Does the Bible Explain Where the Nephilim Came From?

Before we discuss extrabiblical sources, we must ascertain what Scripture says about something.

We will operate from the Protestant Bible here. The Catholic Bible’s apocryphal material includes books that have much more to say about Nephilim (more on this in the next section).

We only see the word Nephilim in one verse—Genesis 6:4. The verse says the sons of God (angels, as most people would interpret it) married the daughters of men (humans) and had offspring known as the Nephilim. The original Hebrew word in the verse, napil (or nefeel), means “giants.” Some say it means “fallen ones.”

They were “mighty men.” Or, as some mythologies would put it, demigods.

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While the Bible only uses the term Nephilim once, we see giants in Scripture in other places.

• The Anak or the Anakim. The Israelites compare these people to giants (Numbers 13). They inhabit the Promised Land, and the Israelites appear to take over. If they were indeed giants of supernatural origin, the demons must’ve intermingled with humans again. The Flood in Genesis 7 would’ve wiped out all the Nephilim.
• The People of Gath. The town where Goliath came from. Goliath’s armor is described as incredibly heavy (much heavier than most normal humans would’ve been able to handle and carry), and he’s tall enough to scare away all the Israelites from fighting him one-on-one.

If demons did mate with human women, we can imagine this was not part of God’s design. God had intended for children to form from the marriage union between humans. GSatan had interfered with the very DNA that made humans, well, human.

Unfortunately, the canonical books of the Bible don’t provide other details about the Nephilim or other giants. If we want more information, we do have to look to extrabiblical sources.

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Given that the original word means giants, and these texts also talk about giants, we can explore what other books say about the Nephilim and affirm the details that fit with Scripture. We will have to take a grain of salt with some of the more fanciful material., but we can affirm what fits with inspired Scripture.

Here are the major extrabiblical sources that provide information about the Nephilim.

The Book of Enoch

This pseudepigraphical text seems to be the main source from which we derived the demigod theory about the Nephilim.

According to the Book of Enoch, demons slept with human women and had powerful offspring. These giants pillaged villages, endangered people, and domineered humanity. Many people theorize about whether Nimrod was a Nephilim. And when it said that he was a great hunter, people say that he hunted humans for sport. Apparently, they required so much food that they resorted to cannibalism. 

Enoch also seems to believe that the demons and Nephilim mated with animals, which would be the origin for the animal-human hybrids (such as the minotaurs and centaurs) seen in various mythology.

Josephus

Jewish historian Josephus seemed to believe in the existence of the Nephilim. He says they are the same giants the Greeks told about in myths. He also believed that the Canaanites who inhabited the Promised Land were the offspring of these giants.

Minor Other Sources

Some other sources mention of these creatures include:

• The Genesis Apocryphon—a Dead Sea Scrolls book that recounts Noah’s life.
• The Damascus Document—another Dead Sea Scroll document that talks about guardian angels and their giant sons.
• The Book of Jubilees—a work included in the Catholic Bible that reports that the angels lusted after female humans and fell from grace because of their desires.
• In 2 Baruch—a pseudapigraphal work which claims that the fallen Nephilim got wiped out by the Flood.

All this is to say that ancient Jewish texts seem to support the idea that demons intermarried with humans, and their actions tore humanity apart. Humanity plunged into moral depravity, and God created the Flood to start over.

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The theory that the Flood was an attempt to destroy the Nephilim raises a question: do they still exist today?

The people of Gath may have been descendants of Nephilim, meaning their heritage survived through giants like Goliath. Even so, these later giants wouldn’t be what we see in the Genesis narrative.

In the Genesis narrative, they were 50 percent demon and 50 percent human. Descriptions in Jewish rabbinical writings seemed to indicate they were horrible to look at and horrible to hear. Some say they had extra fingers and toes or double rows of teeth.

We would have a clear idea if these monsters were still walking around today.

So, as far as we know, Nephilim do not still exist today. Which may make us wonder why they matter to us today.

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The Bible and extrabiblical texts describe these giants roaming the earth, wreaking havoc. However, we don’t see any evidence that they exist today.

With this in mind, what can we learn from them?

1. Nephilim seem to check out with other culture’s myths and stories.

Almost every culture seems to have myths about giants and half-human hybrids. If demons had intermingled with humans and animals, it would explain where these cultures derived these myths.

We can imagine the horrors of going toe-to-toe with a giant or a minotaur. We can understand how they would have ruled the earth for some time. No one could stand up to such might.

2. God does not like when people (or demons) mess with the natural order of things.

God had intended for offspring to happen through humans. When demons stepped into the picture, chaos ensued. Chaos that led to a worldwide flood.

We cannot imagine the awful state of the world that it had wound up in in Genesis 6. It was far worse than anything we’ve seen in current events. We can also see God’s justice in starting things over. If God created a Flood to wipe out the Nephilim, and later sent people like David to eliminate the Nephilim’s descendants, we can understand the reasoning.

3. God is bigger than all of it.

I think about David, with a sling full of rocks, aiming them at the head of a giant. The entire Israelite army trembled when Goliath challenged them. But David knew. David understood that God had defeated giants in the past, and he could do it again.

No matter what Satan can create (or rather corrupt, since he can’t create anything), God can defeat it.

We can imagine the Israelites felt daunted by the giants in the Promised Land. They got so daunted they set themselves back decades (four decades, to be exact) from entering the land. But ultimately, God tore the walls down and allowed them to take over the city.

God is bigger than the Nephilim. There isn’t a giant that he cannot conquer.

Further Reading:

What Do We Know about the Nephilim?

Who Are the Nephilim in the Bible?

Are the Nephilim Giants or Fallen Angels?

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