Charismatic Cheetah Podcast - Nephilim Analysis Part 2
Nephilim were more than giants. Let's look at what the ancients and early church understood them to be.
In this episode, I correct a previous misunderstanding regarding the terms used in biblical texts. I clarify that in Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37, the term for "demon" is "shade," not "Rephaim." The discussion includes a detailed examination of the meanings of "shade" and "Rephaim," with "shade" referring to spirits of the dead, while "Rephaim" denotes giants or a tribe of giants.
I reference various biblical passages that illustrate the concept of departed spirits and their connection to the Rephaim. Additionally, I highlight early church writings, such as those by Commodianus and Justin Martyr, which link the Nephilim and Rephaim to pagan mythologies and the worship of demons. It is emphasized that both Jewish and Gentile traditions recognized the connection between these biblical figures and the giants of Greek mythology.
Furthermore, the episode discusses the physical diversity of the Nephilim, citing texts like 1 Enoch and Jubilees, which describe them as part of a lineage of giants and hybrids. The episode concludes by exploring the concept of "goat demons" in Leviticus and Isaiah, linking these to ancient depictions of satyrs and other monstrous beings, further illustrating the complex interplay between biblical narratives and ancient mythologies.
Correction of previous episode
In Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37, the word for demon is “shade” not Rephaim.
“shade” concordance information:
Rephaim (h7496)
ghosts of the dead, shades, spirits
| Ref | Verse |
|---|---|
| Job 26:5 | “The departed spirits tremble Under the waters and their inhabitants. |
| Psalm 88:10 | Will You perform wonders for the dead? Will the departed spirits rise and praise You? Selah. |
| Proverbs 2:18 | For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; |
| Proverbs 9:18 | But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of Sheol. |
| Proverbs 21:16 | A man who wanders from the way of understanding Will rest in the assembly of the dead. |
| Isaiah 14:9 | “Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. |
| Isaiah 26:14 | The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them. |
| Isaiah 26:19 | Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. |
Rephaim (h7497)
giants, Rephaim, old tribe of giants
| Ref | Verse |
|---|---|
| Genesis 14:5 | In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim and the Zuzim in Ham and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, |
| Genesis 15:20 | and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim |
| Deuteronomy 2:11 | Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. |
| Deuteronomy 2:20 | (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, |
| Deuteronomy 3:11 | (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits by ordinary cubit.) |
| Deuteronomy 3:13 | The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob (concerning all Bashan, it is called the land of Rephaim. |
| Joshua 12:4 | and the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, |
| Joshua 13:12 | all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for Moses struck them and dispossessed them. |
| Joshua 15:8 | Then the border went up the valley of Ben-hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite on the south (that is, Jerusalem); and the border went up to the top of the mountain which is before the valley of Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the valley of Rephaim toward the north. |
| Joshua 17:15 | Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.” |
| Joshua 18:16 | The border went down to the edge of the hill which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is in the valley of Rephaim northward; and it went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the slope of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En-rogel. |
| 2 Samuel 5:18 | Now the Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. |
| 2 Samuel 5:22 | Now the Philistines came up once again and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. |
| 2 Samuel 23:13 | Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam, while the troop of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. |
| 1 Chronicles 11:15 | Now three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam, while the army of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. |
| 1 Chronicles 14:9 | Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. |
| Isaiah 17:5 | It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the valley of Rephaim. |
Isaiah 26:13-14
O Lord our God, other Lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.
Isaiah 14:9
Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;
It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.
Seth Vandebrooke
The early church understood this connection.
Commodianus, Instructions, Chapter 3 (3rd century AD)
When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. By them arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that ye this day worship and pray to as gods.
This aligns with Paul addressing idol worship as worship of demons.
1 Corinthians 10:19–20 (ESV)
What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
Other early church writers use this to explain the pagan mythologies and theologies.
Justin Martyr, 2 Apologies, Chapter 5 (2nd century AD)
CHAPTER V -- HOW THE ANGELS TRANSGRESSED.
But if this idea take possession of some one that if we acknowledge God as our helper, we should not, as we say, be oppressed and persecuted by the wicked; this, too, I will solve. God, when He had made the whole world, and subjected things earthly to man, and arranged the heavenly elements for the increase of fruits and rotation of the seasons, and appointed this divine law--for these things also He evidently made for man--committed the care of men and of all things under heaven to angels whom He appointed over them. 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, and partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices, and incense, and libations, of which things they stood in need after they were enslaved by lustful passions; and among men they sowed murders, wars, adulteries, intemperate deeds, and all wickedness. Whence also the poets and mythologists, not knowing that it was the angels and those demons who had been begotten by them that did these things to men, and women, and cities, and nations, which they related, ascribed them to god himself, and to those who were accounted to be his very offspring, and to the offspring of those who were called his brothers, Neptune and Pluto, and to the children again of these their offspring. For whatever name each of the angels had given to himself and his children, by that name they called them.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 3
NOW this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. 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.
https://pseudepigrapha.com/josephus/ant-1.html
Both Jews and Gentiles understood the connection between the Nephilim/Rephaim and the Greek stories of giants and their gods.
