In the Hebrew Bible and several non-canonical Jewish and early Christian writings, nephilim means the fallen [ones] are a people created by the cross-breeding of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men". The word nephilim is loosely translated as giants or titans in some Bibles, and is left untranslated in others.
Cylinder Seal depicting War in
Heaven
The Nephilim (plural) are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the
"daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers
13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to
refer to dead Philistine warriors.
In the Hebrew Bible and several non-canonical Jewish and early Christian
writings, nephilim means the fallen ones are a people created by the
cross-breeding of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men". The word
nephilim is loosely translated as giants or titans in some Bibles, and is left
untranslated in others.
The phrase "sons of God" is sometimes translated into English as "sons of
gods". The Hebrew word, "Elohim", is a plural form, but is often used with
single verbs and adjectives (as in this case) when the single meaning is
traditionally understood.
The traditional Jewish view, deriving from the Book of Enoch, is that the
fathers of the nephilim, the "sons of God", were the Grigori (a class of fallen
angels also called the Watchers); however, there is some controversy on this
point.
Some commentators suggest the nephilim were believed to have been fathered by
members of a proto-Hebrew pantheon, and are a brief glimpse of early Hebrew
religion, most of the details of which was later edited out from the Torah.
Others, especially some Christians, suggest the "sons of God" were fully human.
It is sometimes suggested that ridding the Earth of these nephilim was one of
God's purposes for flooding the Earth in Noah's time.
Despite the literal text of the Bible and its traditional interpretation, the
idea that heavenly beings mated with humans is controversial, particularly among
Christians, who cite the teaching of Jesus in the Book of Matthew that angels do
not marry (they may take the verse in question out of context because Jesus said
that the resurrected don't marry in heaven but are as the angels).
Others who find the idea of angels mating with humans as distasteful have
suggested more figurative interpretations of the nephilim, such as the idea that
they were the offspring of men possessed by demons.Still others, including the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, take the traditional view of Genesis 6:1 that the
allusion refers to some men, from the godly lineage of Seth, called sons of God
(an expression denoting those in covenant relationship with YHWH, cf.
Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:5), began to pursue fleshly interests, and so took wives of
the daughters of men, i.e., those who were unbelievers descended of Cain. This
is also the view presented in a few extra-biblical, yet ancient works,
particularly the Second Book of Adam and Eve.
Rephaim
Rephaim is a general title that the Book of Joshua states was given to the
aborigines of Palestine, which were afterwards conquered and dispossessed by the
Canaanite tribes. They were known to the Moabites as Emim, i.e., "fearful",
(Deut. 2:11), and to the Ammonites as Zamzummim. In the Books of Samuel, it
states that some of them found refuge among the Philistines, and were still
existing in the days of David. We know nothing of their origin.
Anakim
In the Torah, the Anakim are the descendants of Anak, and dwelt in the south
of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Hebron. In the days of Abraham they
inhabited the region afterwards known as Edom and Moab, east of the Jordan
river. They are mentioned during the report of the spies about the inhabitants
of the land of Canaan. The book of Joshua states that Joshua finally expelled
them from the land, excepting a remnant that found a refuge in the cities of
Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. The Philistine giants whom David encountered were
supposedly descendants of the Anakim.
Nephilim in Other Works
The story of the nephilim is chronicled more fully in the Book of Enoch (part
of Ethiopian biblical canon). There are also allusions to these descendants in
the deuterocanonical books of Judith, Sirach, Baruch, and Wisdom of Solomon.
Nephilim in Parahistory
There have been many interesting attempts to reconcile mythology with
evolution, the theory being that mythology often contains grains of truth in the
form of a highly distorted "folk memory" of events in the remote evolution of
the human past.
In this context, the nephilim have been associated with everything from
Atlantis to extraterrestrials in efforts to rationalize their literal existence.
One theory is that nephilim were actually surviving Neanderthals, or a Homo
sapiens-Neanderthal hybrid.
It is believed by such people that modern man shared several thousand years
of history with Neanderthals, and also that the Middle-Eastern region was home
to some of the last surviving pockets of Homo sapiens or H. neandertalensis.
Therefore, it is conceivable that a Folk Memory of these creatures survived by
way of mythology- but not necessarily in the way that it is imagined.
In addition, it appears that the very last Neanderthals adopted some of the
technological and cultural innovations of their contemporaries. So, the theory
goes, surviving Neanderthals or hybrids might have been very large, powerful
men, possessing the intellect and societal characteristics of our species,
explaining their identification as: "mightiest ones" and "men of renown," which
could be a great exaggeration based on some level of prowess.
One major flaw in this "theory" some have suggested is that neanderthalensis
were in fact slightly shorter in height than H. sapiens and unlikely to have
been named giants. On the other hand, they were giants relative to their even
shorter predecessors, Australopithecus and Homo habilis. Of course, this flaw is
easily resolved when one remembers that the word Nephilim earlier described
means "fallen ones" and not giants, the word being translated in the King James
Bible as "Giants", recognized now as somewhat of a mistranslation.
Nephilim
Simply put, the Nephilim were aliens who came to Earth to create humans.
Like everything else we call the history of humanity, it was all mythology, as
reality is a
consciousness hologram brought forth into the
physical to study emotions.
La frase “hijos de dios” se traduce a veces a inglés como “hijos de dioses”. La palabra hebrea, “Elohim”, es una forma plural, pero es de uso frecuente con solos verbos y adjetivos (como en este caso) cuando el solo significado se entiende tradicionalmente.
La visión judía tradicional, derivando del libro de Enoch, es que los padres del nephilim, los “hijos de dios”, eran el Grigori (una clase de ángeles caidos también llamó a los vigilantes); sin embargo, hay una cierta controversia en este punto.
Algunos comentaristas sugieren que el nephilim fuera creído haber sido engendrado por los miembros de un panteón proto-Hebreo, y que sea una breve ojeada de la religión hebrea temprana, la mayor parte de los detalles cuyo fue corregido más adelante hacia fuera del Torah. Otros, especialmente algunos cristianos, sugieren que los “hijos de dios” fueran completamente humanos. Se sugiere a veces que librando la tierra de estos el nephilim era uno de los propósitos de dios para inundar la tierra en el tiempo de Noah.
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