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“When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” (Genesis 6:1–4, NRSV)
This is such a strange little tale sandwiched between the Cain and Abel story and the Noah’s Ark story. The sons of God, or the beneha elohim, refers to divine beings who were part of some kind of heavenly council, a group of divine beings also mentioned elsewhere.
“God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:” (Psalm 82:1, NRSV)
“One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”” (Job 1:6–7, NRSV)
When you read heavenly beings above, the Hebrew is the same as Gen 6:1, beneha elohim.
The theme of divine beings procreating with human females is certainly not exclusive to scripture. You’ve probably heard of Hercules (Heracles), a Hero of both Greek and Roman mythology who was the son of Zeus and a woman named Alcmene. He, like the Nephilim, was the son of a divine being and a human woman, a hero of old, and a warrior of renown.
Even the idea of a divine council made of up multiple gods isn’t exclusive to scripture. It was a very common part of the ancient near eastern worldview, as Michael Heiser makes clear in quoting John J. Collins:
The notion that different nations were allotted to different gods or heavenly beings was widespread in the ancient world.… The origin of this [prince] idea is to be sought in the ancient Near Eastern concept of the Divine Council. Heiser, Michael S.. Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness (Kindle Locations 2811-2813). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition. [quoting John J. Collins]
The Nephilim (giants, heroes, warriors, offspring of divine beings and human mothers) aren’t exclusive to Genesis 6 within scripture either.
“So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”” (Numbers 13:32–33, NRSV)
Remember the Giants in the land of Canan that scared the spies and resulted in Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years? According to scripture, those were the Anakites, descendents of the Nephilim. They proved to be quite an obstacle to Israel for some time, as even David is quite famous for defeating the giant Goliath (although scripture does present an alternative account of Goliath’s death that doesn’t involve David - see 2 Samual 21:19). Here are some other fun mentions of the Nephilim.
“Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens, a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said of them, “Who can stand up to the Anakim?”” (Deuteronomy 9:1–2, NRSV)
Remember that Anakites descended from the Nephilim.
“At that time Joshua came and wiped out the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their towns. None of the Anakim was left in the land of the Israelites; some remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod.” (Joshua 11:21–22, NRSV)
Joshua was mostly victorious over these Giants, but some did survive in a few places, including Gath. Remember where Goliath was from?
I find it interesting that the Nephilim survived the flood. Genesis 6 introduces the Nephalim and then immediately moves into the story of Noah, but first makes it plain that the giants were around in those days, and also afterward. I wonder if they were just good swimmers? Maybe a couple of them stowed away on the Ark? Seems like it might be hard for them to hide. Perhaps they were already present in the gene pool of Noah’s family?
Their introduction immediately prior to the Noah story and God’s regret over creation because of the wickedness of mankind suggests that these Nephilim were part of the problem the flood was designed to solve (1 Enoch expands this story). But it didn’t work.
So now we have two groups of beings who seem (to us) quite strange. First, we have the sons of God, the Divine Council. Then we have their demigod offspring, the Nephilim.
The Sons of God | The Divine Council
When God divided the nations, he assigned divine responsibility over each nation to the various members of the divine council. Each of these would be the god of that people or region. God himself would be the God of Israel (once they descend from Abram).
“When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods; the Lord’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.” (Deuteronomy 32:8–9, NRSV)
At some point, is seems God was displeased with the governance of the various council members and decided to displace them and take over as God of the whole earth.
“I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.” Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!” (Psalm 82:6–8, NRSV)
And what happened to these beings? Perhaps they are the principalities and powers Paul wrote about in his letter to the Ephesians.
“so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 3:10, NRSV)
“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, NRSV)
This view would echo back to Daniel’s experience in prayer with an angel, and Michael the archangel, and the Prince of Persia.
“He said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me twenty-one days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia, and have come to help you understand what is to happen to your people at the end of days. For there is a further vision for those days.”” (Daniel 10:12–14, NRSV)
Or perhaps this is who Peter and Jude were talking about?
“For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;” (2 Peter 2:4, NRSV)
“And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6, NRSV)
For a monotheistic book, the Bible is awfully polytheistic in places! And the Bible is often quite mythological in it’s style and content.
The Nephilim
But what about the Nephilim, the giant and violent demigod offspring of the Sons of God? Did they simply die off at the hands of Joshua and finally David? Yes and no. The answer is quite a bit stranger. This quote is from 1 Enoch 15:8-9.
And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. 9. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, ╓and╖ from the holy watchers is their beginning and primal origin; ⌜they shall be evil spirits on earth, and⌝ evil spirits shall they be called. Charles, R. H., ed. (1912). The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch: Translation (R. H. Charles, Trans.; p. 36). The Clarendon Press.
The Book of Enoch isn’t included in the Canon of scripture, with the exception of the Ethiopian Orthodox, who do include it. It was written in about 300 BC and was quite well known during the time of Jesus, providing, among other things, an origin story for the existence of demonic spirits. They were believed to be the disembodied ghosts of the Nephilim, the demigod offspring of the sons of God. Heiser makes it clear that this understanding was the core of second temple period Jewish demonology.
Enoch’s retelling of the divine rebellion in Genesis 6:1–4 doesn’t end there. In 1 Enoch 15 we learn that this episode is at the core of Jewish demonology. Heiser, Michael S.. Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness (Kindle Locations 2507-2508). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition.
So when the gospel writers wrote about Jesus’ exorcism ministry, what was their understanding of the origin of those demonic spirits? It was very different from the typical contemporary narrative that demons are fallen angels who participated in the rebellion of Lucifer who became Satan (a narrative with zero scriptural basis). Nope. They’re the ghosts of giants. They’re disembodied demigods.
Now I’m not saying I buy that. I’m just saying that seems to be the assumption of the biblical writers and it’s pretty strange.
So What?
How can all this help us as Jesus followers?
All of this helps us understand the nature of God’s kind of authority and power.
The sons of God were each given authority over existing and sometimes powerful nations. In contrast, Adonai chose a nation that did not even exist, calling Abram out from Ur of the Chaldees. Our God is a god who chooses the small, the weak, the unknown. Our God chooses the small way, the lower way, and the humble way.
The Nephilim were giants who exercised power through intimidation and violence. To defeat them God called Jesse’s (likely) bastard son to bring Goliath down. He was the youngest and smallest. God’s kind of power is not like the authority and power of this world.
And why did Jesus have so much authority over these demonic spirits, these demigod ghosts? His authority and power manifested in his willingness to empty himself, to lower himself, to take on the form of a servant, and to be obedient to the point of death.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5–11, NRSV)
Those who choose self-interest, those who solve problems through violence, those who seek power over others, those who collude with empire, those who oppose empire with violence—these are the ones aligned with the Nephilim, their descendents, and their evil spirits still at work in the world. But God’s kingdom comes in great authority over these rulers through co-suffering, self-emptying, cruciform love. This is still how God’s kingdom comes.
Do I believe in demons? It does seem like there is personified evil in the world working beyond the scope of mere human evil. Are they the disembodied spirits of demigod giants? I admit that does seem a bit fantastic to me.
But I do believe the deeper truth of these stories. God’s way of power is not self-promoting, self-defending, self-interested, fear based, or violent. In contrast, God’s kind of power and authority is expressed through non-violent self-emptying love focused on serving others.
I believe in this kingdom.
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Interested in more about the Nephilim, The Watchers, The Divine Council, the Book of Enoch, etc? I recommend reading everything by Michael Heiser
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