Nephilim: Part 6 Enoch and Jubilees

The Bible was not compiled in a vacuum. It was written by at least 40 people in the Near East. These writers lived in and interacted with different cultures over a long period of time.

So by reading extra-Biblical texts, we can understand the nuances, the word play and unpack the stranger parts of the Bible.

Good examples are the Silmarllion, which acts like an extra-Biblical text to help understand the Lord of the Rings. The Hadiths help muslims to understand the Quran. And the ancient texts discovered at Ugarit, give academics a wider understanding of the world of the Old Testament.

The Book of Enoch and Jubilees play a similar role to the New Testament. Both are texts from the second temple period and were written just prior to the Birth of Christ. They give a valuable snapshot into the theological culture of Jesus’ day. It shows what majority of the Jews were resting and what they believed.

Jubilees is a commentary on the Book of Genesis. While the Book of Enoch discusses the fall of the angels and sacred geography. Strangely, they both make comments about the calendar.

In terms of the Nephilim, Jubilees mirrors the Genesis 6 text. But starts its story in the genealogy of Seth.

Jubilees 4: v 15

...and he called his name Jared; for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men, and that they should do judgment and uprightness on the earth.

Jared means to descend in Biblical Hebrew. So it makes sense the writer places the narrative around the time of this patriarch. The writer of Jubilees sees this as the point where the Nephilim arose on the Earth.

Jubilees 5 v 6

And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave command to root them out of all their dominion, and He made us [one of the good angels is speaking] to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them and are (kept) separate.

Here we read about how God then bound these angels in the depths of the Earth. This is referred to in the Book of Jude in the New Testament.

Jude 1 v 6

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

So according to this the fathers of the Nephilim are secured in chains until the Day of Judgement.

The Book of Enoch expands on Genesis 6.

1 Enoch 6 v 1-2

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'

Enoch continues to discuss how two hundred angels came down on Mount Hermon, led by their chief Semjaza. They took wives, taught humanity science, magic and technology. Nephilim were born to these women, and their children became giants.

When all this was reported to God, he sent Uriel to warn Noah of the coming flood. Gabriel went to destroy the giants, while Raphael and Michael dealt with the leaders of the fallen angels.

Other extra-Biblical texts, like the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, share similar stories.

From this we can see that the Jews of Jesus’ time believed the Nephilim were a real phenomena.

In our culture, we’ve largely pushed them into the conspiracy corners of the Internet. But maybe we should be open to the idea, that they might still walk along us. I’ll be addressing possible modern Nephilim in my next article.