Though this subject is one of controversy, I would like to examine it, looking at Scriptures and history, to get a better understanding of what the Nefiliym [Nephilim] are, not catering to the fantastic tales of the latter writings, but what the reality may be. The following is the result of my searching.

Bereshiyth [Gen.]

"6 ¹ and it was that the men began to be many on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, ² and the sons of the elohiym saw that the daughters of the men they were good; and they took for themselves wives, from all those whom they chose. ³ and YHWH said, 'my ruach will not strive with man forever, since he is flesh; and his days will be one hundred and twenty years years.' ⁴ the nephiliym were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of the elohiym came in to the daughters of the men, and they brought forth to them; they were the warriors who were of old, men of the name."

This is the first reference to the Nefiliym in the Scriptures. Right away, this passage brings a number of questions to be answered: Who are the sons of the Elohiym? How do they differ from men? How could the Nefiliym be on the earth before AND after the flood, since only Noach, his wife and sons and their wives, eight in all, were on the ark? What are the Nefiliym?

First, let us look at the root of the name Nefiliym. Nefiliym is a plural of nafal. Nafal means to fall, not just in Hebrew, but also in Aramaic, Biblical Aramaic, Syriac, Ugaritic, and Arabic - fall, was prostrate, was cast down, thrown down, overthrown.

If we look for something that was different from men and was fallen, cast down, one immediately thinks of what are termed the fallen angels, those that rebelled against YHWH and were cast down. Now we need to check for several things: where are those that are cast down referenced, what exactly were the terms of those that were cast down, and are the malakiym [messengers, angels] ever referred to as the sons of the Elohiym?

No where in the Tanak [OT] does it ever say that any malakiym [angels], hosts of the heavens or stars are cast down from the heavens or that they rebelled against YHWH. There are verses in the New Testament that speak of this, but not in the Tanak. There are passages that speak of HaShatan falling and being cast down, but nothing of any others. We will pursue these verses shortly, but for me, alarm bells go off when there is nothing in the Tanak on a subject.

Beney Elohiym – Sons of God

Are the malakiym ever referred to as the "beney Elohiym [sons of God]", in the Scriptures? Yes. In the book of Iyob [Job] 38:7, "…when the morning stars sang together, and all the beney Elohiym [sons of God] shouted for joy?" This is the only time that the phrase "beney elohiym" occurs in the Masoretic text. There are several factors that come into play here. First, there is one other place that the phrase occurs, but it is not in the Masoretic text, but it is in the Aramaic text of the Scriptures, as well as the Qumran copy of HaDebariym [Deuteronomy]. Chapter 32:8, in the Masoretic, states that the Most High divided the nations into their inheritance and that He set their number according to the beney Yisrael [sons of Yisrael]. The Aramaic and Qumran have beney elohiym. The Greek Septuagint also uses sons of God in that verse. To make matters worse, there are two books, in the post-biblical Hebrew texts, the book of Enoch and the book of Jubilees, that mention the phrase "beney elohiym". Not only do they mention it, they go into great description concerning this fall and give names to those that fell.

Now, let's look at some of the dating of these texts. Iyob is a late writing [after the exile], according to most scholars who study the linguistics of the text. It is also one of the books that was debated by the Council of Yamnia, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, to not be included in the canon, which is listed in the Talmud. Jubilees and Enoch are also post-exile writings. Next, the Aramaic version of the Scriptures, is also post-exile, as well as the Qumran copy and the Greek Septuagint, which was first begun with the books of Mosheh, around 250 BCE. So as it stands, there is no pre-exilic writing that refers to the malakiym of YHWH as the beney elohiym [sons of God], except the verse in Bereshiyth 6.

This verse in Bereshiyth makes me wonder. Is it a lone verse, in an earlier writing, or is it the hand of a latter scribe, adding some information to an older text, as a means of an explanation?

Fallen Angels

If the teaching of "fallen angels" is one of the post-exilic period, what of the verses in the NT? Are they building on a post-exilic belief or is it a matter of YHWH giving a new revelation to a latter generation? Here are the verses of the NT that speak of fallen angels.

Revelations 12:7-9, "and there was war in the heavens. and michael and his malakiym came to fight with the dragon; and the dragon and his malakiym warred. and they could not prevail, and their place was found no more in the heavens. and the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, who is called the deceiver, and the adversary, which seduces the whole habitable world. and he was cast on the earth, and his malakiym with him were cast."

II Qefa [Peter] 2:4, " for if the elohiym on the malakiym who sinned was not lenient, but in chains of darkness shut them in the deeps, and delivered them to be kept to the judgment of pain; and on the former world was not lenient,…"

Yahudah [Jude] 6, " and the malakiym who did not keep their primacy, but left their habitation, to the judgment of the great day in chains unknown, under darkness, he has kept."

