Troublesome Topic: Who Were the Nephilim?

We cannot be sure, but it appears the Nephilim were giants who acted like bullies or tyrants. The word comes from a root that means “to fall down, or to prostrate one’s self.” It appears then, that the Nephilim were those who caused others to fall down and prostrate themselves to them. The word is usually assumed to refer to giants. I believe we could safely say that the word Nephilim refers to people of great size who used such to their advantage in order to subdue and rule over others. If this is the correct idea, then it need not refer to a specific race of people. We can assume that there was great diversity among humans and animals of that time because of the richness of the gene pool. Therefore, there were probably many people of great size to be found in a variety of family lines. Some of them were farmers or merchants who happened to be extra-large. In those cases they were not highly concerned with producing offspring that were also very large, so they married women for other traits, not their size. However, those who wanted to use their size to control others were very interested in producing offspring of great size and so they would only marry women who were also very large. This would begin to produce certain family lines that were larger than others. But I am convinced that the term Nephilim refers to any people of great size who used their size to bully others.

Genesis 6:4 makes an interesting parenthetical comment, it says that “the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, (and also after that) . . .” Because Noah and his family were the only ones to survive the flood, we know that it is genetically impossible for the ones to come after the flood to be direct and exclusive descendants of the Nephilim from before the flood. However, there was enough richness in the Noah’s genes alone to be able to produce some giants, some normal people, some short people, and all the races we see today. So after the flood there were also some giants, although probably fewer than before. Any of them who used their size and strength to take advantage of others were acting like the Nephilim of old and thus were given that name. We can also assume that after the flood, people who were interested in dominating others would seek to produce offspring of great size in order to continue the dominance, just like those before the flood had done. But after the flood it appears that there were fewer giants, so they ended up marrying their cousins and by the time of David there were giants with 6 fingers on each hand and other anomalies which one can expect from a shrunken gene pool.

The next lesson is: What Is the Main Point of Genesis 6:1-4?