Marduk

My King James Bible translates Nephilim as 'Giants' whereas my Revised Standard Edition leaves the word untranslated (Gen: 6) I believe the correct translation is 'fallen'. Where did the 'giants' business come from?
Though the Book of Enoch never made the final cut when they put the Bible together, it goes into great detail about them being offspring of the sons of god and earth women. If they left this part out, what is the official story on them? Sons of Cain? Somehow they survived the flood because they appear in Numbers after the flood.
I'd be interested in either the Christian or Talmudic or Jewish story, preferably both. You can leave out the space aliens version I already know that one.

Wyrdsmyth

I am also interested in hearing what the official take is on this.

I have always assumed that the Nephilim is a remnant of an older mythology that survived into the early Bible, of a religion that was polytheistic, with the gods interbreeding with the daughters of men and spawning a race of giants, ogres or demigods.

I am guessing Christians and/or Jews interpret this a bit differently, and that these were angels -- not gods -- that interbred with men. Since, after all, they have to try to make it all fit together with monotheism. And that seems to go against some later ideas about angels, that they are purely spiritual, non-physical, do not reproduce and hence are sexless.

Anunnaki

And then there are some who believe the Nephilim refers to me (the Anunnaki) who had "fallen to Earth" from somewhere else but I too would like to hear a more reasonable explanation for these giants.

-DM-

nef-eel
H5303

Strong's Hebrew Dictionary:
From H5307; properly, a feller, that is, a bully or tyrant:—giant.

Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions:
giants, the Nephilim

NAS Hebrew Dictionary:
from H5307; “giants,” name of two peoples, one before the flood and one after the flood:—Nephilim (3).

Marduk

"NAS Hebrew Dictionary:
from H5307; “giants,” name of two peoples, one before the flood and one after the flood:—Nephilim (3)."


hmmmm, this sounds like a clever dodge.

-DM-

Yes, of course, when there is a problem such as this (what would apparently be the same beings existing both before and after the alleged Flood) or an inconsistency in detail of a story told by two different biblical authors, one "solution" is to say that there were two different groups or incidents.

Keep in mind that apologists have had almost 2000 years to come up with "explanations" for such problems.

--Don--

thedoc

I've heard 2 separate explanations on who the "Sons of God" were. Both are controversial and I'm not sure which one is widely accepted as truth but what do I know anyways. The first explanation is that the Sons of God were in fact fallen angels. The Book of Enoch has always been cited as where this theory comes from. (In my experience) They found the women of the Earth fair and took them as wives. I've even heard that their children were like demigods and this is where the stories of Hercules, etc.. came from. I don't know how much of Enoch you may have read but the story goes that because of these events "The Lord" destroyed the world with the great flood. There are many more details to the story but maybe someone that is more knowledable than I could fill in the details.

The other theory that I have heard is that the "Sons of God" were simply the men of Israel who found women in other cultures fair and took them as wives against "The Lord's" will. They were not supposed to marry out of the tribes of Israel.

This is just what I can remember off the top of my head. Maybe someone can fill in my gaps.

RyanS2

I remember reading a mythology book written by a Christian a few years back, (anyone else read this book?), it talked about the Nephilim being able to mate with the animals and the daughters of man, creating "Hybrid" Gods, part man, part demon, part animal. These hybrids then went around ruling ancient societies, and that's the origin of things like the animal/man gods of Egypt and India.

Pantera

The ICR explains it all <a href="http://www.icr.org/newsletters/drjohn/drjohnfeb02.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

I don't know whether I should laugh or cry.

notto

I think that article should be read aloud to any school board considering creation science based on "scientific" information recieved from ICR or any of their "scientists".