Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

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Paidion
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Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by Paidion » Sun Sep 13, 2020 4:36 pm

It has been several years since there was discussion on the forum concerning "Nephilim". Here is an additional explanation to consider:

1,2 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.

3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years."

4 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. (Gen 6 ESV)

Some have adopted the view that these “sons of God” were fallen angels. But how could angels, an entirely different form of being have sexual intercourse with human women and produce offspring?

My mother's view, and I tend to think she was right, was that the “sons of God” were the offspring of the Godly line of Seth, whereas the “daughters of man” were the women among the offspring of Cain.

The Nephilim were the offspring of the union of these men and women. According to Genesis 6:4, the Nephilim were “the mighty men of old, the men of renown.” Notice it doesn't say that they were giants. It says that they were men --- human beings, not angelic beings, fallen or otherwise.

There was no offspring of Cain after the Flood. They had all been destroyed.

Noah was a righteous man, and only he, his wife, sons, and their wives survived the Flood. None of the offspring of Cain survived the flood.

No Nephilim (mighty men of old) survived the Flood.
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

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Homer
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Re: Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by Homer » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:37 am

Paidion,

Thanks, sounds very good to me.

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mattrose
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Re: Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by mattrose » Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:04 pm

I agree that the 'sons of god' were men from Seth's line (not fallen angels)

But I wonder if the Nephilim were not the offspring of these unions at all. The text doesn't actually say the nephilim were their offspring. I consider it a possibility that the word 'nephilim' really was an ancient word for 'giant'. Perhaps one rather isolated gene pool, prior to the flood, had produced a tribe of very large humans. This genetic possibility would explain the potential re-emergence of the 'nephilim' in Numbers 13:33 (long after the flood).

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Paidion
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Re: Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by Paidion » Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:10 pm

Good points, Matt. Thank you for pointing out the post-flood Nephilim, Yes, perhaps the word means only "giants".
Paidion

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Seballius
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Re: Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by Seballius » Sun Sep 20, 2020 3:36 pm

I could be wrong, but I had read that your belief (only human involvement) is not the traditional or historical accepted view. The book of Enoch seems to show that Jews thought it were fallen angels.

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Seballius
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Re: Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by Seballius » Sun Sep 20, 2020 10:36 pm

Justin Martyr wrote the following in his 2nd apology:

He evidently made for man—committed the care of men and of all things under heaven to angels whom He appointed over them. But the angels transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of women, and begat children who are those that are called demons; and besides, they afterwards subdued the human race to themselves, partly by magical writings, and partly by fears and the punishments they occasioned, and partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices, and incense, and libations, of which things they stood in need after they were enslaved by lustful passions; and among men they sowed murders, wars, adulteries, intemperate deeds, and all wickedness. Whence also the poets and mythologists, not knowing that it was the angels and those demons who had been begotten by them that did these things to men, and women, and cities, and nations, which they related, ascribed them to god himself, and to those.

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Paidion
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Re: Additional Thoughts on the Nephilim

Post by Paidion » Mon Sep 21, 2020 12:27 pm

First, I'm not sure that Justin wrote the second apology.

Secondly, I strongly doubt that angels are able to copulate with human beings and produce offspring.
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

Avatar shows me at 75 years old. I am now 83.

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