Online Sermons
Lesson #7 - Nephilim
Series: One WordLESSON #7 – NEPHILIM
Intro: While one may not be able to definitively satisfy all questions related to the Nephilim, one should strive to offer a
reasonable discussion by articulating views that are first of all Biblical and secondly, sound in both logic and coherency.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) WHO WERE THE NEPHILIM?
Generally speaking, the Nephilim and their sub-groups are called by various names: Anakim (sons of Anak/Num.13:33; Deut.9:2 and Josh11:21 & 14:12) … Emim or Rephaim/Gen.14:5 & Deut.2:10-11 & 3:13 … Zamzummin (Deut.2:20-21).
~ The Nephilim are described as men of very large stature - - GIANTS.
- The twelve men who spied out the land of Canaan spoke of them as being strong (Num.13:28), saying,
we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight (Num.13:33).
Great, numerous and tall (Deut.2:10 & 2:21) … A people great and tall (Deut.9:2) …
Og, King of Basham, was a Rephaim.
He slept in a bed that measured 6 feet wide by 13 ½ feet long (Deut.3:11).
Goliath from Gath, although called a Philistine, was also a likely descendant of the Rephaim.
As a young man, David fought Goliath, whose height was six cubits and a span (c. 9½ feet or taller).
Goliath’s armor and weaponry also attests to his gigantic dimensions (cf. 1Sam.17:1-7).
While David slew Goliath (1Sam.17:50-51 with 1Sam.19:5; 21:9 & 22:10),
1Chron.20:4f and 2Sam.21:18f records the slaying of other giants.
For what it’s worth, note the “deformities/mutations” - - six fingers on both hands and six toes on both foot.
2) WHERE DID THESE GIANTS COME FROM?
Not geography, but genealogy or more precisely anthropology.
~ The first Biblical reference of the Nephilim is found in Gen.6:4.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men,
and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men or renown.
This verse has sparked considerable discussion. Who were “the sons of God” and who were “the daughters of men”??
Here are three of the more popular interpretations
a1) The sons of God (Seth’s godly male descendants) married the daughters of men (Cain’s ungodly female descendants).
2) The sons of God (angels/Job 1:6; 2:1 & 38:7) married the daughters of men.
One caveat to this argument often specifies that these were “fallen angels” who went after strange flesh (Jude 7).
The Hebrew root of the word nephilim means to fall. While some angels may have “fallen”, so was mankind.
Could God’s assigning these sinful angels to the abyss (hell) have come after the events of Gen.6:4? – cf. 2Pet.2:4 & Jude 6
3) The sons of God (aliens or extra-terrestrial creatures) married human women.
Some view these giants (explanation #2 above) as demi-gods (human & angelic), but Gen.6:4 calls them MEN/HUMAN.
If there were giant women, the Scriptures are silent on this matter.
Giants are also described in extrabiblical literature from the Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Mesopotamians and Egyptians.
In Acts 17:26 Paul contends, (God) made from one, every nation of mankind on the earth…
Could their gargantuan size and other mutations have been brought about as a result of a too-close inter-marriage?
3. WHAT BECAME OF THESE GIANTS?
They existed in the antediluvian world (Gen.6:4), but their genetics also appear after the flood (Josh.11:21f & 14:12).
Could that gene pool still be in existence today? Both history and archeology document the remains of occasional giants.
