The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim

by Scott Alan Roberts

  And then there was their “giant” offspring.

  The Nephilim

  According to scripture, the offspring of the Sons of God and human women were the Nephilim, but I do not believe the term is solely attributable to the offspring only. The Sons of God who descended from the heavens were known as the Nephilim once they took up residence in the earthly realm. So they and their offspring together became known as the Nephilim. It is similar to the scenario you have when an Irish immigrant moves his existence to America. He is Irish, but his emigrating act has given him the new title of American, and he and his offspring are now known by both titles: Irish and American, possessing a dual identity. But the children born to him in America bear the stronger title.

  The writers of the 1611 King James Bible indirectly translated the word Nephilim as “giants,” yet the preferred scholarly translation is “fallen ones.” Giant can be better understood when you ascribe the values of height, distance from the ground to the top, descending from the heights, falling from the heavens, and so forth. Although there are many scholarly views on the identity of the Nephilim, you have to take into consideration the interpretation of the word based on the surrounding textual context, as well as the audience for whom the text is written.

  The root Hebrew word for Nephilim is the verb nephal (Hebrew text ), meaning: 1) to fall (to the ground); 2) to fall (in battle); 3) to be cast down; 4) to desert a location; 5) to fail. The “im” (Hebrew text ) denotes plurality, giving us the “fallen down ones,” or the “ones who descended.”

  The Sons of God can best be defined as a race of beings who descended—or “fell”—to the earth, abandoning their existence and habitation in the heavenly realms. According to the Bible, they were angelic in origin, birthed/created by God (Elohim), and they brought to the human inhabitants of the earth special skills, as well as an unearthly libido. Their offspring bore the title of Nephilim, and the propagation of their mixed race on the earth led to the judgment of God in the form of a flood, as described in Genesis and other ancient accounts. Also mentioned in the Book of Enoch is the fact that these beings descended to the earth during “the days of Jared,” the father of Enoch. His name means, literally, “descent,” and he was named thus because the descent of the Sons of God to the earth took place during his lifetime.

  It is interesting at this point, to note that both Jared and Enoch are also mentioned in the Genesis account:

  “18 When Jared was 162 years old, his son Enoch was born. 19 After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived another 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 20 He died at the age of 962. 21 When Enoch was 65 years old, his son Methuselah was born. 22 After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived another 300 years in close fellowship with God, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 Enoch lived 365 years in all. 24 He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then suddenly, he disappeared because God took him.”

  (Genesis 5:18-24)

  In the older archaic English of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, that last verse is worded “And Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him.”

  Digest all of that. Then take a deep, cleansing breath.

  Elohim begat the bene haElohim, who begat the Nephilim. But that is simply one version of events. The question that still begs to be asked and answered is: What if the Nephilim, as defined by other cultural writings of the day, are something completely different? What if the Jewish Bible is only a version of events as understood and written by a monotheistic culture who recorded these events from within their framework of understanding, from within a monotheistic, mono-theocratic structure? What if these angelic beings were anything but angels? As is always the case, the uncovering of the basics only leads to deeper questions. As we move forward we will tackle the issue of extraterrestrial origins and the seeding of mankind.

  But first, let’s move to an all-important historical examination of Moses, the author of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible or, as the Jewish religion calls it, the Torah. Once you have an understanding of this man’s origins and why he wrote the things he wrote, you start to gain a clearer picture of just who the Nephilim really are, and why Moses wrote what he did.

  chapter 3

  The Pharaoh-God of Israel

  Who Was Moses…Really?

  “Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

  (Exodus 33:11)

  “27 They gave Moses this account: ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there…. 33 We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak of the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’”

  (Numbers 13:27-28, 33)

  As I state in my public lectures on the topic of the Nephilim, we are now going to “rabbit trail” a bit. But it is a vitally contextual, highly relevant side-track to understanding the bigger picture of the Watchers and the Nephilim. It’s going to include a lot of history, but remember: History is fun, passionate, and exciting! This isn’t the stuff of sitting in a boring high school classroom; this is the stuff that opens the door and sheds the light. Understanding the past gives illumination to the present. We all have personal histories and things that have happened in our pasts to make us who and what we are today. The same applies to this outstanding character in history. Understanding that he is much more than a Bible story, but rather a real person who lived and breathed and experienced life, will help us to greater understand the things he wrote about and why he said what he said.

