I encountered a link to an article by a certain Timothy Yung which is titled: Nephilim, Og’s bed, the Defeat of the giants, and Jesus’ proclamation of victory.
Upfront, he notes, “I agree with Pastor John MacArthur’s position that the fallen angelic beings didn’t directly procreate with humans”: I covered MacArthur’s views in my book The Pastoral Nephilim and Giants.
Rather than, directly procreating, we are told, “There was a ritual in which a fallen angel/demon was invoked in a temple ceremony between two humans which produced the Nephilim.”
This assertion is the latest fad amongst pop-Nephilologists.
The premise is that in some unknown pre-flood temples, fallen angel/demon had something unspecified to do with a, “ceremony between two humans which produced the Nephilim.”
One problem with it is that there is no indication of any such thing since the key portions of the Genesis 6 affair, as I term it, are described thusly, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose…the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.”
Thus, every indication is that it was directly procreation: attraction, marriage, mating, offspring.
Reference is made to the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm.
Dr. Heiser was credentialed and experienced but not infallible, his Nephilology wasn’t biblical, and he tended to create more problems than he solved—see these for examples:
Rebuttal to Dr. Michael Heiser’s “All I Want for Christmas is Another Flawed Nephilim Rebuttal”
Review of Amy Richter and Michael Heiser on four Enochian Watcher related women in Jesus’ genealogy
It is noted that Heiser noted, “ANE mythologies…include mention of a group of sages (the apkallus), possessors of great knowledge, in the period before the flood. These apkallus were divine beings… After the flood, offspring of the apkallus mated with human women and produced quasi-divine offspring.”
You can read up about apkallus in my book What Does the Bible Say About Giants and Nephilim? A Styled Giantology and Nephilology.
The MacArthur Study Bible notes, “sons of God, identified elsewhere almost exclusively as angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7), saw and took wives of the human race. This produced an unnatural union which violated the God-ordained order of human marriage and procreation (Gen. 2:24).”
Three issues to note:
1) No, Job nowhere specifically refers to sons of God as Malakim/Angles but 38:7 makes it clear that they are, at the very least not human. Thus, understanding those text as referring to Angels is a very natural reading (FYI: the LXX has them as “Angelos”).
2) The quoted statement is vague since it seems to imply that, “angels…took wives of the human race” which resulted in, “procreation” between those Angels and their human wives.
3) Gen. 2:24 is not what made the unions unnatural. After all, we may say that it would be unnatural for me to marry and mate with billions of human women even though I am a human male, because I am already married to a human woman.
Since Angles look like human males, we were created, “a little lower” (Psalm 8:5) than them, and we can viably mate with them then, by definition, we are of the same basic kind.
The study Bible goes on to emphasize, “the passage puts strong emphasis on the angelic vs. human contrast. The NT places this account in sequence with other Genesis events and identifies it as involving fallen angels who indwelt men (see notes on 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Jude 6).”
Also, “Matthew 22:30 does not necessarily negate the possibility that angels are capable of procreation, but just that they do not marry. To procreate physically, they had to possess human, males, bodies.”
Well, Jesus’ emphasis in that verse is that He was very specifically speaking about the, “Angels of God in heaven” thus, the loyal ones: they are the ones who do not marry and are not given in marriage. That is why those who did are considered sinners, having, “left their first estate” as Jude put it.
Also, again, since Angels look like human males, there is no reason to invent an un-biblical concept about Angels who, “possess human, males, bodies.”
The study Bible notes that in 2 Peter 2:5, “Peter borrows a word from Greek mythology for hell, tartarus…a place lower than Hades”: the lowest part of the Abyss.
It is asserted that, “This apostasy of fallen angels is described in Gen. 6:1-4 as possessing men who then cohabited with women” but, again, no such thing is stated in Gen 6 nor anywhere else in the whole Bible and neither is any such a thing as Angels possessing anyone in the entire Bible—see my book What Does the Bible Say About Angels? A Styled Angelology.
With regards to, “The significance of Og’s bed” we are told the following by Timothy Yung, “When the Israelites went into the Promise Land, they were told to eliminate the giants of the land, the Rephaim and the sons of Anak.”
The vague, generic, subjective, and multi-usage modern English word giants was not defined so I will have to assume that it was meant to imply something about subjectively unusual height.
