“It happened that during the time men began to multiply in their numbers on the land, that the sons of God saw their daughters were beautiful. So they took whomever they chose for themselves as wives. Then the Lord said, “My spirit will not strive with man forever, because he is flesh, his days will be one hundred and twenty years.” There were Nephilim living on the earth at that time, and also afterward, when the sons of God had sexual relations with the daughters of men, and they bore them children. Those were the mighty men of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-4).
What is here recorded as ‘sons of God” is understood from ancient rabbinical sources, as well as translators of the Septuagint, and the early church fathers to be referring to angels that mated with human women, producing offspring referred to as Nephilim (fallen ones). This event is echoed in the legends of many ancient cultures. It is where the half-man half-god legends of Greek mythology come from. During the fifth century AD the literal interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 came under attack. Bible teachers of the day came up with an alternative interpretation that explains it as a failure to keep the faithful bloodline of Seth separate from the unfaithful bloodline of Cain. The proposition advanced was that after killing Abel, Cain’s offspring became increasingly ungodly, thereby losing the title “sons of God.” Seth’s offspring remained faithful, thus keeping that title. But at some point the godly leaders of Seth’s line took wives from Cain’s line thereby polluting the godly bloodline.
The Hebrew term translated “sons of God” is B’nai HaElohim. This term is consistently used in the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) to refer to angels. It is never used there to refer to faithful or godly men. And that is how it was understood by the ancient rabbis, by the translators of the Septuagint, and by the early church fathers. Attempts to translate it to mean godly leadership are not supported by Scripture. The birth of Nephilim exposes another floor in the Sethite position. Even using the King James translation as “giants” doesn’t help. Why would the union of human beings of differing religious/moral views produce children of great size? We must also keep in mind the fact that God viewed this as so serious he destroyed the world with a flood and condemned the angels responsible to hell.
“For if God didn’t spare angels who sinned, casting them into hell and confining them to pits of darkness until judgment. 5 And didn’t spare the ancient world, preserving only Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought a flood on the ungodly world” (2 Peter 2:4-5).
Genesis 6:9, records the fact that Noah’s genealogy was uncorrupted. Peter establishes the link between the actions of these angels and the flood of Noah. Jude says God has imprisoned them until the Day of Judgment for not keeping to their own domain, but going after strange flesh.
“And angels who didn’t keep to their own domain, abandoning their proper dwelling place, he has kept in eternal chains and darkness for the great Day of Judgment. Just as with Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, because they indulged in the same gross immorality by going after strange flesh, are displayed as an example undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:6-7).
Genesis 6:4 tells us Nephilim were on the earth again after the flood. There were a number of tribes living in Canaan at the time God gave that land to the Israelites. The Emim, the Amorites, the Zamsummim, the Horim and the Anakim were all Giants/Nephilim. King Og of Bashan, the infamous Goliath; and his four brothers were all Nephilim.
In an ancient Jewish text we can read an astonishing description of some of the gigantic Amorites whom the Israelites conquered. In Buber’s Tanhuma, Devarim 7 the text tells us of Rabbi Johnanan ben Zakkai’s encounter with the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This event occurred soon after the Jewish rebellion against Rome was defeated during the Bar Kochba war (135 AD).
“The wicked emperor Hadrian, who conquered Jerusalem, boasted, ‘I have conquered Jerusalem with great power.’ Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai said to him, ‘Do not boast. Had it not been the will of Heaven, you would not have conquered it.’ Rabbi Johanan then took Hadrian into a cave and showed him the bodies of Amorites who were buried there. One of them measured eighteen cubits [approximately 30 feet] in height. He said, ‘When we were deserving, such men were defeated by us, but now, because of our sins, you have defeated us’” (Quoted in Judaism, edited by Arthur Hertzberg, p.155-156, George Braziller, New York: 1962).
When the Israelites entered the land, God told them to wipe out these tribes. This may seem extremely harsh, but when comparing the situation to Noah’s day. It is clear there had been a second contamination of the human gene pool. Not only that. These Nephilim were practicing child sacrifice and cannibalism.
Another reason I believe the leadership of the fifth century church adopted the Sethite teaching, was to avoid the uncomfortable fact that European aristocracy were descended from Nephilim. I think that would have at least been suspected by early church fathers, who held that B’nai HaElohim means: angels. The Church of Rome was enjoying the patronage and power that had come with Constantine. They wouldn’t want to jeopardize this by exposing the seed of the serpent.
