The Sons of God and the Nephilim

Genesis 6:1–3 “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 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.”

Genesis 6:4-5 “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. 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Numbers 13:30–33 “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 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.””

Who are the Sons of God and Nephilim that the Bible speaks about? And why is this such a big deal?

First of all, there is a popular unbiblical view that the Nephilim are aliens from space. This theory has no biblical backing and so we will sit it aside for that reason.

There are 4 major, biblically supported views about who these two groups of people are. These are:

The Fallen Angels View

Fallen Angels Possessed Men View

The Sethite View

Fallen Men View

The word Nephilim, is a hard word to wrap our heads around. In fact, no one really knows exactly what it means. What we do know is that it is related to the Hebrew verb meaning “to fall ” [naphal] which is why some direct it to fallen angels, or more appropriately, to the offspring thereof.

Knowing that it relates to “offspring ” does give strong support to the view that men had fallen away from God. And it is this concept that gives rise to the various views listed above.

The actual definition of the term Nephilim is unclear but I would expect that most today associate the word with giants .

This understanding of the word derives from the Latin Vulgate’s influence on our KJV text and the context of Numbers 13

However, we also know that giant traits were not specific to the Nephilim in the Bible…How do we know this? What popular Old Testament Villain is clearly defined as a giant but never labeled as a Nephilim? Goliath

#1: The Fallen Angels View

Sons of God = Fallen Angels

Nephilim = The Offspring of Human and Angels

This is one of the most popular views concerning the Sons of God and Nephilim today. It is also one of the most criticized .

This view stems from Angels being referred to as “Sons of God” in the Book of Job . If this view were true and the Nephilim were half human/half fallen angel then that might would explain why ancient religions believed in ideas such as demigods .

However…There are some issues with this belief…

First, Jesus alludes to the fact that angels do not marry in Matthew 22:30:

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”

Many have rightly pointed out that this is concerning angels in Heaven , not the fallen angels on earth.

They also argue that 2 Peter 2:4-6 and Jude 1:4-8 are proof positives that fallen angels had relations with earthly women , because the sin of the fallen angel’s is included with the sin of man.

However, the purpose of both passages is to warn of God’s judgment of sin in the church, both in the past and in the future. These passages provide nothing to prove human-angel relations.

Because of this…the issue of the Nephilim nor the Sons of God come into play .

Another issue with this argument is that there is no biblical evidence that angels have the needed DNA to combine with a woman’s DNA in order to create life.

Some have argued that Gabriel took on the appearance of a man when he appeared to announce the conception of Christ as well as the two angels sent to judge Sodom - but the appearance of a man and the ability to reproduce are two totally different issues.

As witnessed in our culture today…you can look like a man or a woman all you want…but that doesn’t mean that you are possessing of a prostate or a womb .

Also…these angels were not fallen. There is no biblical support of fallen angels ever appearing as men or having the DNA needed to produce life.

Only God is the creator and sustainer of life!

One of the traps that we fall into is that we assume that a word or phrase that we read in one portion of scripture…is the same thing or type in another portion of scripture.

For example, Job refers to the “Sons of God” in 38:7 when referring to the angels who witnessed the Week of Creation, while at the same time the term is used to describe men throughout the Biblical Narrative.

Job 38:7 “when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Galatians 3:26 “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

So if the term Sons of God and similar terms are already used for calling godly men by a godly title in other parts of scripture…then why is it suddenly off limits when people try to support the “fallen angel view” concerning the “Sons of God and the Nephilim?”

It seems to me that it would be highly unlikely that God who lump “fallen angels” in with the Angels of Heaven, His chosen people and/or the church.

The Nephilim were also around post flood as seen in Numbers 13:30-33…They are described using the same word for man [iysh] not another word that would differentiate them from common men…

But perhaps the most devastating evidence against the “Fallen Angel View” is that Christ states in Luke 24:39…

“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

If Fallen Angels/ Demons could materialize then I believe that would call into question the words and resurrection of Christ himself.

