A Book about the Nephilim

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

There is a great deal of interest in the Nephilim, and much of what is written is not supported by the canonical Scriptures, history, archaeology and anthropology.

The term refers to powerful men who were considered "sons of God" in the ancient world because of their authority and grandeur.

In Genesis 6 the phrase "sons of God" parallels the phrase "daughters of men." Such parallelism is typical of Semitic literature. 

The attempt to portray the archaic rulers as an alien supernatural element fails because these were mortal men whose descendants were living among the Horite Hebrew in Hebron. Numbers 13:33 identifies the Nephilim with the people of Anak, a ruler. His “Anakim” people are associated with Kiriath Arba, an ancient name for Hebron, where Sarah resided. Her settlement marked the northern boundary of Abraham’s territory.

Unfortunately, most Bibles translate Nephilim as “giants” when it should read “great ones.” Nephilim comes from the same root as the Aramaic npyl (naphil) which means great. This is equivalent to the Arabic nfy, meaning hunter. It is said concerning Nimrod that he was a “mighty hunter” or a “mighty man” before the Lord (Gen. 10).

If the word nephilim came from Hebrew naphal, it would not be spelled as we find it. For the word nephilim to mean "fallen ones" it would be spelled as nephulim. Likewise, nephilim does not mean "those who fall" or "those who fall away" - that would be nophelim. The only way in Hebrew to get nephilim from naphal by the rules of Hebrew morphology would be to presume a noun spelled naphil and then pluralize it. However, this noun does not exist in biblical Hebrew.

These powerful rulers were also designated gibborim, a Hebrew word that means "mighty ones". The word gibor refers to a great or powerful man. Some Hebrew queens held the title gibrah, meaning powerful woman.

The period of 300-200 BC includes the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) and the First Book of Enoch, both of which gave rise to the idea of fallen angels mysteriously mixing with humans. The Books of Enoch are 1 Enoch, also known as the "Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch" and the Slavonic version that is referred to as 2 Enoch or "The Book of the Secrets of Enoch." 1 Enoch was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic (probably both), but the only complete copy known today is in Ge'ez, a language of Ethiopia. 1 Enoch dates to no earlier than around 200 BC. The pertinent chapters are 1-36 (The Watchers) and chapters 72-82 (The Astronomical Writings). These books fit Risto Santala's description of literature that, like "the esoteric Qabbalah wandered off the right track in creating a very extensive literature on doctrines of angels and mysteries..."

I have written an entire book on these "mighty men" who are identified as "heroes" and "men of renown" in Genesis 6:4. They were the First Lords of the Earth and their influence on humanity continues to this day. 

Related reading: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Reading the Bible in a Different Way; STEM Education: The Genesis Rulers Through the Lens of Anthropology