Non-Biblical Accounts of Nephilim

Nephilim have been thought of as very different things in history and among different communities. You simply won’t believe some of the diversity of concepts associated to Nephilim.Try this, the sons of stars. The Aram, speakers of Aramaic had named the star constellation of Orion as Nephila and his descendants as Nephilim. The Aram used the term Nephilim to refer to the semi-divine or godly descendants of Nephila, the Orion constellation that had a core relevance to their religious belief and practices.

Authentic Jewish commentaries of the last century and their modern translations describe the Nephilim as the sons of nobles and not as the sons of God or even sons of angels. This account is supported by the Targum Onkelos diction.

Since the third century AD Christians have held a myth unsupported by any biblical text, that Nephilim aren’t the sons of God but rather the unrighteous and cursed sons of Cain. Nephilim in the bible have a very special place. The descendants of the sons of God are said to be righteous sons of Seth. This account is found in such texts as Clementine literature and Sextus Julius Africanus.

According to the Ugarit texts, records found in synagogues before Roman invasion, God had 70 sons, each of whom was assigned to be the deity of a particular race. These deities had actually descended from those races they were assigned and they sometimes begot children who became Nephilim.

 Ethiopian Orthodox Church also has an account of Nephilim. In the Ethiopian biblical canon, Nephilim are chronicled by the Book of Enoch. The book connects Nephilim’s origin to a rebellious sect of 200 angels (Grigori) led by their ranking commander Samyaza. When this sect of angels had sexual intercourse with women, in an area around Mount Hermon, where they fell, they begot Nephilim. As such, this account describes Nephilim as evil giants, demons set on leading the mankind astray.

 An examination of these and many other available accounts that try to explain and describe the Nephilim reveals one thing. Almost all communities and theories that believe in the Nephilim, regard them as super-human beings who descended from evil and who are a cursed lot. Scholars therefore suggest that all these are either derivatives from the biblical account, or the biblical account is itself derived from these diverse and culturally wide-spread accounts.