Who Were the Nephilim?

                       

                 Before we get started, let me assure you that I will give you no concluding answer.  My desire is only to present as much information as is possible from what is in the Bible.  Many extra-biblical texts have additional information that might provide some insight to this question, however, because it is not the Word of God it might (and most likely will) produce more confusion on the subject than it would provide clarity.  For that reason, I have intentionally not referenced any of that material so that my insight is clear and comes only from what is stated in the Bible.  I will throw out a few hypothetical ideas in the process that others have used but which take great leaps, however I will only use the model of the Bible from which to leap.  Again, the Bible does not offer sufficient information on this subject to take us from hypothesis to fact and so we are going to just have to be content with concluding that it may well remain a mystery.  All that said, here is what I could find.

                The question of the Nephilim comes from one obscure passage in the Bible; some will say it is in two passages but I will argue the validity of the second later in this essay.  That single true passage referring to the Nephilim is from Genesis chapter 6.  The name “Nephilim” is mentioned in verse 4, but beginning in verse 1 the passage accounts that man was multiplying on the face of the earth and the “sons of God” saw that the “daughters of men” were beautiful and so they took them for wives.  Verse 4 then reads:  “The Nephilim 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.”  After this time either the wickedness on the earth increased exceedingly, or else God just grew weary of the gradual increase in the wickedness.  Either way, it was at this time that God decided to flood the earth. 

                Okay, so you know what I know.  What do we make of this?  As I mentioned, there is one other passage that makes reference to the Nephilim in Numbers 13:33 but I don’t think we can place much faith in this passage since it is the babbling of a bunch of faithless spies that were embellishing the story of what they saw in the land of Canaan.  Could they have seen Nephilim?  I will argue this, but I suppose it is possible.  More likely they just wanted to convince Moses not to take the chance and risk their lives since they did likely see the “sons of Anak” who legendary for being very large, if not giants, and falsely referred to them as “Nephilim” to give their case some mythological weight.  If you will assume with me that it is too risky to base anything on this passage from Numbers, then we have to focus solely on Genesis 6:4 which again reveals almost nothing. 

                Let me do this.  Let’s separate out what we know with absolute fact, what is most likely true, and what cannot faithfully be seen as any more than speculation.                                                                                                                                               

ABSOLUTELY FACT:                         

·         The Nephilim were real:

If it is in the Bible then it actually happened; so I believe.  The intent of this paper is not to go into the reliability of Scripture, but suffice it to say that the Bible speaks Truth alone.  The Bible says they existed and so they did.

·         The account of the Nephilim is relevant: 

For some reason God made sure this account was revealed in Scripture.  With so many mysteries in the Bible, the fact that the Nephilim are something about which God chose to show an account is noteworthy.  If God speaks about it then it is with a purpose and mine is only to try to find out why.

·         They were on the earth in those days:

Genesis 6:4 begins by saying “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days.”  Those days being the days of Noah and during the time when the sons of God were coming in to the daughters of men and bearing children.

·         They were on the earth “afterward” too: 

Genesis 6:4 continues to say “and also afterward.”  When is the afterward?  That will have to fall under the speculation portion of this exercise.  All we know for sure is that it was after “those days.”         

                                                                                                               

MOST LIKELY TRUE:

·        They were wicked:                                                                                                                                        

Genesis 6:5 says “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Verse 12 says that “God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”  So why is this statement not absolute fact if the Bible says so in two places?  Because, however likely, that stance is assuming that the Nephilim were men (vs. 5) and/or that they were flesh (vs. 12).  Unfortunately the Bible gives them a name and does not precisely explain what/who they are.  Without knowing what Nephilim are other than a title, we could substitute anything in its place because there is nothing more said; it is just an assumption.  What if the Nephilim are dinosaurs and instead it read “The Tyrannosaurus Rex were on the earth in those days?”  Then they would not be men and therefore not necessarily wicked, right?  What if the Nephilim are spiritual beings and instead it read “The Archangels were on the earth in those days?”  They would not be flesh, right?  And it would be hard to categorize them as evil if we don’t know if they are flesh, spirit or water based paints.  The account in Genesis is not defining that they were anything except present.  They could have been hot air balloons for all we know.  For that reason, I put this as most likely true.  It is not likely they were hot air balloons or water based paints or dinosaurs but we can’t rule it out given the text we have.  Most will then say, “But it does says they are the offspring of the daughters of men and sons of God.”  For my comments to that statement, see the next section.

