Biblical Oddities: They Shall Mingle Themselves With The Seed Of Men

Today’s oddity is definitely one of the stranger ones. In Daniel chapter 2 King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that deeply disturbed him:

Daniel 2:31: “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.”

After telling the king what he had dreamed, Daniel then provided the interpretation. Daniel explained that God was showing him what the future held. Toward the end of his explanation Daniel said this:

Daniel 2:43: “And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”

Notice the highlighted part: Daniel said that “they” would “mingle themselves with the seed of men”. That’s a rather odd phrase, isn’t it? Who is “They”? What is this verse talking about?

If you look up this verse in other translations you will get mixed results. Some translations preserve this odd phrase (which is apparently a direct translation of the original Aramaic), while others butcher it beyond recognition. The Geneva Bible preserves it, as does the ASV and the NAS. The ESV and the NIV butcher it, though: instead of translating it they offer their interpretation (although the ESV at least adds a footnote that points out what the original Aramaic actually says). Incidentally, that is one of many reasons why I dislike the NIV. I don’t want their interpretation of the passage; what I want is to know what the passage actually said.

The original Aramaic really does say “they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men”. This implies that something very strange is going on. As I have pointed out, modern Bible translations have tried to paper over this and obscure the issue, and commentators tend to do the same. But I think there is something special about this verse; I think it means precisely what it says.

If “they” are going to try to mingle with the “seed of men”, then it seems rather obvious that “they” are not part of mankind. Daniel explains that this mingling doesn’t work out very well: the iron and the clay just don’t mix. We humans are the clay; we were made from dust and we return back to dust. These others, though – the “they” – are depicted as being iron. They are trying to mix with the clay, but what results is a very brittle mixture.

Are there any other times in the Bible where some foreign element tried to mix itself with mankind? I believe the answer is yes. Genesis 6:1-4 speaks of a time when the “sons of God” married human women and produced the Nephilim – a race of powerful beings. For reasons I have discussed here, I believe the “sons of God” are actually fallen angels. Before the Flood, demons took women as wives and produced offspring that were partly human and partly demon. In other words, “they” mingled themselves with the “seed of men”.

One of the things that Christ said about the days just before His return was that things would be like they were in the days of Noah:

Matthew 24:37: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

Here Christ said that just as people were going about their lives right up until the Flood killed them all, so people would be going about their lives right up until Jesus returned. But there are other parallels as well. Just as the Flood was God’s judgment upon a wicked world, so the Tribulation will be God’s judgment on a wicked world. Just as Enoch was taken from Earth and spared having to live through the Flood, so the Church will be taken from the Earth and be spared having to live through the Tribulation. Finally, before the Flood happened demons intermingled themselves with the seed of men – and in the last days, we are told that “they” will also intermingle themselves with the seed of men.

I suspect that we may once again see some sort of Nephilim arise. Satan has tried that trick twice: the Nephilim appeared before the Flood in the days of Noah, and the Nephilim were in the land of Canaan when Israel conquered the Promised Land. Satan has used them in the past to try to thwart God’s plan, and I think he may try it again.

This is just pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if this might tie into the Mark of the Beast. One of the puzzling things about the Mark is that whoever takes it cannot be saved; they are lost forever and there is no way to repent of it. How is something like that possible? How could taking a Mark possibly have that kind of permanence?

Here is something to think about: the reason the death of Jesus can save us is because Jesus was a man. Jesus had to be a man in order to die in our place; the sacrifice only worked because He was fully man and fully God. His sacrifice, however, is only good for us. His death cannot provide atonement for fallen angels; it only works for men. I strongly suspect that it would not work for Nephilim either, since they are not men – they are a hybrid.

Some people have speculated that the Mark may be more than a simple tattoo. What if taking the Mark merges you with the demonic and turns you into some kind of transhuman Nephilim? If that is the case (and no one knows if it is), then that would certainly explain why the Mark is so permanent. Since you are no longer human, Christ’s sacrifice cannot save you – and since there is no way to reverse the process, you cannot undo what you have done. Once you have crossed that line you are permanently lost.

Is that the right interpretation of that verse? I don’t really know; it’s just a guess. But it’s certainly something worth pondering.