“Now the serpent was craftier than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God actually said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the garden?’ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:1,15).
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus Christ tells us a similar situation will exist in this world at the time of his return; to that which existed during Noah’s day.
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man: They were eating and drinking, they were marrying and being given in marriage, right up until Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27).
The book of Jasher, which is mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, tells us that they began mixing animals of one species with another, provoking God to anger. The Book of Enoch confirms that fallen angels mated with women, and supports Jasher by saying “they began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish” (Enoch 7: 5-6).
Do we see any similarity there to what is happening in our world today? Who hasn’t read or heard newscasts telling us scientists have cloned animals or mixed the genes of one species with another? We have seen a human ear growing out of the body of a mouse. We read of animals being genetically altered to produce human blood, and goats genetically spliced with spiders producing spider silk in their milk.
An article in National Geographic described an experiment conducted by Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003, during which human cells were successfully fused with rabbit eggs. The British government passed the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act in 2008. By 2011 it was reported that more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos were created in British laboratories.
When I went to school I was taught the history of ancient civilizations was mythology. Hercules, giants, chimeras, man-beasts like King Minos’ Minotuar were according to the textbooks, all figments of ancient imaginations. But were they? Or could they in actual fact be the ancient memories of a time when mankind last stepped beyond the boundaries God had set, and consequently reaped a cataclysmic destruction?
What happened to the giants?
From reading the biblical accounts, we can see there was a reduction in the size of Nephilim, from those originally sired by angels to those of later generations that continued to mate with humans.
“Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Look, his iron bedstead is still there in Rabbah of the children of Ammon. Its length is nine cubits and its width four by ordinary cubit” (Deuteronomy 3:11).
There is some disagreement over the length of the cubit mentioned. I will use the shortest. That makes it 13.5 feet long by 6 feet wide or 4.1 x 1.82 meters. This would allow a reasonable guess at Og’s height as around 12 to 13 feet or 3.64 to 3.96 meters. Later we see Goliath of Gath stood approximately 9 feet or 2.74 meters. This reduction in size would be the logical consequence of mating with normal human beings, and would eventually result in their being little or no physical difference between the two types.
When we look in the book of Ezekiel we find pointers to this intermarriage, as well as metaphors indicating whom it was they were marrying. Ezekiel 27:19 links Dan and Javan. We are not simply reading about two men doing business together here. We are reading about the integration of two peoples.
Ezekiel 27: “They have built your ships with boards made from fir trees of Senir. They have made your masts out of cedars from Lebanon.”
Ezekiel 27.6: “They have made your oars from oaks of Bashan. The company of Ashurites have brought ivory from the isles of Chittim and made your benches from it.”
Ezekiel 27.19: “Dan and Javan, also going here and there, occupied in your fairs. Bright iron, cassia and calamus were in your market.”
Javan (Hebrew יָוָן, Standard Hebrew Yavan, Tiberian Hebrew Yāwān) was the fourth son of Noah’s son Japheth according to the “Table of Nations” (Genesis chapter 10) in the Hebrew Bible. Flavius Josephus states the traditional view that this individual was the ancestor of the Greek people.
Also serving as the Hebrew name for Greece or Greeks in general, Yavan or (Tiberian) Yāwān (יָוָן) is probably cognate with the name of the eastern Greeks, the Ionians (Greek Iōnes, earlier Ιαονες Iawones). The Greek race has been known by cognate names throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond—even in Sanskrit (yavana). In Greek mythology, the eponymous forefather of the Ionians is similarly called Ion, a son of Apollo.
While Javan is generally associated with the ancient Greeks and Greece (cf. Gen.10:2, Zech. 9:13, etc.), his sons (as listed in Genesis 10) are usually associated with locations in the Northeastern Mediterranean Sea and Turkey. ;; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javan)
Through the prophet Amos, God compares the Amorites to cedars and oaks.
“Yet I destroyed the Amorite before their eyes, who were as tall as the cedars, and whose strength was like that of the oaks” (Amos 2:9).
