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Nephilim
T he puzzling word Nephilim occurs in two passages of the Old Testa ment. Genesis 6:4 is the first and reads: “The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.” The second passage is Numbers 13:32, 33 which states: “And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshop pers, and so we were in their sight.” The latter passage occurs in the report of those who had gone to spy out the land for the people of Israel. The meaning is clear that the spies considered the inhabitants of Canaan as gigantic in stature. There are in stances in Scripture of those of un usual or abnormal stature. Og, king of Bashan, is pointed out for his re markable height. Goliath of Gath was unusually tall (1 Sam. 17:4), as was the one slain by Benaiah (1 Chr. 11:23). There was a nation like the Anakim'who lived east of the Jordan (see Deut. 1:28; 2:10, 11, 20, 21; 9:2). The suggestion has been made that Goliath was of the Anakim (cf. 2 Sam. 21:15-22). The valley of Reph- aim near Jerusalem preserved by its name the memory of these people (see Josh. 15:8; 18:16). The Genesis text has occasioned much more difficulty. It is found in the text which speaks of the marriages of the sons of God with the daughters of men, a fact variously interpreted as we know. The He b r ew wo r d Nephilim is of uncertain origin, al though several possibilities of explan ation have been advanced. One view derives it from the verb to fall, and makes these creatures “ fallen ones.” The interpretation has it that these
are fallen ones from heaven, heavenly beings. Another view derives the term from to be wonderful (that is, in size).. A noted Old Testament scholar has rendered the Hebrew noun as those “unnaturally begotten,” that is, by abortion (cf. Isa. 26:18, nephel). A recent Hebrew lexicon advocates “ superhuman beings emerg ing from miscarriages.” $Luther, in his translation of the Scriptures, fa vored tyrants (Tyrannen). In any case, the Nephilim are not to be identified with the children born to the sons of God and the daughters of men. The text would appear to distinguish these offspring from Nephilim who were already living on earth before the ungodly mixture in marriage took place. If we harmonize the Genesis text with the Numbers passage (and we do so on the interpretative principle of the comparison of Scripture with Scrip ture), then we find all references to Nephilim as speaking of giants. This is the earliest translation of the word in the Greek version of the Old Testa ment, which gives gigantes (giants). These were men who went about in bands, of violent disposition and with wicked ambition, as parallel passages show. It is altogether within the realm of the probable that, in that early day centuries and millennia ago when men lived for hundreds of years, men should witness on earth a race of men of more than usual height. Apparently, they were of the Cainite line who are distinguished from the descendants of the mixed marriages. Of what value is a study of these persons to us today? Our Lord stated that in the last days before His visible appearing (Matt. 24:37-39), men would witness a re-enactment of the days of Noah. We are not to ex pect the appearance of men 'of gigan tic stature (although we cannot deny the possibility of it), but men with the same natures as the Nephilim. The days become increasingly diffi cult, but the Lord remains, as always, the refuge of His people. He is suffi cient. END.
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