Moses, the Apocrypha and the Nephilim

[Stravinsk]

There's been some mention of the Apocrypha on this forum of late, however it's been in sections I can't respond to. I found Skiba's study very interesting as it not only gives a broader context to what's mentioned in Genesis, but also ties in possible connections to ancient Greek Mythology (as in, myths based on history). 3 extra-biblical books are mentioned (outside the bible, but mentioned in the bible). I've only ever read portions of Enoch. The Nephilim are also mentioned in another apocraphal book I have read some of (not biblically endorsed) which is the Nazarene Acts of the Apostles/Recognitions of Clement.

There is also, of course, the possibility of such things happening again: "as in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man" Matt 24:37

For those with a general interest in the subject I think it will be interesting. I found it so.

 

[Andrew]

This is why using the word 'Apocrypha' is so misleading in Christianity. Jerome deemed whatever books that weren't found in the Hebrew Text as "Apocrypha"... many people don't know that Rabbanic Judaism was organized by the very sect of Pharisees that Jesus was rebuking, Jerome used the wrong word in my opinion, he should have just called the "Apocrypha" books read by Christians "Ecclesiasticals".
Enoch wasn't found in the Septuagint, although it's canon in the Ethiopian Church, it's more pseudo-apocalyptical that the Western and Orthodox would rightfully call Apocrypha (not the Protestant "Apocrypha").
Talmudic Rabbis call the New Testament Apocrypha, it doesn't make it so, also the Gnostic "gospels" are rightly labeled Apocrypha but it further confuses those inquiring into these books with respect to the deuterocanon.

As for Enoch, it's a most likely a half truths book, which obscures any distinctions.

 

[Andrew]

There's been some mention of the Apocrypha on this forum of late, however it's been in sections I can't respond to. I found Skiba's study very interesting as it not only gives a broader context to what's mentioned in Genesis, but also ties in possible connections to ancient Greek Mythology (as in, myths based on history). 3 extra-biblical books are mentioned (outside the bible, but mentioned in the bible). I've only ever read portions of Enoch. The Nephilim are also mentioned in another apocraphal book I have read some of (not biblically endorsed) which is the Nazarene Acts of the Apostles/Recognitions of Clement.

There is also, of course, the possibility of such things happening again: "as in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man" Matt 24:37

For those with a general interest in the subject I think it will be interesting. I found it so.

I have seen his videos in the past, I also tracked down the descendants of the nephilem using the OT (not the book of Enoch), there were three I believe, either one or all three helped build Solomons temple after the Babylonion exile (unless I'm thinking of the Adonikam).. I'll give it a watch and tell you my thoughts on it

 

[Nazareth]

I always wondered why in the New Testament there wasn't a Book of Immanuel (Jesus)

I've read certain of the Apocrypha. I think if you feel led to read that then maybe God wants to show you something outside of man's canon.
Nothing wrong with that

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
There's a couple of Hebrew words in the Bible translated "giants". The first appears
in Gen 6:4 which says:

"There were giants in the earth in those days . . . the same became mighty men
which were of old, men of renown."

The Hebrew word translated giants in that verse is nephiyl (nef-eel') which appears
in only two verses in the entire Old Testament; here and in Numbers 13:33.

The word is somewhat ambiguous, but it mostly pertains to "men of old, men of
renown" viz: famous alpha males; e.g. Genghis Khan of Mongolia, and Alexander
the Great of Greece; Napoleon of France, Peter Alekseyevich Romanov of Russia,
Chandragupta Maurya of India, shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo of Japan,
conquistador Hernando Cortes of Spain, Timur: founder of the Timurid dynasty, and
Zahir-ud din Muhammad Babur: founder of the Mughal dynasty that ruled the
Indian subcontinent for over three centuries; and of course guys like Adolf Hitler,
Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe,
and Kim Jong-Un.

In other words: nephiyl doesn't necessarily indicate a special race of people; but
mostly strong personalities whose ambition is to quite dominate others, i.e.
despots, dictators, and tyrants, etc. Those kinds of people aren't satisfied with power:
they want nothing less than total control.

The other Hebrew word for giants is rapha' (raw-faw') Thiat word appears in
numerous places throughout the Old Testament and typically always indicates
brutish men of large physical stature, e.g. Goliath.
_

 

[SetFree]

So we have some doubters here that do not believe the Nephilim of Genesis were literal giant hybrids created from the "sons of God" (angels) taking wives of the daughters of Adam?

2 Sam 21:20
20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.
KJV

Now why would physical traits like 6 fingers on each hand, and 6 toes on each foot, along with being of great stature (size), NOT mean a different hybrid race?

Deut 3:11
11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
KJV

Likewise, why would Og's large bed be declared and its size defined if it was not because of his abnormal physical features? A cubit is anywhere from 18 - 20 inches, so 18 x 9 = 13.5 feet long, by 18 x 4 = 6 feet wide.


The following is a Scripture where the proper name Rephaim (giant) was not translated to English in the KJV Bible, but was instead rendered as the word "deceased"....

Isa 26:14
14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased (Hebrew rapha = Rephaim), they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
KJV

They are dead, they shall not live, they shall not rise. That is pointing directly to the fact that those Rephaim (another name for the giants), shall not be resurrected from the dead, they shall not rise.

We know per Scripture that all men born in the flesh will be resurrected either to the "resurrection of life" or to the "resurrection of damnation", to stand before Christ's judgement seat. But not those, as that verse says, which makes those HYBRIDS, not ordained to be born by God.

That was one of the main reasons why God brought the flood in the days of Noah. It was to wipe out that giant hybrid race which Satan's angels caused upon the earth. And the Genesis 6 called them "men of renknown", meaning literally in the Hebrew, 'men of the name', of the 'legend', i.e., the ancient mythologies. There is an ancient mythology in ancient civillization's cultures, even in American Indian culture (see Pawnee remarks by one of Buffalo Bill's party that brought him a huge femur bone as evidence. Buffalo Bill documented it in his autobiography.)