I am concerned by the lack of references from Yahusha` [Jesus] or from anyone in the books of Testimony [Gospels]. There is some dispute over the latter letters and the book of Revelations does include some Gnostic elements, which makes me wonder about the validity of these verses. Do you bank on a few, possibly questionable, verses for a belief? I am a little more cautious and prefer more concrete evidence.

HaShatan

Yahusha` does make a statement about HaShatan being cast down. Luke 10:18, " ' then he said to them, i saw him, hashatan, when he fell as lightning from the heavens.' " There are two passages that many apply to the fall of HaShatan in the Tanak [OT], though he is never directly named.

Yechezqel [Ezekiel] 28:11-17, "and the word of YHWH was to me, saying, 'son of man, lift up a lament over the king of tsur [tyre], and say to him, "so says adonay YHWH, 'you seal the measure, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. you have been in eden, the garden of elohiym. every precious stone was your covering; the ruby, the topaz, and the jasper, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the turquoise, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of your tambourines and of your flutes in you. in the day you were created, they were prepared. you were the anointed kerub that covers, and i had put you in the set apart heights of elohiym, where you were. you walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. you were flawless in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. by the multitude of your trade, they filled your midst with violence, and you sinned. so i cast you defiled from the height of elohiym, and i destroyed you, covering kerub, from among the stones of fire. your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. i have cast you to the ground. i will put you before kings, that they may see you. by the host of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trade, you have defiled your set apart places. so i brought a fire from your midst and it will devour you, and i will give you for ashes on the earth in the sight of all who see you. all who know you among the peoples will be appalled at you. you will be terrors, and you will not be forever.' " ' "

The king of Tsur was a Tsiydonian [Sidonian] king, a man. Yet, a man was not in the garden of Elohiym, was not a kerub, and was not put in the set apart heights of Elohiym. If this passage is about the fall of HaShatan, it does not mention that he led a rebellion in the heavens and a third of the malakiym followed him and were also cast down.

Another passage attributed to the fall of HaShatan is YeshaYahu [Isaiah] 14. Beginning with verse 3, you see a taunt against the king of Babel, again, another man. From 3-11, you see the death of a wicked man being put in a grave, covered with maggots. A very human event. Verse 12 changes though. 12-15, " ' oh heylel [shining star], son of shachar [morning, dawn], how you have fallen from the heavens. you weakening the goyim, you are cut down to the ground. ¹³ for you have said in your heart, "i will go up to the heavens; i will raise my throne above the stars of el, and i will sit in the mountain of meeting, in the sides of tsafon. ¹⁴ i will rise over the heights of the clouds; i will be compared to the most high." ¹⁵ yet you will go down to sheol, to the sides of the pit.' " This passage is obviously not speaking of a man, but it does pose additional questions that need explaining. Who are Heylel and Shachar and what of the mountain Tsafon?

In the Canaanite/Ugaritic, Phoenician and Syrian pantheon of gods, occasionally borrowed or paralleled in Assyrian and Babylonian pantheons, Shahar is the god of the dawn, a twin son of El. El is the head of the pantheon, who was later replaced by Baal, his son. Shahar's son was Heylel. Where Tsafon [Zaphon, Tsaphon] means north, Mount Tsafon is a place and part of the Ugaritic myths as the abode of El and Baal. Tsafon was to Canaanites what Olympus was to the Greeks. What we are seeing here is a taunt and comparison of a wicked boastful king of Babel compared to a well known myth of another boastful character who sought to be as the Most High and was cast down. It is not necessarily a passage about the fall of HaShatan when viewed in its proper context.

I am aware that for centuries this has been the view of the majority of commentaries on the passage in YeshaYahu, but the finding and translation of the texts uncovered at Ugarit, shed a new light on the passage, especially when you taken them as names and not definitions of words. This type of mishandling of Semitic words occurs elsewhere in the Scriptures. Another example is a passage in YiremeYahu [Jer.] 46:11,12, " 'go up into gilead and take balm, virgin daughter of mitsrayim. in vain you will use many remedies; healing is not for you. ¹² the goyim have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land. for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty; they have fallen together, both of them.' "

The virgin daughter of Mitsrayim was Bastet, the daughter of Ra. She was considered one of his eyes. She was a virgin and a seducer, much in the same wasythat Astarte was. She was a warrior and a healer, just as Astarte was. She was said to have attacked man for their turning away from Ra, to the point that she had a blood lust and had to be stopped to not totally wipe out mankind. She was wading in blood. Which ties into the preceding verses about the day of YHWH being a day of vengeance on His foes and His sword will devour till it is satisfied, till it has quenched its thirst with blood. This passage is an attack on pagan deities and what they are known for, just as the plagues of Mistrayim were attacks on their ancient pantheon.

