Every quotation used in The Sons of God and the Nephilim, verbatim, with the route by which it was verified. Routes: library = a file already in sources/ read with grep/sed/pdftotext; curl = downloaded this session with curl and read locally after tag-stripping; iapdsearch = read inside a print-disabled archive.org item with bin/iapdsearch.py, whole paragraphs returned, leaf-to-page offset anchored twice and stated; Sefaria API = JSON fetched with curl from sefaria.org/api/v3/texts. No quotation passed through WebFetch. Hebrew inside English quotations is transliterated in the article and marked as such in the footnote.
Primary texts
| Quotation | Source and locator | Route |
|---|---|---|
| "וַיִּרְאוּ בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת־בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם ... הַנְּפִלִים הָיוּ בָאָרֶץ" | Genesis 6:2-4, Miqra according to the Masorah | Sefaria API |
| "we saw the Nephilim there, the Anakites are part of the Nephilim, and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them" | Numbers 13:33, JPS 2023 | Sefaria API |
| "nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit" | Deuteronomy 3:11, JPS 2023 | Sefaria API |
| גִּבּוֹרִים נֹפְלִים | Ezekiel 32:27, MAM | Sefaria API |
| "he was one hundred and thirty years old at his death" | 2 Chronicles 24:15, JPS 2023 | Sefaria API |
| ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ τὰς θυγατέρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὅτι καλαί εἰσιν / οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ / οἱ γίγαντες οἱ ἀπ᾽ αἰῶνος | Gen 6:2, 6:4, Swete vol. 1 (Codex A) | library swete-1896b_ot-in-greek-vol1.txt line 2476 ff. |
| καὶ ἐκεῖ ἑωράκαμεν τοὺς γίγαντας | Num 13:33 (LXX 13:34), Swete vol. 1 | library, line 27749 |
| καὶ ἰδοὺ ἦλθον οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ παραστῆναι ἐνώπιον τοῦ κυρίου | Job 1:6, Swete vol. 2 | library swete-1896c_ot-in-greek-vol2.txt line 45123 |
| Εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ σειραῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν τηρουμένους | 2 Peter 2:4, SBLGNT | curl, github.com/LogosBible/SBLGNT 2Pet.txt |
| ἀγγέλους τε τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχὴν ... σαρκὸς ἑτέρας ... Ἰδοὺ ἦλθεν κύριος ἐν ἁγίαις μυριάσιν αὐτοῦ | Jude 6-7, 14, SBLGNT | curl, Jude.txt |
Second Temple and rabbinic
| Quotation | Source and locator | Route |
|---|---|---|
| "And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them ... And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon ... they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells" | 1 Enoch 6:1-7:2, Charles 1913 (APOT 2) | library charles-1913_apocrypha-pseudepigrapha-vol2.txt lines 18866-18975 |
| "Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind" | 1 Enoch 7:3-4 | library, line 18974 ff. |
| "Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates ... and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids" | 1 Enoch 8:1 | library, line 18981 ff. |
| "bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth" | 1 Enoch 10:12 | library, line 19189 |
| "And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth ... And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble" | 1 Enoch 15:8-11 | library, lines 19568-19575 |
| "And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones" | 1 Enoch 1:9 (Charles's note) | library, line 16616 |
| "the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants" | Jubilees 5:1, Charles 1902 p. 43 | library charles-1902_book-of-jubilees.txt line 8880 ff. |
| "the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men" | Jubilees 4:15, Charles 1902 p. 33 | library, line 7652 ff. (the shorter "descended in the days of Jared to instruct the children of men" is Charles's own summary at introduction p. lvii, line 2371, and is no longer quoted as Jubilees) |
| "The true interpretation of Gen. vi. 1-4 is undoubtedly that given in our text, the Enoch literature, Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs, Philo, Jude, Peter, Josephus, Justin Martyr, and most of the early Christian writers ... But probably at the close of the first cent. A.D., or earlier, Jewish scholars protested against this interpretation." | Charles 1902, note on 4:15, p. 33 | library, lines 7660-7680 |
| "Next, while Hilary (ob. 368), Comment. in Ps. cxxxii., contents himself with discrediting the old myth, Chrysostom, Homil. in Gen. vi. 1, says that it is necessary to examine this passage carefully in order to subvert the fables of thoughtless praters ... Jerome, Comment. in Ps. cxxxii., and Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xv. 23. 4, pour discredit and contempt on the old myth." | Charles 1902, p. 34 | library, lines 7715-7735 |
