Who are the Nephilim?
Who are the Nephilim? In the sixth chapter of Genesis, we’re confronted with a curious reference to the Nephilim. Who are they? Were they a race who came to be through the mingling of divine beings and the daughters of men? Were the Nephilim engineered by God’s enemies to thwart his plans for mankind? Even more puzzling is how the Nephilim could show up in Numbers 13—long after the flood. Wouldn’t they have died out in the flood with the rest of humanity? How could they have shown up in Canaan? Is it possible that Noah himself was a Nephilim? At war with the serpent’s offspring In the third chapter of Genesis, God told Eve that her offspring would be locked in conflict with the serpent’s offspring (Gen 3:15). The serpent was actually a divine being, not a mere member of the animal kingdom. The divine being in the garden who rebelled against Yahweh’s desire to have humans rule an Edenic world is never cast in human form. Unlike the sons of God in Genesis 6:1–4 who are cast as assu...