Under consideration is an article by James Felton, Senior Staff Writer for the IFL Science site, by the title of Who Were The Nephilim: The Creepy, Fallen Giants Mentioned Throughout The Bible? (November 21, 2022), he is said to specialize in, “history, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.”
Let us begin with the title, “Who Were The Nephilim: The Creepy, Fallen Giants Mentioned Throughout The Bible?” which is accurate only if “Mentioned Throughout” refers to twice.
Felton begins with merely asserted conclusions by simply stating, “The Bible is filled with impossible events and characters, from leprosy being cured by touch rather than a course of antibiotics right back to a talking snake apple vendor pushing the forbidden fruit.”
It was a case of beginning with merely asserted conclusions since he did not bother elucidating how or why, on his worldview (not his emotively subjective personal preference du jour based on hidden assumptions) anyone should think that, “leprosy being cured by touch rather than a course of antibiotics” is impossible.
As for, “a talking snake apple vendor” well, there is no indication that it was an apple nor a reptile snake—as per Rev chaps. 12 and 20, serpent was just an a.k.a. for Satan—by any other name, “the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan.”
Felton goes on to write of another supposed impossibility, “One particularly odd tale, which people have claimed (wrongly, of course) to have backed up with archaeological evidence, is of the ‘Nephilim’: a group of giants who are claimed to be the sons of angels or God according to the holy texts” for which he gets partial points.
If by the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage, modern, English word giants he implies unusual height then Nephilim cannot be categorized as such since we do not have a reliable physical description of them.
And that is actually why he would seem to be correct in writing, “claimed (wrongly, of course) to have backed up with archaeological evidence.” That is because such archeological evidence generally consists of appeals to megalithic sites which are appealed to due to a non sequitur which is that large things must have been built for and by large people—the hidden assumption being that Nephilim were giants so we have come full circle, a vicious circle.
Moreover, since Nephilim did not make it past the flood—in any way, shape, or form (lest God failed)—then any such archeological evidence would, by definition, date to pre-flood days.
Felton notes, “Nephilim have been described in Genesis as ‘mighty men’, but more explicitly in Numbers as making us regular humans look teeny tiny in comparison.” Yet, he fails to interact with the narrative of Numbers, 13 to be exact, and so misleads his readers by not informing them that he is appealing to the mere recording, in vss. 32-33, of an evil report stated by utterly unreliable, unfaithful, disloyal, contradictory, embellishers whom God rebuked: no one should believe them.
And since their tall-tale is the only physical description we have of Nephilim then, again, we have no reliable physical description of them.
He also tells us, “The Nephilim are described more extensively in the Book of Enoch, a text purported to be the work of Noah’s grandfather.” Purported is an important qualifier since there is no indication that Enoch ever wrote anything, there is no history of any such book, it merely appeared on the scene in the Second Temple Era—millennia after the Torah—and without indication that it contains any reliable data not found in Genesis.
Felton quotes 1 Enoch/Ethiopic Enoch to the effect that it as Nephilim being, “three thousand ells” and tells us that this equals 3,429 meters which is 2.1 miles: great folklore, poor reality. Yet, in reality 3,000 ells amounts to circa 15-25 miles/24-40 kilometers—see my book In Consideration of the Book(s) of Enoch.
He further asserts, “some religious groups (who interpret the bible literally) think that the Nephilim were not wiped out by the great flood on account of being too tall, most think nothing survived Earth being engulfed in water but Noah’s big boat.”
Let us unpack this statement:
It cannot be a literal interpretation to, “think that the Nephilim were not wiped out by the great flood” for at least three reasons: 1) again, Nephilim did not make it past the flood, 2) the one and only indication of post-flood Nephilim is the utterly unreliable evil report, and 3) an actually literal interpretation is that a survival of Nephilim contradicts the Bible five times: Genesis 7:7, 23; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20, and 2 Peter 2:5.
As for, “on account of being too tall” I can only imagine that Felton is referring to folklore from many, many millennia after the Torah which, by definition, implies that God failed: He meant to be rid of them but could not get the job done, the flood was much of a waste, He missed a loophole, etc.
He notes that, “people…believing they have found Nephilim remains” which are all irrelevant since it pertains to, “a collection of bones…thought to be those of a giant…did not exceed 19 feet [5.8 meters]…” yet, which, “was actually that of a mammoth” and another set of bones that, “turned out to be from a mastodon.” I included many such examples in my books What Does the Bible Say About Giants and Nephilim? A Styled Giantology and Nephilology and Nephilim and Giants: Believe It or Not! Ancient and Neo-Theo-Sci-Fi Tall Tales.
Felton asserts, “Let’s get to the point: Nephilim, as they are portrayed as giants, cannot exist in real life, before or after a flood.” He does not bother telling us how or why he positively affirms that, but the key issue is the faulty assumption that, “Nephilim, as they are portrayed as giants” has ever had anything to do with reality. Since it has not then, he is correct by definition.
Now, he does assure us that one way we can be, “sure that the Nephilim did not exist, as they are portrayed as giants” is that, “‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’ as Carl Sagan put it” but that is fallacious and generic: the fact is that extraordinary claims only require adequate evidence and there is not standard of extraordinariness so it is an utterly subjective pseudo-standard.
He does hit upon why it is that the fantasy-tall-tale Nephilim of the evil report and 1 Enoch could not have been due to, “the square-cube law,” or inverse square law, “which states that as the size of any object grows (be it a cube or an accountant) its volume grows faster than its surface area. The area grows in proportion to the square of your size, whereas your volume scales up in proportion to the cube of your size.”
In short, such Nephilim would have shattered their own bones just attempting to walk.
In the end, Felton only stumbled onto a correct conclusion even if via fallacious data.
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