Genesis 6:4
Genesis 6:1-4
6 When human beings began to increase in number
on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the
sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were
beautiful, and they married any of them they
chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not
contend with[a] humans forever, for they are
mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty
years.”
4 The
Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and
also afterward—when the sons of God went to the
daughters of humans and had children by them. They
were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4
4 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. (NIV – a modified paraphrase)
4 This
was back in the days (and also later) when there were
giants in the land. The giants came from the union of the sons
of God and the daughters of men. These were the mighty
men of ancient lore, the famous ones. (The Message – a
paraphrase)
4 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. (NASB a translation of
the Hebrew text)
Genesis 6:4
Q: Is there evidence that there have been ‘giants’ on the
earth?
Genesis 6:4
http://www.sott.net/article/256712-A-giant-mystery-18-strange-giant-skeletons-found-inWisconsin-Sons-of-god-Men-of-renown
Genesis 6:4
Genesis 6:4
Genesis 6:4
“One of the most amazing facts revealed by
paleontology (the study of fossilized remains of
creatures which inhabited the earth in a former age) is
that nearly all modern animals were once represented
by larger ancestors. One thinks of the mammoths and
cave bears, giant cockroaches and dragonflies, and huge
reptiles like the dinosaurs. Along with them are
occasionally found giant human footprints, suggesting
indeed that ‘there were giants in the earth in those
days.’ Not only in the Bible, but in numerous other
ancient books, are preserved traditions of giants”
(Morris, p. 172)
Genesis 6:4
Q: Who are the ‘Nephilim’?
A1: Martin “Luther gives the correct meaning, ‘tyrants’.
They were called Nephilim because they fell upon the
people and oppressed them” (according to K & D, p. 137)
“To an unprejudiced mind, the words, as they stand,
represent the Nephilim, who were on the earth in those
days, as existing before the sons of God began to marry
the daughters of men, and clearly distinguish them from
the fruits of these marriages.” (K & D, p. 137)
Genesis 6:4
A1: “Now if, according to the simple meaning of the
passage, the Nephilim were in existence at the very time
when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men,
the appearance of the Nephilim cannot afford the
slightest evidence that the ‘sons of God’ were angels, by
whom a family of monsters were begotten, whether
demigods, demons, or angel-men” (K & D, p. 138)
Genesis 6:4
Q: Who are the Nephilim?
A2: “The sons of God were not divine; they were demoncontrolled. Their marrying as many women as they wished
(possibly this is the origin of harems) was to satisfy their
baser instincts. They were just another low order of
creatures, though powerful and demon-influenced. Children
of these marriages, despite pagan ideas, were not god-kings.
Though heroes and ‘men of renown,’ they were flesh; and
they died, in due course, like all members of the human race.
When God judges the word---as He was about to---no giant, no
deity, no human has any power against Him. God simply
allots one’s days and brings his end”
(Walvoord, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 36)
Genesis 6:4
Q: Who were the Nephilim?
A2: Walvoord admits, “It may be that fallen angels left
their habitation and inhabited bodies of human despots
and warriors, the mighty ones of the earth” (Bible Knowledge
Commentary, p. 36)
According to Walvoord (DTS), this does not mean that
the angels actually had physical relationships with
women, and produced grotesque children. They simply
possessed their bodies (‘demon possession’, making
them violent, rebellious, and wicked)
Genesis 6:4
Q: Who are the Nephilim?
A3: “The children of the unions of the demonically controlled
men and women of this period are the ones said to have
become the ‘giants,’ the mighty men of old. The word in the
Hebrew is nepilim and comes from the verb naphal (‘fall’).
Though some commentators suggest that the word means
‘those who fall upon’---that is, ‘attackers’ {as K & D suggest} --the more natural and probable meaning is ‘those who have
fallen,’ probably a reference to the nature of their pseudoparents, the fallen angels. The name came also to mean
‘giants’ and was applied later to the giants seen in Canaan by
the Israelite spies (Numbers 13:33). The word was so
understood by the translators of Genesis into Greek,
rendering the word in the Septuagint (LXX) by gigantes”
(Morris, p. 172)
Genesis 6:4
Q: Why would the children born of demon-controlled parents
grow into giants?
a. Modern genetics has shown there are two basic causes of
variations in physical characteristics among men, namely
mutations and recombinations.
b. In the genetic system is a tremendous number of factors
for different characteristics, some dominant in a
particular population, some latent or recessive.
c. Recombinations can only occur on factors already
implicitly present in the genes
d. Mutations can introduce new features which were not
present at all, by responding to external influences whose
energies effect random changes in the genetic system
Genesis 6:4
“Factors for large physical stature apparently have
resided from the beginning in the created gene pool of
the human population. Their emergence as frequent or
dominant characteristics in a specific population might
result by chance in a small inbreeding population or else
might result by design in the case of controlled
manipulation of the genes by breeders understanding
enough about the genetic process to do this. Geneticists
today appear on the verge of breakthroughs which
would permit exactly such ‘genetic engineering’ as this
sort of thing to be accomplished on a practical basis”
(Morris, p. 173)
Genesis 6:4
On the other hand, “It is believed that mutations can
also produce ‘giantism.’ The strange process of cloning,
by which geneticists think they will one day be able to
produce a race of carbon copies of Einstein (or ‘Wilt
Chamberlain, or whatever they want) by implantation of
body cells into human fertilized eggs might be still
another means of doing this.
Genesis 6:4
“The point is that, if modern geneticists can discuss with
all seriousness the imminent possibility of
accomplishing such things, then it is not unlikely that
knowledge of these secrets could have been available to
the angelic (and demonic) hosts. Having gained
essentially complete control over both minds and bodies
of these antediluvian parents, these fallen ‘sons of God’
could then, by some such genetic manipulation, cause
their progeny to become a race of monsters. The latter
also then would be under their control and possession
as well” (Morris, p. 173)
Genesis 6:4
“The demoniacal combination of the materialism and
ungodliness of the Cainitic civilization in general, with
this irruption of the Serpent’s seed directly into large
numbers of the human race and then with the thrusting
forth of hordes of the monstrous offspring of these
unlawful unions, all led to conditions in the world which
were finally intolerable even to a God of compassion
and long-suffering. (Morris, p. 173)
Genesis 6:1-4
6 When human beings began to increase in number on the
earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of
God saw that the daughters of humans were
beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then
the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans
forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred
and twenty years.”
4 The
Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also
afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters
of humans and had children by them. They were the
heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:5
5 The
LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human
race had become on the earth, and that every inclination
of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the
time. 6 The LORD regretted that he had made human
beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply
troubled.7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of
the earth the human race I have created—and with
them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move
along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
8 But
Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 6:5