| "in the stubbornness of their heart the Heavenly Watchers fell; they were caught because they did not keep the commandments of God. And their sons also fell who were tall as cedar trees and whose bodies were like mountains. All flesh on dry land perished" | Vermes 1998, CD II, p. 129 (leaf 153) | iapdsearch completedeadseas00verm; offset 24 anchored at "The Damascus Document" heading leaf 149 = p. 125 and Genesis Apocryphon intro leaf 472 = p. 448 |
| "written in about 100 BCE" | Vermes 1998, p. 125 | iapdsearch, leaf 149 |
| "Behold, I thought then within my heart that conception was (due) to the Watchers and the Holy Ones ... and to the Giants ... and my heart was troubled within me because of this child" | Vermes 1998, 1Q20 col. II, p. 449 (leaf 473) | iapdsearch |
| "'And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they chose.' Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels; and they are souls hovering in the air. And let no one suppose, that what is here stated is a fable" | Philo, On the Giants 6-7, Yonge | curl, earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book9.html |
| "Perhaps some one may here think, that the lawgiver is speaking enigmatically and alluding to the fables handed down by the poets about giants ... Therefore he utters no fable whatever respecting the giants" | Philo, On the Giants 58-60 | curl |
| πολλοὶ γὰρ ἄγγελοι θεοῦ γυναιξὶ συνιόντες ὑβριστὰς ἐγέννησαν παῖδας ... ὅμοια τοῖς ὑπὸ γιγάντων τετολμῆσθαι λεγομένοις ὑφ᾽ Ἑλλήνων | Josephus, Ant. 1.73, Niese | library niese-1892_josephus-antiquitates-greek-perseus.xml line 282 |
| "For many Angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good; on account of the confidence they had in their own strength. For the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call Giants." | Josephus, Ant. 1.3.1, Whiston | library josephus-antiquities-1_whiston-lacuscurtius.html |
| "cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they formerly lived, but one hundred and twenty only, he turned the dry land into sea" | Josephus, Ant. 1.3.2, Whiston | library |
| "This notion, that the fallen Angels were, in some sense, the fathers of the old Giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity." | Whiston note 14 | library |
| "Josephus here supposes, that the life of these Giants, for of them only do I understand him, was now reduced to 120 years ... For as to the rest of mankind, Josephus himself confesses their lives were much longer than 120 years, for many generations after the flood ... Nor indeed need we suppose that either Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these 120 years for the life of men before the flood, to be different from the 120 years of God's patience [perhaps while the Ark was preparing] till the Deluge" | Whiston note 15 | library |
| "Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai called them [when translating this verse into Aramaic] 'the children of judges.' Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai used to curse anyone who would call them [translating the words literally, as] 'children of god.'" | Bereshit Rabbah 26:5, Sefaria Midrash Rabbah 2022 | Sefaria API |
| "The sons of the rulers saw that the daughters of man were fair" / וַחֲזוֹ בְנֵי רַבְרְבַיָּא | Onkelos Gen 6:2, Metsudah | Sefaria API |
| "Schamchazai and Uzziel, who fell from heaven, were on the earth in those days; and also, after the sons of the Great had gone in with the daughters of men, they bare to them: and these are they who are called men who are of the world, men of names." | Targum Jonathan Gen 6:4, Etheridge 1862 | Sefaria API |
| "The sons of princes and rulers (Genesis Rabbah 26:15). Another explanation of בני האלהים is that these were princely angels who came as messengers from God: they, too, intermingled with them (the daughters of men)." | Rashi on Gen 6:2, Silbermann | Sefaria API |
| "For 120 years I will be long-suffering with them, and if they repent not I shall bring a flood upon them. If, now, you object, saying that from the birth of Japheth until the Flood there were only 100 years, remember that there is no 'earlier' or 'later' in the Torah (events are not always related in chronological order) (Pesachim 6b): the decree (regarding the Flood) was issued twenty years before Noah had any children, so we find in Seder Olam." | Rashi on Gen 6:3, Silbermann | Sefaria API |
Church fathers and Reformers
