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Bible Dictionaries
Nephilim
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or NEPHILIM. A Heb. word, of uncertain etymology, retained by B.V in the only two places where it occurs in OT (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘giants’). In Genesis 6:4 we read: ‘The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God went in to the daughters of men and they hare to them; these are the heroes which were of old, the men of renown.’ The verse has the appearance of an explanatory gloss to the obscure mythological fragment which precedes, and is very difficult to understand. But we can hardly be wrong in supposing that it bears witness to a current belief (to which there are many heathen parallels) in a race of heroes or demigods, produced by the union of divine beings (‘sons of God’) with mortal women. The other notice is Numbers 13:33 , where the name is applied to men of gigaotic stature seen by the spies among the natives of Canaan. That these giants were popularly identified with the demigods of Genesis 6:4 , there is no reason to doubt. See also art. Giant.
J. Skinner.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Nephilim'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/n/nephilim.html. 1909.