  Of great importance to understanding the Genesis account of the Nephilim is having an understanding of the author of the book and the education he would have experienced in the royal courts of 18th Dynasty Egypt. The first five books of the Bible’s Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Levitcus, Numbers, and Dueteronomy—are collectively known as the Pentatuech, the books of the Law, and their authorship is attributed to Moses, that most well-known lawgiver and Hebrew leader of Judeo-Christian tradition.

  First of all, Moses is the author of the Book of Genesis. Just because he is a biblical character whose story is made up of fantastical deeds and miraculous events, does not mean he is simply part of myth.

  It is Moses who, the Book of Exodus tells us, was born a Hebrew slave living under captivity in the slave city of Goshen in the delta region of the land of Egypt. The Hebrews had been living in Egypt as a family since the time of their ancestor-patriarch Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob/Israel, who migrated them to Egypt during a time of great famine in Cana’an, present-day Israel. The family grew into an expatriated people, numbering nearly two million by the time of the Exodus, and suffered a gradual captivity imposed on them by the Egyptian pharaohs during a period of four centuries.

  It is important to point out that, although the story of Moses is rife with faith-story tradition, many of the deeds of the historical man Moses cannot be found anywhere in recorded history, other than the pages of holy scripture and religious writings. And one has to dig very deeply to find the scant mentions that do exist, and even then there is the monumental task of discerning the man from the legend. The historical treatment of his life, as it appears in the Old Testament books of Exodus through Deuteronomy, are events written from the perspective of the man himself, comprising major context within four of the five books of the Law in the Old Testament. Moses was a powerful man striving—as would any leader of a new nation that was the product of invasion, rebellion, or coup—to establish his authority and base of power. It is important to understand that Moses was the product of 18th Dynasty Egypt, where he was part of a ruling dynasty that held absolute power over its subjects, and this is where he learned the royal skills necessary for national leadership. This is where Moses learned that he was a “son of the Pharaoh God.” This is where he learned to impose the will of a god-man over th
e people he ruled.

  In reading the pages of religious scripture, one must ask whether Moses was a mere figment of the pious imagination of Jewish rabbis and Hebrew historians, a mere adjunct to religious sentimentality and Judeo-Christian mythos? Or was he a real personality of some stature and substance in Egypt as the Jewish Scriptures claim? During the biblical account of the Ten Plagues of Egypt and the “let my people go!” audiences Moses had with, arguably, the most powerful monarch in the known world, we are given the distinct impression that Moses has absolute dominance over the Pharaoh, the government, and the people. In fact the biblical record states explicitly:

  “The man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.”

  (Exodus 11:3)

  During the period of the Ten Plagues, the very word of Moses became as law in the courts of the Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. Take note of what most commentators on the biblical account have overlooked:

  “And all these your servants” [Moses is addressing the pharaoh] “shall come down to me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, “Get you out and all the people that follow you: and after that I will go out!” And he went out from Pharaoh in the heat of a great anger.”

  (Exodus 11:8)

  Moses minced no words, but rather dictated with power and authority to the most powerful ruler of the ancient world. Moses was notable, exceptional, talented, and no ordinary man by any standard, past or present.

  Faith Story vs. Historical Account

  This is also where I am sure to draw a bit of heated criticism from my old Bible School classmates and fellow seminarians, as well as leaders and friends from the evangelical Christian circles in which I spent many years of my life. For to question the absolute authority of the Bible in its application to faith, practice, theology, or history is to question the very nature and attributes of God, Himself. Yet, there are gaping holes in the scriptural historical accounts that can be filled only with extrapolation of historical data, and the squeezing of size 13 feet into size 10 1/2 wide Egyptian sandals.

  We are informed by Polybius (c. 201-120 BCE) that there are essentially three classes of historians:

  One class slants their documentation for financial gain, expressing “the pleasure or the plans of kings and states.”

  Another class writes for those who enjoy “rhetorical display,” an enjoyment of the sensuous exploitation of words, in a manner that sounds pleasant to the listener.

  Finally, some record the truth, “for the good of mankind.”1

  The New Testament references to Moses are written within a framework of early Christian apologetics, meant to establish the young Christian religion during its infancy. The faith story told by early Christian apologists is solid tradition that sets a foundation for religious practice and tradition, and the history remains obscure, unsubstantiated, and many times unverifiable by extant historical records of the day. There are many traditional tales of Moses, as well as traditional histories in the Jewish Mishnah and other writings, but the Egyptian historical records are silent. And even Moses himself for some reason refrains from mentioning historical names of the pharaohs and royalties that would have surrounded him during the first 40 years of his life spent as a prince of Egypt.

