Who Were The Nephilim?

The Nephilim are first mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4 were the Bible says the following:

Genesis 6:1-4
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

So who or what were the Nephilim? The most popular view about the Nephilim is that the Nephilim were the offspring of sexual relationships between the “sons of God” or fallen angels and the human women.
Therefore when fallen angels mated with human females, what resulted through such a sexual union was the abnormal offspring or hybrids called the Nephilim.

So what did the Nephilim look like? The Nephilim have been described as being a race of giants and hybrids. Therefore they had a mixture of human and demonic DNA.
According to sources such as the Book of Enoch (and the Bible), the Nephilim were massive in physical size; they had great influence and access to hidden knowledge; they had unusual power and abilities, and they were extremely wicked and evil.
The Bible describes the Nephilim as being “the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown”.
So the Nephilim were also perceived and worshipped as “gods” because of their physical stature, abnormal power and secret knowledge.

When read with this context and understanding, Genesis 6:1-7 gives us the picture that one of the main reasons why God may have decided to destroy the earth through the great flood was because of the existence and wicked influence of the Nephilim.

It’s believed that one of the reasons why the fallen angels or “sons of God” mated with humans, was to produce the Nephilim so that they could corrupt the human bloodline and attempt to prevent the future coming of the Messiah who is Jesus Christ.
Therefore the more the Nephilim population increased and mated with humans – the more corrupted the human DNA and bloodline would become.
Furthermore the existence of the Nephilim accelerated the wickedness in the earth to the extent that God decided to destroy the earth by a great flood.
Genesis 6:5 says that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and such that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was continuously evil.

Genesis 6:11-13 says: Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Therefore the influence of the Nephilim defiled mankind physically and spiritually to the extent of reaching irredeemable proportions. God’s solution was to flood the earth and thereby destroy the existence of the Nephilim and the wickedness that had polluted or corrupted humanity and the earth itself.

In context, Genesis 6:4-7 says: The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

In conclusion, the flood was not only the result of the wickedness of mankind, but it was also the consequence of the existence and wicked influence of the Nephilim.