Genesis 6 also reveals there was a second irruption of fallen angels mating with flesh woman to produce the giant hybrid race. That was the reason why God commanded the children of Israel to literally wipe out those 7 specific nations in the land of Canaan, for that is where the Rephaim were (see Deuteronomy 20).

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 6:1-2 . . Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the
land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the
daughters of men were good; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they
chose.

The Hebrew word for "good" in that passage is towb (tobe) which is one of those
ambiguous Hebrew words that can be utilized in a wide variety of applications. It
can indicate morality, a tasty meal, a job well done, a nice man, a pretty dress, a
shapely woman and/or a handsome man, and an expert musician and/or a really
groovy song. But in this case; I think it's pretty safe to assume towb refers to a
woman's looks.

NOTE: Ambiguous words like towb serve to illustrate why it's virtually
impossible to translate Hebrew into English with 100% verbatim precision. No
linguist in his right mind would dare to say that English versions of the Hebrew Old
Testament are perfect word-for-word renditions of the original manuscripts-- no;
they can't even be certified perfect word-for-word renditions of the available
manuscripts let alone the originals.

The characteristics of the "sons of God" have been debated. Some say they were
members of the aristocracy of that day who married attractive women from among
the commoners. Others say they were renegade spirit creatures who donned fully
functioning human avatars-- replete with synthetic male genomes --so they could
cohabit with women; thus producing a hybrid strain of hominid freaks. Others say
they were God-fearing men who threw caution to the wind and built themselves
harems of humanistic women who believed and practiced existential philosophies.

The latter seems the more likely seeing as how intermarriage between believers
and unbelievers is often frowned upon in both the Old Testament and the New.

* The label "son of God" is somewhat ambiguous in the Old Testament. For
example in Ex 4:22-23 an entire people are identified as God's kin.

Hooking men of faith up with infidel women is a proven tactic for watering down,
compromising, and even extinguishing Bible beliefs and practices (e.g. Num 31:7
16). The people of God are strictly, unequivocally, and clearly forbidden to marry
outside their faith. (Deut 7:1-4, 2Cor 6:14-18)

Women can be very effective in influencing an otherwise pious man to compromise
his convictions; for example Solomon got off to a good start but down the road
accumulated a harem of foreign women who led him into idolatry; which
subsequently caused The Lord to engineer rebellion in the kingdom. (1Kgs 11 & 12)

The sons of God in Noah's day-- whose wives were chosen based solely upon
sensual appeal sans any spiritual prudence whatsoever --all perished in the Flood
right along with their infidel wives and children. Not even one of them had the good
sense to go aboard the ark with Noah.
_

 

[Prepared]

There's been some mention of the Apocrypha on this forum of late, however it's been in sections I can't respond to. I found Skiba's study very interesting as it not only gives a broader context to what's mentioned in Genesis, but also ties in possible connections to ancient Greek Mythology (as in, myths based on history). 3 extra-biblical books are mentioned (outside the bible, but mentioned in the bible). I've only ever read portions of Enoch. The Nephilim are also mentioned in another apocraphal book I have read some of (not biblically endorsed) which is the Nazarene Acts of the Apostles/Recognitions of Clement.

There is also, of course, the possibility of such things happening again: "as in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man" Matt 24:37

For those with a general interest in the subject I think it will be interesting. I found it so.

I'm guessing you're speaking of the Dead Sea scrolls which contained the Books of Enoch supposedly written in the second or third century BC which would make them just over 2,000 years old. Written sometime before the birth of Christ and sometime after the last book of the Old Testament in that 400 years span when nothing was written.

I believe exaggeration was used by the writer of The book of Enoch concerning the height of the Giants or they made a mistake with their numbers.

Goliath according to scripture, he was 6 cubits and a span - according to Josephus he was 4 cubits and a span. And even in today's modern world there is no agreed height measurements - so he stood somewhere between 7 and 12 ft. Some argue exactly what a cubic and a span was in the ancient days

Biblical Goliath may not have been a giant

Goliath, the giant who was felled by King David in the Hebrew Bible, is described as having a jaw-dropping height. Turns out, that may not have been accurate.

www.livescience.com

And according to Guinness World record from time to time there are some extremely tall people.

And yes as it was in the days of Noah it will be again - which is probably referring to the evilness of man and the eagerness to blend with the (extraterrestrial) angelic beings - I seriously don't if there will be Giants walking the Earth again.

And I agree after I read The book of Enoch I felt that's where the centaurs, and the half goat half human, half fish half human, and all other creatures of mythology came about. Enough said they experimented and created monstrosities.

I disagree with his comments concerning the dinosaurs.

I also disagree with much of his comments concerning the Canaanites.
Salem was a Canaanite City
Melchizedek was King in high priest of Salem.
El / Elohim was the name of the God the Canaanites and Melchizedek served - whom Abraham gave tribute to. And He became God to Abraham, He chose Abraham and the covenant he made with Abraham fell on all of Abraham's descendants _ over the Canaanites, that's why he sent him there.

10 Intriguing Facts about Melchizedek from the Bible

Melchizedek is one of the most intriguing characters the Bible says almost nothing about. But here's what we CAN learn about the King of Salem.

overviewbible.com

Jerusalem: From Canaanite City to Israelite Capital

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Elohim

Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) in the Hebrew Bible refers to deities, and is one of the many names or titles for God in the Hebrew Bible.

slife.org

 

[Jason76]

I've not seen any Nephilim which makes me wonder if this is the end-times. I think that sort of stuff is just blown up by too many people.