Were the
Nephilim sons of God?
Fallen
Angels? Giants of Genesis 6:4?
- A common
belief which we share is that the "sons of
- God"
who
did marry
the "daughters
of men" were fallen angels.
Why did God
send the judgment of the Flood in the days
of Noah? The strange events recorded in
Genesis 6 were understood by the ancient
rabbinical sources, as well as the Septuagint
translators, as referring to fallen angels
procreating weird hybrid offspring with
human women-known as the
Nephilim. This
was far more than simply a historical issue,
the unique events leading to the Flood are
a prerequisite to understanding the prophetic
implications of our Lord's predictions regarding
His Second Coming. This is believed
to have happened both before the Flood and
after the flood. In Israel at the
time of David, and before this when the
Hebrews were scouting the land - there were
tribes of these Nephilim - Goliath the giant
of Gath is one example. Early
Church fathers also understood this to be
the case. It appears that these fallen
angels were active all over the world. These
bizarre giants living on the earth are also
echoed in the legends and myths of nearly
every ancient culture. The ancient
Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hindus, the South
Sea Islanders, the American Indians, and
most all the others have these legends.
The Hebrew
word Nephelim (plural of nephel) (Nephilim)
literally means "rejects". The Hebrew plural for Nephites would be "Nephi'im".
-
- Satan probably put
this plan to interrupt Abraham's "seed into motion, as
soon as it was made known that the Seed of the Woman
(Christ) was to come through ABRAHAM.
- Bible Probe Note:
Our use of the Word "irruption"
in this article below means:
act of rushing; act of breaking in; intrusion, raid;
sudden increase.
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- Genesis
6:4 (Original KJV):
- There
were giants in the earth in those
days; and also after that,
- when
the sons of God came in unto the
daughters of men, and
- they
bare children to them, the same became
mighty men which
- were
of old, men of renown.
- Bible
Probe Note: Note the words; "and
also after that". This
- probably
tells of two "irruptions" by
Satan's seed. One before Noah's
- time and
another after the flood.
They were called “The
Watchers” in The Book
of Enoch.
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Their descendents, called
Nephilim (translated "giants"), were monsters
of iniquity; and being superhuman in size and
in their wicked character,
had to be
destroyed. Was this the one and only object of
the Flood? |
Genesis 6:12 (Original KJV):
- And
God looked upon the earth, and,
behold, it was corrupt;
- for
all flesh had corrupted his way upon
the earth.
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Only Noah and his family had preserved
their pedigree pure from Adam (Genesis 6:9). All the
rest had become "corrupt" (shachath). The only remedy was to destroy it defacto (Latin for
"in fact"), as it had become defacto
destroyed.
This
irruption of fallen angels before Noah's day was
probably Satan's first attempt to
prevent the coming of the "Seed of the woman" foretold in
Genesis 3:15. If this could be accomplished, God's Word
would have failed, and Satan's own doom would be averted.
- Genesis
3:15 (Original KJV):
- And I
will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between
- thy
seed and
her seed; it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt
- bruise
his heel. also
see Isaiah 7:14
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WHAT WAS GOING ON
IN THE DAYS OF NOAH? Will the gates of hell (port holes/stargates) open on December 21,
2012?
This is the date the Mayan calendar ends. Is this when the biblical
delusions from the skies begin?
Did demons land on Mt Hermon in
Phoenesia (now Israel) and polute the human race - provoking God's
anger? Are UFO's these demons (some call Watchers) building up
their forces for a final battle with the Lord? Are these "bad
angelic beings" using created matter to embody themselves?