The term Amorites is used in the Bible to refer to certain highland dwelling tribes who inhabited the land of Canaan, described in Genesis 10:16 as descendants of Canaan, son of Ham. They are described as a powerful people of great stature (“like the height of the cedars”) who had occupied land east and west of the Jordan. Their king Og, ruler of Bashan, is described in Deuteronomy 3:11 as the last of the remnant of the Rephaim (called giants in the KJV). The terms Amorite and Canaanite seem to be used more or less interchangeably, Canaanite being more general and Amorite a specific group among the Canaanites who inhabited the land.
The trees mentioned in Ezekiel 27:5-6 are all metaphors for Nephilim. The cedars are those of Lebanon and the oaks are those of Bashan. As quoted above, God refers to them through Amos in the context of his destruction of the Amorites. The last of whom was Og, King of Bashan. Senir was an Amorite name for Mt Hermon (Deuteronomy 3:9).
Tyre and Bashan are near Mt Hermon. This is where the Book of Enoch records the angels that originally sired these Nephilim descended to Earth. So it should be of no surprise that these hybrids flourished in that region.
And when the children of men had multiplied and produced daughters that were beautiful. The children of heaven (angels) saw and lusted after them, saying to each other, “let us take wives from among them and have children with them. Then Semjâzâ who was their leader, said to them: “I fear you will not follow me in doing this deed, and I will have to pay the penalty for a great sin.” Then they all agreed to sware an oath, and bind themselves by mutual curses not to abandon the plan. Then they together swore the oath, binding themselves by mutual curses to it. And they were two hundred in number, who descended to the summit of Mt Hermon in the days of Jared.
And they named it Mt Hermon because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual curses there. ‘These are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl. 8 They are their chiefs of tens” (Enoch 6:1-8)
I have heard some argue that having seen the punishment God gave to these angels for what they did, others wouldn’t follow suit.
Count the chiefs of tens listed above. You will see there a separation implied between the overall leader – Semjâzâ – and the rest. I think this implies a division in the two hundred, and the timing of their actions, similar to the divisions in the fulfillment of Daniel’s seventy weeks. It appears the first group to carry out the plan totaled one hundred and ninety. We don’t know the power of the curses by which they bound themselves, but it would seem they kept the second group of ten to plan.
Ezekiel 28 begins as God’s message to the prince of Tyre. But we can see by comparing what is said there with what is prophesied about the Antichrist, that the message is as much, if not more intended for the Antichrist, as it is for Tyre’s ruler. It is as if God is speaking straight through that prince of Tyre, and down his line of descendants to address the man his words are really meant for. Compare verse two quoted below to the following verses from Daniel and II Thessalonians:
Ezekiel 28.2: “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre. The Lord God has spoken saying, because you have spoken in pride saying, “I am a God, I sit on the throne of God, in the midst of the seas”, yet you are a man, and not God, even though you think of yourself as God.”
Daniel 11.36-37: “And the king shall do according to his will. He shall praise and glorify himself above every god. And he shall speak monstrous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation is complete. Because what has been decreed shall be done. He will have no regard for the god of his fathers, nor for the desire of women, neither will he show regard for any god because he shall consider himself above them all.”
2 Thessalonians 2.3-4:“Let nobody deceive you by any means. That day will not come before there is a falling away first, and that man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. And seats himself in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”
Ezekiel 28.3: “Look, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret can be hidden from you.”
There in verse three God is actually mocking the Antichrist by mentioning Daniel who prophesied of him.
Ezekiel 28, verses 4-10:
4. With your wisdom and understanding you have become rich, and acquired gold and silver among your treasure.
5. By your great wisdom and trading you have increased your wealth, and your pride has grown because of these riches.
6. Therefore the Lord God has spoken saying, because you think of yourself as God;
7. I will bring strangers against you. The most ruthless of the nations will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom. They will defile your bright splendour.
8. They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas.
9. Will you then say to those that slay you, I am a God? You will be a man not a God in the hands of those that slay you.
10. You will die the deaths of the uncircumcised at the hands of strangers. I have spoken, declares the Lord God.
In verses 11-19, see a change in the person whom God is addressing. The Lord is no longer speaking to either the king of Tyre or the Antichrist. Neither of them was ever in the Garden of Eden. Nor were they ever the anointed cherub. God is addressing the power behind the throne─Satan.
11. Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,
12. Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre. Say to him, the Lord God says this. You were the sum of perfection, full of wisdom and beauty.
