Download
1 / 25
E N D
Genesis 6:1-4 • 6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” • 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4 4 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. (NIV – a modified paraphrase) 4 This was back in the days (and also later) when there were giants in the land. The giants came from the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men. These were the mighty men of ancient lore, the famous ones. (The Message – a paraphrase) 4 TheNephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (NASB a translation of the Hebrew text)
Genesis 6:4 Q: Is there evidence that there have been ‘giants’ on the earth?
Genesis 6:4 http://www.sott.net/article/256712-A-giant-mystery-18-strange-giant-skeletons-found-in-Wisconsin-Sons-of-god-Men-of-renown
Genesis 6:4 “One of the most amazing facts revealed by paleontology (the study of fossilized remains of creatures which inhabited the earth in a former age) is that nearly all modern animals were once represented by larger ancestors. One thinks of the mammoths and cave bears, giant cockroaches and dragonflies, and huge reptiles like the dinosaurs. Along with them are occasionally found giant human footprints, suggesting indeed that ‘there were giants in the earth in those days.’ Not only in the Bible, but in numerous other ancient books, are preserved traditions of giants” (Morris, p. 172)
Genesis 6:4 Q: Who are the ‘Nephilim’? A1: Martin “Luther gives the correct meaning, ‘tyrants’. They were called Nephilim because they fell upon the people and oppressed them” (according to K & D, p. 137) “To an unprejudiced mind, the words, as they stand, represent the Nephilim, who were on the earth in those days, as existing before the sons of God began to marry the daughters of men, and clearly distinguish them from the fruits of these marriages.” (K & D, p. 137)
Genesis 6:4 A1: “Now if, according to the simple meaning of the passage, the Nephilim were in existence at the very time when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, the appearance of the Nephilimcannot afford the slightest evidence that the ‘sons of God’ were angels, by whom a family of monsters were begotten, whether demigods, demons, or angel-men” (K & D, p. 138)
Genesis 6:4 Q: Who are the Nephilim? A2: “The sons of God were not divine; they were demon-controlled. Their marrying as many women as they wished (possibly this is the origin of harems) was to satisfy their baser instincts. They were just another low order of creatures, though powerful and demon-influenced. Children of these marriages, despite pagan ideas, were not god-kings. Though heroes and ‘men of renown,’ they were flesh; and they died, in due course, like all members of the human race. When God judges the word---as He was about to---no giant, no deity, no human has any power against Him. God simply allots one’s days and brings his end” (Walvoord, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 36)
Genesis 6:4 Q: Who were the Nephilim? A2: Walvoord admits, “It may be that fallen angels left their habitation and inhabited bodies of human despots and warriors, the mighty ones of the earth” (Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 36) According to Walvoord (DTS), this does not mean that the angels actually had physical relationships with women, and produced grotesque children. They simply possessed their bodies (‘demon possession’, making them violent, rebellious, and wicked)
Genesis 6:4 Q: Who are theNephilim? A3: “The children of the unions of the demonically controlled men and women of this period are the ones said to have become the ‘giants,’ the mighty men of old. The word in the Hebrew is nepilim and comes from the verb naphal(‘fall’). Though some commentators suggest that the word means ‘those who fall upon’---that is, ‘attackers’ {as K & D suggest} ---the more natural and probable meaning is ‘those who have fallen,’ probably a reference to the nature of their pseudo-parents, the fallen angels. The name came also to mean ‘giants’ and was applied later to the giants seen in Canaan by the Israelite spies (Numbers 13:33). The word was so understood by the translators of Genesis into Greek, rendering the word in the Septuagint (LXX) by gigantes” (Morris, p. 172)
Genesis 6:4 Q: Why would the children born of demon-controlled parents grow into giants? • Modern genetics has shown there are two basic causes of variations in physical characteristics among men, namely mutations and recombinations. • In the genetic system is a tremendous number of factors for different characteristics, some dominant in a particular population, some latent or recessive. • Recombinations can only occur on factors already implicitly present in the genes • Mutations can introduce new features which were not present at all, by responding to external influences whose energies effect random changes in the genetic system
Genesis 6:4 “Factors for large physical stature apparently have resided from the beginning in the created gene pool of the human population. Their emergence as frequent or dominant characteristics in a specific population might result by chance in a small inbreeding population or else might result by design in the case of controlled manipulation of the genes by breeders understanding enough about the genetic process to do this. Geneticists today appear on the verge of breakthroughs which would permit exactly such ‘genetic engineering’ as this sort of thing to be accomplished on a practical basis” (Morris, p. 173)
Genesis 6:4 On the other hand, “It is believed that mutations can also produce ‘giantism.’ The strange process of cloning, by which geneticists think they will one day be able to produce a race of carbon copies of Einstein (or ‘Wilt Chamberlain, or whatever they want) by implantation of body cells into human fertilized eggs might be still another means of doing this.
Genesis 6:4 “The point is that, if modern geneticists can discuss with all seriousness the imminent possibility of accomplishing such things, then it is not unlikely that knowledge of these secrets could have been available to the angelic (and demonic) hosts. Having gained essentially complete control over both minds and bodies of these antediluvian parents, these fallen ‘sons of God’ could then, by some such genetic manipulation, cause their progeny to become a race of monsters. The latter also then would be under their control and possession as well” (Morris, p. 173)
Genesis 6:4 “The demoniacal combination of the materialism and ungodliness of the Cainitic civilization in general, with this irruption of the Serpent’s seed directly into large numbers of the human race and then with the thrusting forth of hordes of the monstrous offspring of these unlawful unions, all led to conditions in the world which were finally intolerable even to a God of compassion and long-suffering. (Morris, p. 173)
Genesis 6:1-4 • 6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” • 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:5 5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
