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Thomas Horn on Nephilim return: ancient biotech and modern science, 1 of 3

Thomas Horn wrote an article titled “Did Ancient Biotech Create ‘Nephilim”? Will Modern Science Bring Them Again?” which begins with this translation “The benei Elohim saw the daughters of Adam, that they were fit extensions (Gen 6:2, Interlinear Hebrew Bible).”
While it may not mean anything, one should at least begin unfurling a red flag when encountering a clearly unusual translation. I am also unsure if there is one particular “Interlinear Hebrew Bible” which Horn is quoting since, for example, the one found here does not read like the quote.

In any case, Horn notes that in Genesis:
“In the study of the Old Testament Book of Genesis, beings of great stature called ‘giants’ appear, which some scholars believe came into existence after powerful angels known as ‘Watchers’ descended to earth and used women (or their biological matter) to construct bodies of flesh, which they used to ‘extend’ themselves into the material world.”

Let us pause in order to elucidate this fast moving statement:
Yes, some translations unfortunately translate Nephilim as giants but in any case, there are no beings of great stature described in Genesis: even if one reads giants into Nephilim the fact remains that there are no beings of great stature described in Genesis and also the term giants would only tell you that they were taller than average (with Hebrew males of those days averaging 5.5 ft.).

True, “some scholars believe came into existence after powerful angels,” pause: the original, traditional, and majority view of the earlies Jewish and Christian commentators as I demonstrate in my book On the Genesis 6 Affair’s Sons of God: Angels or Not? subtitled A survey of early Jewish and Christian commentaries including notes on giants and the Nephilim.

Yet, the term Watchers does not appear in Genesis but only appears to refer to Angles in Daniel 4:13, 17, 23. Horn opts for this term due to its usage in apocryphal texts such as the Book of Enoch aka 1 Enoch aka Ethiopic Enoch—see my book In Consideration of the Book(s) of Enoch.

That they “used women (or their biological matter)” should not be an issue since the text notes that they got married and had children.

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As to that they “construct bodies of flesh, which they used to ‘extend’ themselves into the material world” makes us realize why Horn chose the unusual translation of “fit extensions.” Yet, by extend he must mean to have offspring since, of course, in order to mate with (“used women (or their biological matter)”) they would already have the ability to “‘extend’ themselves into the material world.”

In any case, Thomas Horn notes:
“The Apocryphal books of Enoch, 2 Esdras, Genesis Aprocryphon and Jasher support the Genesis story, adding that the sin of the angels grew to include genetic modification of animals as well as humans.”

We will see that this is exaggerated by two—and one out of three is not very impressive, nor would three be since the Bible’s 66 books know nothing of any such thing—and actually speak against any such thing, as we shall see.

Horn refers to “The Book of Jasher, mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, says…” but we must pause since there is a distinction between the fact that the Bible refers to a book of Jasher and the question as to whether the book we have today (actually, the books (plural) that we have today) by the name is the book to which the Bible referred. Thus, it is a quick hop, skip and jump from that the Bible mentions a book and that book says.

The one to which Horn refers is generally dated to 1625 AD and that book states, “After the fallen angels went into the daughters of men, the sons of men taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order to provoke the Lord” (4:18)” about which Horn tells us “This clear reference to the Genesis 6 record illustrates that ‘animals’ were included in whatever cross-species experiments were being conducted, and that this activity resulted in judgment from God.”

Now, there is an interesting issue here which is that the writer of that book was either somehow unaware of how genetics work (simply in terms of what can give birth to what) or was telling tall tales. It is tempting to think that while God’s creation reproduces after its own kind, fallen Angels would have the knowledge of how to mix kinds. However, an Occam’s razor approach would tell us that since we have one late dated apocryphal text versus many millennia worth of observation then the made up text is inaccurate.

But if, and I say since, Genesis 6 is about Angels mating with humans then this would prove that while God’s creation reproduces after its own kind, fallen Angels would have the knowledge of how to mix kinds. This gets a bit tricky since the fact is that biblically Angels look just like human males (no wings, no halos, see my book What Does the Bible Say About Angels? A Styled Angelology) and we are made “a little lower than the angels” (see Psalm 8:5-9 and Hebrews 2:6-9).
Jude 6-7 tells us that “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” will be judged “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh” so the issue seems to be that such relationships were forbidden and not impossible due to being of different kinds, genetics, etc. For example, Sodom and Gomorrha pertained to human on human relationships but they were forbidden and not impossible.

Thomas Horn tells us that “The Book of Enoch also supports this record, saying that after the fallen angels merged their DNA with women, they, ‘began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish’ (7:5,6).”
It is in cases such as these that double checking claims is key since this was a quick draw which rightfully notes that “The Book of Enoch also supports this record” but wrongfully makes the jump to that “to sin against” animals referred to merging DNA. This is simply not the case.

What the Enoch text states is:
“great giants…consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.”

Thus, this is clearly about consuming/eating and not about genetic manipulation. But why would eating animals be sinful? Because the original God ordained diet was vegetarian and only after the flood were animals allowed to be eaten.

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