One of the most fascinating theories found in Scripture grows from the implications of Genesis 6:1-4… "When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days -- and also afterward -- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown."
Arguments have risen in theological communities for centuries as to who or what the Nephilim were, or if they were indeed of giant stature as suggested. The Bible simply doesn’t provide enough information to clearly comprehend what happen on earth before the flood. One would have to see much of what we think we know as creative speculation, because we simply don’t have definitive proof. Fascinating none-the-less. So many questions are raised. Why did God bring the flood? Did it have something to do with these supposed half-breeds of the human and angelic. So maybe they were real, they did exist and they did bring Creator God to a cataclysmic decision… end all life on earth save 8 souls… Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives.
The Nephilim, which actually means “fallen ones, giants” were the offspring of sexual relationships between the sons of God and daughters of men. There is much debate as to the identity of the “sons of God.” The most reasonable theory seems to be that the “sons of God” were fallen angels (demons) who took human form and mated with human females. Or maybe these demons possessed human males who then mated with human females. These unions resulted in offspring, known as the Nephilim, who were “heroes of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4).
These demons were fallen angels were aligned with Satan, who lead the heavenly rebellion against Almighty God. The idea this happened is still fantastic and kind of weird… why would the demons do such a thing? The Bible does not specifically give us the answer. Demons are evil, twisted beings, so nothing they do should surprise us. As to a distinct motivation, one speculation is that the demons were attempting to pollute the human bloodlines, spoil the DNA, in order to prevent the coming of the Messiah.
God had promised that the Messiah would one day crush the head of the serpent, Satan (Genesis 3:15). The demons in Genesis 6 were possibly attempting to prevent the crushing of the serpent and make it impossible for a sinless “seed of the woman” to be born. Again, this is not a specifically biblical answer, but it is biblically plausible. This is where you can say based on what little we do know, that it is a reasonable conclusion based on creative speculation.
What were the Nephilim? According to Hebraic and other legends (the Book of Enoch and other non-biblical writings), they were a race of giants and super-heroes who did acts of great evil. Their great size and power likely came from the mixture of demonic “DNA” with human genetics. All that the Bible directly says about them is that they were “heroes of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4). The Nephilim were not aliens, as some have speculated; they were literal, physical beings produced from the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men.
What happened to the Nephilim? No doubt they terrorized earth for centuries leading up to the event of the flood. The mighty ones were one of the primary reasons for the great flood of Noah’s time. Immediately after the mention of Nephilim, God’s Word says, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air, for I am grieved that I have made them’” (Genesis 6:5–7). God proceeded to flood the entire earth, killing everyone and everything other than Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. All other living creatures human and animal perished, including the Nephilim (Genesis 6:11–22).
Were there Nephilim after the flood? Genesis 6:4 tells us, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward.” It seems that the demons repeated their sin sometime after the flood as well. However, it likely took place to a much lesser extent than it did prior to the flood. When the Israelites spied out the land of Canaan, they reported back to Moses: “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33). This passage does not say the Nephilim were genuinely there, only that the spies thought they saw the Nephilim. It is more likely that the spies witnessed very large people in Canaan and in their fear believed them to be the Nephilim. Or it is possible that after the flood the demons again mated with human females, producing more Nephilim. It is even possible that some traits of the Nephilim were passed on through the heredity of one of Noah’s daughters-in-law. Whatever the case, these “giants” were destroyed by the Israelites during their invasion of Canaan (Joshua 11:21–22) and later in their history (Deuteronomy 3:11; 1 Samuel 17).
What prevents the demons from producing more Nephilim today? It seems that God put an end to demons mating with humans by placing all the demons who committed such an act in isolation. Jude verse 6 tells us, “The angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” Obviously, not all demons are in “prison” today, so there must have been a group of demons who committed further grievous sin beyond the original fall of man. Presumably, the demons who mated with human females are the ones who are “bound with everlasting chains.” This would prevent any more demons from attempting such sin.
So what do I really think about this creative speculation? I have never doubted the existence of the offspring known as the Nephilim, a product of human women and materialized fully functional wicked angels. Lust has been one of Satan’s most effective strategies in perverting humanity, so why not fallen angels indulging their wicked passions with “the daughters of men?” Especially, if in Satan’s twisted logic he thought this angelic coupling with humanity would thwart the plans of God. It didn’t change a thing. The Nephilim and the wickedness they brought to the earth was the primary justification for God bringing the flood to destroy all life. In a fair review of Genesis chapter 6, considering it's context and the gravity of such a hybrid pollution of the human gene pool, it makes sense as the primary reason for cleaning the earth by flood.
Think about God’s nature, character and His plan for redemption of mankind. God love’s the human family. IF wicked angels had never polluted humanities blood lines, and the offspring, the Nephilim, had never roamed the earth causing evil, the flood may not have happened. It would not have been necessary. God’s plan was to redeem humanity even in our wickedness which has plagued earth since the emergence of Noah from the Ark. Without a real serious issue like the Nephilim, the flood was overkill for the God of Love, unless He had an irrevocable problem to clean up. He surely cleaned it up!