| Quotation | Source and locator | Route |
|---|---|---|
| "But the angels transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of women, and begat children who are those that are called demons; and besides, they afterwards subdued the human race to themselves, partly by magical writings, and partly by fears and the punishments they occasioned" | Justin, 2 Apol. 5, ANF 1:190 | curl ccel anf01.viii.iii.v.html; page from the Page_190 anchor in ch. 4 and no anchor in ch. 6 |
| "The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God." / "the princes in Tanis are evil angels" | Justin, Dial. 79, ANF 1:238 | curl ccel anf01.viii.iv.lxxix.html; page from anchors 238 (ch. 78) and 239 (ch. 80) |
| "these fell into impure love of virgins, and were subjugated by the flesh, and he became negligent and wicked in the management of the things entrusted to him. Of these lovers of virgins, therefore, were begotten those who are called giants." | Athenagoras, Plea 24, ANF 2:142 | curl ccel anf02.v.ii.xxiv.html; Page_142 anchor inside the chapter |
| "in the days of Noah He justly brought on the deluge for the purpose of extinguishing that most infamous race of men then existent, who could not bring forth fruit to God, since the angels that sinned had commingled with them" | Irenaeus, AH 4.36.4, ANF 1:516 | curl ccel anf01.ix.vi.xxxvii.html; sentence between Page_516 and Page_517 anchors |
| "For they, withal, who instituted them are assigned, under condemnation, to the penalty of death, those angels, to wit, who rushed from heaven on the daughters of men; so that this ignominy also attaches to woman." | Tertullian, Cult. fem. 1.2, ANF 4:14 | curl ccel anf04.iii.iii.i.ii.html; Page_15 anchor falls later in the chapter |
| "I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. ... To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude." | Tertullian, Cult. fem. 1.3, ANF 4:15-16 | curl ccel anf04.iii.iii.i.iii.html |
| "that most deceitful ruler of the earth, by his very association, gradually enticed them to vices, and polluted them by intercourse with women. Then, not being admitted into heaven on account of the sins into which they had plunged themselves, they fell to the earth. ... But they who were born from these, because they were neither angels nor men, but bearing a kind of mixed nature, were not admitted into hell, as their fathers were not into heaven. Thus there came to be two kinds of demons" | Lactantius, Div. Inst. 2.15, ANF 7:64 | curl ccel anf07.iii.ii.ii.xv.html; page from anchors 64 (ch. 14) and 65 (ch. 16) |
| "that the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to them wives of all whom they chose, we shall nevertheless even on this point persuade those who are capable of understanding the meaning of the prophet, that even before us there was one who referred this narrative to the doctrine regarding souls ... in metaphorical language" / "sixty or seventy angels descended at the same time" | Origen, C. Cels. 5.55, 5.54 | curl newadvent.org/fathers/04165.htm (wording only) |
| "When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of men. In some copies I found 'the sons of God.' What is meant by the Spirit, in my opinion, is that the descendants of Seth are called the sons of God ... But if it is thought that these refer to angels, we must take them to be those who deal with magic and jugglery, who taught the women the motions of the stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by whose power they conceived the giants as their children ..." (quoted in full in the article) | Africanus, Chronography fr. 2, ANF 6:131 | library africanus-1886_chronographiae-fragments-anf6.txt (New Advent text) for wording; curl ccel anf06.v.v.ii.html and .i.html (Page_131 anchor in part I, none in part II) for the page |
| "There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience ... that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called incubi, had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them ... it were impudent to deny it ... but certainly I could by no means believe that God's holy angels could at that time have so fallen" | Augustine, CD 15.23, NPNF 1/2:303 | library dods-1887_augustine-city-of-god-book15-npnf.txt for wording; curl ccel npnf102.iv.XV.23.html (anchors 304, 305) for pages |
| "nor can I think that it is of them the Apostle Peter said ... I think he rather speaks of these who first apostatized from God, along with their chief the devil, who enviously deceived the first man under the form of a serpent." | Augustine, CD 15.23, p. 303 | as above |
