“And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (Num. 13:33). Many people believe that the Nephilim here were the same as those Moses spoke of in Gen. 6:1-4. One of the most common problems in interpreting scripture is our lack of Greek and Hebrew knowledge. Without knowing the etymology of the English word, it is easy to “fill in the blanks” and misinterpret the verse. To be fair, most people have not studied either language, and most wouldn’t want to anyway, even if they were given the opportunity to do so.
I am not suggesting that everyone run out to their closest Christian university and sign up to study them, but I am saying to be careful when studying God’s Word. Let’s read Gen. 6:1-4 for context. “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”
Since the word occurs in both verses, we can certainly sympathize with the casual reader for thinking they are the same kind of creature. When that view is taken, the “logical” conclusion many adherents will take is that Goliath was also one of the Nephilim. But, as we will discover, that is not the case. You see, the devastating flood narrative separates the two verses, and careful hermeneutics thus disqualify the theory. When we read Gen. 6:17, we discover the truth: “For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.”
The finality of the sentence cannot be missed, even by a casual reader. God says absolutely everything that is not on the ark will be destroyed, so unless Nephilim were onboard, and we know they were not, they too died. The common problem that leads to misinterpreting the Bible, besides the already mentioned lack of Bible language knowledge, is “lazy reading.” Many people tend to read it in a sort of “gloss over it” fashion, never thinking about the words, their meaning, and their impact. If we cultivate the habit of studying what we read, we will do a far better job of understanding it, thereby negating the possibility of misinterpreting the text.
That said, let’s discuss the Nephilim in the Numbers verse. As we have discovered, they were not the giants described in Genesis, leaving us with two possible solutions. Firstly, other giants were created after the flood, but there is no evidence for that, so we can scrap that idea. That there were very tall, large people is attested to by Goliath, but they were not by-products of fallen angels and women. Secondly, although giants no longer existed, their heroic tales lived on. Whether the sons of Anak were actually huge or whether they were called “giants” because of their power, the spies used the metaphor to describe their own diminutive status.
The second option is correct, especially in light of the words “and also afterward…,” which is placed at the end of Gen. 6:4 in the most reliable manuscripts. Its placement is important because, depending on where it is placed, it will affect the argument made in this article. Where it is commonly found (v.4) lends credibility to the misinterpretation that they survived the flood. But, placed at the end, it only suggests that their heroic status continued on, eventually becoming legendary. They did not exist anymore, but any army, group, or exceedingly big and tall people could then be referred to as Nephilim.
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