  And that is because the writings of Moses were never meant to be cold, hard, historical records. They were meant to establish the authority of God over Israel, as embodied in the authority of Moses. We see presented in the scripture an acceptable arrogance in Moses that is an indicative—and many times necessary—ingredient on the part of national leaders in establishing their authority. Even more so when that leader claims that his authority is one that is favored by the gods. Or in Moses’ case, by God. Moses, in writing of his relationship with God, states in Exodus 33:11 that he was able to “speak with God face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Yet Moses was not destroyed by the utter holiness of God in a consuming fireball for this intimate contact. Then, a few verses later in the very same passage, God Himself tells us, via the pen of Moses:

  “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”

  (Exodus 33:20)

  When Moses emphatically states that he survived what other human beings could not, he establishes himself as having a little bit of divine edge that is above and beyond what the common person could endure. He begins to equate himself with the Divine in ways that establish his leadership over Israel as not only divinely appointed, but miraculously maintained. When Moses had his personal, face-to-face meetings with Jehovah, this is how they are described in the book of Exodus:

  “7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting.’ Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. 11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.”

  (Exodus 33:7-11)

  God descended to the tent of Moses in a cloud—just as He did when descending upon the ark of the covenant in the cloudy form of His female counterpart, the Shekinah—but outside the written text, no one knows exactly what Moses encountered while alone in the tent with the presence that descended there. Whether this happened precisely as the book of Exodus describes or whether it was a series of events that Moses used to further establish his position as the Pharaoh-God of Israel will be a question that remains unanswered, as there is no way to establish the veracity of what he has written beyond faith.

  There are, however, speculative Ancient Alienists who would chalk these events firmly into the “Alien Encounter” category. Though we cannot establish the existence of the Divine beyond the faith of the human heart, some would choose to view these events as not only supernatural, but extra-terrestrial. Just as the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night appeared in the skies and went before the Israelites to guide their way, the same pillar of cloud came down to the tent of Moses and later came down and settled on the ark of the covenant in a form that is described in the Hebrew language by a strictly female term, the Shekinah , the grammatically feminine presence of God.2 According to the text of Exodus, “all the people” saw these events take place, and if there was any further editing of the book after Moses’ death, the passages were not omitted. The event is there in the context to establish the absolute authority and sovereignty of God, as well as the absolute authority of Moses as the God-appointed leader.

  Regarding the pillars of fire and cloud themselves, it is well established in rabbinic teaching that these manifestations were nothing other than the magnificence and glory of God; God personally appearing in miraculous manifestations to lead his people. This is what is known to theologists as a “theophany,” an appearance of God in physical form. And according to Judeo-Christian teaching, this is simply the glory of God appearing at the door of Moses’ tent, and hovering in the sky to guide his people. Moses was set apart as the only human being to have this close contact with God, thereby establishing him as someone who was in close union with God. The next best thing to being the monarchical Pharaoh-God.

  But then we see the following passage, just a few verses later, in which Moses is not allowed to see the face of God. For some reason, the same presence that spoke to Moses in the tent, face-to-face, could not allow Moses to see its face on the top of Mount Sinai. Like anyone else who experiences the mystical, phenomenal paranormal, there is always the desire to be drawn in and know more, see more, experience more. So Moses asked for more:

  “18 Then Moses said, ‘Now show me your glory.’ 19 And the LORD said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass
in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’ 21 Then the LORD said, ‘There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.’”

  (Exodus 33:18-23)

  In establishing the magnificence and glory of the all powerful Jehovah God, Moses writes that even he was not allowed to look on God’s face, though just a few sentences earlier he had established that he possessed a special, hierarchical relationship with God, being the only man who had ever talked with God “face-to-face,” as a man talks with his friend. This was all written so that the people would understand that Moses indeed as powerful as the Pharaoh-Gods of Egypt; he communed with the Divine in the most intimate of ways! And later, during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness as a nomadic people, Moses goes a step further, and in his anger with the people he equates himself with God by referring to himself and God as “We.” For this, the scripture then tells us, Moses was reprimanded by God for his pride, and not allowed to enter into the Land of Promise. Whether that anecdotal story was part of Moses’ original account, or was added later by a future editor, such as Joshua, Moses’ successor, is unknown. But what is clear is that Moses took on himself the persona of the Pharaoh-God, the ruler who has absolute authority and absolute communion with the Divine.