13. You were in Eden, God’s garden. You were clothed in precious stones: sardius, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, emerald and carbuncle in gold settings. The workmanship of your tabrets and pipes was done at the time of your creation.
14. You were the anointed cherub that covers. I made you so. You were on the holy mountain of God. You have walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
15. You were perfect in every way from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you.
16. Through the abundance of your trade they have filled you inside with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore I will throw you out of the mountain of God as profane, and I will destroy you, the covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17. You were filled with pride because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendour. I will throw you down to the ground. I will lay you before kings so they may see you.
18. You have defiled your sanctuaries by the numerous iniquities of your trade. Therefore I will cause a fire in the midst of you. It will burn you up and turn you into ashes on the earth before of all those who see you.
19. All those among the people that know you will be astonished at you. You will be a thing of terror, and never will you be any more.
20. The Lord spoke to me again saying,
21. Son of man, set your face against Sidon. Prophesy against it
22. saying, the Lord God has spoken saying, I am against you Sidon, and I will be glorified in your midst. And they will know that I am the Lord when I have executed my judgments and manifested my holiness in her.
23. And I will send pestilence into her, and there will be blood on her streets. They will be wounded by the sword that will come from every side, and they will know that I am the Lord.
24. And the house of Israel will no longer have neighbours who despise them, and are a thorn in their side, and they will know that I am the Lord God.
25. Thus says the Lord God. When I have gathered the house of Israel out of the nations among whom they were scattered, and have shown myself to be holy in full view of the heathen, then they will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob.
26. And they will live there in safety, building houses and planting vineyards. They will live securely when I have executed my judgments on all those around them who despise them, and they will know that I am the Lord their God.
So where do we next encounter Dan?
“And Jacob called his sons, saying, Gather yourselves together, so I can tell you what will happen to you in the last days. Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent by the path, an adder in the road, that bites the horse’s heels, so that it’s rider falls backward. I have waited for your salvation, O Lord” (Genesis 49.1:16-18)
Deuteronomy 33.22: “Dan is a lion’s whelp. He shall leap from Bashan.”
That prediction came true when the tribe of Dan moved north from their allotted land on the coast north of Gaza to Bashan. The tract of country north of Gilead, the Yarmuk being the dividing line. It stretches eastward along this southern limit as far as Salchah or Salecah, the modern Salkhat; thence northward to Mt Hermon. From there they made the leap westward. It isn’t difficult to trace Dan’s tribe as it migrated across Europe. Macedonian, Danaans, Lacedaemonia, Dadai, Danube, Donetz, Danzig, Dnieper, Dniester, Donsk, Danes, Denmark and Scandinavia are all names derived from Dan.
In his book, Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, E. Raymond Capt observes that Argos is said by the Greeks to be the birthplace of Hercules. Herodotus However, found a temple dedicated to Hercules at Tyre in Lebanon that predates the Greek claim.
Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece about 90 km southwest of Athens. It was here, in a 3500-year-old tomb that Egyptian gold and Israelite type swords were found. There was also the Grave Stele depicting the Israelite crossing of the Red Sea.
The Greek claims regarding Heracles (Hercules) are more likely to originate with the stories of Samson, told by Danite traders who sailed to Greece from Tyre. The Hebrew word ‘heracleem’ means traders.
Homer’s Iliad names the founder of Troy as Dardanus, who had a son named Erichthonius, who had a son named Tros. It was after Tros that the city of Troy and the Trojans were named.
Tros had three sons. Ilus, Ganymede and Assaracus. Priam, king of the Trojans was descended from Ilus. Aeneas. A founder of the Roman Empire was descended from Assaracus.
According to Homer’s Iliad, Zeus kidnapped Ganymede because he wanted him to be cupbearer to the gods. The Iliad doesn’t say how Zeus carried out the kidnapping, but there is an ancient Roman mosaic showing Ganymede being carried of by Zeus, who had taken the form of an eagle. Zeus was often depicted as both an eagle and a serpent. Both of these creatures were symbols of the tribe of Dan. The ancients who worshipped Zeus would often do so by making offerings of honey to him, a possible connection to the Biblical record of Samson.
In the story of Samson there are the bees that made honey in the carcass of a lion Samson killed. That story could foretell of a descendent of the tribe of Dan who would one day try to bring about the destruction of the tribe of Judah, the symbol of which is a lion. Out of that attempt something sweet is produced. There is a strong connection here with the Merovingian kings of Europe who used bees as royal emblems, and who traditionally wore their hair long like Samson.
