Hi,<\/p>\n
In Genesis 6:4 we are introduced to the Nephilims for the first time and it says that “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward.”\u00a0 Then we had Noah’s flood.\u00a0 After that, the Nephilims were mentioned again in Numbers 13:33, where they were living in the land of Canaan.<\/p>\n
I thought Noah’s flood killed all people and animals that had breath in their nostrils.\u00a0 Why were the Nephilims not killed?\u00a0 In Numbers 13:33 it mentioned that they were the descendants of Anak, if they were descendants of Anak then they were not descendants of Noah and his sons. How does that work since all of the earth was repopulated with Noah’s sons?<\/p>\n\t
“There were giants 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<\/em>” (Genesis 6:4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The word “Nephilim,” translated as “giants” in the New King James Version, means people who were physically bigger than typical men or who were of outstanding skill (as in “he was a giant among men”). Notice that the giants existed\u00a0before<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0after<\/strong> the sons of God married the daughters of men. The giants were not a product of the sons of God marrying the daughters of men. Thus before the flood, there was a population of physically large men or very skilled men. The latter probably was what was intended since the passage goes on to say, “Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown<\/em>.”<\/p>\n
“There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight<\/em>” (Numbers 13:33).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here again, the word “Nephilim” is being used and again translated as “giants,” but here it is definitely referring to physical stature. Anak must have been an exceptionally large man and his descendants were large as well. “Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there” <\/em>” (Deuteronomy 1:28). They weren’t the only nation of large people: “The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 2:10-11).<\/p>\n
Therefore, Nephilim is not a word for a race, but a characteristic of some people that crop up at times in the human race.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hi, In Genesis 6:4 we are introduced to the Nephilims for the first time and it says that “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward.”\u00a0 Then we had Noah’s flood.\u00a0 After that, the Nephilims were mentioned again in Numbers 13:33, where they were living in the land of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[264,189,631,76],"class_list":["post-28870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-flood","tag-genesis","tag-nephilim","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-nephilim\/","url_meta":{"origin":28870,"position":0},"title":"The Nephilim","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton (Short Talk) Text: Genesis 6:1-4 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are three groups mentioned in our reading: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Nephilim \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The sons of God \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The daughters of men II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is frequently claimed that the Nephilim were beings who resulted from fallen angels having sexual relations with humans \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But angels are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31250,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-long-did-noah-build-the-ark-before-his-sons-were-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":28870,"position":1},"title":"How long did Noah build the ark before his sons were born?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How long did Noah build the ark before his sons were born? Answer: In Genesis 5:32, we are told that Noah was 500 when his sons were born. In Genesis 6:3, God said He would destroy mankind in 120 years. Since this was in Noah's records, Genesis 6:9 being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1706,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-cush-and-havilah-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":28870,"position":2},"title":"Where are Cush and Havilah today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where are the land of Cush and the land of Havilah today, and what are their names today? Answer: The first mention of Cush is in Genesis 2:13\u00a0where the Gihon, one of the four mighty rivers flowing from the land of Eden, encompassed this particular region. Because the great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25452,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-earth-populated-by-noahs-sons-and-daughters-and-their-children-married-each-other\/","url_meta":{"origin":28870,"position":3},"title":"Was the earth populated by Noah’s sons and daughters and their children married each other?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! My question is: Was the earth populated by Noah's sons and daughters and their children married each other? Answer: Only eight people were saved during the Flood (II Peter 3:20). \"So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3883,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-were-the-nations-scattered-and-was-the-world-one-continent-that-was-divided-in-the-days-of-peleg\/","url_meta":{"origin":28870,"position":4},"title":"How were the nations scattered and was the world one continent that was divided in the days of Peleg?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read the page titled \"Gog and Magog\" and found it very interesting, as well as helpful. But there is one thing I question: I thought, according to the Bible, that Egyptians and Libyans came from Mizraim, Ham's son, not from Put. Could you clarify this for me? Also,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92413,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-sons-of-god-who-married-the-daughters-of-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":28870,"position":5},"title":"Who Are the \u201cSons of God\u201d Who Married the Daughters of Men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson via Seeking Things Above Genesis 6:1-4 says: \"Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God\u00a0saw the\u00a0daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}