Who Were the Nephilim?

Genesis 6 and Biblical Origins

The word nephilim appears twice in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. In Genesis 6:4 the KJV renders it "giants": "There were giants 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 became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." The Hebrew nephilim likely derives from the root naphal, "to fall" — making "fallen ones" the most etymologically defensible rendering, though "those who cause others to fall" has also been argued. The central ambiguity is the identity of the "sons of God" (bene elohim). Three major interpretations have dominated scholarship. The angelic view — held by the Septuagint translators, 1 Enoch, Josephus, and most early church fathers — reads bene elohim as angelic or supernatural beings who transgressed their station by taking human wives. This reading is supported by the identical phrase in Job 1:6 and 2:1, where it clearly refers to heavenly beings. The Sethite view, which gained prominence with Augustine, identifies the "sons of God" as righteous descendants of Seth who intermarried with wicked descendants of Cain. The ruler view reads bene elohim as human kings or nobles who abused their power. The angelic reading has the strongest lexical support, and the New Testament appears to presuppose it: both 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 refer to angels who "kept not their first estate" in a context that immediately precedes references to Noah. 1 Enoch (chapters 6-11) expands the story at length, describing 200 "Watchers" who descended, took wives, and fathered hybrid offspring. While 1 Enoch is not canonical in most traditions, Jude 14 quotes it directly, indicating it was known and respected in apostolic circles. Numbers 13:33 adds a second occurrence. The spies returning from Canaan report: "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." This claim by the frightened scouts — that Canaanite Anakim were descendants of the pre-flood Nephilim — may be literal or may reflect the scouts' exaggerated terror. Genesis 6:4 itself hedges: "and also after that," suggesting Nephilim existed after the flood as well, or at least that the tradition of such beings persisted.

How Christians Understand the Nephilim Today

The Nephilim do not occupy a liturgical place in Christian worship, but they remain a persistent subject of theological interest for three reasons. First, they raise questions about the nature of spiritual beings and their capacity to interact with the physical world — questions that bear on angelology and demonology. Second, they raise the pre-flood context of Genesis 6, which Jesus himself invokes: "as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37). Understanding the darkness of that era sharpens understanding of what the flood was answering. Third, the Nephilim appear in discussions of the biblical origins of evil that extend beyond Genesis — touching the intertestamental literature (1 Enoch, Jubilees), the Dead Sea Scrolls, and later rabbinic midrash. For many readers the story is also a reminder that Genesis 6 ends not with an explanation but with a flood — God's answer to corruption of a magnitude that defied ordinary remedy. In contemporary theology the passage functions primarily as a warning about spiritual boundaries and human dignity. Whatever the precise identity of the "sons of God," the union was wrong; whatever the Nephilim were, the earth "was corrupt" and "filled with violence" — and God acted.

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