Who Are the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4?

Who were the Niphilim of Genesis 6:4

  • The offspring of angels and humans

    Votes: 17 21.3%
  • The offspring of the descendants of Seth and Cain

    Votes: 43 53.8%
  • Royalty/Great Men

    Votes: 9 11.3%
  • The offspring of space aliens and human women

    Votes: 5 6.3%
  • Other (please list below)

    Votes: 6 7.5%

  • Total voters
    80
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Marrow Man

Drunk with Powder
"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."

This topic was discussed in a greater context in another recent thread. However, I was wondering about the various opinions of PBers. The poll references the three major views, plus a forth silly (but still proposed) view. If you hold to a different view, please list that below (if you are brave enough!).

View 1 -- The offspring of angels ("sons of God") and women ("daughters of men")

View 2 -- Descendants of the lines of Seth ("sons of God") Cain ("daughters of men") intermarrying

View 3 -- Royalty (great men of antiquity)

View 4 -- The offspring of space aliens mating with human women :rollyeyes:

Update: Just for fun, here's one of the odder interpretations...
 
I think what's most troubling (to me anyway) about the passage is where it says "there were giants on the earth". Maybe that's what trips others up?

Perhaps the mark on Cain was an extra tall stature which was a mark of separation from Seth's line. :think:
 
Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

That's not the only problem with number one. Another problem is that the offspring of a woman and a spirit means another virgin birth.
 
Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

That's not the only problem with number one. Another problem is that the offspring of a woman and a spirit means another virgin birth.

OK. I want to change my vote...
 
They were the creators of the Stargates.

Either that, or they were the Goa'uld. :)

On a serious note, I hold that they were men whose genetic degradation was less pronounced than that of their descendants, making them mightier than their offspring.
 
Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

If the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man... isn't it implying that the Nephilim existed before the daughters of men bore children to the sons of God? It seems to me like there is a "before and after" in this phrase. If not, why?

-----Added 4/5/2009 at 04:05:19 EST-----

My vote is "other", I think there was a race of people that for unknown reasons were giants but I don't think that the author of Genesis intends to link them to the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men, since it seems to say that the Nephilim were on the earth before this union.
 
They were Decepticons, fighting an ancient battle with their Transformer enemies, the Autobots, an war whose battlefield was occasionally the planet earth.

Transformers - More Than Meets The Eye
 
Who Are the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4?

Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis)

Someone told me this same thing the other day. I had never heard that before.

I can't remember where I first ran across the theory, but it made sense to me, and if you look at the distributions, one of the first overlaps would have been in the middle east.

If anyone here can come up with scriptural or scientific evidence to the contrary, I'm willing to be corrected. But for now (and a number of years in the past) that has been my theory on the subject.
 
I thought everyone knew that they were the offspring of Adam and Lilith....
 
They were Decepticons, fighting an ancient battle with their Transformer enemies, the Autobots, an war whose battlefield was occasionally the planet earth.

Transformers - More Than Meets The Eye

That is hysterical!! :rofl:
 
The end of verse 4 clarifies who they were, the "mighty ones of old, men of renown", in other words, they were the heroes and great leaders, and most likely the tyrants. The translation "giants" is highly speculative. Truth is no one really knows what Nephilim means anymore other than by comparing them to the mighty Canaanite warriors in Numbers. They are not necessarily mixed offspring. There's two things going on in the passage. One is the apostacy of Seth's line in joining the rest of the unbelieving world in prefering outward beauty in a wife rather than faithfulness to God, the other is exalting human strength rather than God. It's the same problem Israel would have later in intermarrying with unbelievers and exalting their mighty men rather than trusting the Lord. Same problem the Church has today.... :2cents:
 
Therein lies the greatest suggestion that one may be so. Every major culture throughout history has told the same legend of spirit beings who mated with human woman and produced monstrous offspring. Hercules and the Titans imprisoned in Tarturus is one, in Persia there are the stories of the Jinn and the Watchers (Genies), the story of Prometheus, the Sumerians had the ANNUKAKI, the Succubi, the Incubi, and so on.


I went with number three, but number two runs a close second (Ha!). Number one, meh, sounds too much like stories of Hercules and the like.
 
Therein lies the greatest suggestion that one may be so. Every major culture throughout history has told the same legend of spirit beings who mated with human woman and produced monstrous offspring. Hercules and the Titans imprisoned in Tarturus is one, in Persia there are the stories of the Jinn and the Watchers (Genies), the story of Prometheus, the Sumerians had the ANNUKAKI, the Succubi, the Incubi, and so on.


I went with number three, but number two runs a close second (Ha!). Number one, meh, sounds too much like stories of Hercules and the like.

Could that not be just men making gods in their own image to justify their own sin? :2cents:
 
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