·         They are the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men:

If Genesis 6:2 and Genesis 6:4 both say that these two united to form the Nephilim, why is that not under the absolutely factual section?  Because with the way it is written it is conceivable that this is just a comment that is unassociated with the Nephilim.  Genesis 6:2 says that the sons of God saw the daughters of men and saw that they were beautiful so they took them as wives.  Is it 100% necessary that this is referring to the Nephilim?  It is contextually likely, but the Nephilim are not mentioned here and are not mentioned for two more verses.  Perhaps this is an unrelated statement like if I were to say, “My parents got married in high school.  Gerald Ford was president in those days.”  Certainly I am not insinuating that President Ford had anything to do with their marriage?  And I am definitely not saying that Gerald Ford was a product of their marriage.  Verse 4 simply says that the Nephilim were present during the time that the sons of God were going into the daughters of men, doesn’t it?  It does not definitively say, “The Nephilim are the offspring between the sons of God and the daughters of men.”  It only says that the Nephilim were on the earth during this time.  Yao Ming is “on the earth” right now but that does not make me 7 feet tall.  I know this is unlikely, but if we can’t say it definitively then we have to keep it out of the facts section.  If you lie with a dog, you will most likely get fleas but you will not find that equation written in any scientific law books. 

·         They were mighty men who were of old, men of renown:

Yes, Genesis 6:4 makes this statement definitively, but based on the previous argument, if we are not 100% sure that the offspring of the sons of God and daughters of men are the same as the Nephilim then there could be two different things being described here.  If so, which ones are the mighty men of old, men of renown?  It could be that there are the Nephilim and then there are also the offspring of the sons of God and daughters of men which were mighty men.  I know it is unlikely, but it is conceivable.

SPECULATION:

They were giants:

Nothing in all of chapter 6 makes any allusion to the fact that they are giants.  The name “Nephilim” does not mean giant or big or anything like that.  The description as “mighty men” literally comes from the Hebrew word “gibbor” which simply means “man.”  Granted, this usage of “man” is usually used to represent a warrior or someone who is strong but that is a big leap for us to from “warrior” to “giants.”  I know lots of warriors that were not giants, some who were not even mighty?  Was Spartacus a giant?  Did he have political clout?  What about Napoleon; was he tall and strong?  Was William Wallace 9 feet tall?  Alexander the Great?  This is speculation and most of it comes from the association we see in the previously mentioned use of Nephilim in connection with the sons of Anak in Numbers 13:32-33.  Remember, however, that this is the ramblings of scared men running in fear from what they think they saw.  Numbers 13:33 even says as much when is says “we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”  In otherwords, they had a small view of themselves and so they were small in the eyes of these creatures.  Verse 32 even says that they saw men of great size, but verse 33 says “There also we saw the Nephilim…”  The Nephilim are not even necessarily included among the men of great size in that passage because it says the Nephilim were there in addition to the giants: “There also.”  Verse 33 does say that the sons of Anak are a part of the Nephilim but based on what are the men in this story basing that statement?  Folklore?  Understand that I am not questioning what the Bible says, I am saying that this is a narration of what scared men said as they lied to Moses to prevent him from attacking the sons of Anak who were apparently very large and terrorized the valley.  Because of that it is difficult to take any factual information from this verse.  This still does not even prove that the Nephilim were flesh because they seem only mythical and used to evoke fear in God’s people where there should be no fear at all.  Next I will describe what we know about the sons of Anak and some other possible (speculative) reasons why they may be a part of the Nephilim as Numbers 13 says.

