eots
no fly list
they were called giants but depicted with serpent heads
The first race of giants mentioned in the canon is perhaps also the most enigmatic. The relevant passage runs thus:
When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days -- and also afterward -- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4, NIV throughout except where noted otherwise)
It has been argued that the portion of v. 4 that mentions the Nephilim should stand on its own, apart from the rest of this passage (cf. Westermann, p. 366). Be that as it may, it is difficult to understand who the Nephilim are, exactly, without some sort of context, even if we must put them in a context that is fraught with its own problems of interpretation.
But first, why should we look at the Nephilim at all? Why should they be considered giants, and thus included in this paper? The answer can be found in Number 13:32-33, which is the only other explicit reference to the Nephilim in the canon. In this passage, the Hebrew spies tell their desert-wandering comrades what they found in Canaan:
"...All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
Flying Chariot Ministries - Genesis Re-Revisited
The first race of giants mentioned in the canon is perhaps also the most enigmatic. The relevant passage runs thus:
When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days -- and also afterward -- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4, NIV throughout except where noted otherwise)
It has been argued that the portion of v. 4 that mentions the Nephilim should stand on its own, apart from the rest of this passage (cf. Westermann, p. 366). Be that as it may, it is difficult to understand who the Nephilim are, exactly, without some sort of context, even if we must put them in a context that is fraught with its own problems of interpretation.
But first, why should we look at the Nephilim at all? Why should they be considered giants, and thus included in this paper? The answer can be found in Number 13:32-33, which is the only other explicit reference to the Nephilim in the canon. In this passage, the Hebrew spies tell their desert-wandering comrades what they found in Canaan:
"...All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
Flying Chariot Ministries - Genesis Re-Revisited