Nephilim
Christians are often taught to reject evolutionary biology. With this research, it is hoped they will attain a greater respect for the discipline. When we discuss the details about the Nephilim in Christian circles today, there is always disagreement. Is there a correct answer to who exactly were the Nephilim? Scholars and theologians find this subject fascinating.
The Nephilim were the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" before the Deluge, according to (Genesis 6:1–4). A similar or identical biblical Hebrew term, read as "Nephilim" by some scholars, or as the word "fallen" by others, appears in (Ezekiel 32:27).
The word Nephilim is found in the Bible two times, the first is in (Genesis 6:1-6) and then again in (Numbers 13:33). Scholars and commentators translate the word Nephilim as giants or fallen ones. Even among the most brilliant there is debate on translating this term.
Genome sequenced from 3700-year-old remains is found in today's residents of Lebanon.
So what does that view think of people with Rh negative blood? And if so, just what exactly are these Nephilim?
Have you ever wondered who the sons of God and the Nephilim were in (Genesis 6:1–4)? Wonder no more.
When the Pharaohs ruled Egypt and the ancient Greeks built their first cities, people called the Canaanites dominated the Near East. Around 4000 years ago, they built cities across the Levant, which includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and part of Syria.
One of those sources is the Bible’s Old Testament, which suggests a grisly end for many Canaanites: After the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, God ordered them to destroy Canaan and its people (though other passages suggest that some Canaanites may have survived). But did that really happen? Archaeological data suggests that Canaanite cities were never destroyed or abandoned. Now, ancient DNA recovered from five Canaanite skeletons suggests that these people survived to contribute their genes to millions of people living today.
The new samples come from Sidon, a coastal city in Lebanon. Marc Haber, a geneticist at the 'Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, U.K.', extracted enough DNA from the ancient skeletons to sequence the whole genomes of five Canaanite individuals, all around 3700 years old.
Haber’s first mission was to figure out who the Canaanites were, genetically speaking. Ancient Greek sources suggested they had migrated to the Levant from the East. To test that, Haber and colleagues compared the Canaanite genomes to those of other ancient populations in Eurasia. It turned out the Greeks were half right: About 50% of the Canaanites’ genes came from local farmers who settled the Levant about 10,000 years ago. But the other half was linked to an earlier population identified from skeletons found in Iran, the team reports today in 'The American Journal of Human Genetics'. The researchers estimate these Eastern migrants arrived in the Levant and started mixing with locals around 5000 years ago.
A new genetic analysis shows that scientists were wrong. According to a study in the 'American Journal of Human Genetics', today’s Lebanese share a whopping 93% of their DNA with ancient Canaanites who lived nearly 4,000 years ago.
This finding fits with other recent studies of the Levant. Iosif Lazaridis, a geneticist at 'Harvard Medical School in Boston', saw the same mixture of eastern and local ancestry in the genomes of ancient skeletons from Jordan. “It’s nice to see that what we observed wasn’t a fluke of our particular site, but was part of this broader Canaanite population,” Lazaridis says.
Now that Haber had confirmed who the Canaanites were, he set out to find out what happened to them. He compared their genomes to those of 99 living Lebanese people and hundreds of others in genetic databases. Haber found that the present-day Lebanese population is largely descended from the ancient Canaanites, inheriting more than 90% of their genes from this ancient source. The other 7% may have come from migrants from Central Europe who moved to the Levant around 3000 years ago.
So does the new study show that there was no war between the Israelites and the Canaanites? Not necessarily, says 'Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute' geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith, who worked with Haber. Genes don’t always track conflict. “You can have genetically similar or indistinguishable populations that are culturally very different and don’t get on with one another at all,” Tyler-Smith says. This might have been the case with the Israelites and the Canaanites similar genes, but sworn enemies.
“If those populations conquer each other, it probably wouldn’t leave traces that we could easily pick up [with ancient DNA],” agrees Johannes Krause, a geneticist at the 'Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History' in Jena, Germany, who wasn’t involved in the current work. Perhaps there was a Biblical war that ancient DNA simply cannot see.
