The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: Exploring the Legends of Fallen Angels and Giants

Throughout time, people have been captivated by the Bible's mention of rebellious Angels, their giant offspring, and the various implications of these ideas.

As is often the case, the Torah glances at this idea without much explanation and moves on quickly. The Talmud has little to say about the Nephilim and many suggest this to be strategic, intended to keep these ideas out of the mainstream view.

In the absence of an accessible tradition, the Nephilim have taken on a life apart from the Torah. As a result, one may find the Nephilim discussed in the domain of mysterious and elusive cryptids like; Sasquatch, the Nordics, Mothman, Chupacabra, and Aliens¹.

Nephilim: Giants and Fallen Angels

In studying this topic, I stumbled upon a very recent work that seeks to uncover this tradition. Much of what I cite for this article can be found in this book, titled: "Nephilim: Giants and Fallen Angels. According to Chazal." by Yisroel Cohen.

I highly recommend this work to anyone remotely interested in this topic.

I was surprised at how much the story of the Fallen Angels and the Nephilim ran as an undercurrent behind the traditions of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Job, David, Esther, and many more!

While not exhaustive, this work explores the rich history of this tradition from various writings and includes numerous citations and sources to learn more.

In the Torah

We see the first mention of the Nephilim in Genesis.

It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth—when divine beings cohabited with the human women, who bore them offspring. Such were the heroes of old, the men of renown. - Genesis 6:4

The word "Nephilim" in Hebrew (נפלים) connotes the idea of fallen ones - fallen angels.

Somehow, these Angelic outcasts were able to mate with human women, bearing giant hybrid offspring. We will look at this idea in a moment.

The Biblical text indicates that this played a huge role in the flood that wiped out most of humanity.

Tradition teaches that (7) names in the Hebrew Bible are connected to, or have some lineage to the Nephilim. They are, of course, the Nephilim, and also the Anakim, Avim, Eimim, Gibburim, Rephaim, and the Zamzumim². Some draw a connection to the Amorites as well.

One puzzling question is how these groups managed to survive the flood. One tradition suggests that the land of Canaan, Israel, was not affected by the flood, enabling the giants there to survive.

As a result, conquering the land became a major challenge for the Israelites as a result of the giants there. We see this in the incident of the spies who reported giants in the land³.

Long after Moses had defeated the giants, Sichon and Og, a young David fought and killed the last of the giants, Goliath.

How Did the Angles Fall in the First Place?

Notably, some Midrashic traditions indicate that the Angels were cast down after they challenged G_D's decision to create humankind. Warning that humans would only rebel against the Creator, they were cast down and ironically rebelled themselves.