The Bible has more to say about the Fallen Angels,( Nephilim) than many people know. Fallen angels are those who, according to Jude 1:6, “ did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them”. “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.” Rather than meaning ‘fallen’, several English translations render the word Nephilim as"giants" - the "giants" translation coming from the Greek old testament where "nephilim" was "gegantes", which would be "titans" in modern Greek. In Greek mythology, the titans were the supernaturally powerful offspring of gods and humans. In Numbers 13, when the Israelites were ready to enter the Promised Land, scouts were sent ahead to see what would await them. They came back and reported “All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there… We seemed like grasshoppers … to them.”
Enter Enoch, who was Noah’s righteous grandfather, who the Bible says “walked with God”. Hebrews 11 tells us that Enoch did not have to die, but was translated because he pleased God. According to the Book of Enoch, an ancient Hebrew religious writing quoted by Jude in the New Testament, God was furious with the fallen angels partly because they disclosed certain classified information to humans. The writings say that the Nephilim taught sorcery to humans and would have been the founders of the occult arts, a sin since “ The secret things belong to the LORD our God” (Deuternomy 29:29). They turned to humans as a food source and practiced cannibalism, especially fond of drinking human blood – which would explain the source of the legend of vampirism. The Nephilim ( also referred to as demons) would be the originators of the dark arts and other forms of weird evil, completely contradictory to the will of our Holy God. Is it any wonder, then, that God would institute global flooding to wipe these unholy creatures from the face of the earth?
One disturbing point is that, according to a few Old Testament scholars, some of the Nephilim apparently somehow survived the flood, since there are Scripture references to them afterward, as in Numbers 13 quoted above – “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward…” (Genesis 6:4). However, Genesis tells us the flood took away "all flesh that moved on the earth" so I believe more Nephilim visited the Earth after the flood. After the flood, The children of Israel were afraid to enter the Promised Land because they saw Nephilim there. The Torah also tells of the battle with Og, the giant king of Bashan - from whose name we probably get the word ogre (sorry Shrek). Later on, the giant Goliath, whom David dispatched, was at least nine feet tall and was probably of Nephilim descent. Many times in the Old Testament, when God leads the Israelites into battle, He instructs them to attack a tribe and wipe out every man, woman, and child. Some people find this upsetting and contradictory to the loving nature of God. Yet, they do not realize that these tribes were not only idol worshippers, but may have had a corrupted gene pool due to Nephilim breeding. They were so evil, God even demanded that their livestock be destroyed. As fearsome as the Nephilim were, I find it fascinating that David was able to slay one merely with a stone flung from his slingshot. Encouragement that, with righteous holiness and faith that calls on the Name of Yahweh, Nephilim need not be feared. Shalom uv'racha (Peace and Blessings)
