Search This Blog

Who were the Nephilim? Were they the children of demons and women?

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. Genesis 6:4

We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Numbers 11:33

“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” Luke 24:39

Some think that these Nephilim were offspring of relationships between demons and human women. This cannot be so. Demons are spirits and do not have the capability to produce offspring (no flesh, bones, genitalia, sperm). If angels could reproduce, where are the baby angels or female angels? All angels are referred to as men (masculine).

God made humans very special and unique. By giving demons the ability to procreate, we are making angels and demons more like man and less unique from the rest of creation.

If angel and demons procreate, then the angelic community is growing and never dies. How crowded can the heavenly realm become after all these years? Matthew 22:30 says angels do not marry or have relationships like we do.  So this cannot be so.

The concept of demons having relationships with human women comes from an ancient book called The Book of Enoch (2nd Century BC), not from the Bible. It’s more mythology than theology.

If demons can still have relationships with humans, are those descendants still around today? Is this kind of procreation still happening today? Who’s to say you aren’t the grandchild of a demon/human?  Scary thought.

That brings up another question – could those descendants be saved? Jesus came to save those from the line of Adam. Demons create new lines of genealogy. Are they a part of God’s plan or apart from God’s plan?

If demons create spiritual births, then Jesus being born of the virgin Mary is really not that special. He wasn’t the first to have a spiritual father.

Also, if God’s purpose for the flood was to wipe out the race of demon/human offspring, then God failed, since they showed up again in the book of Numbers (11:33), after the flood.  That means that the Nephilim were not a race of people, but a type of people (warrior-like tough guys).

The Nephilim were large, imposing men (some say giants, but not in the sense of mythology) who were warriors and fighters. In this passage these Nephilim were the “sons of God” from the godly line of Seth. The root of the word “Nephilim” means “fallen.” So these fallen warriors from the godly line of Seth set out to take as their wives the “daughters of men”, descendants of Cain. The godly line was being compromised.  Righteousness was starting to slip away.

God had a very specific plan to save the world through a righteous line of people and the time table for that began to run out as the Nephilim-like bullies began to have their own way and marrying outside their line. Noah was the only righteous family left.

After Noah, God used a tactic of separating the nations. He called Abraham to become a nation that would not have relationships with outsiders. God protected that Messianic line from powerful enemies through people like Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Judges, all the way to David, whose genealogical line would produce the most righteous king to ever live—Jesus.