Also, why didn’t the author of Genesis 6 just call them ‘Sons of Seth’ and ‘Daughters of Cain’?
Why didn’t the author just call them angels (or half-angels)?
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An Angel and a Son of God were two different things. Ugaritic literature clearly distinguished Bn il from Mlkm.
However, Genesis 6:4 states that:
“There were Nephilim [giants] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men”
Based on this, there were Nephilim both before and after the Flood. The original Nephilim were wiped out by the Flood, but then somehow another group of Nephilm arose in Canaan after the Flood. The Bible is silent on where this second group of Nephilim came from, but most likely a second group (or even the first group, if they hadn’t been sent to the Abyss yet) of fallen angels came down to intermarry with the Canaanites.
While the spies’ report is “evil,” that doesn’t mean they were lying about seeing giants in the land, simply that they did not believe they could defeat them even with God’s help. Likewise, Joshua and Caleb never deny that giants were in the land, and in fact Caleb is later seen taking the city of Hebron from the Anakim (Josh. 14:12-14), who are described as Nephilim (Nu 13:33). These Anakim are said to have taken refuge in the Philistine cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (Josh. 11:22). Which famous giant do we know that comes from Gath? Goliath, who is clearly described as a giant at 6 cubits and a span tall (~8 to 9ft tall, by my estimate). While Goliath is never said to be a Nephilim, it would make sense if he was descended from the Anakim who took refuge in Gath.
I based that height on an minimum estimate of Goliath’s height, since he is the only giant whose height is given in Scripture.
Yet another reason to acknowledge that human biases crept into Scripture. God is not racist or sexist, but humans are products of their racist and sexist cultures, so no surprise you find racist and sexist stuff in the Bible. It is a human product as well as divine revelation.
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I am familiar with word studies on the term Son of God because it caused a major ruckus in the Bible translation world a few years back. I don’t know if the following article would help with your investigation into the Nephilim questions, but it examines the linguistics of sonship in the Bible. http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/17_1_PDFs/Son_of_God.pdf (See the side bar that starts on the first and page for references to uses of “sons of God” in the OT.)
**@Reggie_O_Donoghue **
Unfortunately, isn’t that what Ezra and Nehemiah pretty much tell us?
Don’t shoot the messenger from another tribe … but chopping them up does seem to be called for …
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