ON NEPHILIM, GIBBORUM AND DEMONS

Genesis 6:1 (HCSB) When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. 3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

Enoch 6:1 (Charles) And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 2. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ 3. And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ 4. And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ 5. Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 6. And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 

The Book of Enoch or First Enoch, if you prefer, belongs to the Second Temple Period in Israel. (516 BC – 70 AD) No one knows who wrote it, but Scripture quotes it, and in that context, calls Enoch a Prophet. It is imagined that at least the first part of the book was based on lost manuscripts and oral traditions that predate the flood. We know, and can demonstrate, that the Jews of the Second Temple Period, including the writers of the New Testament, were knowledgeable of and greatly influenced by the book.

The writers of the New Testament held a supernatural world view. Their understanding of Angels and demons was very much in line with the Book of Enoch. They understood that while the fallen angels were locked up until the judgment day, demons were, in fact, the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim and the Gibborum.  This was the generally held view of the Jews alive at the time of Jesus. The Angels, mentioned in Enoch, had produced offspring with human women. How that is possible is beyond the scope of this blog post but Scripture equates their sin with the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, obviously labeling it as sexual in nature.

The Nephilim were the children of the Angels and human women. The Gibborum, or giants, were the genetic descendants of the Nephilim, sometimes Gibborum / Gibborum, but often Gibborum / human. They got smaller as the Nephilim blood got weaker and more diluted over the generations. These mixed blood tribes were still in the Promised Land when Joshua took Jericho. It was the Gibborum who so frightened the Hebrew spies that they refused to enter the Land. It was these mixed tribes that God ordered the Jews to decimate, killing every man, woman, boy and girl. God was not cruel; these people were unredeemable and posed a threat to the bloodline of the coming Messiah.

The Jews of the Second Temple Period, understood that the souls of these mixed, human / angel beings, could not die. Enoch informed them that these souls had been condemned to wander the earth until the Judgment. These souls hungered and thirsted, having human appetites but were unable to meet their needs without a body. It was for this reason that they sought to possess human beings. These souls were the demons who so plagued mankind with disease and gross evil.

In the mind of the Second Temple Period Jews, these demons were much more responsible for the evil and fallen condition of man than was even the fall of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had lost the dominion over the earth to Satan and brought on a curse. It was the fallen Angels and their progeny who had taught every evil, from seduction to the art of war, to mankind. It was the Nephilim who had made mankind so evil that God had destroyed the earth in the flood and it was the demons, the spirits of the Nephilim and the Gibborum who continued to bring sickness and influence men towards evil.

No Jew, in the first century, would have doubted that the “Sons of God” in Genesis 6, were angelic, supernatural beings. That view held, in the Church, until Augustine. It was Augustine who was the first to question the supernatural aspects of Scripture and it was he, who first introduced the idea that the “Sons of God” in genesis 6 were the very human descendants of Seth, while the “Daughters of men” were the evil daughters of Cain. I will discuss the obvious fallacies in that theory in another post. Let me simply say that the idea that the “Godly” sons of Seth, forcing themselves on the ungodly daughters of Cain, reverses the picture, making rapists out of the Godly men and victims out of the “evil women.” Beyond that, the idea that the union between two very human groups produced giants, is inexplicable. The only reason for believing the so called “Sethite Theory” is a steadfast refusal to believe in the supernatural.

So, Enoch effected the beliefs of the writers of the New Testament. It is quoted by both Peter and Jude and alluded to by others. It explains and opens our understanding of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. Our Canon was settled on in the West and those who made those decisions had good reasons for doing so. The oldest Scriptural Canon in the World is the Ethiopian Canon. While Enoch is excluded in the canon accepted by Catholics and Protestants in the West, it is included in the older canon. Is it Scripture? Certain Eastern and African churches accept it as Scripture, while we do not. Some things evade dogmatic statements. I will leave that decision to my readers.

This author, believes in the supernatural. I am convinced that there were giants and that while they are no longer giants, a race of people has remained on earth that still has the remnants of angel DNA. These people are the elite and the super wealthy of the world… You can argue with me if you like; I certainly cannot prove that. We can discuss that in a future post.

Three books for those whose interest is peaked. Each of the three books has extensive bibliographies which point to literally hundreds of other books. Several people have earned ThDs and PhDs, studying these things. There is room for a hundred more dissertations on the subject. I encourage study.

1. The Unseen Realm: Michael S. Heiser
2. Reversing Hermon: Dr. Michael S. Heiser
3. The Great Inception: Derek P. Gilbert

Follow up posts will be based on your questions and comments… Thoughtfulness and courtesy are appreciated.

David…

Author: davidrice1951

I am a vile sinner. I have been a soldier and a sailor. I have been a student and a teacher. I taught English in Mexico. I started and taught in a Bible College in Venezuela. I am married to Cathy, a beautiful lady from Guyana. We have two children, Christopher and Amanda. I am saved by Grace, washed in the Blood and filled with the Spirit. I love Jesus, my wife, my kids and you... View all posts by davidrice1951