 The sons of Anak were a part of the Nephilim:

This is speculation despite this statement being made in Numbers 13:33 where the men returning from scouting the land of Canaan tell Moses “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”  Not to belabor this point, but these men were scared and were not even allowed to enter the promised land because of their lack of faith.  It is factual that the sons of Anak lived in the promised land and that they were very large (we will get to that in a moment) but there are no details or implications that they are associated with the Nephilim at all except through these faithless men’s testimonies of what they believe they saw.  It is a flippant word spoken by desperate men.  It may well be true but it could just as easily be false.  As I indicated in the previous point, their vision was not even reliable as Numbers 13:33 states “we became like grasshoppers in our sight, and so we were in their sight.”  In other words, they were not actually small in the sight of the Nephilim until they became (or believed they became) small in their own eyes.  Picture someone cowering in fear when they stand before a mighty warrior.  This person may well be a mighty warrior himself but when he thinks himself to be small (faithless), he reveals himself to be small in the eyes of the mighty warrior as well.  That seems to be what this account represents.  They were not actually small, they believed themselves to be small and revealed their cowardice.  The sons of Anak are certainly intimidating but it seems like they were throwing in the name “Nephilim” just as an exaggeration to invoke both physical fear and fear of the unknown.  I see no definitive evidence that the Nephilim were actually in the land of Canaan.

So who were the sons of Anak?  I will go into great detail about the existence of giants and the sons of Anak later as an addition to this question of the Nephilim, but the sons of Anak were specifically three Canaanite men.  They were grandchildren of Arba and sons of Anak.  Their names were Ahimen, Talmai and Sheshai (Numbers 13:22, Joshua 15:13-14, Judges 1:10) and they were said to be great and tall.  Their descendants were also said to be great, tall and numerous (Deut. 2:10-11, Deut. 2:20-21, Deut. 9:2).  When Joshua utterly destroyed them in Canaan, they were pushed into Philistia where they are said to have a remnant in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (Joshua 11:21-22).  It is likely that the famous giant Goliath who the Bible claims to be 6 cubits (approximately 9.5 feet) tall was descended from these sons of Anak who were pushed into Gath (1 Samuel 17:4).  There large size and the terror that they instilled in their enemies is well documented but it also seems most likely that they were completely destroyed.

The Nephilim still exist:

As I mentioned above, and as I will go into detail later, the giant people groups are most likely wiped out.  However, we are not certain that the Nephilim were giants.  We are not even sure that they are people.  We are not even sure they are flesh.  If we don’t really know what they are it is hard to prove that they exist.  That said, it is hard to prove they don’t.  The Bible says in Genesis 6:4 “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward…”  How long afterward?  It just isn’t clear which is why they are under the topic of speculation.  If we associate them with the civilization of giants, then they have most likely become extinct.  I would reasonably say that by the time Moses authored the book of Genesis, the Nephilim were not likely in existence.  See also the question below regarding if they were killed in the flood. 

One major issue:  Genesis 6:4 says they existed “in those days and also afterward.”   That is strange language if they continued to exist on the earth until the time of Moses.  You would expect that if they persisted to be on the earth that Moses would have said they were “on the earth in those days and until now.”  However, he did not.  Fragile proof, but it seems the most reasonable to me.  Multiple places in the writing of Moses we see him refer to things that have been and still are.  Never does he say anything similar to Genesis 6:4 to imply that something is still around.  See Genesis 19:37 “The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.”   See also Genesis 19:38, Genesis 26:33, Genesis 32:32, Genesis 35:20, Deut. 3:14, Deut. 29:28, Deut. 34:6 among others.  It is speculation but Moses’ wording does not seem to account that they still exist unless Moses was not sure… in which case, Genesis would hardly seem inspired by an all knowing God.

