I'm currently working on a YouTube video that requires extensive Bible study, and one of the subjects I'm gravitating toward is the creation and existence of the Nephilim. I found some really interesting things that I think not many people actually put together, and many of my RedState readers are just the kind of crowd who appreciates this kind of thing, so I decided to give you the story as I read it.
By the way, I want to remind everyone that I'm no Biblical scholar, so do not take everything I'm saying as authoritative. You may also have a different interpretation of the events depicted, so feel free to post how you see them if you do.
The story begins in Genesis, a chapter so famous for its first few words and the telling of the tale of Eden that people forget how unhinged it actually is, and how it only gets more so as more blanks are filled in as the Bible goes on. Our focus is on Genesis 6:1-4, which tells how the "sons of God" (translated to what we generally refer to as "angels") saw human women, thought them beautiful, and decided to take them for wives.
Their offspring would go on to produce the "Nephilim," or a race of hybrids that were reportedly very large, very smart, and many who became "men of renown." From here, God said that he's not going to let this play out and that in 120 years, he was going to flood the Earth. As we all know from Noah's story, he kept his promise.
The thing is, the flood didn't completely wipe the Nephilim out. In fact, even in Genesis 6:4, it notes they were "on the earth in those days, and also afteward," and you do, indeed, see them a bit later in the book of Numbers. According to scholars, there are two possibilities for their survival. One is that the flood is more localized than global, though there's evidence to contradict that.
The other is that Nephilim DNA survived through one of Noah's sons' wives, likely Ham's, whose lineage would result in Nimrod, who is said to be born from Nephilim stock. This would later come back into play.
After the events of Moses freeing his people from Egypt, the future Israelites are coming to claim the promised land, and Moses sends out 12 spies into Canaan. Ten return terrified, saying that "the land devours its inhabitants," and then they deliver this line:
"And 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."
The Anakim were descendants of Nimrod, who was descended from Ham, and it's those "sons of Anakim," the people with Nephilim DNA, who currently occupied the promised land. They were so terrifying that many of the people Moses had led out of slavery, through the desert, and to the threshold of the land of milk and honey, were ready to turn tail and go back into slavery in Egypt. God would keep the Israelites in the wilderness for a generation, sparing only Joshua and Caleb, to purge the people who were afraid of giants.
Fast-forward, and now Joshua — a man who by all descriptions is just built different — is in command of all God's chosen people. He gets the nod from God to finally begin a military campaign to take the land, and he does exactly that. What's interesting is that Joshua, through God's guidance, is so methodical about this campaign that it wipes out every single society that called the land home, root and stem, but he mysteriously leaves alone three cities, Gaza, Ashdod, and Gath.
No explanation is given. The Bible just mentions it and moves on as if it wasn't a big deal. Oddly, Joshua didn't just finish the job after what is effectively a surgical campaign, or at least it's odd until you fast-forward the timeline a bit.
The now-established Israel goes through a cycle. They worship God, get comfortable, fall into sin, God allows their enemies from these leftover cities — the Philistines — to invade and oppress the people, then a Judge arises and frees the people, the people worship God, the people fall into sin, etcetera, etcetera. Israel's first king, Saul, tries to finish what Joshua mysteriously decided not to, and fails miserably.
Then, one day, Saul's army is facing off against the Philistine army, and among them is a warrior from the city of Gath named Goliath, who is reportedly massive enough that he intimidates the Israelis like no other. No one knows how to beat this guy in combat, as he's bested everyone sent against him.
Then some shepherd kid shows up and kills him with a well-placed rock ot the skull. His name was David, and his slaying of Goliath puts his name on the lips of every Israeli. He becomes a trusted advisor and warrior for Saul, and the people love him so much that they eventually make him King, and it's this line that eventually results in the birth of the true King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I'm going to put my storywriter's hat on and try to piece this story together from a modern lens.
The angels didn't just mate with women; they introduced a biological mutation in our DNA that birthed forth something that resembled humans but wasn't. In fact, ancient Near Eastern peoples noted that what we call "demons" aren't actually fallen angels, but are, in fact, the disembodied spirits of Nephilim, as being neither human nor angel, they had nowhere to go. God seemed to treat this outbreak as a serious matter because it was rip-roaring across the human genetic library like wildfire. So He flooded the world and killed off what, if I'm reading this correctly, was a human race that was compromised except for Noah and his family.
However, God did not necessarily destroy the gene because, as He does, He had the plan to turn what was great evil into His good. Since Ham's wife likely had the gene, they would create a lineage that would allow the active gene to continue creating giants. They would take up residence in the land that would become Israel and be the final boss of God's people to earn the promised land. The Israelites, with God's guidance, would drive them back, leaving only a few alone, and these cities would be a thorn in the side of the Israelites for a long time.
But it seems like God needed them to be a constant threat. One that had the Israelites shaking in their boots at the mere mention of, because when someone stepped onto the scene and did away with their mightiest warriors as if they weren't an issue at all, then there wouldn't be any doubt that this man would be mighty and worth following.
God used the Nephilim to establish the rule of David, which would then go on to establish the rule of Christ.
One more interesting fact. David picked up five stones, and it's not because he thought he might miss. God was with him. He knew he'd be bang on target.
What's not popularly known is that Goliath had four "brothers," each of which was as large and intimidating as he was. So David didn't just plan to kill Goliath; he was going to purge the active Nephilim gene out of the human race for good.
In short, don't play chess with God. You'll lose.
