Who were the Nephelim?

LeakyPickle

Fallen angels Jan 25 06, 2:20 PM

lanfranco

Do you mean Nephilim? This is a Hebrew name given to the people described in Genesis 6 as the offspring of angels (or "the sons of God") and "the daughters of men" -- that is, human women. They are said in some stories to have been a race of giants or titans; in others, their fathers were actually fallen angels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim Jan 25 06, 2:52 PM

MelvynG

The Bible describes the Nephelim – Hebrew for ‘the fallen ones’. Once God’s angels, they were captivated by the beauty of mortal women, descended to earth, and took them as lovers. Jan 25 06, 6:46 PM

Arpeggionist

It's a very mysterious passage in Genesis that gave the Hebrew language the word "nephilim". For one, it never says directly that the nephilim were related to the "sons of the gods" or the daughters of men also recalled in the passage, but merely states that "the nephilim were in the land at that time." The last time the word is mentioned was to describe Og, the gigantic king of the Bashan region - "for only Og remains from the rest of the nephilim" (Deuteronomy 3:11), and the Israelites killed him. Jan 26 06, 3:02 AM

lanfranco

That's true, Arpeggionist. When I was reading through the passage, I noted that the description of the "sons" of god" taking the "daughters of men" to wife is actually followed by the Lord's decree that a man's days shall be a hundred and twenty years. The next line reads: "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God were came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown." (New Oxford Annotated Bible) In other words, it is not at all clear that the Nephilim are to be identified with the "mighty men" or the children in question, at least not in this passage. The translation may make a difference. Jan 26 06, 9:54 AM

Arpeggionist

In Numbers the 10 spies sent into Canaan report that among other things they saw "the Nephilim, sons of giants... and we were as roaches in our own eyes..." These are not to be confused with the Philistine giants mentioned in the end of Samuel. Also, to make matters more confusing, the Hebrew word "Elohim" which is mostly translated to mean God, must also be translated as "masters" or "judges" (as in Exodus 21), and sometimes refer very specifically to mortal humans. Jan 26 06, 5:15 PM