Giants in the Land
Giants in the Land
Witnessing Tools
By Wendy Wippel
Heads Up! Nephilim are everywhere. On The X-Files, three genetically deformed children turned out to be Nephilim. Multiple horror movies, TV Shows and video games have featured Nephilim as agents of destruction. And in the recent movie Noah, (Russell Crow), Nephilim were imprisoned by God in blocks of stone, but later freed for defending the ark. Nephilim are everywhere!
Everywhere, that is, except our pulpits.
And why is that?
What the Bible has to say about them, admittedly, is pretty sparse. In Genesis 6: we are told that;
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.” Genesis 6:43 (RSV)
And later (some time after the flood, when the Israelities were instructed to conquer the nation of Canaan) we read that when God sent a 12-man posse into Canaan to scout out the situation (one from each tribe) those scouts brought back this report:
“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.” Numbers 13:33 (RSV)
Some believe that the flood was intended to rid the earth of the Nephilim, a supposition ostensibly supported by the testimony of three witnesses.
First, the fact that the flood immediately follows the description of the Nephilim in Genesis 6.
There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the Lord[b] saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said,
“I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air.
Note that the arrival of the Nephilim seems to be connected with the increase in wickedness in men. The spiritual and physical “contamination” of the human population with Nephilim elements would seem to be substantial.
Second, because God goes on to then name a single family that will survive the planet’s cleansing. Noah. And what he says about Noah is that he is Perfect in his Generations.
We know Noah’s family wasn’t perfect spiritually. We see their flaws up close and personal throughout the book of Genesis.
He was perfect in his generations.
Let’s look at that in context so we really understand what that means.
Here’s the passage:
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Notice that the word generations is used twice by Moses in this KJV translation of the Bible and in other translations as well.
Some translations, however, translate the two instances of “generations” as two different words. And rightfully so, because in Hebrew they are actually two different words.
In “These are the generations of Noah”, the word translated as generations is Towledah, which means descendants.
And when it says that Noah was perfect in his generations, the word “generations” is the Hebrew word Dore. Which the Hebrew Lexicon defines as a word that means a generation characterized by their sharing specific quality or condition.
Noah’s family, apparently was the only one left that shared an important characteristic. That being that remained perfect in their gene- creation.
In addition to walking with God, they appear to be the only family whose genetic makeup- their DNA, remained uncontaminated.
So Noah’s family was spared in order to repopulate the earth. With all the species, as we know.
Back to His promised destruction of what was:
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Genesis 6: 9-13 KJV
The passage confirms that all flesh had been corrupted and the earth was filled with violence.
The passage also specifically states that it had happened “through them” –which would specify possibly the Nephilim specifically, or at least the Nephilim as included in “ all flesh”, for they ostensibly would have had to have had or have taken on the form of flesh in some respect in order to make love to human women in a way that enabled the birth of half-human men.
Wouldn’t they?
So when God induced the springs of the deep to let loose in order to wash the world clean, it would seem that the cleansing involved not only the human population, but the illegal immigrants as well, the Nephilim.
Which brings me to the third witness to the premise that God intended the flood to eradicate the Nephilim too. The other passage that discusses the Nephilim is when Moses’s scouts see Nephilim in the land of Canaan.
Admittedly, we don’t know where those Nephilim they saw in Canaan came from. Hadn’t they just gone extinct? Did some escape? Was there a second wave of immigrants while the earth was depopulated?
No answers in Genesis. And Siri didn’t know. So we don’t either.
But isn’t it interesting that God also tells the nation of Israel in Joshua commanded the Israelites to “destroy all the inhabitants of the land” of Canaan? (Joshua 9:24)
A 1335 BC visit from Terminix that apparently finally got the job done?
But here’s where it gets really interesting. Sex chromosomes in human women consist of two chromosomes called X chromosomes. So each baby gets one of those two X versions from their mom.
Human men have both an X and a Y.
The Nephilim, from Scripture, seemed to have contributed to their offspring only X chromosomes, as only male offspring are described.
Interestingly, however, when the process messes up in humans, as it does occasionally, unusual combinations consisting of three chromosomes instead of two can result, and one fairly common one, called Jacob’s Syndrome is seen in male children, in which the child has two copies of the YY (male) chromosome, and only one X chromosome from the mom.
Such mismatched pairings are also seen when different species of animals are mated, like a horse and a donkey.
And, interestingly, Jacob’s syndrome boys, who fortunately do not have any of the significant side effects that can accompany the presence of too many or too few chromosomes in a baby, they do have some abnormal characteristics.
So Genesis is kind of confirmed by mixed species genetics.
They are considerably taller than normal, and they also have bigger heads.
They are also more likely to be aggressive.
I’m just saying…
Next week- more about why we don’ hear much about the Nephilim!