The Nephilim died in the flood:

See the argument under “They still exist” before continuing here.  I don’t mean to have the same conversation twice but due to the way Genesis 6:4 is written, it is likely that the Nephilim were not around when Moses wrote Genesis.  However, Genesis 6:4 does say that they were “on the earth in those days, and also afterward.”   The “and also afterward” part gives us cause for thought.  I suppose that one could say that they existed in those day and even right up until the flood but that is such a short time period.  Genesis 6:4 says “in those days” which is an indefinite period which could cover an entire lifetime and Noah lived to be 950 years old.  I would find it hard to believe that “in those days” only encompassed the time from when Noah became a father at 500 years old (Genesis 5:32) and until he built the ark when he was 600 (Genesis 7:6).  Then somehow “and also afterwards” only encompasses the time from when Noah built the ark until the rain started falling.  That just doesn’t seem very logical. 

Although I cannot explain what “and also afterward” means, I also know that only eight people survived that flood and they were not Nephilim.  So how could they exist afterwards?  Perhaps in their hot air balloon?  Perhaps, like I said previously, they are not flesh; not mankind but other than mankind.  Or unless the sons of God interacted with the daughters of men again after the flood and it is not accounted for except for in the “and also afterwards” statement of Genesis 6:4.  Strange thought, right?  But how can it be explained otherwise?

So let’s begin to search a little more into what we know, don’t know, and kind of know to see if there are enough connections that we might be able to draw any confident conclusions that could make sense without getting too far outside of what the Bible conveys. 

It would be good at this time to look into the etymology of the word Nephilim.  The Hebrew word “nphl” means “to fall” and adding the suffix “im” just makes it a people rather than a person.  For instance Anakim are the people described as the descendants of Anak.  Nephilim are then the people of “nphl” which means “fall.”  Therefore the Nephilim are believed to be “fallen people.”  Many people hypothesize that the Nephilim are a race generated when fallen angels (sons of God) impregnated the human race (daughters of men).  That is a huge leap for many reasons, to be discussed later, and I don’t think it is necessary to take such a leap.  For one, there are various other possible translations of this word.  “Fallen people” assumes that Nephilim is actually from the derivative verb “nphl.”  The root of this word as well as its interpretation is actually quite dubious.  Many also theorize that is comes from the causative stem rather than the verb.  That would lead to interpret the word Nephilim as “ones who cause others to fall.”  Still others see it as “violent men” or “ones who fall upon their enemies.”  However you see it, I don’t believe it necessary to associate it with fallen angels.  Certainly a wicked people that slays its enemies with its great size and has evil in its heart continually could also be considered a “fallen people” without them quite literally having been cast down from heaven.  God was, in fact, going to wipe them out because of their fallenness.  Most often, the simplest explanation is superior to the most mysterious but it is the mysterious that tickles our ears the most. 

So what is all of this about the sons of God and the daughters of men?  Well, good question.  I have heard many different explanations of this and, honestly, I am not content with any of them.  This might just have to remain cryptic as well but let’s discuss some possibilities for kicks.

·         I have heard the theory that the “sons of God” are really kings or royalty and the “daughters of men” are the common folk.  Combining the noble blood and intelligence of royalty with the strong hands and backs of the common people would produce a line of men that were mighty and wise.  You buying that one?  It is just a theory, but I don’t see that it is a very good one. 

·         I have also heard that the “sons of God” represent the descendants of Seth (the good son of Adam, see Genesis 4:25-26) and the “daughters of men” represent the descendants of Cain (the evil son of Adam).  This makes a lot of sense but why would that create a mighty people of renown?  I guess I don’t have much else to say about this one.  I like where it is going but I don’t see how 1+1=4.  Also, the descendants of Seth were just as wicked as the descendants of Cain because God was going to wipe out the whole planet.  So why would He refer to a race of wicked people doomed for eradication as the “sons of God?” 

