The meaning of the Hebrew word Nephilim has long been a point of debate amongst Biblical scholars. Although often seen as fallen angels, giants, or even alien invaders the Nephilim are more likely to be identified as despotic rulers of antiquity who take the place of a missing cosmological generation in the Bible. There was one ancient theory that they were angels cast out of Heaven and yet another that they were the mortal sons of Seth (the third son of Adam), who had taken to an evil path. The facts may lead to the conclusion that they were both.

In the classic Hebrew rabbinical interpretation the Nephilim were the tyrannical rulers of the ancient world whose evil deeds provoked God to cause the Great Flood. After an enlightened start on the path to civilization, these men, the sons of Seth, followed in the sinful steps of great uncle Cain until such a time that only Noah and his family were left as righteous people. Built upon this tradition are a number of divergent ones. This includes modern speculation of extraterrestrial involvement or identification of the Nephilim as a race of giants. The alien theory however is actually nothing less than a scientific version of the angel theory and the giant theory hinges on the connection with the generations of the sons of Seth, so the real investigation is within the ancient sources.

The original account of the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4 can reasonably be dated to ca. 6th century BCE. It appears that within a few centuries of the writing of Genesis an expanded account of Nephilim Mythology developed. In a number of Jewish texts such as the Book of Enoch the Nephilim are outcast members of Heaven's angelic host who willingly followed their leader in defiance of God.

The interpretation of the Nephilim as supernatural giants developed into the Early Middle Ages with the Talmudic text Targum Pseudo-Jonathan This text again identifies the Nephilim as clearly being supernatural creatures of angelic origin. This account is hard to date but can be reasonably placed between the 8th and 14th Centuries CE and was likely a key influence on Christian Medieval writings that speculate on either the angelic or demonic personas of the Nephilim.

Much of the inherent confusion over the Nephilim appears to arise from the translation of the word itself between Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and now into modern languages.

The most common etymological definition of Nephilim is "Fallen Ones" apparently indicating they had fallen out of the sky/Heaven and/or perhaps having lost a divine status. The confusion over the nature of the Nephilim is in part related to the construction of the word itself. The Hebrew word nephyl, which is transcribed as Nephilim, is defined, according to the Talmudic tradition, as a feller, bully or tyrant. The root verb is nphal, to fall, perish, be overthrown etc. Hence a Nephilim is a feller, more properly understood as "one who causes others to fall" rather than as a "fallen one".

This confusion over this translation is compounded by the interchange between the terms Nephilim and Anakim which are etymologically unrelated apart from one association in the Biblical Book of Numbers. However some scholarly traditions readily translate both terms to mean "giant" and this mistake will be explained below.

To further understand the Nephilim it is necessary to place them in context within the Biblical narrative. They are mentioned only twice in the Bible, the first time during a recollection of the events that preceded the Great Flood.

The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.(Genesis 6: 4)

The second time they are mentioned is in a report given by some spies whom Moses had sent into Canaan to get the lay of the land.

And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight (Numbers 13:33)

Anak was a warlord known to the Israelites as they made their way to Canaan. He was said to be unusually tall as were his warriors. According to the reports the spies were very intimidated by what they saw. Based on this text there is no reason to suppose that Anak and his sons were anything other than physically imposing warriors fitting the description of the tyrants in the classic tradition.

However this identification of the sons of Anak, the Anakim, with the Nephilim led some ancient Jewish writers who were following the Torah Chronology, such as the authors of the Book of Enoch, to speculate on how a portion of the Nephilim had survived the Deluge. Part of this explanation was that the only way they could have survived the world destroying flood was if they were at least in part divine.

Josephus, in his 1st century work, Jewish Antiquities compares the exploits of the Nephilim to the giants of Olympian Mythology. The Olympian giants are the sons of the primal gods and indeed like the Nephilim they were very threatening to ordinary men. This reference in Antiquities entrenched the Nephilim/giant connection with subsequent centuries of scholars turning Josephus's comparison between the Nephilim and Olympian giants into an equation

In both Biblical passages from Genesis the Nephilim could easily be seen as tyrants and usurpers but the reference to the sons of God has caused some difficulty, seeming to imply a divine lineage present on earth.

The term for son in the Hebrew is ben, which can indicate a variety of relationships from actual family ties to affiliation with a group or nation. In this case, sons of God, sometimes interpreted as "angels" is then, benei haelohim. The word for God is Elohim which refers to the Bronze Age Canaanite pantheon of deities fathered by the chief deity El. However in the Biblical context the word does not necessarily denote that a pantheon of gods was worshipped by the Hebrews. Yet the fact that most Judaic Angelic names contain the suffix "el" makes the connection clear.