| "Was there not at Rome a few years ago ... a woman, with her father and mother, who by her gigantic size over-topped all others? ... neither of her parents were quite up to the tallest ordinary stature." | Augustine, CD 15.23, p. 304 | as above |
| "The Septuagint indeed calls them both angels of God and sons of God, though all the copies do not show this, some having only the name sons of God. And Aquila, whom the Jews prefer to the other interpreters, has translated neither angels of God nor sons of God, but sons of gods." | Augustine, CD 15.23, p. 304 | as above |
| "the sons of God, who were according to the flesh the sons of Seth, sunk into this community when they forsook righteousness" | Augustine, CD 15.23, p. 305 | as above |
| "the writings which are produced under his name, and which contain these fables about the giants, saying that their fathers were not men, are properly judged by prudent men to be not genuine" | Augustine, CD 15.23, p. 305 | as above |
| "In reference to this point the Jews fancy foolish things. They interpret the sons of God to signify demon-lechers by whom that impious generation was begotten ... But that anything may be begotten by a devil and a human being is simply false. ... The true meaning is that Moses calls those men the sons of God, who had the promise of the blessed seed." | Luther, Lenker vol. 2, ch. 6 paras. 33-36 | library luther-1910_commentary-on-genesis-vol2-lenker.txt lines 5672-5716 |
| "God simply fixes a hundred and twenty years as the time in which opportunity is granted for repentance" | Luther, ch. 6 para. 65 | library, line 6148 |
| "In short, Moses points it out as the most extreme disorder; when the sons of the pious, whom God had separated to himself from others, as a peculiar and hidden treasure, became degenerate. That ancient figment, concerning the intercourse of angels with women, is abundantly refuted by its own absurdity; and it is surprising that learned men should formerly have been fascinated by ravings so gross and prodigious. The opinion also of the Chaldean paraphrase is frigid ..." | Calvin on Gen 6:2, CTS 1847 | curl ccel calcom01.xii.i.html |
| "Certain writers of antiquity, such as Lactantius, and others, have too grossly blundered in thinking that the term of human life was limited within this space of time; whereas, it is evident, that the language used in this place refers not to the private life of any one, but to a time of repentance to be granted to the whole world." | Calvin on Gen 6:3 | curl |
| "Noah was about four hundred and eighty years of age at the time referred to: if one hundred and twenty years be added, it will make him six hundred years old at the time of his entering the ark." | Calvin, editor's note 263 | curl |
| "As to the Hebrew noun, נפלים (nefilim,) its origin is known to be from the verb נפל (naphal,) which is to fall; but grammarians do not agree concerning its etymology." | Calvin on Gen 6:4 | curl |
Modern commentators
| Quotation | Source and locator | Route |
|---|---|---|
| "The sense of these vv. is perfectly clear. The sons of God are everywhere in OT members (but probably inferior members) of the divine order, or (using the word with some freedom) angels" | Skinner 1910, p. 141 | library skinner-1910_critical-exegetical-commentary-genesis.txt line 12759 ff. (page headers "140 THE NEPHILIM", "142 THE NEPHILIM", "VI. 2, 3 143") |
| "Against both these last explanations it is decisive that [ha'adam] cannot have a narrower reference in v. 2 than in v. 1; and that consequently [bene ha'elohim] cannot denote a section of mankind." | Skinner 1910, p. 142 note | library, line 12812 ff. (Hebrew OCR-garbled; transliterated) |
| "Fathers down to Cyprian and Lactantius, and nearly all moderns" | Skinner 1910, p. 142 note | library, line 12806 |
| "wherever the terms bene (ha)'elohim or bene 'elim occur, the reference is definitely to angels ... The interpretation in the sense of angels is the oldest in the history of exegesis" | Cassuto 1961, pp. 291-292 | library PDF, pdftotext pp. 312-313 (PDF = printed + 21, checked at printed 264 and 290; the printed number sits at the foot of the page) |
| "And they took them wives is simply the usual expression for legal marriage. The passage contains not a single word, either here or in the Lord's speech in v. 3, alluding to rape or adultery or to any act against the Lord's will." | Cassuto, p. 294 | library PDF |
| "The sons of God mentioned here do not belong to the group of ministering angels, who do not propagate their species, but resemble in this respect human beings." | Cassuto, p. 295 | library PDF |