·         I have also heard that the “sons of God” represent angels or fallen angels while the “daughters of men” literally represent…umm… daughters of men.  Not much stretch on the daughters of men part but a pole vaulting leap when representing the sons of God.  It is still interesting and would explain a lot of things.  Like, for instance, how they became mighty men.  I would imagine that an angel (living in such close proximity to the power of God) mixing with a man (created in the image of God) with a healthy dose of disgruntled postal worker rage might well make for some sort of different hybrid creature.  If they were fallen angels, it would explain why the wickedness on the earth seems to have exploded during this time.  But it also raises more questions. 

Is it possible for a spiritual being to manifest itself somehow as flesh and bear children?  Wow, I wouldn’t think so; manifest, maybe; possess, definitely; but definitely not create.  We see God (Spirit) manifest Himself as Jesus Christ (Matthew 1).  We see a pre-incarnate son of God in the person of Melchizedek (Genesis 14, Hebrews 5).  We see angels in the form of men in several places throughout Scripture.  God even says in Hebrews 13:2 that we can unknowingly entertain or care for angels, presumably because they look like men.  We see one example of this in Genesis 18 when the birth of Isaac is promised to Abraham and Sarah.  We even see how God used an angel to block the path of Balaam and then God opens the mouth of Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22:28), but these examples all seem to be through the power of God and not out of the will of the angels.  In each of these instances (and many, many more) God is being represented by these angels, and never do we see the angels just coming down to mess with people.  In fact, the rest of Scripture seems to hold that these fallen angels or demons (assuming fallen angels and demons are the same) need our flesh in order to manipulate anything physical.  For instance, the demoniacs in the New Testament live within man’s flesh and manipulate it onto fires, into convulsions, etc. but never exist within themselves.  The unclean spirits in Mark 5:12-13 are removed from the man and they request to enter into swine presumably because they needed a home.  The same story in Luke 8 accounts that many demons had entered into Legion.  We see in Luke 22:3 and John 13:27 that even Satan himself enters into Judas but does not actually become a man he just enters one.  In other words, if a fallen angel manipulated a man to have sex with a woman…an evil child giant would not be the offspring.  They would simply have a child; born out of the evil intentions of Satan for sure but ultimately just a man and woman getting pregnant.  No miraculous implantation of spiritual power converging in this relationship, just sex.  If it were that easy, any wicked or possessed man who has sex with a woman would again sprout a race of Nephilim if this were true.  I guess that is where the argument loses weight for me. 

Also, are not angels sexless and without marriage?  In Mark 12:25 Jesus says “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”  And besides, even if these spirits could somehow have children with flesh women, last I checked if you breed a dog with a cat it doesn’t work.  So neither would a spirit exchange DNA with a woman.  It would be much like trying to eat a hologram of a pizza.  It seems to me that the only One who can make someone into flesh is the One who can create flesh.  Neither Satan nor any other fallen angel can do that.

 It raises another question too.  If, as Revelations 12:9 stipulates, Satan and his angels were cast down all together to the earth before or during the days of the garden of Eden, why all of the sudden did they start having sex with women in the days of Noah?  We are talking about 1500 years by most estimates!  For 1500 years there wasn’t one attractive woman born and then all of the sudden they were all total hotties? 

A third question for me is, is it really even very prevalent to call angels “sons of God?”  By my count mankind is referred to as sons of God on 13 occasions in 9 different books of the Bible (Deut. 14:1, Isaiah 43:6, Hosea 1:10, Hosea 11:1, Matthew 5:9, Luke 3:38, Luke 20:36, Romans 8:14, Romans 8:19, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:6, 1 John 3:1-2, 1 John 3:10).  Not only that, but Jesus continually speaks of God as our Father.  Compare that to the fact that angels are referred to as “sons of God” in only one book in the Bible.  Job makes this reference in 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7.  Rather obscure by comparison. 

This is a great attempt to answer the question of who these “sons of God” and “daughters of men” are, but it is just not the end of the question for me and leaves a lot to be desired in the way of solid answers.     