Over the centuries Trojans and Spartans who had intermarried, migrated across Europe. In the first book of Maccabees there is an account of the Spartans claiming to be related to the Jews. There is a letter from the king of the Spartans to the high priest of the Jews in Jerusalem. It reads as follows:
“Areus king of the Spartans, to Onias the high priest, greetings. It has been discovered in a document concerning the Spartans and the Jews, that they are brothers, and of the race of Abraham” (1 Maccabees 12:20-21).
The first century historian Flavius Josephus also writes of this letter in his records. Further evidence that the Spartans were offspring of the tribe of Dan can be seen in that they too wore their hair long, as a symbol of their strength.
There is evidence to suggest the Celts were descended from Dan and Javan. The Tuatha de Danaan ruled in Ireland for around two centuries. The name may come from “peoples of the goddess Danu.” It is believed their skills in architecture and other arts came from Greece. One source claims they were descendants of Danaus. Irish legend records the Tuatha de Danaan as being demi-gods. They are often referred to simply as the Tuatha Dé, a phrase also used to refer to the Israelites in early Irish Christian texts. They were the founders of the Druid priesthood. Ireland and the UK are dotted with ancient druid sites that have significant similarities to those on the Golan Heights, (formerly known as Bashan) which is at the foot of Mt Hermon.
Is there any further evidence to consider?
I’ve presented historic and archaeological evidence, but there is also scientific evidence of Nephilim integration with the human genome. Since Darwin published his theory of evolution in 1859, scientists have been looking for the imagined link between ape and man.
In 1856 a skull and bones were discovered in the Neander valley near Dusseldorf, Germany. The skull was unlike anything seen before, with large eye sockets, a heavy brow ridge, and flattened cranium. Similar specimens have since been found in the UK, France, Italy, Israel and Iraq.
At first there was a lot of controversy over how to interpret these bones. Dr Rudolf Virchow concluded they were from a human with rickets. He thought the flattened head was caused by repeated blows. This conclusion was reached before Darwin published his theory.
After Darwin published, the bones were re-examined. This time by French palaeontologist – Marcellin Boule. He concluded they were of a sub-human species that walked stooped forward: the knuckle dragging ape-man we were told was the “missing link.” A hundred years later in 1957 Boule’s skeleton was re-examined. It was determined that the stooped posture was caused by arthritis. Neanderthals walked upright, just like normal humans.
More archaeological evidence was later discovered proving Neanderthals used tools and weapons, wore ornaments, had cultural and religious rites, and buried their dead with ceremony. On a darker note, the bones of humans were found at Neanderthal sites. They showed signs of having been broken whilst fresh, and burned. No animal uses fire for food preparation!
The most recent studies have concluded Neanderthals were at least as intelligent as normal humans. Their brain was at least the same size, possibly larger. They were around the same average height, but of a lot stronger build. In fact the average Neanderthal woman would have been more than a match for most human males in an arm wrestling competition. They had much larger bones and joints, and the average adult male was substantially more muscular than his human counterpart.
So using the evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest” as our guide. Should we conclude that Neanderthals would have been the losers in a battle for survival with normal humans? That’s what is still being taught as scientific fact. I have an alternative theory…
Neanderthals were a stage in the interbreeding of Nephilim with human beings, somewhere between the original angel/man hybrids and integration to the point were there was no longer any obvious physical difference. I say obvious because recent studies have shown that somewhere from 1% to 4% of the Eurasian human genome comes from Neanderthals.
“Neanderthals are not totally extinct, in some of us they live on – a little bit.” (Professor Svant Paabo. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
Some argue against my theory on the basis that humans would not want to mate with Neanderthals, and vice-versa – the puke factor! Who says they had any choice? Neanderthals were few in number. So they would have had to take females from outside their tribes or die out. Tribes that raided others for their women are common throughout human history. And if the original angelic fathers of Nephilim found human women attractive, its reasonable to assume their offspring would too.
So where are these integrated offspring today? Isaiah tells us…
“Is this your joyous city, the history of which stretches back to ancient days? Her own feet shall carry her on journeys to far places. 8 Who has planned this thing against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? The Lord of Hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all glory, and bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth” (Isaiah 23:7-8).