Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.“
(Genesis 6:4)

The word Nephilim (nef-eel’) means ‘giants’ or a ‘feller’ (that is a bully or a tyrant). Two different peoples are named Nephilim. One group here, before the Flood, and one group after the Flood (like in Numbers 13:33). The word for ‘men of renown’ comes from a root that brings up a mark or memorial of distinction. Of individuality. It implies honour, authority, and character. Twice-named, if you will. Frequently in scripture (and in the ancient world) you find people who have a name they were given, and then one or more names by which they are known because of the deeds that they did. It was not unusual for people to change names two or three or more times throughout their lives if they were people who really set themselves apart by what they accomplished. ‘mighty men’ comes from a word meaning powerful, warrior, and even tyrant. They are people who excelled. They were strong. They may have been valiant. They were those of whom people repeated their deeds (heroes).

Some people believe that they were literally giant in stature. There is certainly a LOT of actual, physical evidence that giants existed on this planet and in more than one locale.

There are those that believe that these were unclean offspring of mating between fallen angels (demonic spirits) and human women. While I believe they were wholly given over to evil, I believe they were the sons of the line of Cain who took women from the line of Seth. I think they were a natural product, but that their thinking, behaviour, and worship was all about self and about evil things. I believe they were the worst of the worst when it came to character, that there were no lines drawn, and they did anything and everything that came into their minds whether it was violence, physical pleasure, or totally and utterly derogatory and deviant. I think that because of this thinking, this giving into whatever they FELT like, the population began to indulge in broken morality of every kind – which led to more and more degeneration. This broken thinking led to almost everyone being that same way. It spread like a cancer and infected them all. Which is EXACTLY why the Lord is so firm in telling the Israelites to maintain separation from the nations around them who were ungodly in their worship and their thinking (Deuteronomy 7:3, for example).

The sage Rashi writes about this verse: ‘הגבורים MIGHTY — in rebellion against God. אנשי שם MEN OF RENOWN (literally, men of name) — Men who bore distinctive names: עירד, מחויאל, מתושאל being so named because these names have reference to their destruction, for they were wiped out and torn out from the world (מחוי-אל would signify “wiped-out-by-God”, מתושאל “Torn-out-by-God). Another explanation is that they were men of devastation (אנשי שם-מון) — who devastated the world (Genesis Rabbah 26:7).’

The sage Rambam writes: ‘Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained: “also after the flood, since the sons of Anak were of the family of bnei ha’elohim.” If so, we must say that either the wives of Noah’s sons were of their [the Nephilim’s] descendants and resembled them or that ibn Ezra will accept the statement of the Rabbi who advanced the interpretation that Og escaped from the flood, to which Rabbi Abraham will add that others too escaped with him [since the verse states: “The ‘Nephilim’ — (in the plural) — were in the earth…and also after that”, which Ibn Ezra interprets as meaning after the flood].
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Adam and his wife are called bnei ha’elohim because they were G-d’s handiwork and He was their father; they had no father besides Him. And he [Adam] begot many children, as it is written, And he begot sons and daughters. Now these men, first to be born of a father and mother, were of great perfection in height and strength because they were born in the likeness of their father, as it is written concerning Seth, And he [Adam] begot a son in his own likeness, after his image. And it is possible that all the children of the first generations — Adam, Seth, Enosh — were called bnei ha’elohim because these three men were in the likeness of G-d. But then the worship of idols commenced, and there came upon men a weakness and slackness.’

The sage Chizkuni sees it more as a moral weakness. He writes: ‘וגם אחרי כן, “and also subsequently.” Even after G-d had expressed His anger at man’s conduct on earth, as described in: 6,3, Man had not leaned to submit to the supremacy of its Creator as testified to by verse two which described their disrespect for holy matrimony, i.e. the status of a wife as inalienably linked to her husband was completely ignored by the physically superior men wishing to possess women to whom they were attracted.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘The verse notes: The giants [nefilim] were on the earth in those days, and also thereafter. It is possible that they were called nefilim because they fell [nafelu] from their position of greatness, or because they were more wondrous [nifla] than the rest of humanity. The nefilim are mentioned much later as well, some as mythical creatures, others as actual people, perhaps remnants of the primeval giants mentioned in this verse. The nefilim were born when the sons of the great ones consorted with the daughters of man, and they bore them children. Although the nefilim were not themselves “sons of the great ones” in either sense mentioned above, as their children they were nonetheless great and powerful. Although few in number, the nefilim ruled over many places in the world. For example, Og, king of Bashan, was described as one of the last surviving descendants of these giants. He was killed by the children of Israel in his kingdom, the Bashan, in the present-day Golan Heights. They were the mighty who were from ancient times, the men of renown, those who made a name for themselves and were remembered by later generations. When people spoke of the mighty men of yore, they were referring to these nefilim .’