Those who attack the Torah because they disagree with the history put forth in it do not recognize that the historical sections are not the memories of G-d, but the traditions of those people who inherited the commandments. No one, in their right mind, would argue that history in the Scriptures meets the standards used by modern historians to record the events of the past. First and foremost, the historical sections of scripture are not history as such as much as remembered events that have been explained and colored by time. However, for each and every historical statement in the Torah there is a kernel that remembers a real event and tries to present it to us for our consideration.
One of the most powerful ideas in the book of Genesis is the pastoral ideal. It argues that hunter-gathers and shepherd nomads are more moral than people who live sedentary lives. While all of Genesis supports this principle, I want to look at the kernel of this idea and see if I can make some sense for you from it.
Genesis 6 says:
“And it came to pass, that when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the Sons of the Archangels, saw the daughters of mankind that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And YHVH said, ‘My Ruach shall not always contend with mankind, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’
There were Nephil (Giant bullies) in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the Sons of the Archangels came in unto the daughters of mankind, and they bare children to them, and the same became powerful, which were of old, men who had made a name for themselves.
And YHVH saw that the wickedness of man was great in the land, and that every imagination of his heart was always evil. And it YHVH repented that he had made man in the land, at it grieved him in his heart.”
The passage implies that humans lived much longer in the ideal world of the hunter-gathers than now. It suggests that there were giant bullies in the earth. Now, we might well ask if this was a story about giants in general as they always seem to be bullies. But, there is another passage that adds to our knowledge of the Nephilim. Deuteronomy 3:11 introduces us to Og, King of Bashan. It says:
“For only Og, King of Bashan, remained of the Nephilim; behold his bestead was a bedstead of iron; … nine cubits was the length thereof and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.”
So these tyrants, these bullies, were truly huge. A cubit is about 20.6 inches so the bed would have been 6’10” wide and 15’6” long. Truly a man needing such a bed would be huge and it is normally thought that this man was about 9 feet tall and appropriately wide for a muscular person. According to Torah, there were an entire race of these people. Now, the Torah does not say that the Nephilim are the descendants of a union between angels and women. It says that the children of the angelic-human hybrid were like the Nephilim in that they were likewise huge and became famous. What is the basis for this story?
Author Tom Knox in the Genesis Secret offers his opinion, but he does not go far enough in my opinion. He argues that the Nephilim came from the north because genetic science has shown that the competition for survival in colder climates produces taller, smarter people. He argues that survival has made the northerners more aggressive and violent. He argues that the hominid Giganthropus may well have been the origin of the legend. He argues that the Nephilim may have separated due to warfare and one part came to a place called Gobekli Tepe where they taught the hunter gathers to be sedentary. They also taught them how to farm, to domesticate animals, to dominate the surrounding peoples, to worship, and to kill and eat other humans. Thus, all that is evil in the world today, war, competition, and cannibalism, both real and symbolic, was a result of the Nephilim’s influence. The Book of Enoch greatly expands on the sins of the Nephilim and that book was a central theological document for the Essene-Nasorean faith. Enoch goes so far as to say that the Nephilim were the sons of the angelic-human hybrid.
What he does not say and what should be added is that the religion of the Nephilim may still exist. It is called the Cult of Angels and has three distinct denominations: the Yezidi, the Alawi-Nusairi, and the Alevi. The argument is made by the scholars of the Cult of Angels that the Cult is at least 8000 years old and that it has influenced all the major world religions, from Zoroaster and Hinduism, to Bahai and Mormonism. Further, it should be noted that Gobekli Tepe is the oldest known temple built by hominids and that all domestication of wheat and the early domestication of pigs took place within close proximity of Gobekli Tepe in the area of Kurdistan more anciently known as Edessa.
It is therefore appropriate to argue that perhaps these Giganthropi came from elsewhere. After all, geneticists have confidently said that all humanity came from Africa, even though Jomon pottery in Japan implies a separate origin of humanity. Dr. Zechariah Sitchin, a man who has been much reviled, has shown that there is a great connection between the concept of the Anaki, that is, the ancient gods of Sumer, and the archaeological and philological data in southern Iraq. He concluded from his study that man may have been influenced some 12000 to 30000 years ago by travelers from a twelfth planet. When he said these things, Pluto, the alleged ninth planet was the fartherest out of planets. We now know of additional planetoids out further and larger than Pluto. Is it possible that we could have been visited by beings from another planet, the so-called Sons of the Elohim and that those left behind were gigantic and bullies. No one can say for sure, but the racial memory recorded in Scripture claims that it happened and it is on this basis that the anti-urban bias arose in the Scripture. Clearly, mankind’s interaction with these beings was not good for mankind.
I do not endorse nor refute Tom Knox’s story. I do consider knowledge of what he says and the scientific evidence which he interprets to be interesting, illustrative, and worthy of contemplation.
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