I typically avoid the Ancient Origins since it’s like going back in time to the 1990s, five seconds after the site loads it barrages you with pop-ups and it’s saturated with ads: you can barely discern the article beneath and around all of that.
Get this, “Bestselling author and Medical Intuitive, Dr. Rita Louise is the host of Just Energy Radio and the Founder of the Institute Of Applied Energetics”—so you know right off the bat it’s gonna be good—wrote an article titled The Nephilim: Giant Offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man?
Biblically contextually, “Nephilim: Giant” would mean, “Nephilim: Nephilim” so we’ll have to see if Dr. Louise elucidates what’s the usage of the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage and modern English word “giants” in English Bibles? What’s your usage? Do those two usages agree?
She begins with, “Who were the nephilim? The word nephilim appears twice in the Old Testament of the Bible” it actually appears three times. She continued, “They are first mentioned” I’ll add reliably, “in chapter 6 of the book of Genesis” which mentions them once, “and then again” I’ll add unreliably, “in Number 13:33” which mentions them twice.
She quotes that which I term the Gen 6 affair thusly:
When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went in to the daughters of man, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. – Genesis 6: 1-4
She notes, “The traditional definition of Nephilim is giant” but that’s question begging since it doesn’t tell us the usage(s) of giants so it really reads thusly, “The traditional definition of Nephilim is ____________” with an unfilled blank.
She rightly notes, “The Greek Septuagint, an ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible, refers to them as gigantes, which actually means ‘earth -born,’ a concept we will be coming back to as we continue” and gigantes is whence we eventually get the word giants.
She added:
It is believed that the word Nephilim comes from the root word “Naphal” which means to fall. In biblical circles this definition has quickly put the Nephilim into the role of the children of the fallen angels. The word Naphal, however, is never directly associated with the concept of fallen angels. Its meaning in context is more closely associated with the idea of lying prostrate or of prostrating oneself. There are also ties in this word to the concept of failure, falling short, or being cast down.
The phrase, “never directly associated with the concept of fallen angels” is vague since associated with is generic. By definition, “the idea of lying prostrate or of prostrating oneself” or being made to prostrate due to, “failure, falling short, or being cast down” fits the concept of fallen Angels. Yet, it’s the root of Nephilim nor Angel/Malakim or sons of God.
She then asserts, “The connection between the biblical text and this claim” referring to, “the nephilim. It alleges that these giants were the offspring of the ‘Sons of God’ and the ‘Daughters of Man’,” “is unfounded. The document in which we find statements that support this claim actually comes from the apocryphal Book of Jubiliees.”
Note the reference to, “the nephilim. It alleges that these giants” which, again, would mean, “the nephilim. It alleges that these nephilim.”
What she does next is to ask, “Is the claim that the nephilim were the offspring of the sons of god and the daughters of men supported by sources outside the Judeo-Christian tradition? In other words, does mythology worldwide support this belief?”
She answers:
Giants [whatever that means] Roaming the Earth Across Cultures
The notion of giants [whatever that means] roaming the earth can be found in cultures worldwide. Greek mythology tells us that the Titan Cronus castrated his father Uranus in order to gain control of the Greek pantheon. It is from the blood of the castrated Uranus that fell upon the earth that the giants, the “earth-born”, were created.
The Earth-born, when compared to us, were giants [something vaguely generic about subjectively unusual height of some unknown level above the parochial average (and yes, that is how useless the common parlance usage of that modern English word is)]. The giants [whatever that means], lived under the rule of Cronos during the golden age, in a time that was free from sorrow or care and everyone lived happy and joyous lives.
It was only after Cronos’ son Zeus fought for control of both the heavens and the earth that everything changed. In his new role, Zeus, according to Greek myth, put the giants [whatever that means] to work. It was just a matter of time before the giants started ignoring the god’s mandates.
Certainly, Greek that myth may be based on the real pre-flood historical events but the issue is that it’s problematic to chase the modern English word giants around myths from various times, places, and languages since the tendency is to water everything down to give the appearance of conherence.
Going back to the Gen 6 affair, she notes:
Based upon these mythological traditions it seems clear that the earth-born giants, the enomina, existed long before man first inhabited the earth. Thus when you read the line “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward” it seems clear from this perspective that the authors were not being vague. Instead they were just making a statement of fact – that the Nephilim, the earth-born, were on the earth at that time.
The Offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man
So who were the offspring of the sons of god and the daughters of man? The Hebrew Bible refers to them as gibborim. The inferred meaning of this word is men of great stature, heroes, men who are valiant or brave.
The Greek Septuagint identifies them as the renominate or men or renown. In Greek mythology the gods have a long history of having relations with humans. The names of some of these “demi-gods”, or semi-human individuals, whose names have withstood the tests of time include were Hercules, Perseus, and Achilles. In India they are called Hanuman and Garuda and in Sumer Gilgamesh and Adapa.
I’m unsure whence she got renominate but I’ve long argued that viewing the text as, “the authors…were just making a statement of fact – that the Nephilim, the earth-born, were on the earth at that time” since the Gen 6 affair narrative’s contextual focus is the sons of God and daughters of men: their attraction, their marriage, their copulation, and their offspring. Thus, it would violate that narrative’s contextual focus to artificially insert a mere passing reference to some unrelated Nephilim guys who just happened to be around at the time, are mentioned for no apparent reason, and about whom nothing more is said in relation to the narrative’s contextual focus.
Thus, they don’t just happen to be mentioned making a statement of fact that they just so happen to have been around—which is what I inferred Dr. Louise’s implication to have been.
That’s the case especially when she closed with:
Are the nephelim the offspring of the sons of god and the daughters of man? No. They were the race of earth-born giants who lived before the creation of man. They are the group who revolted against the gods in antiquity.
So, “nephelim…lived before the creation of man” even though Gen 6 notes, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose…The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward.”
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