I think this is the biggest issue with this question. People are asking questions about part of genesis that is not meant to be read literally , as if it’s literally. The narrative of genesis 1-11 spans over a thousand years and covers several major events and people setting up the biblical patterns for the rest of the bible. Genesis 1-11 in writing style most closely matches the revelation which is another highly symbolic non literal story.
The bible uses a lot of metaphors and myths to convey their thoughts. Much like we knew a lot of comparisons today when explaining something.
So the verses in question is wrapped up around this.
Genesis 6:1-6 nasb
Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who
were of old, men of renown.
So the nephilim are said to have been on earth in those days and afterwards. So what’s the days and event creating before and after? It’s the flood. It’s saying as mankind had daughters, the sons of god saw they were beautiful and took them, resulting in nephilim being born in those days, and in the days after the flood and that was nephilim were considered to be mighty men. But something about these mighty men played a role in Yahweh growing tired of mankind and wanting to destroy it all, turning the world back to a watery void and restarting.
The most common interpretation of this is that it’s about angels sleeping with women and giving birth to these powerful hybrids. These powerful hybrids existed before and after the flood. Meaning this taking if women by angels happened before and after the flood.
some of the descendants of these men are mentioned throughout the Bible in other narratives. Such as narratives that could be better understood as historical or biographical. Some of these are were post flood nephilim are found here.
numbers 13:32-33
32 So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are people of
great stature. 33 We also saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Another in Deuteronomy 3:11
11 (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits, and its width four cubits by the usual cubit.)
The Rephaim is translated from Rapha.
Strong's Hebrew: 7497. רָפָא (Rapha) -- inhab. of an area East of the Jordan
There is a lot of debate and resources on what does this mean. Often the us believe it means giant , or mighty.
That brings us to someone like Goliath. Though never called a nephilim, or a descendent of one directly, the way it’s wrote out sort of implies it. You’ll notice as with Og of Bashan and other might men who were big it goes into detail of the strength such as size and weight of armor and weapons and mentions how they are champions.
So these mighty men are often hyperlinked back to the nephilim through a multitude of literary clues. So it seems that in the Jewish culture, and actually in most of ancient cultures, mighty men, especially powerful big men, were often said to be descendants of gods, or in the case of Judaism , descendants of nephilim which were human angel hybrids. But it’s not factual. It’s presenting a truth. There was divisions in the spiritual realm and these traitors often aligned themselves with mankind to be treated as a god. But there was never actually any human angel hybrids. It’s symbolism born out of myths but that’s ok. It’s not a lie. It’s the truth being told through fiction just like with psalms, parables, and places like revelation. Truth is not synonymous with fact in this sense. It’s just a literary tool.
It also sets up biblical patterns and often patterns becomes prophecies even when the original authors did not know. Such as the foreshadowing of Christ through animals without blemish being sacrificed.
but I’ll save the rest for another thread down the road.