Nefiliym in Scripture

Looking at the Tanak, I still find no evidence of a rebellion in the heavens. So let us go back to the Nefiliym themselves. The following are the passages dealing with the Nefiliym and their descending tribes. See the chart of their family tree.

The nefiliym were also mentioned by name in the book of BeMidbar [Numbers] 13:33. When Yisrael was entering the land of Kenaan, they sent out 12 men to explore the land. Hoshea and Kaleb were among the men exploring. The 12 come back and give a report to Mosheh and the whole assembly, " 'we came in to the land where you sent us, and also it, flowing with milk and honey, and this, its fruit. ²⁸ only, surely the people which are living in the land, strong; and the cities are fenced, very great; and also offspring of anaq we have seen there. ²⁹ amaleq is living in the land of the south, and the chiththiy, and the yebusiy, and the emoriy are living in the hill country, and the kenaaniy are living by the sea, and by the side of the yarden.' ³⁰ and kaleb stilled the people concerning mosheh, and said, 'let us certainly go up, and we will possess it; for we are thoroughly able for it.' ³¹ and the men who had gone up with him said, 'we are not able to go up against the people, for it, stronger than we.' ³² and they brought out an evil account of the land which they spied to the sons of yisrael, saying, 'the land into which we passed over to spy it, is a land eating up its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in its midst, men of stature. ³³ and there we saw the nefiyliym, sons of anaq, of the nefiyliym; and we are in our own eyes as grasshoppers; and so we were in their eyes.' "

Here we have our first tree line. The sons of Anaq are Nefiliym. They are described as strong and tall, to the point that they felt as grasshoppers. This will be a reoccurring description of the Nefiliym and their descendants. Anaq is mentioned again in the book of Yahusha` [Joshua]. 11:21, " at that time yahusha` came and cut off the anaqiym from the mountains, from chebron, from debiyr, from anah, and from all the mountains of yahudah, and from all the mountains of yisrael. yahusha` completely destroyed them with their cities. ²² there were none of the anaqiym left in the land of the sons of yisrael; only some remained in azzah, in gath, and in ashdod." HaDebariym [Deut.] 9:2 mentions a saying that was well known, "Who can stand up against the Anaqiym?" It is important to note that some of these Anaqiym remained in Azzah [Gaza], Gath and Ashdod, Felishthiym [Philistine] cities. We will see some of those descendants, called by another name, after another of their leaders, in a well known battle.

Continuing in the book of Yahusha` [Joshua] we see another line, that of Arba. Yahusha` 14:15, " and the name of chebron [Hebron] before was city of arba; that one was a great man among the anaqiym. and the land had rest from war." Yahusha` 15:13, " and he gave a portion to kaleb ben yefunneh among the sons of yahudah, according to the command of YHWH to yahusha`, the city of arba, the father of anaq; it is chebron. ¹⁴ and kaleb dispossessed from there the three sons of anaq, sheshay, achiyman, and thalmay, the sons of anaq." Here we see that Arba was a father, if not a forefather to Anaq.

The next line is that of the Refaiym [Rephaites]. HaDebariym [Deut.] 2:10, 11, "the emiym lived there in days gone by, a great and plentiful people, and tall as the anaqiym; they are reckoned to be refaiym, they too, like the anaqiym; but the moabiym call them emiym." 2:21, " it is reckoned a land of refaiym, even it; refaiym formerly lived in it, and the ammoniym call them zamzummiym; ²¹ a great and plentiful people, and tall as the anaqim. and YHWH destroyed them before them, and they expelled them, and lived in their place;" Bereshiyth 14:5 confirms the same use of the names by the Ammoniym and the Moabiym. " in the fourteenth year kedarlaomer and the kings that were with him, came and defeated the refaiym in ashtheroth-qarnaiym and the zuziym in cham and the eymiym in shaweh-qiryathayim,"

HaDebariym 3 has an interesting account. After destroying Siychon, king of the Amoriy, Yisrael goes north to Bashan. Bashan is ruled by a king named Og. Verse 11-13 states, " 'for only og the king of bashan remained of the rest of the refaiym. look, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in rabbath of the sons of ammon, nine cubits long and four cubits broad, by the cubit of a man? and we possessed this land at that time: from aroer by the valley of arnon, and half the hill country of gilead and its cities i gave to the reubeniy and to the gadiy. ¹³ and the rest of gilead, and all bashan, the kingdom of og, i gave to the half tribe of menashsheh; all the region of argob, to all bashan that is called the land of the refaiym." Again, note the height of Og and his strength, a consistent description of the descendants of the Nefiliym. After the battle with Kedarlaomer, there are not as many Refaiym in that part of the land. But, there were more in the cities of the Felishthiym that were mentioned earlier.