For centuries, scholars from Judaism and Christianity have presented different views on who the Nephilim were.
Theory 1: Nephilim were offspring of fallen angels and human women
A verse that supporters of this position turn to is (Job 1:6) "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them." In connection to this verse (Job 38:7) also tells us "when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" These verses use the same term found in (Genesis 6). Theologian historically have interpreted the "sons of God" as "angels," which fit right in to the context of these verses.
Theory 2: Nephilim were descendants of Seth
The Sethite View is growing rapidly within the Church and is possibly the most common view today among scholars. Here the "sons of God" are defined as the righteous line of Seth (Genesis 5) that disobeyed God and married women from the line of Cain. (Note: Some believe these women were not exclusive to Cain's family line). The women who married the line of Seth followed other gods and rejected full allegiance to God. The offspring, as a result, "fell away" and turned to the system of the world.
Jewish scholars have favored this view according to Jewish historical writings and literature as early as the first century. Famous scholars and theologians who have held this position are St. Augustine and John Calvin. Here we are assuming that from Seth to Noah (Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech), all the past members were obedient to God to preserve a righteous lineage.
Theory 3: Nephilim were children of human men who were possessed by fallen angels
When we discuss this third view that men were possessed by fallen angels, it may begin to connect with some of us because we can see the reality of demonic possession in today's world. From the movies in Hollywood to witchcraft around the globe, it's real.
Theory 4: Nephilim were offspring of strictly fallen men
This last view claims that the “sons of God” were godly men who married ungodly women. Not from the line of Seth, just common men. The result of this union was the Nephilim, a group of offspring that "fell away."
This position is consistent with Scripture both pre-flood and post-flood. Meaning, before the flood these offspring were "fallen men," and after the flood (when God destroyed everyone but the family of Noah) these Nephilim are still showing up (Numbers 13:33). Therefore, the Nephilim are simply fallen men.
Extrabiblical Evidence of Nephilim in “The Book of Enoch” describes angels marrying women on earth, and the offspring was a giant type of be Enoch is not considered the inspired, authoritative word of God. Jews and early Christians held this book as a good read. Meaning, it wasn't fully accurate but still held nuggets of truth.
Some say that because Enoch is quoted in (Jude 1:14), it should be in the biblical canon. But other writings are also quoted in Scripture that are clearly not the word of God. (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12)
Who were the Rephaim & Anakim? When we speak of giants in the Bible and the Nephilim, we can't forget to consider the Rephaim. (Genesis 14:5)
One of the definitions of Rephaim, according to the Jews, are a people group of greater-than-average height and stature (Deuteronomy 2:20-21) also known as the Zamzummim. They were as tall as the Anakim, according to Scripture, which are other giants in the land.
Where did these giants come from? Some would argue that they can be traced back to (Genesis 6).
Despite small genetic variations between the three religious groups caused by preferential mating over time, the Lebanese genome is not widely varied. As a whole, the Lebanese people have more genetic overlap with the Canaanites from Sidon than do other modern Middle Eastern populations such as Jordanians, Syrians or Palestinians.
The difference is small, but it’s possible that the Lebanese population has remained more isolated over time from an influx of African DNA than other Levantine peoples, Lazaridis suggested.
"The findings have powerful cultural implications," said Claude Doumet-Serhal, Director of the British Museum excavations in Sidon, Lebanon, who worked on the new study. In a society struggling with the ramifications of war and fiercely divided along political and sectarian lines, religious groups have often looked to an uncertain history for their identities.
“When Lebanon started in 1929,” Doumet-Serhal said, “the Christians said, ‘We are Phoenician.’ The Muslims didn’t accept that and they said, ‘No, we are Arab.’”
This carries a message of unity. “We all belong to the same people,” she said. “We have always had a difficult past … but we have a shared heritage we have to preserve...”
Food for thought!