·         Whoever they were, their intermarriages seem to have made God very angry because it was at this point that God felt the camel’s back had been broken.  In Genesis 6:3 He reduced man’s allotted time to 120 years of life.  Then when they bore children (verse 4), He declared in verses 5-7 that they were wicked and He was going to blot them out.  But does it really say that?  Verse 2 just says they married each other, and then in a different sentence God says man’s weakness is his flesh and the Spirit will sustain him no longer than 120 years.  It doesn’t say that God was mad at them although context may suggest it.   

So were there really giants in those days?  Absolutely, the answer is “yes!”  We see several different references to giants and even certain measurements.  The Bible makes many references to giant peoples such as the sons of Anak, the Anakims (same as sons of Anak), the Emim, the Zamzummin, the Zuzim (probably the same as the Zamzummin), and the Rephaim.  Let me share some details on each of these below.

I have briefly discussed the sons of Anak (or Anakim= people of Anak) earlier but let me add some detail here (Anak= H6061, Anakim= H6062). The godfather, if you will, of this people group is a Canaanite named Arba who was said to be the greatest of the Anakim (see Joshua 14:15).  Arba was the father of Anak (see Joshua 15:13-14) which could mean he literally impregnated Anak’s mother or it could be taken more figuratively as we would called Abraham the father of the Jewish people.  Arba was the namesake for a city named Kiriath-arba which was later named Hebron and inherited by Caleb in the land of Judah when the Israelites divvied up the holy land after its conquest.  Kiriath-arba literally translates the “city of 4 giants” (H7153) and is also associated with Mamre which is where Abraham built and alter to the Lord and later the Lord made is great covenant with Abraham.  Arba eventually beget Anak who had three sons named Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai (Numbers 13:22).  These were literally the sons of Anak and figuratively those who descended from these men are included as sons and/or descendants.  It was these three specifically that Caleb drove out of Hebron or Kiriath-arba (Joshua 15:14, Judges 1:10, Judges 1:20).  These sons of Anak or Anakim were said to be great and tall “of whom you have heard, who can stand before them?” (Deuteronomy 9:2).  In other places, other people groups are said to be “like the sons of Anak” in that they are great, tall, and numerous (Deuteronomy 1:28, Deuteronomy 2:10-11, Deuteronomy 2:20-21).  Joshua 11:21-22 says that Joshua utterly destroyed the Anakim but some remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod which are cities in Palestine.  You might remember that Goliath was from Gath.  The Deuteronomy 9:2 passage is written before Caleb was said to have struck the 3 sons of Anak so it is possible that these three came back to Hebron but certainly most retreated to Palestine.       

The Emim (H368) are mentioned in just two places in the Bible and the word means literally “terrors.”  In Genesis 14:5, Chedorlaomer (king of Elam) defeated the Rephaim, Zuzim and Emim.  The significance of this defeat is that all three of these groups are associated with giants in other passages of Scripture.  In Deuteronomy 2:10-11 says that the Emim were as great, numerous and tall as the Anakim.  It continues to say that “like the Anakim” they were regarded as Rephaim (giants).  This verse continues on to say that they were called Emim by the Moabites (decendants of Lot).

There was the Zamzummin (H2157), which are also called the Zuzim (H2104) which are also mentioned in only two places in the Bible.  The word Zamzummin literally means “intriguing” and comes from a root word that means to “plot an evil plan.”  The word Zuzim means “prominent” or “full breasted.”  As previously cited, Genesis 14:5 indicates that Chedorlaomer defeated this tribe of people as well as other groups associated with giants such as the Emim and Rephaim.  Deuteronomy 2:20-21 lets us know that the Zamzummin were great, numerous, and tall like the Anakim.  Additionally, Deuteronomy 2:20-21 describes how the Ammonites (also descendants of Lot) used to refer to the Rephaim (giants) as Zamzummin.  It seems as if the two sons of Lot, Moab and Ammon, called the giant peoples in their land Emim and Zamzummin respectively.  The Zamzummin are said to have been destroyed before the Lord and their land given to the Ammonites.