Yung does not seem to realize that the contextually Biblical manner in which to understand that sentence is, “When the Israelites went into the Promise Land, they were told to eliminate the Rephaim of the land, the Rephaim and the sons of Anak.” This is now accurate but redundant.
As for whether the Rephaim tribe and their Anakim clan were giants well, again, that is subjective and in this case, subjective to the average Israelite male who, in those days, was 5.0-5.3 ft.
Deuteronomy 3:11 is quoted, “(For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.).”
Now, 99% of pop-Nephilologists merely assert that Og was a giant with reference to the height of a man we are never told in the Bible (and about which nothing is said until folklore from millennia after the Torah). At least Dr. Heiser noted this about the bed, “Its dimensions (9×4 cubits) are precisely those of the cultic bed in the ziggurat called Etemenanki…The unusually large bed at Etemenanki was housed in ‘the house of the bed’ (bit ersi). It was the place where the god Marduk and his divine wife, Zarpanitu, met annually for ritual lovemaking the purpose of which was divine blessing upon the land.”
Thus, what is happening within the article, and those who follow its fad, is that Pagan theology is being incorporated into biblical theology. This is yet another example of how faulty Nephilology results in faulty theology—and faulty Angelology and faulty Rephaology.
Timothy Yung declares, “Og’s bed and the bed at Etemenanki were mating beds where the demonic ritual that produced the Nephilim, the Rephaim, and the other giants took place” (bold font in original).
1) Taking, “demonic” literally: it is unelucidated how disembodied demons can produce embodied beings.
2) Taking, “demonic” symbolically of something like ungodly and referring to Angles well, the sinful Angels were incarcerated (and there is only a one-time sin of Angels in the Bible) so that no Angels mated with anyone nor possessed anyone post-flood.
3) There is zero reliable indication of any Nephilim being produced post-flood.
4) There is zero indication that Rephaim were thusly produced.
5) We would have to be told to what, “the other giants” refers.
6) Any concept of any sort of post-flood Nephilim implies that God failed: He meant to be rid of them via the flood but could not get the job done, He must have missed the demonic ritual loophole, the flood was much of a waste, etc.
Hieros Gamos: Britannica is quoted to the affect that, “As ritually expressed, there are three main forms of the hieros gamos: between god and goddess (most usually symbolized by statues); between goddess and priest-king (who assumes the role of the god); and between god and priestess (who assumes the role of the goddess)” (emphasis by Yung).
So, we are getting back to the issue of Angels possessing humans since what is being emphasized is the, “priest-king (who assumes the role of the god); and between god and priestess (who assumes the role of the goddess).” Thus, perverts were just ritualistically enacting mythology.
Yet, the assertion is that Angel possessed people were doing so, which we know was not the case, and that this, in some unelucidated manner, resulted in Nephilim, Rephaim, and other whatever giants means. And if we swap Angels for demons we have the same unresolved problem.
I am willing to speculate that a lot of demon possessed people producing offspring since the flood but they do not seem to be producing Nephilim, Rephaim, and other whatever giants means.
For example, Timothy Yung tells us, “Traces of this ritual still exist in modern times. Daijosai (the Emperor’s union with the sun goddess at his ascension)” but, again, no Nephilim, Rephaim, and other whatever giants means seem to result from it: and if someone replies by sending me this still from the cheesy sci-fi movie Big Man Japan, I am going to scream into my pillow.
Yung tells us, “the gods (and goddesses) of the ancient nations were fallen angelic beings/demons” which is fair enough—see my article The Apocalypse of the Hidden Hand: The Bible’s teaching on the spiritual sovereign behind the human sovereign.
Yung notes, “In Babylonian legends, some of the apkallus were said to have ‘survived’ the flood. None of the apkallus actually survived in a literal sense but they ‘survived’ in the sense that someone at Babel must have re-discovered the pre-flood ritual”: a merely asserted ritual for which there is zero pre-flood data.
But, since, “Gilgamesh is said to have descended from the divine king Lugalbanda and the Mesopotamian goddess Ninsun. He was conceived from a form of hieros gamos” then that is being incorporated into biblical theology.
