Friday, December 5, 2008

"Sons of God" and their Nephilim Offspring

Awesome Friday! Today, let’s talk angels—or rather, angel half-breeds…the Nephilim. Do you believe in them? Do you know much about them? Here’s what some believe the Holy Bible has to say about them:

When men began to increase in number on earth and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is a mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ 4The 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

There are many theories as it relates to who and what the “sons of God” and the Nephilim are.

Theory One: The “sons of God” were fallen angels. Many believe that the Nephilim were what was thought to be the giants in the Bible because it was believed they were the offspring of angels and human women.

Theory Two: The “sons of God” were probably not human, not even born on earth.

Theory Three: The “sons of God” were nothing more than righteous men, as opposed to the earthly non-righteous individuals during those sinful days before the great flood.

Theory Four: The “sons of God” are a hybrid race that is distinctly different from us humans, but sexually compatible with human reproduction. In any event, the “sons of God” are specifically set apart from the “daughters of men”, so they were obviously a separate race and their offspring were the Nephilim.

Theory Five: The “sons of God” were other created men. It is widely accepted by Biblical believers that Adam and Eve were the only human first created by God. However, the Bible does not detail or describe every individual on earth, not even every important person on earth to Him. Only significant situations and the people involved with those situations are included in Biblical Texts. There is no certainty that God created only Adam and Eve. For all we know, he could have created a whole nation of people, but only Adam and Eve were important.

Off topic: I probably could have found more theories had I kept searching. I felt this was more than enough. ;-)

To me, the book of Job leads me to believe that the “sons of God” were, in fact, angelic in nature. Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” And again in Job 2:1, “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.”

I am not a Biblical historian and I truly stink at deciphering its meaning, but to me those two passages would suggest that “the sons of God” were somehow related to God and not another creation of unmentioned mankind. So, for me that knocks out theory three and five above. Only one man in the Bible supposedly saw God as a burning bush and that was Moses. Paul, who became Saul, saw Him as a bright light while on a mission to persecute Christians. I didn’t think any human on earth after the fall from the Garden of Eden was able “to present themselves before the Lord”? None of them had that close of a relationship with God. So, to me, the Job passages suggest that the “sons of God” were probably angels who had the right to freely come and go in the presence of God to report the happenings on earth.

Strangely enough I also found that the Grigori were considered fallen angels who had mated with mortal women, which gave birth to a hybrid race known as the Nephilim. In the Book of Enoch, the Grigori were known as the “Watchers”, which were angels that had been sent to earth to do nothing more than watch over God’s human creation. Enoch details how the Grigori began to lust after the human women, they marry them and begin to live among the mortals. Their children, the Nephilim, are giant savages that endanger humankind by pillaging the earth. They become corrupt and teach the mortals the necessities of civilization that God had kept secret. According to Jude 1:6, God has bound the Grigori on the Earth until Judgment Day.

Even the Book of Jubilees mentions the watchers that fell from grace and married the “daughters of men”.

So, were the Nephilim the offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”? Were these “sons of God” fallen angels on the side of Satan? Or could they be angels watching and living among us that have become fascinated and enraptured by God’s mortal creation, not fallen on Satan’s side, but just fallen from God’s celestial design?

Of course, all of this is assuming one believes in the Biblical principles. As for me, I do not know enough about the philosophy or about the Bible to make an informed and intelligent decision. But for me, the “what ifs” are intriguing and that’s enough to get my creative juices flowing with possibilities.

What do you think? How do you interpret the Biblical Texts? Do you have a different theory? Or do you prefer one theory over another? Tell me…I’m eagerly listening. =)

Have a great weekend everyone and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for your chance to win a copy of our Thursday’s guest blogger, Stacy Dawn’s, e-book, Reindeer Games.

12 deadly screams:

Meg said...

I think that the stories of the Grigori, and the Nephilim are fascinating. Whether they were fallen angels, or Guardian/Watcher angels or not, I don't know. They could have been aliens, or just really tall people whom the Israelites called giants and angels because of a lack of any other way to describe or explain them.

I think that they make great subject matter for stories and certain TV shoes, though.

Great post!

Meg said...

err TV Shoes? That should be shows hehe.

Margay Leah Justice said...

This is a thought-provoking post. I don't know what the answer is, but I agree with Pheebles that it is a fascinating subject.

Gracen Miller said...

Pheebles, if it makes you feel any better, I read it as "shows" not "shoes". lol Didn't even notice that you'd made an error until you corrected yourself. ;-)

I agree with both of you. I don't have an answer, but the idea intrigues me. Makes me think of all sorts of "what if" possibilities.

Hope you both have a great weekend! =)

Margay Leah Justice said...

ABCFamily had a miniseries out not long ago about this subject called Fallen. It was quite interesting. Hope you have a great weekend, too!

Melisse Aires said...

I have done similar research about angels, and I was surprised at how much esoteric information is out there about angels.

Recently I started some research on 2012 theories and have found that the 'outer space Nephilim invaders' theory has somewhat converged. A comet during 2012 will bring them back to earth to devour us.

Scary if it's your theology, but interesting if you write fiction!

I've also read somewhere(Raven Grimassi?) connecting angels and fairy.

Anonymous said...

What an interesting post Gracen. You made me think. (and it's hard! :D)

I am not familiar with Nephilim and Grigori.In fact, I am not familiar or I should say, knowledgeable when it comes to the bible.
Last time I held one was years and years ago. I remember the name Job, Peter, Paul and some other names. I'm not shy about it.

(this maybe off topic) What little faith I have for the Catholic church (I was raised a chatolic) disappeared when the local parish refused to baptise my children because my husband and I were married by a minister. The lady in charge with the registration and all said, "technically you two are not married."

:( Sad, really. And I don't understand the church's reasoning.

Tierney

Gracen Miller said...

Margay, I watched the miniseries on ABC about the Nephilim. It's called, The Fallen, I think. I thought it was really good. It was based upon young adult books written by Thomas E. Sniegoski. I haven't read the books, but the miniseries was interesting. Have you seen it?

Gracen Miller said...

Melissa, I was surprised by all the info out there on the Nephilim and angels. I would never have thought there would be so many theories floating around in cyberspace about this little known topic (or little known in my neck of the southern woods). ;-)

The 2012 theories are very interesting to me and I'm surprised by all the folks that still aren't familiar with it. I haven't seen the one about the "outer space Nephilim invaders" though. lol Sounds kind of funny to me, but scary too if you buy into this theory. I'll have to google it and see what I find.

Gracen Miller said...

Tierney, I have some friends that are Cathloic and were married by a priest in the Church. But because they didn't go through some type of Cathloic classes after their marriage, it's not officially recognized or Church legal or something like that. It's a foreign concept to me because I wasn't raised Cathloic.

I didn't learn my Nephilim info from the Bible either. I was surprised when I found all the biblical passages. They don't discuss this type of stuff in church. I wonder why? Hmm....

Margay Leah Justice said...

Yes, I did see that! It was pretty interesting.

Debby said...

Neat post and neat responses. I am going looking for some of the things mentioned