GENESIS 6:1-4

Q: Who or what are the Nephilim?

Start with the immediate context– the chapters preceding give Cain and Seth’s genealogies while the 

chapters following deal with God punishing man for disobedience. The immediate context doesn’t give 

much help because individual verses may have nothing to do with surroundings other than belonging to

 the same chronological period. Many translations even put these verses in parentheses.

Three major possibilities:

Sons of                              Daughters

Elohim                              of Men                                      Nephilim

a. Angels (sons of God)     women                           giants, Neanderthals

or demons (sons of gods)

b. Godly line of Seth         line of Cain                              heroes

c. local tribal rulers           harems                     princes, great men, aristocrats

First view – pro

Sons of God = angels in Job 1:6 & 2:1, Psalm 29:1 and other OT passages.

Literally sons of gods (elohim) so it may refer to demons (not that different from angels led by Satan).

LXX translates sons of God as “angels.” This view has been held by most commentators up to the

 present time. The intertestamental books I Enoch and Jubilees elaborate on the angels' sin. The former

 book states, “Come, let us select wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children...Then 

 took wives, each choosing for himself...”

 

Ronald Hendel (Bible Review, Summer 1987) points out the parallel language (“multiply”) in Genesis

 6:1 and Genesis 6:5. The Flood is the last time God will intervene to prevent a “cosmic imbalance,” 

 other times being the prevention of Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life and preventing the

 Tower of Babel from “reaching heaven.”

First view – con

Some reject it as being too bizarre and too much like Greek and Roman fables. They would be happier

 with a more “rational” explanation.

Mark 12:25 (Matthew 22:30) states that angels do not marry. But this is the situation in heaven and not

 necessarily on earth, and refers to present and future, but not to times past.

The main sin here is the unnatural coupling of angels with men. But why would mankind be punished 

for angels' sins? Only if it included demon-possessed mankind or mankind was overly influenced to sin

by the straying angels. Others point out that animals and plants were also punished in the flood even

 though they were innocent.

  

Genesis 6:4 would seem to argue against this view since a mixed breed race would have been wiped out

 in the flood. But (a) the order of verses makes it not really clear that the Nephilim were actually the

 offspring being talked about. (b) Also, it may only mean that the name lived on to be applied to any

 large or powerful men. (c) A third possibility is that it referred to the angels themselves since the root

 meaning to Nephilim is “to fall.” Numbers 13:32-33 is only other reference to Nephilim, where it 

apparently referred to people of large stature (through association with Anakim). But there is the very

 real possibility of discounting the evidence of the spies as negative hyperbole (“men as grasshoppers

 and a land that eats people”).

A variation of this theme found on the Internet has Neanderthal men as the offspring of angels and 

women. The problem is that they were rather short in stature, not giants at all.

Second view

This is not as popular as it once was, mainly due to lack of any evidence linking sons of God and

daughters of men with any genealogical line. But it does fit best with the context of the preceding 

chapters. If it refers to Seth's line, then the sin is the unequal yoking of believers with non-believers.

This could explain survival of wholly human offspring through the flood, as does the third view..

Third view

“Sons of gods” is a term used in pagan cultures to denote princes or kings. Ancient rulers often claimed 

divine status. If so, then the earth is being partially punished for the sins of bigamy, forceful taking of 

women, and pride of its rulers.

The offspring are apparently called gibborim, which means a person of mighty valor or wealth. Nimrod

 was called a gibbor in Genesis 10:8, and he was obviously just a human king or ruler.

 

New Testament Evidence

2 Peter 2:4 alludes to angels who sinned, but does not point out the nature of their sin. This could 

possibly be associated with war in heaven between loyal angels and angels who followed Satan (as in

the Book of Revelation) and have nothing to do with Genesis 6.

See also Isaiah 24:21-22, which may refer to evil spiritual forces mentioned in Ephesians 6:12.

Jude 6-7 seems to be more applicable. It has similarities to a passage in I Enoch referring to Genesis 6.

In verse 6, some of the angels are said to have left their proper place. This could mean that they

attempted to take over God's place in heaven, or that they left heaven to go live on earth. Much hinges 

on what the word “they” in verse 7 refers back to-- the angels or Sodom and Gomorrah. If the latter,

then there is a strong parallel between Genesis 6 (angels lusting after humans) and Sodom and 

Gomorrah (humans lusting after angels).