Lastly, we see the people group we have been referring to throughout this discussion.  The Rephaim (H7497) over twenty times in the Old Testament and the word “rapha” literally means “giant.”  Remember that the suffix “im” just means it is a people.  Just as the Anakim were the people of Anak, so the Rephaim are the “giant people” or “people of giants.”  Deuteronomy 2:11 speaks of the Emim being “giant” (Rapha) like the Anakim.  Deuteronomy 2:20 says that this land full of great and tall people was called the land of the Rephaim.  Deuteronomy 3:11 describes how Og, the king of Bashan, was the last of the Rephaim.  It further depicts that his bed was 9 cubits long and 4 cubits wide.  That is approximately 13.5 feet long and 6 feet wide if you are wondering.  Not much is known of Bashan except that it was in Palestine (remember that the sons of Anak had been driven to Palestine by Joshua in Joshua 11:21-22).  Joshua 12:4 also indicates that Og was descended from the Rephaim while Joshua 13:12 says Og was the only remaining Rephaim because Moses (via Joshua) had struck and dispossessed them.  2 Samuel 21:16 says that Ishbibenob (a Philistine) was a descendant from the giants (H7498, also= rapha- giant) and was struck down by Abishai who was one of David’s mighty men.  2 Samuel 21:18 describes how the Philistine Saph was among the descendants of the giant (H7498) and was killed by Sibbecai, another of David’s mighty men.  2 Samuel 21:19-21 describes how one of David’s mighty men named Elhanan killed Goliath (actually the brother of Goliath as is clarified in 1 Chronicles 20:5) and another man named Jonathan killed a six-toed, six-fingered giant (H7498) and that these men were Gittites (from Gath) which was one of the places where the sons of Anak had remained according to Joshua 11:21-22.  2 Samuel 21:22 says that these four (Ishbibenob, Saph, Goliath’s brother, and Mr. Six Fingers) were born to the giant (H7498) in Gath and killed by David and his servants.  1 Chronicles depicts the same instances when it records in 1 Chronicles 20:4 that Sibbecai killed Sippai (a derivative of Saph) who had descended from the giant (H7498).  1 Chronicles 20:5-8 again concurs that Lahmi (Goliath’s brother) and the other 3 giants (H7498) were killed by David and his mighty men.  The Bible does not record how tall these men were but 1 Samuel 17:4 records Goliaths height to be 6 cubits and a span which would be approximately 9.5 feet tall.  I think by any measure this would be considered a giant.  In addition to these specific references to men or people, the Bible also uses the word “Rephaim” to describe a valley of giants in Joshua 15:8, Joshua 18:16, 2 Samuel 5:18, 2 Samuel 23:13, 1 Chronicles 11:!5, 1 Chronicles 14:9, and Isaiah 17:5.

       So that is about it.  Like I said, I am not providing any definitive answers here; that was not the attempt.  There simply is no definitive answer revealed within the Bible and any speculation beyond this would be foolish (Romans 1:21, 2 Corinthians 10:5, 1 Timothy 1:3-4, 2 Timothy 2:23).  There are many books and many websites that drone on and on about this topic, but there simply is nothing but speculation beyond what we have discussed.  Everything else starts to get into the “I am starting my own cult” genre.  I think it is reasonable to say this in conclusion:

There was a real creature group called the Nephilim and their inclusion in the Bible is relevant.  They were on the earth in the days before God declared to Noah that He was going to destroy the earth with a flood, and also after God declared He was going to destroy the earth with a flood.  They were likely the wicked and mighty offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men.  They may or may not have been giants, they may or may not have been destroyed in the flood, they may or may not have been present in the promised land when it was scouted, and they may or may not still exist.  Regardless of this, the presence of giants is persistent throughout the Bible and in several local cultures in and around the holy land.         

You may say that this is a week’s worth of research and study down the drain to come up with such an anti-climactic conclusion but anything that gets you to study the Bible is of great value in my mind.