| "(a) until one hundred and twenty years I shall be forbearing with them; but if they do not repent, I shall bring a deluge upon them (so Rashi); (b) the length of human life upon earth shall henceforth be a hundred and twenty years." | Cassuto, p. 297 | library PDF |
| "his life is destined gradually to reach the stage where those who live the longest will attain the age of a hundred and twenty years ... the span of life was diminishing from generation to generation, and in the end would be stabilized ..." | Cassuto, p. 297 | library PDF |
| "they all fell [naphelu] by the sword and descended to Sheol abode of the dead" | Cassuto, p. 298 | library PDF |
| "in order to express their opposition thereto our sages declared that by the sons of God are meant the sons of the great men and princes of mankind" | Cassuto, p. 298 | library PDF |
| "After the Flood, too, there were to be found, in exceptional instances, a few individuals of this race" | Cassuto, p. 298 | library PDF |
| "These colossi are in no way related, Heaven forfend!, to the Deity, but only to 'the sons of God' ... it finds the entire topic wholly uncongenial" | Cassuto, p. 300 (original uses dashes around the aside) | library PDF |
| "This description was the beginning of a confusion which has not been eradicated even today. It goes back to the book of Enoch (c. 150 B.C.) ... Without the identification of the sons of God with angels, exegesis could never have taken this turn." | Westermann 1984, p. 364 | library westermann-1984_genesis-1-11-commentary.md lines 23860-23880, page markers 364/365 |
| "today, when the true meaning of the Hebrew word can no longer be contested (as e.g., the Catholic exegete O. Loretz has shown), the passage is to be discussed in a completely new context" | Westermann, p. 364 | library |
| "F. Delitzsch who is forced to accept the explanation because of linguistic usage, but with great reluctance. He asks: 'Did angels mingle in the flesh with women of the human race?' ... 'We must therefore, at least as exegetes, accept this paradoxical and scandalous idea.'" | Westermann, p. 370 | library, line 24271 ff. |
| "U. Cassuto, who surprisingly enough still equates the bene haelohim with angels, is also conscious of the scandal ... Perhaps he is not conscious of how deeply he has plunged into mythological thinking." | Westermann, pp. 370-371 | library |
| "F. Delitzsch understood this precision of time as a period of grace given to the human race until the flood ... He refers to his predecessors who held this opinion, Jerome, Augustine, Luther, and moderns." | Westermann, p. 375 | library, line 24557 ff. |
| "The 'angel' interpretation is at once the oldest view and that of most modern commentators. ..." | Wenham 1987, p. 139 | library wenham-1987_genesis-1-15-wbc.txt line 11649 ff. (header "140 Genesis 6:1-8" at line 11681) |
| "The royal interpretation was introduced into Jewish exegesis about the middle of the second century A.D. ..." | Wenham, pp. 139-140 | library |
| "The Sethite interpretation, for a long time the preferred Christian exegesis, again because it avoided the suggestion of carnal intercourse with angels, has few advocates today." | Wenham, p. 140 | library |
| "In the light of Canaanite usage and of passages such as Job 1:6, it seems most likely that the 'angelic' interpretation is to be preferred. ..." | Wenham, p. 140 | library |
| "D. J. A. Clines ... 'both divine beings and antediluvian rulers.'" | Wenham, p. 140 | library |
| "the early translators (G, Vg) seem to have been confirmed by modern etymological research" | Wenham, pp. 141-142 | library |
| "In the immediate context of Gen 6:1-4 the meaning of this remark appears quite obvious ... Only Aaron (123, Num 33:39) exceeds 120." | Wenham, p. 142 | library |
| "LXX and Vg also understand them to be giants. Indeed their term, gigantes, suggests ... the gigantes of Greek mythology were defeated and imprisoned in the earth." | Wenham, pp. 142-143 | library |
| "rabbinic commentators preferred to suppose that 'and also afterwards' refers to the period of grace before the flood. But this seems strained ..." / "frequentative" | Wenham, p. 143 | library |
| "have themselves been most disturbed by the exclusive attention paid to 'man' ..." | Kline 1962, p. 188 | curl PDF, pdftotext; journal headers "188 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL" etc. |
| "even when they chanced to select a Sethite woman they only chanced to select a covenant woman" | Kline, p. 190 | curl PDF |
