Nephilim: Other Interpretations

Many interpretations have been offered over the centuries to explain this mysterious Nephilim passage in Genesis 6. This article will look at more of these theories. I’m not going to go in-depth into these, but it would be amiss if I left them out of the series.

I am not going to asses them and point out where I think they are wrong, but allow the reader to make their own mind up. I don’t think we can be fully certain what this relates too, and I am sure there are multiple meanings to the Nephilim text.

One theory is the sons of God relate to the descendants of Adam and Eve through the line of Seth. In Genesis 5, we read the list of Seth’s offspring and in Genesis 4, those of Cain. Could these chapters foreshadow the Nephilim, where Seth’s children marry the daughters of Cain? The Sons of God marrying the Daughters of Men.

This, the theory goes, would have brought Cain’s sin into the line of the righteous. Perverting the following generations until there is only one righteous man, Noah.

Another theory relates to polygamy. This is where the Sons of God, the righteous, take multiple wives. The idea suggests the sons of God refer to a particular group, while the daughters of men when they are marrying multiple women.

Some commentators think the Old Testament promotes polygamy, as we see people like Jacob, David and Solomon had multiple wives. Though if we read this is context, polygamy causes problems. And arguable, could have caused similar conflicts and sin before the Flood.

A further theory suggests it relates to Sumerian culture. There are several connections between the Sumerians and the early chapters of Genesis. The most obvious parallels are between the story of the Flood. But others, include the mention of sin in Genesis 4.

Genesis 4 v 7

But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.

The word for sin comes from the name of a Sumerian demon, who crouched in the cracks in the ground, trying to snare people.

So with this in mind, it has been suggested the sons of God relate to Sumerian priests. These priests served in the temple for short periods of time and they were required to remain celibate. The Nephilim were produced when these priests married during their tune of temple service.

Another suggestion is the sons of God were the sons of great rulers and kings. Rather than marrying within their royal lineage, they opted to marry commoners. This diluted the ‘royal blood line‘ and produced children who were great warriors, but unruly.

From a Modern scientific perspective, the sons of God had ‘high quality’ DNA. By marrying the daughters of Cain’s line, whose DNA was damaged by sin, it produced wildly sinful men.

The Nephilim could relate to the offspring of rulers or kings who had sex with women who were already married. As rulers, they took the right to choose any women to copulate with, including married women. The theory goes further to suggest that the phrase ‘whomever they chose’ relates to any number of sexual perversions.

Genesis 6 v 2

the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.

As we can see, the Nephilim passage has suffered many interpretations. Some may seem more unbelievable than others, but it appears every era has their own preferred takes.