Nephilim

For other meanings of Nephilim, see: Nephilim (disambiguation).

Nephilim (in Hebrew הנּפלים means The Fallen [ones]) are mentioned in the the Hebrew Bible. The word is loosely translated as giants or titans in some Bibles and left untranslated in others. They were fathered by fallen angels who mated with mortal women. There are two clear Biblical references to the Nephilim, one in the Book of Genesis 6:1-4 as the offspring of "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men", and the other in the Book of Numbers 13:33 as inhabitants of the land of Canaan.

They are mentioned in two contexts in the Bible:

Nephilim in Genesis

• "...Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Yefeth. Man began to increase on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were good, and they took themselves wives from whomever they chose. God said, 'My spirit will not continue to judge man forever, since he is nothing but flesh. His days shall be 120 years.' The nephilim ("giants" or "titans") were on the earth in those days and also later. The sons of God had come to the daughters of man and had fathered them. They were the mightiest ones who ever existed, men of renown." (Genesis 6:1-4)

Thus from the above source the nephilim are the "sons" of the union between the "sons of God" who are supposedly fallen angels according to classical Judaic explanations (Targum Jonathan) and the daughters of man descended from Adam.

It is sometimes suggested that ridding the Earth of this race of giants was God's real purpose in flooding the Earth in Noah's time.

Nephilim in Numbers

• "God spoke to Moses, saying: 'Send out men for yourself to explore the Canaanite territory that I am about to give the Israelites...The men headed north and explored the land...They gave the following report:'...However, the people living in the land are aggressive, and the cities are large and well fortified. We also saw "the giant's" (ha'anak) descendants there'...They began to speak badly about the land that they had explored. They told the Israelites: 'The land that we crossed to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants. All the men we saw there were "huge men" (anshei midot). While we were there, we saw the nephilim ("giants" or "titans"), they were sons of the "giant" (anak), who descended from the nephilim ("giants" or "titans"), and we saw ourselves as tiny grasshoppers and that's what we were in their eyes." (Numbers 13:1-2;21;27-33).

From the above episode in the Book of Numbers it is therefore the spies sent by Moses to scout out the land who give negative and frightening descriptions about the land of Canaan and who provide reports of the nephilim inhabiting the land. From the context of that report it is clear that they assume that their listeners already know about the nephilim whose origins are described in the Book of Genesis.

Other Biblical giants

The Anakim and the Rephaim, which are mentioned in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, are races of giants which descended from the Nephilim.

Nephilim in other works

The story of the Nephilim is chronicled more fully in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

There are also allusions to these descendants in the deuterocanonical books of Book of Judith, Sirach, Book of Baruch, and the Wisdom of Solomon.