Troublesome Topic: HOW SHOULD WE INTERPRET NUMBERS 13:33?

OPTIONS FOR HOW TO INTERPRET THIS VERSE

OPTION ONE:

I acknowledge that the most natural reading of Numbers 13:33 is that the Anakites came from, i.e. were descended from, the Nephilim, but that is impossible in a literal sense due to the world-wide flood coming between them. Thus, we must look for another solution by considering more options.

OPTION TWO:

The Nephilim were on the ark. We are told that only 8 people were on the ark. As part of Option Five I will come back to why I am confident that none of those 8 people was a Nephilim.

OPTION THREE:

Some think that the flood was only a regional flood and therefore the Nephilim survived. This option denies what the Bible teaches, ignores the findings of Geology, and defies common sense.

OPTION FOUR:

The parenthetical statement was added later and should be discarded. It is not in the LXX. This leads us to believe it was not in the original and was probably added at a later date. Most Evangelicals, including myself, believe the original penning of the books of the Bible was inspired and without error, but a few problems have crept in since then due to human error. I say a few problems because there are not very many considering the volume of the Bible and how it was written by about 40 different people over a period of time spanning about 1400 years. We should not lightly or quickly discard something from our Bible. It is our responsibility to look carefully at all the evidence and weigh the possible solutions to such problems.

In this case it is only the parenthetical statement that is problematic. The rest of the statements were obviously exaggerations made with the intent of causing fear. The doubting spies, all except Joshua and Caleb, were trying to spread fear among the people so they would all turn around and go back to Egypt. They saw three giants, listed by name in verse 22, and yet they said that all the people were of “great size” (v 32). We must understand that everything they said was bigger than reality.

OPTION FIVE:

The parenthetical statement simply means that there was some type of connection between the Anakites and the Nephilim. That connection does not need to be a direct, blood descendancy.

I am convinced that the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4 were not a race or family line, but a type of people, i.e. great big bullies. They usually possessed a combination of the following qualities, they were evil, large, ruthless, political geniuses, and great architects and builders. Some possessed most, but not all of those qualities.

Such a definition rules out the possibility that Noah or his wife, or one of his son’s wives, was a Nephilim, and had Nephilim genes. Therefore, the Nephilim did not come on the ark as a separate race of people because they were not a race or tribe. There was no specific DNA set for brutality, or political genius. Remember that the word Nephilim does not mean “giants”, but rather “to bow down”. However, looking only at the physical aspect, the option for large size was still in the genes of Noah and his family. So there were Nephilim both before and after the flood who were feared for their size and strength which they used to dominate others.

OPTION SIX

            The claim has been made that Genesis 6:1-4 describes the Nephilim as the product of angels that had sexual relations with human women. It is then suggested that something similar happened after the flood as well, but it was not recorded in the Bible.    I am convinced that it is wrong to interpret Gen 6:1-4 to mean angels came to earth and produced offspring from human women (see my translation and paraphrase of Gen 6:1-4). I see the idea of it happening second time as untenable