Below from book:
Reference: Nephilim Stargates - the year 2012 and
the return of the Watchers, by Thomas R. Horn
What will it be like when the Lord
returns - and destroys satan and his armies? Nephilim (demon
angels in physical bodies) will be here... Just like:
"As it was in the days of
Noah..." (Luke 17:26)
The idea that the spirits of dead
giants (off spring of demons mating with earth women) inhabit the
underworld (place beyond the veil) is supported here:
- They're
segregated from the heroes, the old-time giants who entered the
grave in full battle dress, their swords placed under their heads
and their shields covering their bones, those heroes who spread
terror through the land of the living. The Message
Version, Ezekiel 32:27
- "And he did not know that giants are there, and
that her guests are in the depths of hell" (Douay-Rheims Version,
Proverbs 9:18)
- "A man that shall wander out of the way of
doctrine, shall abide in the company of the giants"
(Douay-Rheims Version, Proverbs 21:16)
- "Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy
coming, it stirred up the giants for thee" (Douay-Rheims Version,
Isaiah 14:9)
- "Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise
again..." (Douay-Rheims Version, Isaiah 26:14)
The book of Jasher, which is mentioned in the
Bible in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1.18 says, "After the fallen
angels went into the daughters of men, [then] the sons of men taught
the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order to
provoke the Lord" (4:18). The Book of Enoch says that fallen
angels not only merged their DNA with women, but that "they began to
sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish" (7:5; 6)
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- Satan's
plan was to occupy Canaan with
"his own
seed" in advance of Abraham's
seed.
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As soon
as it was made known that the Seed of the woman was to
come through ABRAHAM, there must have been another
irruption, as recorded in Genesis 6:4 (see above), "and also
after that" (that is to say, after the days of
Noah, more than 500 years after the first irruption). The
aim of the enemy was to occupy Canaan in advance of
Abraham, and so to contest its occupation by his seed. For,
when Abraham entered Canaan, we read (Genesis 12:6)
"the Canaanite was then (that is to say, already)
in the land."
- Also in Genesis we
see two more attempts by Satan to interfere with
Abraham's
- seed before the birth
of Isaac, as told in both Genesis 12:10-20 and in
Genesis 20:1-18.
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In
the late 1950’s, during road construction in
the Euphrates Valley of south-east Turkey,
many tombs containing the remains of giants
were uncovered. At the sites the leg bones
were measured to be 120 cms (47.24 inches).
Joe Taylor, Director of Mt. Blanco Fossil
Museum, was commissioned to sculpt the human
femur. This
Antediluvian
giant stood some 14-16 ft tall
(see below).
Genesis 6:4 claims: "There were giants in
the earth in those days;" Deuteronomy 3:11
states that the bed of Og, king of Bashan,
was 9 cubits by 4 cubits (approximately 14
ft long by 6 ft wide).
Possible explanation.
The earth had more oxygen.
Long ago, even insects
may have been larger due to higher oxygen
concentrations in the atmosphere (believed
to have been about 35 percent instead of 21
percent today). This increased oxygen level
could be part of the explanation for giants,
long-lived people, and even why fossils of
giant dragonflies with 2-foot wingspans have
been found.
Antediluvian
Giants' bone below |
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Other
human Fossil
finds
A 19'6" human skeleton found in 1577 A.D.
under an overturned oak tree in the Canton
of Lucerne.
23-foot tall skeleton found in 1456 A.D.
beside a river in Valence, France.
A 25' 6 " skeleton found in 1613 A.D. near
the castle of Chaumont in France. This was
claimed to be a nearly complete find.
A 9' 8" skeleton was
excavated from a mound near Brewersville,
Indiana (Indianapolis News, Nov 10, 1975).
In 1833
soldiers digging at a pit for a powder
magazine in Lompock Rancho, California,
discovered a male skeleton 12 feet tall. The
skeleton was surrounded by carved shells,
stone axes,
and blocks of porphyry
covered with unintelligible symbols.
The skeleton had double rows of upper and
lower teeth.
These bones substantiated
legends by the local Piute Indians regarding
giants which they called Si-Te-Cahs.
In
Clearwater Minnesota, the skeletons of seven
giants were found in mounds. These had
receding foreheads and complete double
dentition.