Note how Timothy Yung leads the reader via bold font when Genesis 6:4 is quoted, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”
This is buttressed via an interpretation, “Nephilim were on the Earth in those days (before the flood), and also afterwards (after the flood).” Thus, a text that does not reference the flood is told to us to be referencing the flood. In fact, the flood is not even mentioned for the very first time until a full 13 vss. later: v. 17.
That is one of the most misread, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misapplied verses in all of modern pop-Nephilology.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days…when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them” which as per Gen 6:1 was, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them.”
Thus, “The Nephilim were on the earth…also afterward” of, “when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them” which was, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them.”
Thus, those days refers to when they first mated, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them” and, “afterward” simply means just that, after they first mated, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them.”
They began doing it and continued doing so yet, that was all pre-flood and the flood brought it all to a full and final end—lest God failed.
Timothy Yung noted, “It is possible that over time through embellishment and exaggeration, the legend of these demigods became more and more fantasy than reality” which his exactly what the author has written as the article is a contribution to neo-theo-sci-fi-tall-tales-pop-Nephilology.
Now, Yung goes on to actually affirm, “God sent the Flood of Noah’s day as judgment against the fallen angels and the humans who had participated or allowed the Nephilim rituals to happen.” Thus, again, the flood was much of a waste and God must have missed the loophole via which they just kept on doing it post-flood.
Yung even notes, “it was an extreme violation of God’s natural order and extreme times call for extreme measures” but at the same time, Yung is implying that God’s extreme measures were not extreme enough.
We are told, “Noah preached a message of repentance to everyone including the Nephilim. Every person that heeded Noah had access to the boat and was spared” perhaps, but we are told five times who deeded and who entered the boat and Nephilim were not among them (Genesis 7:7, 23; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; and 2 Peter 2:5)—but that is a-okay since they can, apparently, just come right back.
We are told, “Satan rebelling and tempting Adam and Eve is the first angelic rebellion” but how could that be the case since he’s not an Angel? He’s a Cherub?
And, “These angels in the Flood narrative are partaking in the 2nd rebellion or maybe more accurately this is the 2nd act of the rebellious angels” but it was the 1st.
Timothy Yung writes of the Israelites, “The place chosen for that nation was the Promise Land. The problem was that in the place where God had promised the Israelites there were already tribes/nations living there. Even worse, the dominant tribes of the land had mighty giants living among them. Keep in mind that the giants were being produced by demonic forces who were opposed to God and His plan to establish Israel. The conquest of Canaan was a spiritual war as much as it was a physical war.”
Yung implies subjectively unusual height by the term giants and, again, sure, Rephaim were on average subjectively unusually tall: meaning taller than 5.0-5.3 ft.
But, again, there is zero indication that any of those, “tribes/nations…giants” were, “produced by demonic forces.”
We are told that one of the ways, “Israelites were told to react to the tribes they encountered” was, “To wipe them out not just drive out…There were 2 reasons given for the conquest of the Canaan. The land was promised to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 15:18-21). The people who were living in those lands were defiling the land (Genesis 15:14-16, Leviticus 18). All the acts forbidden in Lev. 18 were common practices in the nations.”
Deut 2 is quoted, the key portions of which are, “Emim…a people…tall as the Anakim. They were also regarded as giants” meaning Rephaim, “like the Anakim…a land of giants” meaning Rephaim, “giants” meaning Rephaim, “formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.”
Thus, there were various a.k.a. for Rephaim and, again, they were taller than 5.0-5.3 ft.
The Ancient Faith blog is quoted via their Here There Be Giants article of which the most relevant portions are (emphasis by Timothy Yung), “In Numbers 13, 12 spies are sent to scout out…The spies return and report that they have seen the ‘Anakim’ in the land, in the south, near Hebron, and that the ‘Anakim’ are Nephilim (Num 13:22, 28, 33).”
Let us pause here since the specific claim is that “12 spies…The spies…have seen…that the ‘Anakim’ are Nephilim” but that is not the case, it is too generic. Twelve were sent, ten asserting as much, the ten utterly unreliable ones who presented an “evil report” wherein they actually made five assertions, the ten who were rebuked by God.
Continuing, “This news causes most of the spies, and the majority of the people, to refuse to enter the land for fear of the ‘Anakim.’”
