The Hebrew word
(“nephilim”) rendered "giants" (KJV) in Genesis 6:4 is an old way of
describing large people, who could be big in stature, position, fame, or
notoriety. The word nephilim means "violent" or "causing to
fall;" they were ancient bullies or violent tyrants. Giants have existed
throughout recorded history, even in modern times, and the Bible does not say
the giants or nephilim were the result only of the marriages mentioned in
Genesis 6. The only other explicit reference to the nephilim is Numbers
13:32-33, in which the spies were clearly exaggerating: if "all the
people" were "of a great stature," what accounts for the normal
size of Rahab and her family, the Gibeonites, and others that were encountered
when the Israelites entered the land later? (Joshua 6:25; 9:3-15) Being as
grasshoppers in their own sight did not mean the Israelites were literally the
size of insects. (Numbers 13:33)
The term "sons of
God" refers to human believers and not angels in Scripture. Job 1:6 &
2:1, passages often used to "prove" otherwise, are obvious references
to human believers (sons of God) and days of worship. (Consider Deuteronomy
31:14-15; I Samuel 10:19) Job 38:7, another passage often used to
"prove" the sons of God in Genesis 6 were angels, also refers to human
believers in a context in which figurative language or symbolic terms are used
throughout the chapter. (Also compare Ezra 3:10-12) While angels can take on
the appearance of men (Hebrews 13:2), angels and humans are different kinds of
being and angels do not marry. (Consider Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke
24:37-39; Hebrew 1:13-14) Note that Genesis 6:3 refers to fleshly mankind and
not fallen angels or mixed offspring of angels. According to Genesis 6:2 &
4, the children of the sons of God who married the daughters of men became
mighty men (Hebrew: gibbor), a term also applied to Nimrod, the Gibeonites,
Boaz, David, Saul, Jonathan, and others. (Genesis 10:9; Joshua 10:2; Ruth 2:1;
I Samuel 16:18; II Samuel 1:19,25, 27; II Kings 5:1; I Chronicles 4:24; etc.)
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| Watchtower book "You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth," page 93 |
For more information:
HOW TO WITNESS TO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Help For Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses
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