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"A miner fell through a
hole in a mine in Italy and
found this 11' 6" skeleton."
believed to been found in 1856. |
A
mound near Toledo, Ohio, held 20
skeletons, seated and facing east with
jaws and teeth "twice as large as those
of present day people," and besides each
was a large bowl with "curiously wrought
hieroglyphic figures." (Chicago Record,
Oct. 24, 1895; cited by Ron G. Dobbins,
NEARA Journal, v13, fall 1978).
Almost beyond comprehension or believability
was the find of the two separate 36-foot
human remains uncovered by Carthaginians
somewhere between 200-600 B.C.
Caius Julius Verus
Maximinus, also known as Maximinus Thrax
(235-238 A.D.) was a Roman soldier-emperor
who spent his reign on campaign. Maximinus
was born in Thrace to a Gothic father an Alanic mother in about 173 A.D.. He
was reportedly 8' feet, six inches (2.59m)
tall, and of tremendous strength.
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In an ancient text of the
Jews, we read an astonishing description of some
of these gigantic Amorites whom the Israelites
conquered. In Buber's Tanhuma,
Devarim 7, the text tells us of a Rabbi Johnanan
ben Zakkai's encounter with the Roman Emperor
Hadrian. This event occurred in about A.D. 135,
soon after the Roman victory in the Bar Kochba
war, when the Jews rebelled against the Romans.
The text reads:
"The wicked emperor Hadrian, who
conquered Jerusalem, boasted, 'I have
conquered Jerusalem with great power.' Rabbi
Johanan ben Zakkai said to him, 'Do not
boast. Had it not been the will of Heaven,
you would not have conquered it.' Rabbi
Johanan then took Hadrian into a cave and
showed him the bodies of Amorites who were
buried there. One of them measured eighteen
cubits [approximately 30 feet] in height. He
said, 'When we were deserving, such men were
defeated by us, but now, because of our
sins, you have defeated us'" (quoted in
Judaism, edited by Arthur
Hertzberg, p.155-156, George Braziller, New
York: 1962).
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See a Video of a Giant skeleton (Race of
Giants) found in India in recent years:
BEWARE: THIS
ONE BELOW IS A HOAX! See
Snopes.com
See this YouTube video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq4iFwskChU&feature=related
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"Sons of God
were fallen angels and not aliens"
Some have claimed that the
Nephilim, or the "sons of God," both mentioned
in Genesis 6:2-4, were aliens. This is a wild extension
of a common view that the "sons of God" who
married the "daughters of men" were fallen
angels, and that the Nephilim were products of those
"marriages."
"Sons of God"
is clearly used of angels in Job 38:7 Orig KJV: "When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?". The Septuagint (LXX)
here translates "sons of God" as "angels
of God." This need not mean that evil angels, or
demons, actually cohabited with women. Jesus made it
clear that angels do not engage in sexual activities, at
least not angels in heaven. Matthew 22:30 Orig KJV:
"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor
are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in
heaven." Nevertheless, evil angels on earth could have used the
bodies of ungodly men, by demonic possession, to achieve
their evil purpose of producing an evil generation of
people (Genesis 6:12).[2]
There are other
reasonable suggestions as to the identity of the
"sons of God" and the Nephilim. Interestingly,
the word Nephilim is only used here and in Numbers
13:33, where it clearly refers to the descendants of
Anak, who were big people, but still people.
Furthermore, "sons of God" is not used
exclusively of angels -- the children of Israel are
called "the sons of the living God" in Hosea
1:10 (see also Psalm 73:15; 80:17).
Numbers 13:
32-33 Original KJV:
- 32 And
they brought up an evil report of the
land which they had
searched
unto the children of Israel,
saying, The land, through which
we have gone to search it, is a
land that eateth up the inhabitants
thereof; and all the people
that we saw in it are men
of
great stature.
-
- 33 And
there we saw the giants, the sons of
Anak, which come
of the
giants: and we were in our own
sight as grasshoppers, and so
we were in their sight.