| "we must agree with the judgment expressed by Dillmann ... the religiously mixed marriage interpretation of the passage ought to be definitely abandoned." | Kline, p. 190 | curl PDF |
| "From the titulary of this pagan ideology of divine kingship the term [bene ha'elohim] was appropriated in Gen. 6:1-4 as a designation for the antediluvian kings. It is accordingly to be translated, 'the sons of the gods'. ..." | Kline, p. 192 | curl PDF (Hebrew OCR-garbled; transliterated) |
| "The sin was that of Cainite Lamech, the sin of polygamy ... the mighty tyrants who Lamech-like esteemed their might to be their right." | Kline, p. 196 | curl PDF |
| "In the article, it is argued that the origin of Watchers derives from the Mesopotamian mythology of the antediluvian sages (apkallus). ..." | Annus 2010, p. 277 (abstract) | curl PDF, pdftotext; journal headers |
| "the antediluvian sages, the Mesopotamian apkallus were demonized as the 'sons of God', and their sons Nephilim (Gen. 6.3-4) ..." | Annus, p. 281 | curl PDF |
| "In the Hebrew Bible, the term 'Nephilim' also refers to heroes' 'fallen' status as dead, and presumably buried, at the time when the events are recorded." | Annus, p. 315 | curl PDF |
| "It is far more likely both texts were intentionally altered in MT for the same reason ... It is inconceivable to suppose that a scribe would have done the reverse ..." | Heiser 2001, manuscript p. 8 | library heiser-2001_deuteronomy-32-8-sons-of-god.md lines 355-372 |
| "Ugaritic mythology plainly states that the head of its pantheon, El ... fathered 70 sons, thereby setting the number of the 'sons of El' (Ugaritic, bn 'il)" | Heiser 2001, manuscript p. 3 | library, lines 107-112 |
| "The truth is that the writers of the New Testament knew nothing of the Sethite view, nor of any view that makes the sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4 humans." | Heiser 2015, p. 101 (leaf 103) | iapdsearch unseenrealmrecov0000heis; offset 2 anchored at index "at laying foundation of earth, 23" (leaf 25) and "Sethite interpretation of, 94-95" (leaf 96) |
| "Exposing the deficiencies of the Sethite view isn't difficult. The position is deeply flawed. ... Third, the text never calls the women in the episode 'daughters of Cain.' ... Fifth, nothing in Genesis 6:1-4 or anywhere else in the Bible identifies people who come from Seth's lineage with the descriptive phrase 'sons of God.' ... The Sethite hypothesis collapses under the weight of its own incoherence." | Heiser 2015, pp. 94-95 (leaves 96-97) | iapdsearch |
| "There are near-relation marriages in the Genesis story prior to the Sinai legislation. ... There simply is no support for condemned human intermarriage in the text." | Heiser 2015, p. 95 n. 6 (leaf 97) | iapdsearch |
| "A quick read of Psalm 82 informs us that God has called this council meeting to judge the elohim for corrupt rule of the nations. Verse 6 of the psalm declares that these elohim are sons of God." | Heiser 2015, p. 27 (leaf 29) | iapdsearch |
| "These apkallus were divine beings. ... 'two-thirds apkallu'" / "the last of the postflood apkallus in Mesopotamian tradition (Lu-Nanna) was only two-thirds apkallu" | Heiser 2015, p. 102 and n. 5 (leaf 104) | iapdsearch |
| "the name and the word gibbor point back to the Nephilim/apkallu polemic" | Heiser 2015, p. 111 n. 3 (leaf 113) | iapdsearch |
| "Although there is no such noun as naphiyl in the Hebrew Bible ... This is the only explanation to the meaning of the word that accounts for all the contexts and all the details." | Heiser 2015, pp. 106-107 (leaves 108-109) | iapdsearch |
| "In any event, the size of Og's bed cannot be taken as a precise indication of Og's own dimensions. There is much more at play here." | Heiser 2015, p. 199 n. 11 (leaf 201) | iapdsearch |
| "Genesis 6:4 pointedly informs readers that the Nephilim were on earth before the flood 'and also afterward.' The phrase looks forward to Numbers 13:33 ..." | Heiser 2015, p. 189 (leaf 191) | iapdsearch |
Creationist organisations and the hoax
| Quotation | Source and locator | Route |
|---|---|---|
| "The only obvious and natural meaning without such clarification is that these beings were sons of God, rather than of men, because they had been created, not born. ..." | Morris 1976, p. 165 (leaf 169) | iapdsearch genesisrecordsc00morr; offset 4 anchored at index "Sons of God, the, 163-170" (heading leaf 167) and "Anakim, 314" (leaf 318) |
| "Neither the descendants of Seth nor true believers of any sort have been previously referred to in Genesis as sons of God in any kind of spiritual sense ..." | Morris, p. 165 | iapdsearch |