Pausing again, the “most…spies” line regards the ten. Yet, stating, “This news causes most of the spies…to refuse to enter the land” is anachronistic. The fake-news was concocted by the most thus, it was not news that caused them to refuse, they were the ones who invented a fear-mongering scare-tactic tall-tale which caused the refusal of the Israelites (sans Caleb and Joshua).
As for, “fear of the ‘Anakim’” well, that is a can of worms which involves that the most traditional understanding is that they asserted Nephilim were related to Anakim. They also asserted that Nephilim were very, very tall but since it is an unreliable evil report form unreliable guys whom God rebuked then we actually do not have a reliable physical description of them.
Such is why after years of asserting Nephilim were giants, neo-theo-sci-fi-tall-tales-pop-Nephilologist Gary Wayne had to admit he does not know how big they were—but only after I asked him about that, and he went on to say he will keep asserting they were giants. What sense does it make to refer to the height of someone who’s height you do not know? Watch it unfold here.
Lastly, Anakim are not mentioned at all in the LXX version of the Num 13:33 evil report.
Continuing on with Timothy Yung’s current theme, “in some cities and locations, God commands complete and total destruction of the residents…those places where total destruction is mandated are the places in which the ‘Anakim’ dwell, while those where ‘Anakim’ have not been cited are spared total annihilation…Joshua had cut off all the ‘Anakim’ from the land and had devoted their cities to destruction (v. 21). We are told in verse 22 that the only ‘Anakim’ who survived judgment at the hands of Israel had done so by fleeing to three Philistine cities, Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. Goliath, the giant” referring to Goliath having been a Repha, “slain by the Prophet David, came to oppose Israel from Gath (1 Sam 17), marking him out as one of these surviving ‘Anakim’” since he was of the Anakim clan of the Rephaim tribe.
We are told, “The text of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua do not describe a ‘holy war’ or genocide directed at a particular ethnicity of human beings, but…against his [God’s] spiritual enemies, demonic powers that had come to dominate the region of Canaan and the Transjordan” well, but humans got cough in the middle, right?—more on this to come.
Now, this point by Yung will become important, “even in cities that were to be destroyed there were people who were spared. Rahab the prostitute is in the genealogy of David and Jesus. Uriah the Hittite (the husband of Bathsheba) was one of David’s mighty men and descended from one of the tribes the Israelites were told to wipe out.”
Timothy Yung goes as far as, anachronistically, claiming, “Even a Nephilim in the Old Testament could join the Israelite community through circumision and if a Nephilim exists today they can join the Christian community by baptism.”
Yet, “The reason why we don’t see Nephilim/ giants run amok today is that they were wiped out not just in Canaan but in the other places they resided.”
Again, “The reason why we don’t see Nephilim/ giants run amok today is that they were wiped” via the flood.
We are told of that, “Ancient Greek mythology talks about a time period called the Gigantomachy where the giants were killed off…In pre-Christian Ireland there were legends about…giants of the land…the Epic of Gilgamesh ,the other ancient mythologies…giants in ancient mythology are described as being impossibly tall…”
The point being, “the issue wasn’t that the giants were tall but that the giants were being produced by the forces of the demonic realm” which still remains a mere and anachronistic assertion.
Timothy Yung then focuses on that, “The demonic spirits/ fallen angels who participated in the Nephilim producing ritual were sent to everlasting chains in the Abyss/Tartarus…Jesus’ spirit went to the realm of the dead. Jesus descended into Sheol/Hades…to proclaim His victory over the demonic forces, including the fallen angels who were in prison for participating in creating the Nephilim.”
I will say fair enough about that statement since it is based on, “Christ…being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water” (1 Peter 3:18-20).
The article ends with a sermonette about how nothing can swart God’s plan of salvation, etc.
Now, this article was interesting in that while is fallaciously asserted that Israelites were surrounded by non-human giants, Timothy Yung decided they could be saved. Pop-Nephilologists generally appeal to tall-tales about post-flood non-human giants in order to apologize of the conquering text. Yet, God told us many times why He commanded such things and never said a single word about non-human beings—I included an entire chapter just on this point in my book What Does the Bible Say About Giants and Nephilim?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help out. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Twitter page, on my Facebook page, or any of my other social network sites all which are available here.