The Anakim: This
was another name for the Watchers. It means
“the descendants of Anak”, or Enoch, Cain’s
son. Though it was said that a flood had
been sent to destroy them, there were still
entire cities of Anakim in Canaan as late as
the time of Moses. And Jewish chronicler
Josephus states that even in his own day it
was not uncommon for people to dig up
gigantic skeletal remains.
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A champion named
Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine
camp ... Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy
the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each
other."
Reading further,
both in 2 Samuel 21:16-22 and I Chronicles
20:4-8, we discover that Goliath had four
relatives, also giants:
1) Ishbi-Benob,
whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred
shekels (more than seven pounds) and who said
he would kill David;
2) Saph
(or Sippai), another descendant of Rapha (the
giant);
3) Lahmi
(the brother of Goliath), whose spear shaft
resembled a weaver's rod; and |
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4) a huge man (unnamed in
the text) with six fingers on each hand and six toes on
each foot.
Goliath and these four were
all descendants of Rapha in Gath, "and they fell at
the hands of David and his men" (2 Samuel 21:22 and I
Chronicles 20:8).
David apparently knew in
facing Goliath that these other four might also have to be
reckoned with. So David prepared himself to take down all
five giants, one stone per giant, if need be. The Bible
tells us that the other four did fight against David and
his army in later battles, and all four were defeated.
David's stone was a bullet
of faith, launched from his sling at probably 100 to 120
mph, and with sufficient momentum to break through
Goliath's skull bones. The boastful giant never knew what
hit him. The text indicates that David ran toward Goliath
as he launched his shot, thus adding to its momentum. We
can assume from David's success in killing both bear and
lion that he was a fast runner (Goliath could never have
caught him in open field running) and an accurate shot,
probably able to put a stone into a 3- or 4-inch circle
consistently from a distance of 20 or 30 feet (an accuracy
comparable to that of today's pro baseball pitchers).
Rulers in ancient Egypt
and Mesopotamia often proclaimed themselves as
"sons of God" to enhance their power and
prestige. So, another view with much support is that the
"sons of God" were power-hungry rulers and
despots, who, in their hunger for power and influence,
took many wives in polygamy. They, and their offspring,
through tyranny, became "mighty men." (Nimrod
was described as a "mighty one" in Genesis
10:8.)
So, there is no need to
resort to fanciful suggestions involving aliens to
understand this passage of Scripture.
Good
Angels do not marry
A contradictory
yet enlightening statement about angel
marriages was made by Jesus which was
reported in Matthew 22:30; "For
in the resurrection they neither marry, nor
are given in marriage, but are as the angels
of God in heaven." Here we
read a statement from Jesus saying that
angels do not get married. A possible
explanation for this is that the "sons
of God" were the descendants of
Seth, and "the daughters of men"
were of the godless Cainites.
Remember, God later spoke of the people of
Israel as His ‘firstborn son" (Exodus
4:22), and Moses called the people of Israel
"children of the Lord your God"
(Deuteronomy 14:1).
Therefore, when they took wives it was an
unholy alliance between Sethites (God's
people) and Cainites (idol worshipers).
Also, the word "wives" seems to
indicate more that one and therefore a
suggests taking more than one wife
(polygamy).
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- How Big were the Giants?
- (probably around
*9.5-14 feet)
-
(Ancient
Hebrew cubit remains unknown)
- *9
cubits using Egyptian Royal
cubit (1.7 ft) =15.3 ft
- (subtracted
1 ft for bed's comfort)
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Deuteronomy
3:11 Original KJV:
- For
only Og king of Bashan remained of
the remnant
- of
giants; behold, his bedstead was a
bedstead of
- iron;
is it not in Rabbath of the
children of Ammon?