#2: Fallen Angels Possessed Men View

Sons of God = Men Possessed by Fallen Angels

Nephilim = 100% Human

This view has some similarities to the previous view but in this particular view, the Sons of God are actual men who are possessed by fallen angels and therefore their offspring [Nephilim] would be completely human.

We do know that it is possible for men to be possessed by satan and/or demons. Men can be easily influenced by demonic powers such as Judas in Luke 22:3 and other examples found throughout scripture [Ex: Mark 5:15]

Luke 22:3 “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.”

Here is the question in this case: Would people possessed by Satan and/or demons warrant the title “Sons of God?”

In the Gospel accounts there are many people overtaken by evil, yet they are never labeled in this way.

In this view, there is no problem with the Nephilim existing pre-flood, being wiped out by the flood and then reappearing on the earth as it happened again.

The Nephilim would still be 100% descendents of Adam and Eve thus eligible to receive Christ in salvation.

Their children would be conceived in sin but this has not been anything new since the original sin of Adam and Eve.

One problem associated with this view is the question of whether or not the Nephilim are still being born today ? And if so, then why are they never mentioned after the time of Moses , especially with the amount of demon possession that happened in scripture around the time of Christ…

In this view, any of us could be the Nephilim…and since that is the case, then it is strange that there would be a different term used for these people [Nephilim], since all of us are conceived by sinful parents and born into sin from the moment we take our first breath.

#3: The Sethite View

Sons of God = 100% Human

Nephilim = 100% Human

This is probably the second most popular view concerning the Nephilim and the Sons of God.

This view appeals to the context of the lineage of Adam in Genesis 5, which is found right before the introduction of the Nephilim in Genesis 6.

Some in this view believe that the Sons of God were kings or rulers. This has some biblical support [Psalm 82:1-6]…and would also support the demigod idea of ancient religions [big, strong, giant Sons of God] …it also would lean into an understanding of how ancestor worship could arise as the generations looked back on their larger than life ancestors.

But there are some problems…

This view and the variation of this view…assumes that there was a godly lineage from Adam/Seth that extended down to Noah:

Adam - Seth - Enosh - Kenan - Mahalalel - Jared - Enoch - Methuselah - Lamech - Noah.

In this godly lineage of Sethites, these Sons of God, began to marry or there descendants began to marry ungodly women [daughters of men], which resulted in their children following false gods and rejecting the One True God. In other words, they “fell away ” from God.

Recall the word “Nephilim” is related to the Hebrew verb that means “to fall .”

This theory in essence, holds that the Sethites were the Nephilim .

The problem with this statement is that it infers that all Sethites were Godly ? Obviously not , since everyone before the flood was technically a Sethite and all were destroyed except for Noah and His Family…why?

Because they were wicked ! This would include some of those long living patriarchal descendents listed above…unless God in his mercy took them home before the flood.

Genesis 6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

#4: Fallen Men View

Sons of God = 100% Human

Nephilim = 100% Human

This view is similar to the Sethite View and could be considered to be an upgrade as well. In this view, not all of Seth’s descendents were godly, only some .

This view eliminates any problems with the Nephilim existing in Numbers 13, because Sons of God refers to godly men of Seth’s line and godly men of other lineages as well…

Godly Men are merely, godly men of the time .

Like the Sethite View, Godly men [Sons of God] were marry ungodly women [Daughters of Men] and as a result their Nephilim children fell away from God favor.

Remember…The term Nephilim is related to the verb meaning “to fall .”

In scripture…Cain fell away…Lamech fell away…and many of their descendents, both pre and post flood turned from the Lord in a severe way…

This would make sense as to why the descendents of Anak in Numbers 13 were labeled Nephilim.

Because Nephilim were those who had turned away from the Lord…Their leaving the Lord is what led to the Flood …Their Leaving of the Lord is what led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah…Their leaving of the Lord was so far, so significant that it provoked the direct hand of God which destroyed them from the face of the planet in the flood and more locally for those living in and around Sodom.

They were the Nephilim …the people who had “fell away ” from their Creator.