Tag: nephilim

Teraphim

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וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֵלָיו֙ לָבָ֔ן אִם־נָ֛א מָצָ֥אתִי חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֶ֑יךָ נִחַ֕שְׁתִּי וַיְבָרְכֵ֥נִי יְהֹוָ֖ה בִּגְלָלֶֽךָ׃

But Laban said to him, “If you will indulge me, I have learned by divination that יהוה has blessed me on your account.”
Genesis 30:27 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

There are many supernatural things in Genesis. There’s the flaming cherubim, angels and nephilim, among other things.

In Genesis 30, we’re introduced to “divination.” In Hebrew, the root word is נָחַשׁ (nachash). It’s the same root as the word “serpent” in Genesis 3: נָחָשׁ.

The concept involves hidden knowledge, or to know something supernaturally. The Hebrew scholars link Laban’s divination with his household idols.

In Hebrew, the household idols are “teraphim,” and they are specifically used for divining.

Also, Laben’s statement seems to harken back to Genesis 12:3, where God tells Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you…”

Corruption of Knowing

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And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
Genesis 19:5 (KJV)

The rabbis agree that Genesis 19 refers to homosexual relations, but it’s clear that this isn’t the “to know” that Adam and Eve experienced in Genesis 4:1. It’s not a union of two who become one flesh. And it’s not like the “to know” that God experiences with Abraham in Genesis 18:19, where spiritual intimacy and oneness is presented to us.

It’s a threat of violence against unwilling participants. In that regard, it’s more like Genesis 6:4, with similar consequences.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4 (NASB)

After this, the Flood. After this, the Fire.

Saints and Sinners

Posted on by jovial_cynic
I think Chuck Missler is attributed with this quote, and while I don’t agree w/ everything he says on the subject, this quote rings absolutely true to me:

“The opposite of a saint is not a sinner.
The opposite of a saint is the Nephilim.”

The idea is that Christianity often sets up believers as the “good guys” and non-believers as the “bad guys,” but in fact, the bad guys are these wicked things bent on destroying God’s good order. Humanity is full of saints and sinners, and humanity is full people God is intent on rescuing.

The Nephilim are Something Else

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The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4 (NIV)

If you look very closely, Genesis 6 does not actually say the Nephilim are the offspring of the sons of God and human women. It merely says they were present then and afterwords.

Whether they are the offspring or not is unclear, but other later writings outside the Bible (the book of Enoch, Jubilees) suggest so.

If they are not the offspring of the “sons of God” and the good daughters of humanity, the Haman (who is associated with “falling,” like the word “Nephilim) connection is stronger, as Haman is not a son of Xerxes in the book of Esther.

Violence Against Women

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The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4 (NIV)

The actions of the “sons of God” here are written in stark and glaring contrast to Genesis 4:1, where it says that Adam knew his wife Eve.

I believe the text is describing violence.

Good vs Beautiful

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The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
Genesis 6:2 (NIV)

Translators do violence to the text.

This word we translated as “beautiful” here? FIFTEEN TIMES this Hebrew word is used before this, and EVERY SINGLE TIME, the word is “GOOD.”

“Good” is how God described the world he created in Genesis 1. It’s the same “good” of the Tree of good and evil knowledge.

The theological paths you can take here are absolutely tremendous.

The daughters of humanity were GOOD. What does this teach us about women? What does it say about God’s view of them? Who or what corrupts them by way of violence?

There is much water to draw from this well.

Another important link:

When Sarai is taken by Pharaoh in Genesis 12, she is described as beautiful (yawfeh), but when Esther is taken by Xerxes in Esther 2:7, she is described as both good (tov) and beautiful (yawfeh). And actually, the whole book of Esther links Haman with the concept of “falling,” which is the same root word as the Nephilim in Genesis 6. One might argue that Haman is Nephilim, and both the Pharaoh and King Xerxes are like “sons of God” who take women they please.

Comments on Commentary

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Some rabbis have suggested that the Genesis 5:3 statement that Seth was in “Adam’s likeness: hints at Genesis 6’s world of weird angel/hybrid creatures.

Adam himself is TECHNICALLY not “just a human,” being born of dirt and spirit.

ויולד בדמותו כצלמו, “he begot a son in his likeness in his image;” the emphasis on this is to show us that anything he begot during the previous 129 years were only creatures that did not reflect his likeness or image, i.e. disembodied spirits, mostly מזיקים, injurious, destructive spirits. (Compare 3,20)
Chizkuni on Genesis 5:3

BUT.

Other rabbis in the Midrash have said that being “in Adam’s likeness” meant that he was… born circumcised.

He was righteous (Gen. 6:9). This suggests that he was one of the seven men born circumcised. Adam and his son Seth were born circumcised, as it is written: He begot a son in his own likeness after his image, and he called him Seth (Gen. 5:3).
Midrash Tanchuma on Genesis 5:3

Which is, by the way, NOT ANY WEIRDER THAN ANGEL/HUMAN MONSTER BABIES.

So, always take commentary with a grain of salt. Even mine.

Peter and Jude quote Enoch

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For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;
2 Peter 2:4 (NIV)

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones
Jude 1:14 (NIV)

The books of 2 Peter and Jude have passages that seems to quote from the Book of Enoch, which is not in our Bibles. While this book is not Scripture, the point is that Jude, Pete, and their contemporaries were familiar with the text.

The book of Enoch says angels had sex with human women. Giants were born in those days, and in the days afterwards.

Angels, Giants, and Men

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When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
Genesis 6:1-2 (NIV)

There are 2 schools of thought on the “sons of God” in Genesis 6. This phrase “benei ha-elohim” can either be:

1. Angels who impregnated women
2. Men of Seth’s “godly” lineage who mixed w/ Cain’s line.

In interpretation 1, the Nephilim are monsters and giants. In interpretation 2, they are evil humans.

Either way, whether you believe the “sons of God” refers to angels or men in Seth’s line, neither position requires you to believe that the events actually happened.

The goal is to try to understand what the text intends to teach us, and the lesson may be the same either way.

That said, I strongly believe that Genesis 6 is meant to tell us a story about angels who took human form and impregnated women. Not that I think it literally happened, but I think that’s what the story is saying. And this is primarily because “daughters of Adam” cannot just mean “daughters of Cain.”

Besides, Jude and Peter aren’t going to quote from the Book of Enoch if they don’t think their audience is familiar with the book of Enoch and understand what says. And what it says is that angels impregnated women and those women gave birth to monsters. Later, war. And then the flood.

A Hint of the Nephilim

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When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NASB)

Genesis 5 says his image about Seth, and nobody else.

The Rabbis wondered about this and suggest that Adam and Eve may have had other offspring after Cain and Abel, before Seth. These offspring were… different. Not like Adam. Something monstrous.

This points to the Nephilim in Genesis 6.