- nine
cubits was the length thereof, and
four cubits
- the
breadth of it, after the cubit of a
man,
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Giants
(1.) Hebrew Nephilim,
meaning "violent" or "causing to
fall" (Gen. 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of
those days, those who fell upon others. The word may
also be derived from a root signifying
"wonder," and hence "monsters" or
"prodigies." In Num. 13:33 this name is given
to a Canaanitish tribe, a race of large stature,
"the sons of Anak." The Revised Version, in
these passages, simply transliterates the original, and
reads "Nephilim."
(2.) Hebrew rephaim, a
race of giants (Deut. 3:11) who lived on the east of
Jordan, from whom Og was descended. They were probably
the original inhabitants of the land before the
immigration of the Canaanites. They were conquered by
Chedorlaomer (Gen. 14:5), and their territories were
promised as a possession to Abraham (15:20). The Anakim,
Zuzim, and Emim were branches of this stock.
In Job 26:5 (R.V.,
"they that are deceased;" marg., "the
shades," the "Rephaim") and Isa. 14:9
this Hebrew word is rendered (A.V.) "dead." It
means here "the shades," the departed spirits
in Sheol. In Sam. 21:16, 18, 20, 33, "the
giant" is (A.V.) the rendering of the singular form
ha raphah, which may possibly be the name of the
father of the four giants referred to here, or of the
founder of the Rephaim. The Vulgate here reads "Arapha,"
whence Milton (in Samson Agonistes) has borrowed the
name "Harapha." (See also 1 Chron. 20:5, 6, 8;
Deut. 2:11, 20; 3:13; Josh. 15:8, etc., where the word
is similarly rendered "giant.") It is rendered
"dead" in (A.V.) Ps. 88:10; Prov. 2:18; 9:18;
21:16: in all these places the Revised Version marg. has
"the shades." (See also Isa. 26:14.)
(3.) Hebrew 'Anakim
(Deut. 2:10, 11, 21; Josh. 11:21, 22; 14:12, 15; called
"sons of Anak," Num. 13:33; "children of
Anak," 13:22; Josh. 15:14), a nomad race of giants
descended from Arba (Josh. 14:15), the father of Anak,
that dwelt in the south of Palestine near Hebron (Gen.
23:2; Josh. 15:13). They were a Cushite tribe of the
same race as the Philistines and the Egyptian shepherd
kings. David on several occasions encountered them (2
Sam. 21:15-22). From this race sprung Goliath (1 Sam.
17:4).
(4.) Hebrew 'emin, a
warlike tribe of the ancient Canaanites. They were
"great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims"
(Gen. 14:5; Deut. 2:10, 11).
(5.) Hebrew Zamzummim
(q.v.), Deut. 2:20 so called by the Amorites.
(6.) Heb. gibbor (Job
16:14), a mighty one, i.e., a champion or hero. In its
plural form (gibborim) it is rendered "mighty
men" (2 Sam. 23:8-39; 1 Kings 1:8; 1 Chr. 11:9-47;
29:24.) The band of six hundred whom David gathered
around him when he was a fugitive were so designated.
They were divided into three divisions of two hundred
each, and thirty divisions of twenty each. The captains
of the thirty divisions were called "the
thirty," the captains of the two hundred "the
three," and the captain over the whole was called
"chief among the captains" (2 Sam. 23:8). The
sons born of the marriages mentioned in Gen. 6:4 are
also called by this Hebrew name.
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Genesis 6: 1-8 Original KJV:
1 And it came to pass,
when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters
were born unto them,
2 That the sons of
God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them
wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said,
My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those
days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the
daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became
mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the
LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his
heart.
7 And the LORD said,
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth;
both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the
air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But
Noah found
grace in the eyes of the LORD.
The
following assaults of the great
Satanic Enemy
stand out prominently in the Bible:
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- reference:
therain.org
Abraham's
wife Sarai was captured by Pharaoh in Egypt (thinking
she was Abraham's sister) before Isaac was born
(Genesis, Chapter 12)
Abraham's
wife Sarai was captured (taken) by Abimelech, king of
Gerar (thinking she was Abraham's sister) before Isaac
was born. (Genesis, Chapter 20)
The attempted destruction of the male line
of Israel in Egypt, Exodus 1:15-16:
- 15.