By the time of Josephus much of the mythology of the Western World was seen from a Greek perspective. There was parity given between gods such as Zeus (son of Cronos), Jupiter (son of Saturn) Baal Haddad (son of El), Ammun-Ra (son of Nu) and Marduk (son of Ea). Yahweh, the patron deity of the Jerusalem region from middle of the 2nd millennium BCE, entered the scene as another son of El and in Canaan he contested the ascendency of Baal Haddad.

All of these gods were part of a series of cosmological generations which in the past had a part in the chaos from which the world emerged thanks to the order implemented by the creator god. In each of these mythos there are creatures which contemporary storytelling cannot help but equate with the giants of Western Folklore. One such primal monster from the Hurrian Mythos with whom the gods were forced to contend was Ullikummi, who is described as a living mountain. In this context it is easy to see the tales in the Book of Enoch, of rebellious angelic hosts in conflict with the forces of Heaven, falling neatly in line with Near Eastern cosmological mythology.

However as ancient Hebrew mythology transformed itself into modern Judaic lore the focus on the imperative of generational struggles between hero-gods and these primal deities was all but removed from the lexicons. Hence the Book of Enoch's label as Pseudepigrapha, indicating a Judeo-Christian texts exclusion from the Bible.

By the Post Exilic Period, ca. 5th century BCE, the emphasis was on Yahweh as a stand-alone deity who shaped the world in perfection and without any supernatural by blows. Manifest evil was thought to have developed when Adam and Eve gave into temptations in the Garden of Eden. Evil was not as the result of gods fighting each other or manipulating mortals into violence as in other mythos.

Thus the cosmological generational dynamic to which Hesiod devotes much of his Theogony is relegated to only one sentence in the Bible and the Nephilim are inserted as a mere mythological place holder. Although the ancient Jews may have had real world tyrants in mind when they used word Nephilim, they nevertheless painted them as players, albeit minor ones, in the Biblical cosmology. This should not be necessarily seen as an acknowledgement of any other creator gods but rather as an obligatory part of the storytelling process which is revealed throughout antiquity in such places as the Prologue of Greek theatre.

Although the ancient Hebrews choose to exclude Yahweh from the pantheistic conflicts that had defined the cosmologies of most ancient myths they were no doubt aware of the pantheistic world in which they lived. Hence the Hebrews made it a point to call out by name "false" gods such as Baal. The cults of Yahweh's rivals were a real threat to the goal of Hebrew cultural preservation which was likely a prime motivator for the writers of Genesis. Indeed it may well be that it is these cultists, and not the divine generations themselves, that are being referenced with the term benei haelohim.

Considering this the sons of God may be understood as followers of the old cults which were forbidden by the Jewish covenant with Yahweh. According to the ancient Judaic traditions, related by Josephus, the sons of God are indeed the descendents of the old aristocratic families that had ruled in the Ancient Near East for centuries. In many cases the connection between these families and the gods goes back to an ancestor of divine status.

Therefore the relationship between the Nephilim and the forbidden gods can also be understood in the context of the history of divine kingship. Many ancient monarchs stylized themselves as the servants of gods, sons of gods or even divine kings going back to the very dawn of civilization. All of this was anathema to the Post Exilic Jews.

In fact one potent nemesis of the Jewish people, Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, kept this tradition alive with his name which means "[the god]Nebo has protected the succession-rights." It is even reasonable to suggest that some of the writers of Genesis were contemporaries of Nebuchadnezzar and had him or his relations in mind as they wrote their cosmology. Bronze Age and Iron Age despots had often violently imposed there "divine" will upon their subjects, and more than once the Jews themselves had fallen victim to this violence, hence the condemnation of the Nephilim by the writers of Genesis.

In an interesting twist of history as the Hebrew Bible became the Christian Bible it did finally succumb to the mythological imperative of the progression of divine cosmological generations. Which is why the "Old Testament" is now customarily appended by the "New." In fact the New Testament embraces many of the notions of the Pseudepigrapha including the concept of legions of angels together with rival legions of devils and demons. This mythological evolution allowed the Nephilim, incorrectly labeled as "Fallen Ones," to assume a place in the Christian Cosmology that was denied to them by the Judaic.

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Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities