a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
I noticed that the reference to 'nephilim', fallen ones according to Robert Alter, occurs immediately after the limiting of human life to 120 years. All of this happens before the account of the flood.
I had always assumed that the environmental changes with the flood were associated with the change in lifespan. But now I am wondering if it was the human frame that changed, well before the flood. There would have been longer lived humans right up to the flood, along with many fragile, short lived ones. The longer lived ones would probably have had a stature and strength that the fragile ones did not. Plus there would be transitional traits, and a potential even after the flood (Noah having the longer lived frame) for traits of that old frame to reappear in Noah's lineage -- 'nephilim' could reappear after the flood (as in Numbers).
So 'nephilim' might be related to having fallen not from angels, perhaps not only in a religious sense (though that too), but from ancient human physique?
It may well be a dumb thought, but there it is ... I understand the 'children of Seth' view, but am wondering more particularly about what might have happened to the human body when God limited human lifespan. Certainly the 'nephilim' are a phenomenon associated with this change (Genesis 6:1-4).
(I can't help thinking a long lived, powerful frame would have seemed almost godlike to shorter lived, more fragile humans. Especially where these people were running about in violence and lust, it could possibly give rise to a lot of myth about badly behaved deities?)
I had always assumed that the environmental changes with the flood were associated with the change in lifespan. But now I am wondering if it was the human frame that changed, well before the flood. There would have been longer lived humans right up to the flood, along with many fragile, short lived ones. The longer lived ones would probably have had a stature and strength that the fragile ones did not. Plus there would be transitional traits, and a potential even after the flood (Noah having the longer lived frame) for traits of that old frame to reappear in Noah's lineage -- 'nephilim' could reappear after the flood (as in Numbers).
So 'nephilim' might be related to having fallen not from angels, perhaps not only in a religious sense (though that too), but from ancient human physique?
It may well be a dumb thought, but there it is ... I understand the 'children of Seth' view, but am wondering more particularly about what might have happened to the human body when God limited human lifespan. Certainly the 'nephilim' are a phenomenon associated with this change (Genesis 6:1-4).
(I can't help thinking a long lived, powerful frame would have seemed almost godlike to shorter lived, more fragile humans. Especially where these people were running about in violence and lust, it could possibly give rise to a lot of myth about badly behaved deities?)