And the king of Egypt spake to the
Hebrew midwives, of
- which
the name of one was Shiphrah, and the
name of the
- other
Puah:
- 16.
And he said, When ye do the office of
a midwife to the
- Hebrew
women, and see them upon the stools;
if it be a
- son,
then ye shall kill him: but if it be a
daughter, then she
- shall
live.
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The
destruction of the whole nation in Pharaoh's pursuit,
Exodus 14.
After
David's line was singled out (2 Samuel 7), that was the
next selected for assault. Satan's first assault was in
the union of Jehoram and Athaliah by Jehoshaphat,
notwithstanding 2 Chronicles 17:1. Jehoram killed off all
his brothers (2 Chronicles 21:4).
The
Arabians slew all his children, except Ahaziah (2
Chronicles 21:17; 22:1).
When
Ahaziah died, Athaliah killed "all the seed
royal" (2 Chronicles 22:10).
The babe Joash alone was
rescued; and, for six years, the faithfulness of
Jehovah's word was at stake (2 Chronicles 23:3).
Hezekiah
was childless, when a double assault was made by the
King of Assyria and the King of Terrors (Isaiah 36:1;
38:1). God's faithfulness was appealed to and relied on
(Psalm 136).
In
Captivity, Haman was used to attempt the destruction of
the whole nation (Esther 3:6,12,13. Compare 6:1).
Joseph's
fear was worked on (Matthew 1:18-20). Notwithstanding
the fact that he was "a just man",
and kept the Law, he did not wish to have Mary stoned to
death (Deuteronomy 24:1); hence Joseph determined to
divorce her. But God intervened: "Fear not".
Herod
sought the young Child's life (Matthew 2).
At the
Temptation, "Cast Thyself down"
was Satan's temptation.
At
Nazareth, again (Luke 4), there was another attempt to
cast Him down and destroy Him.
The two
storms on the Lake were other attempts.
At
length the cross was reached, and the sepulchre closed;
the watch set; and the stone sealed. But "God
raised Him from the dead." And now, like
another Joash, He is seated and expecting
(Hebrews 10:12,13), hidden in the house of God on high;
and the members of "the one body"
are hidden there "in Him"
(Colossians 3:1-3), like another Jehoshaba; and going
forth to witness of His coming, like another Jehoiada
(2Chronicles 23:3).
The
irruption of "the fallen angels"
("sons of God") was the first
attempt; and was directed against the whole human race.
When
Abraham was called, then he and his seed were attacked.
When
David was enthroned, then the royal line was assailed.
And
when "the Seed of the woman"
Himself came, then the storm burst upon Him.
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“As
many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God.”
—Romans viii. 14.
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Hildegard of Bingen
wrote about fallen angels in 1150 AD. She states they
aligned themselves to the dark (negative) instead of to the light
(positive-God per the Bible). |
Another
non-canonical tradition says that God's Angels swarmed down
and killed the remaining Nephilim...
God seeing his creation on the brink of destruction acted to save man
from this treachery, and he set out to wipe corrupt man (and beast) from the
face of the earth. God did not do this so as to punish man but to save him from
an evil he had no way of understanding. God saved Noah and his family and man
began anew. As did the evil. But it was the unauthorized act of revelation that outraged the archangels,
and it was that act which God punished. "I shall restore the Earth, so that not
all the sons of men shall be destroyed through the mystery which the Watchers
made known." Divinely commanded, the obedient Watchers swept down and defeated
their brothers, whose punishment was to watch the death of their children before
being themselves imprisoned in the mountains and deserts of the Earth until
Judgment Day, when they will be cast into the lake of eternal fire. (Azazel is
the only Watcher whose burial place is believed to be known: under a heap of
stones at the foot of the cliff of Haradan, in what is now the Sinai, where,
regarded as a demon, he received every year the scapegoat driven into the desert
with its burden of Israel's sins. --Alternately, he is sometimes said to have
hurled himself into the sky and become the constellation Orion.) God sends the
prophet Enoch to scold them in their imprisonment, saying that as spiritual
beings they were never intended to have wives as mortal men do (of course, their
creator could presumably have seen to it that they felt no longing for sex or
love, but he apparently neglected to do so) and even scorning the knowledge they
shared with humanity - "You were in heaven, but its secret had not been revealed
to you and a worthless mystery you knew." - although the Four Archangels'
concern surely contradicts this mocking remark. Other Apocryphal books say that
even now they are held and tortured in the terrible Fifth Heaven, set aside for
just this purpose. (I Enoch XIII describes the Watchers/Grigori as
stricken mute with guilt and terror after Enoch's reproof, and indeed in II
Enoch the Grigori imprisoned in the Fifth Heaven are voiceless giants.) The
world, meanwhile, is swept clean in a great earthquake and flood, destroying the
Nephilim's lands, to which many writers
trace the worldwide legends of a catastrophic inundation.
But the Watchers' teaching continued to influence humankind in the ages after
the Deluge, even though now condemned and studied in secret. In Jubilees
VIII:1-5, Kainam, Noah's grandson, "came upon a writing which men of old had
carved on a rock...it contained the teaching of the Watchers, in accordance with
which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and all the signs of
heaven. And he wrote it down and said nothing about it..." fearing punishment
from Noah, who blamed the Watchers for the Flood and constantly warned his clan
against any dealings with them or their descent. (Must have been one blessed
huge rock, unless the Watchers' skills included micro-engraving.) This is
especially notable because Kainam is the brother of Chesed, father of Ur, who is
said in the Apocrypha to have founded the famous Chaldean city of that name.
"And [they] grew up and lived in Ur of the Chaldees," says Jubilees
(XI:7-8) of Serug and Nahor, Kainam's descendants, "and worshipped
idols...and [Nahor's] father instructed him in the learning of the Chaldees, how
to divine and foretell the future from the signs of heaven." It's most tempting
to conclude that Kainam's grandchildren through generations inherited and
studied the written record he had made from the stone; that the legendary wisdom
of the Chaldeans, which amazes history, had descended to them from the Watchers
themselves
The Nephilim - and, some say, their
children, the Elioud/Eljo - were physically exterminated by the avenging angel
horde. But, though their half-mortal bodies could be slain, their half-angel
souls could not, nor could they be held in chains. They remain on the earth,
wandering at will, and though chaotic and destructive will not be punished for
their deeds until the Final Judgment "in which the great age will be brought to
an end". Occult tradition holds that now and then a Nephilim spirit will incarnate in human form
(the souls of those who quit the body violently, it's said, are most pure...).
The Apocrypha claim the disembodied Nephilim are the origin of demons, and accuse
them of many crimes. Jubilees places the blame for the Flood squarely
upon the fornication of the Watchers and the iniquity and bloodshed of the Nephilim. "And now the giants who were born
from souls and flesh will be called evil spirits upon the earth," charges I
Enoch XV-XVI, "From the day of...the slaughter and destruction of the giant
Nephilim, the mighty ones of the earth,
the great famous ones, the spirits that have gone out from their souls as from
the flesh will destroy without judgment." Even the mortal women who are their
mothers are cursed to become sirens and demonesses. In Jubilees X:1-6,
Noah's sons beg him to protect their children from "unclean demons" who are
"leading astray, blinding and killing" them; Noah, petitioning God to "let not
wicked spirits rule over [my grandchildren] and destroy them", adds, "Thou
knowest what thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, did in my day..."
making it clear that the demonic spirits and the Nephilim are considered one and the same.
(One wonders if Kainam was one of these grandchildren being "led astray" by a
"demonic" Nephilim familiar. Maybe it
was helping him interpret the stone...)
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