At minimum, the claim in Numbers 13:33 shows that the Israelites were aware that the Nephilim of old had a reputation of being giants (more on this below). However, exaggeration is unlikely because Genesis 6:4 says the Nephilim were on the earth “in those days, and also afterward” and the link between the Anakim and Nephilim in Numbers 13:33 seems to be an editorial comment (possibly referring back to Numbers 6:4). Whether descendants of the Nephilim were actually in the land of Canaan is uncertain, as the Israelite spies may have been exaggerating their account. (It may be that the Septuagint translated Nephilim as “giants” because of the account in Numbers 13, though some think Nephilim comes from the Aramaic word naphiyla for giant. Also, the Septuagint translates both the Hebrew נְּפִלִ֞ים ( Nephilim) and גִּבֹּרִ֛ים ( gibborim, “mighty men” or “men of renown”) in Genesis 6:4 as γίγαντες ( gigantes, “giants”). It is important to note that Genesis 6:4 never explicitly calls the Nephilim “giants.” However, the Nephilim have often been considered giants because of the description of the giants in the land as those who come from the Nephilim in Numbers 13:32-33. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown (Genesis 6:4). The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. Furthermore, alternative views (also including the kingly-line view) fail to explain how this intermarriage produced mighty (giant) warriors: This is not something the text ever claims. The common view that this was the mixing of the lines of Seth and Cain assumes that everyone in Seth’s line was godly and everyone in Cain’s line was wicked. The phrase “sons of God” elsewhere refers to spirit beings/angels (Job 1:6 2:1 38:7), and Genesis 6:1-2 contrasts this group with all of mankind (not some subset such as Cain’s line), meaning they are non-human. I have previously argued that the “sons of God” were spirit beings that mated with women and produced the Nephilim. The first mention of giants in the Bible is the Nephilim in Genesis 6:1-4. The Sons of God and Giant Nephilim (Genesis 6:1-4) As will be seen, Israel initially refused to enter the land because of giants, and only men of great faith (Joshua, Caleb, and David) were able to defeat them. Yet giants play an important role in the biblical story, particularly in relation to their occupation of the Promised Land. Christians, including many pastors and scholars, tend to gloss over the references to giants in the Bible.
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