Now we advance to the time of Dawiyd and that major battle that I mentioned. I Shemuel 17 tells of Galyath [Goliath], a champion in the Felishthiym army of Gath, one of the cities mention as having Refaiym. Galyath was over 9 feet tall, wore a bronze helmet and a bronze coat of scale armor that weighed about 125 lbs, on his legs he wore bronze and had a bronze javelin slung on his back. His spear shaft was said to be like a weavers rod and its iron point weighed about 15 lbs. Galyath is a Refaiym, a descendant of the Nefiliym, the warriors of old, just as he is a champion making war. Where this verse does not state that he is a Refaiym, a latter one does.

II Shemuel 21:15-22, " and again the felishthiym warred with yisrael. and dawiyd went down, and his servants with him. and they fought with the felishthiym. and dawiyd was weary. ¹⁶ and yishbi benob, who was of the sons of the rafa, the weight of his spear being three hundred bronze shekels in weight, and was girded with a new sword, even he said to strike dawiyd. ¹⁷ and abiyshay ben tseruyah helped him, and struck the felishthiy, and killed him. then the men of dawiyd swore to him, saying, you will not again go out with us to battle, that you not cause the lamp of yisrael to go out. ¹⁸ and it happened after this that the battle was again in gob of the felishthiym. then sibbekay the chushathiy struck saf, who was among the sons of the rafa. ¹⁹ and again the battle was in gob with the felishthiym, and elchanan ben yaarey-orgiym of beyth halachemiy struck one of galyath the githiy, and the wood of his spear was like a weaver's beam. ²⁰ and again the battle was in gath, and there was a man of stature, and the fingers of his hands were six, and the fingers of his feet six, twenty four in number. and he also had been born to rafa. ²¹ and he cursed yisrael; and yahunathan, the son of dawiyd's brother shimeay, struck him. ²² these four here born to the rafa the in gath. and they fell by the hand of dawiyd, by the hand of his servants."

Nowhere in this passage does it mention that Galyath is of Rafa, in the Masoretic text, but the Septuagint of this passage does, as does the recounting of the passage in I Dibrey HaYamiym [I Chronicles] 20:5, which states that Elchanan Ben Yair killed Lachmiy, the brother of Galyath the Giththiy, with a spear like a weavers rod. How many Galyath's, from Gath are there with a spear like a weavers rod?

An interesting point, is the meaning of the names of the Nefiliym and their descendants.

Nefiliym – to fall, cast down, fall away, overthrown

Arba – four

Anaq – to put round the neck, necklace, chain, collar

Rafa – weaken, lame, smite, also shades, spirits of the dead, ghosts

Eymiym – dread, terror

Zamzumiym – whisperers, mumblers, murmers, plan evil, plot

The definition of the Refaiym and Nefiliym brings several questions to my mind. The Nefiliym were there before and after the flood. What if the Nefiliym are the offspring of demons, as in dispossessed dead, evil spirits? Were not those that were destroyed in the flood fallen? Spiritually fallen? Look at the descriptions of two demon possessed men in the NT. The man possessed by a legion of demons was also incredibly strong. So was the man that beat up the seven sons of Sceva. What if this phrase, "came in to the daughters of men" is speaking of a possession from conception that produced the offspring described, very strong, bigger than normal as a result of abnormal chemical production during the fetus stage, which would also explain the warring behavior.

This is spoken of in cultic circles as incubus/succubus. The women devoting themselves to HaShatan are referred to as Brides of Satan. This is a pagan practice. Bereshiyth says that man had become very evil and sought to wipe the evil from the face of the earth. Ancient documents and inscriptions record many women and priestesses devoting themselves to pagan deities sexually. If a demon can inhabit a person, can they inhabit a seed that becomes a person and if so, what effect would that have on the fetus?

This also brings up the question, where do demons come from? Unfortunately, I feel as though I have more questions than answers.

Too many ancient cultures have stories of giants, just as they do flood accounts. Many myths do have a basis in history, which have been altered over time. I do believe that there were these giant, strong and warring people, but, were they descended from fallen angels or demons? I do not know for sure since I do not have enough proof from the texts we have today. Whatever their origin, their being seemed to make war and devour people.

Ancient records added soon…