to stop the Israelites from entering the Promised Land. This could be another reason why God ordered every last Canaanite destroyed – He wanted the nephilim wiped out.)

There are a couple other passages that may be related to this. The first one can be found in 2 Peter:

2 Peter 2:4: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;”

The word that is used for “hell” in this passage is a very special one that is used only in this one passage. This is its definition:

Hell: 5020. “Found only in its verbal form in 2 Peter 2:4, meaning to consign to Tartarus (which is neither Sheol of the OT, nor Hades of the NT, nor Gehenna, nor hell, but the place where certain angels are confined, reserved unto judgment). This punishment for these angels is because of their special sin.”

Notice what this says here. These fallen angels (or demons) are confined to a place called Tartarus. This is actually not the same place as the “hell” we know. When people die without accepting Jesus they go to hell, not Tartarus. Tartarus is a special place that is populated only by demons who committed a very special and terrible sin. To put it another way, there are actually two hells – the normal one and Tartarus. Humans cannot be sent to Tartarus. It is reserved strictly for a special class of demons.

Now it’s obvious that not all demons are bound in Tartarus. Quite a few of them wander over the surface of the Earth and cause all sorts of horrors. Yet, there are some that committed a sin so great that they were not permitted to wander the earth. If this is an accurate reading of the text then what sin did they commit? Isn’t it quite likely that the demons that are spoken of here are the “sons of God” that created the nephilim in Genesis 6, and that their great sin was intermarrying with humans?

I think it’s worth noting that the very next verse speaks of Noah and the Flood. Isn’t it possible that the two verses are related – that the great sin of these angels had something to do with the Flood that destroyed the old world? If fallen angels did intermarry with humans and produced a race of evil offspring then it would make sense that the Lord would judge it, and it would make sense to mention the Flood when referring to this event. It would also be easy to understand why the Lord imprisoned these demons – He didn’t want them doing it again.

There is one other possible mention of this. It can be found in Jude:

Jude 1:6: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

Here we have another mention of angels that are “reserved in everlasting chains” and waiting the final judgment. The very next verse speaks of Sodom and Gomorrha, highlighting it as a second example of what happens to those who engage in fornication and immorality. Note the use of the phrase “even as”, which seems to indicate that both the angels and Sodom were guilty of the same type of sin. If Jude is speaking of fallen angels that intermarried with humans then this makes a lot of sense, for in that case both the demons and the residents of Sodom were guilty of fornication.

In summary, Genesis 6 teaches that before the Flood demons took human women for wives and had children with them, producing a strange, fallen, depraved race called the nephilim. The Lord judged this act of wickedness by destroying that race in the Flood and imprisoning the demons who had committed this sin in Tartarus, awaiting judgment in the last day.