Who are the Nephilim?

Genesis 6:4 reads: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days.”

We know almost nothing about the Nephilim. Who were these people?

The word “Nephilim” is the Hebrew word spelled with English letters that sound similar.

The translators of the Septuagint used the Greek word for “giants” to translate the Hebrew term nepilîm.

There are several reasons for their decision.

The ten scouts called the large-sized Canaanites “Nephilim” (Num. 13.33); they were described as “heroes of old, persons of name,” which could give them a legendary sort of stature; and, again, perhaps their fathers were angelic and so they could be physically large.

Neither of the first two reasons are adequate.

The spies were fabricating a myth in Numbers 13.33, and “heroes of old, persons of name” does not need to be related to physical stature.

The third line of reasoning is a hypothesis built on top of another hypothesis, thus it is weak. Even if the Nephilim were the “biological” offspring of “angelic men” and human women, there is no way to know whether this would affect their physical stature.

The Hebrew word for Nephilim probably means something like “fallen ones.” In my view, translating it as “fallen ones,” whoever or whatever they were, captures the spirit of the passage.

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