| "When Jesus said that the angels of God in heaven do not marry, this does not necessarily mean that those who have been cast out of heaven were incapable of doing so." | Morris, p. 166 (leaf 170) | iapdsearch |
| "The sons of Seth were surely not all godly men ... What about the 'daughters of God'? Were they being married to 'sons of men'?" | Morris, p. 168 (leaf 172) | iapdsearch |
| "these fallen angelic 'sons of God' accomplished their purposes by something equivalent to demon possession ..." / "by some such genetic manipulation, cause their progeny to become a race of monsters" | Morris, pp. 169, 173 (leaves 173, 177) | iapdsearch |
| "the more natural and probable meaning is 'those who have fallen,' probably a reference to the nature of their pseudoparents, the fallen angels" | Morris, p. 172 (leaf 176) | iapdsearch |
| "Although it is well not to be dogmatic on this subject, it seems possible to infer ... another unusually intense demonic invasion of earth took place, probably in connection with the rebellion at Babel ..." | Morris, p. 314 (leaf 318) | iapdsearch |
| "After researching this in more detail than anticipated, I was challenged on many occasions and affirm that this last view, the fallen men view (a modified Sethite view), may be the best at this point in my studies. However, there may still be problems that I have not had presented to me so far." | Hodge 2008, Conclusion | curl Wayback 20141201045926 |
| "As this section doesn't impinge on any major doctrines, the ministry of Answers in Genesis doesn't take an official position on the identity of the Nephilim ... It seems to me the simplest explanation is that the line of Seth ... started marrying the line of Cain" | Ham 2023 | curl answersingenesis.org |
| "It is used five times in the Old Testament ... In the passages outside of Genesis, it is always clearly used of angels." / "It does say specifically that the angels in heaven, or those angels who obey God, do not engage in this practice." / "This interpretation would be a major blow to the view that God used the Flood to destroy the Nephilim." / "the square-cube law places a limit on human size" | Bates 2020 | curl creation.com/sons-of-god-genesis-6 |
| "Sarfati vigorously argues the old view that 'the sons of God' were angels. ... I am not convinced." | Bredenhof 2019 | curl reformedperspective.ca |
| "The National Geographic Society has not discovered ancient giant humans, despite rampant reports and pictures." / Worth1000, "Archaeological Anomalies 2," third place, 2002 / mastodon excavation, Hyde Park, New York, 2000 / Hindu Voice, March 2007 | Owen 2007 | curl nationalgeographic.com |
Not quoted, on purpose
- Chrysostom, Hilary, Jerome: reported only through Charles 1902 and marked as such.
- Sarfati 2015: reported through Bredenhof and marked as such.
- Alexander 1972 JJS: reported through Wenham and marked as such.
- Delitzsch 1888 and Dillmann 1897: reported through Westermann and Kline and marked as such.
Additional verbatim fragments used in footnotes
| Quotation | Source and locator | Route |
|---|---|---|
| "D. J. A. Clines (JSOT 13 [1979] 35) suggests a combination of the angelic and royal interpretations: the sons of God may be 'both divine beings and antediluvian rulers.'" | Wenham 1987, p. 140 | library, line 11690 ff. |
| "They include mention of a group of sages (the apkallus), possessors of great knowledge, in the period before the flood. These apkallus were divine beings. Many apkallus were considered evil; those apkallus are integral to Mesopotamian demonology. After the flood, offspring of the apkallus were said to be human in descent (i.e., having a human parent) and 'two-thirds apkallu'" | Heiser 2015, p. 102 (leaf 104) | iapdsearch |
| "On the Origin of Watchers: A Comparative Study of the Antediluvian Wisdom in Mesopotamian and Jewish Traditions" / "Vol 19.4 (2010): 277-320" | Annus 2010, title page | curl PDF |
| "Ken Ham Answers 'Who Were the Nephilim?'" / "This item was written with the assistance of AiG's research team." | Ham 2023, title and closing line | curl |
| "'Skeleton of Giant' Is Internet Photo Hoax" / "The picture, however, is an innocent fake" / "was lifted from Worth1000, which hosts photo-manipulation competitions. Titled 'Giants,' the skeleton-and-shoveler picture had won third place in a 2002 contest called 'Archaeological Anomalies 2.'" / "started with an aerial photo of a mastodon excavation in Hyde Park, New York, in 2000" / "claimed that a National Geographic Society team, in collaboration with the Indian Army, had dug up a giant human skeleton in India" | Owen 2007 | curl |