Who were the Nephilim?
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
5/28 Reading Portions: Deuteronomy 1; Psalms 81-82; Isaiah 29; 3 John
Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
UNBELIEVERS
By this verse, the Holy Spirit seems to go out of His way to ensure that we understand that the Nephilim (translated giants in the KJV) were not the progeny of the “sons of God” having an intimate union with the “daughters of man” because they existed before the sons of God had this relationship, “and also afterward.” Allow me to get redundant and reiterate. The result of the relationship between the sons of God and the daughters of man did not produce the resultant Nephilim. Nor did the flood destroy them. They also existed in the land of Canaan in the days of Moses after Israel’s deliverance from their bondage in Egypt. It is written,
So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 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.” Numbers 13:32-33, emphasis added
So, who were the Nephilim? I suggest to you that it was an ancient term for unbelievers, like goy or goyim was a later term for non-Israelite or non-Jew. “The Nephilim” is plural, in Hebrew הַנפִלִים (han-fi-LEEYM), and it comes from the Hebrew primitive root נָפַל (na-FAL). The primitive root means “to fall,” as in its first use in the Bible, in Adam falling into a deep sleep:
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. Genesis 2:21, emphasis added
The next time this primitive root appears, it is used twice to explain the fallen countenance of Cain when the prideful work of his unfaithful hands was rejected by God in Cain’s attempt to worship:
And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?” Genesis 4:4b-6, emphasis added (click here to read devotional for Gen 4:3-5)
Actually, even the first time the primitive root is used in Genesis 2:21, may apply, as falling asleep is a New Testament metaphor for death (John 11:11-15; 1 Cor 15:6, 18, 20; 1 Thess 4:14-15; et al). In Adam’s case, it prophetically foreshadowed Christ’s death to bring forth His beloved bride, His church, as it is written:
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, Ephesians 5:25
In Cain’s case, it reflects all unbelief and unfaithfulness, as it is written:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3
Therefore, the Nephilim are simply reprobate human beings, the sons and daughters of disobedience.