Toon TheologyWho were the Nephilim?
Nobody knows for certain. The word appears in just two passages. Genesis 6 mentions them alongside the "sons of God" marrying human women before the flood, and Numbers 13 has frightened spies claiming to have seen them in Canaan. The KJV calls them "giants" because the Greek translation did. Who they were depends on who the "sons of God" were, and Christians have given three answers to that since the earliest centuries.
What the text actually says
Two verses. That is all the Bible says about them by name.
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.Genesis 6:4 — "giants" is the KJV's word for the Nephilim
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.Numbers 13:33 — said by the spies the next verse calls an "evil report"
Read Genesis 6:4 slowly. It says the Nephilim were on the earth "in those days, and also after that", at the time the sons of God had children. It does not quite say the Nephilim were those children. Whether they were is part of the question.
Numbers 13 raises another puzzle. If the Nephilim lived before the flood, how are there any in Canaan afterwards? The text puts the claim in the mouths of spies who are trying to talk Israel out of entering the land, so it may be their fear speaking rather than a fact the narrator endorses.
What we actually know
The confidence marks matter most here, because this is a subject where speculation travels faster than evidence.
- AttestedThe Hebrew word נְפִלִים (nephilim) occurs only in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33 (twice in that verse).
- AttestedThe Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, rendered it γίγαντες (gigantes), "giants". The Latin followed, and so did the KJV.
- AttestedThe oldest surviving interpretation, in 1 Enoch 6–7 and Jubilees, takes the "sons of God" to be angels whose children were giants. Josephus reads it the same way, and so do many early Christian writers.
- AttestedFrom the third century a second reading spread: the "sons of God" were the godly line of Seth marrying into the line of Cain. Julius Africanus held it, and Augustine (City of God 15.23) made it standard in the West.
- AttestedA third reading, found in the Aramaic Targums and among many Jewish interpreters, takes the "sons of God" to be rulers or nobles who took whatever women they wanted.
- DisputedWhat the name means. It looks related to נָפַל, "to fall", so it may mean "fallen ones", or "those who fall upon" others in attack. Neither etymology is certain, and neither settles who they were.
- DisputedWhether 1 Peter 3:19–20, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 allude to Genesis 6. Many scholars think they draw on the angel reading through 1 Enoch; others think they refer to a different fall.
- Popular mythThe photographs of enormous human skeletons that circulate online. They are digital fakes; several trace back to a 2002 photo-editing contest.
What people get wrong
The common mistake is to talk about the Nephilim as if the Bible gave a description of them. It does not. Everything about their size comes from the Greek word "giants" and from frightened spies, and the rest comes from later books like 1 Enoch.
The opposite mistake is to wave the angel reading away as fringe. It is the oldest reading on record, and it was the majority view in the early church before Augustine. You can disagree with it, but it is not a modern novelty.
Still open
The question underneath is who the "sons of God" are. The same phrase means angels in Job 1:6 and 38:7, which is the strongest argument for the oldest reading. Whether it means the same thing in Genesis 6 is exactly what readers still disagree about.
Sources
- Genesis 6:1–4; Numbers 13:31–33; Job 1:6, 38:7, in the Hebrew text and the KJV.
- 1 Enoch 6–7; Jubilees 5; Josephus, Antiquities 1.73.
- Augustine, City of God 15.23.
- Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, Word Biblical Commentary 1 (Word, 1987).
- Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis 1–17, NICOT (Eerdmans, 1990).