2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. Gen. 6:2

It used to be only a few people had ever heard of this cabalistic teaching. We rarely had to deal with the absurd idea that there were or are hybrid people out there. This belief that somehow fallen angels had sex with human women and produced giants. However now almost everyone asks us about this. It seems many of the prophecy mongers are now getting on the “Ancient Aliens” bandwagon. If you have not seen the TV show, their whole premise is that a bunch of guys who have never read anything about comparative religion or art appreciation has taken a look at some old piece of art that they don’t understand and conclude “aliens”.  This is not how one determines what the Bible means or for that matter what the art is about.

This would never even occur to people who actually read their Bibles. One has to be told this nonsense is here and then never look at the verses. The context of the verse is the genealogy of men NOT angels. Angels are not even mentioned. It is a genealogy of humans. It is illogical to change the subject in this way.

30 Lamech lived after the birth of Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. 

32 After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

1 When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,  2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.”  4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. 

5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Gen. 5:30-6:10

The word nephilim is just the verb to fall in a plural noun form. It does not mean giants. It means the fallen ones. They were mighty men the same way Nimrod and Balaam were mighty men [Gen 10:8; Num 24:15]. The only other place nephilim occurs is in Numbers. (See also: Four kinds of Men)

And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim); and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Num. 13:33

There is a problem here. The whole point of the flood was to get rid of these people. If there are people after the flood that are descendants of the Nephilim? This would mean that Noah was a Nephilim and we know from the genealogy that he is not, for he is “blameless in his generations.” So what is going on here? This is just hyperbole! This is the same kind of speech pattern we all use, as we might call an opposing football team a bunch of ogres.

The only place in the Bible where the term “sons of God” means angelic or spiritual beings is in Job. Every Bible scholar will tell that Job is a unique book. That its language and images stand alone. It is never to be used to prove a point of language usage.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. Job 1:6 

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. Job 2:1

when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:7

The passage in question is not in the rather unique Job but rather a book of Moses, in a historical context. Where it means humans, as well as the Psalmist, and Paul.

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Deut. 32:8 

I say, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; Psa. 82:6

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; Rom. 8:19

“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Rom. 9:26

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. Gal. 3:26

These nephilim are in the middle of the genealogy of Adam i.e. Humans. We have this as an explanation of what went wrong in the families of men. The “sons of God” i.e. the descendants of Seth and the “daughters of men” i.e. the descendants of Cain, married. The offspring of such unions created children who did not follow after God. The daughters of men raised their children to have consciences that were seared, who sought their own wealth and power, either by great deeds or by great deception. They were the “mighty men” “the men of renown” or “tyrants of old”.

This is exactly as Balaam taught the Ammonites and Moabites how to win the ultimate battle with God’s people. Balaam’s idea was to turn God against His own people by mixing with them. Marry with them, then the women can teach God’s people to corrupt their own faith. The God would destroy His own people for their unfaithfulness. Just as God had destroyed everyone but Noah and his family at the flood.

Messiah’s Comment

Messiah, Himself said angels are sexless [Matt. 22:30]. So it is impossible for them to have had hybrid children. But of course, this means nothing to the false teachers. Why should what Messiah said have any bearing on their fantasy teaching? They are busy tickling ears [2 Tim 4:3].

. . . nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith; 1 Tim. 1:4

If it were true that there were giants and these giants are hybrids. Then what comes next is that all tall people need to be marched off to some kind of Auschwitz so the human race can be purged in order to return to a pure state. These are simply men who walked with God and then married the daughters of men or Cain and they and their children went apostate.

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,  5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. 7 For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned. Heb. 6:1-8

Now it is time to put these false teachers out of our hearts and congregations.

Giants in Archaeology