Nephilim were physically diverse (Recap)
Seth Vandebrooke
1 Enoch 7:2
And they conceived from them and bore to them great giants. And the giants begot Nephilim, and to the Nephilim were born †Elioud†. And they were growing in accordance with their greatness.
1 Enoch describes 3 races being born, the Nephilim being one of them.
Similarly, but with different names, the book of Jubiliees tells the same story.
Jubilees 7:21-25 (supposedly quoting Noah speaking to his sons)
21 For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth, namely, owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which they chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness.
22 And they begat sons the Naphidim, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Naphil, and the Naphil slew the Eljo, and the Eljo mankind, and one man another.
23 And every one sold himself to work iniquity and to shed much blood, and the earth was filled with iniquity.
24 And after this they sinned against the beasts and birds, and all that moves and walks on the earth: and much blood was shed on the earth, and every imagination and desire of men imagined vanity and evil continually.
25 And the Lord destroyed everything from off the face of the earth; because of the wickedness of their deeds, and because of the blood which they had shed in the midst of the earth He destroyed everything.
Jubilees 7:22 says "they were all unlike."
Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus 5.2.3
There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing.
Josephus tells us that they looked entirely different from mankind.
The Book of Giants - 4Q531 Frag. 2
[...]they defiled[...][...they begot]giants and monsters[...][...]they begot, and, behold all [the earth was corrupted...][...]with its blood and by the hand of[...]giant's which did not satisfy them and[...][...]and they were seeking to devour many[...][...][...]the monsters attacked it.
Nephilim were the giants and hybrids of the monstrous races
Leviticus 17:7 NASB
They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons with which they play the harlot. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generations.” ’
The word for Goat Demons is שָׂעִיר (Strongs H8163) which means he-goat, satyr or sometimes demon. This makes sense because the concept of satyrs and demons are closely coupled. In fact, the KJV translation for this word is literally Satyr.
The same word turns up in Isaiah 34:14
Isaiah 34:14 NASB
The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,
The hairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the night monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
Isaiah 34:14 KJV
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
The Greek and Latin translations of this passage actually mention centaurs (onokentauros, onocentauris). They also both include their respective words for “demons”.
Quote from “EPITOME OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF PHILOSTORGIUS,
COMPILED BY PHOTIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
TRANSLATED BY EDWARD WALFORD, M. A. LATE SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.”
Summary of Philostorgius by Photius, Chapter 11
Of this kind is the deity called Pan, who resembles a goat in his head, face, and horns, and from his middle downwards ; while in his breast, his belly, and his hands he is almost a perfect ape. One of these animals was sent by the king of the Indians as a present to the emperor Constantine ; it lived a little while and was carried about as a sight, enclosed in a cage on account of its ferocity. After its death, those who had the care of it embalmed its body in salt for the purpose of turning the strange sight to account, and they took it safe and entire to Constantinople. It seems to me that the Greeks must once upon a time have seen this monster, and, amazed at the strangeness of its appearance, adopted it as a god, in accordance with their ordinary practice of making a god out of everything strange and wonderful. This they clearly did in the case of the satyr, which is of the ape tribe, with a red face, and restless motion, and furnished with a tail.
The word in Isaiah 34:14 that is translated to "night monster" is actually the Hebrew name of Lilith a female demon well known to all ancient cultures. She is sometimes described as serpent like and most often described as part owl. The Greeks knew her as Lamia.
Lilith is a fascinating character for the Bible to affirm existing. This is a female demon. The Bible never mentions female angels but here we see a female demon. This can be explained by her simply being the disembodied spirit of a Nephilim descendent. Perhaps, this is where all “goddesses” come from, given that the existence of female angels would be unnecessary, since angels do not marry and is simply not supported by Scripture.
Luke 20:34-36
Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36 for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
Isaiah 34:14 gives us a sneak peek into the reality of the ancient world. There were monstrous creatures, likely descending from the Nephilim, that explain the mythologies of the pagan nations.
Overall, we can see that the Bible, Jewish, Gentile, and ecclesiastical texts understood that the mythologies of other nations did have grains of truth but that they were sugar coated in lies that portrayed the enemy as heroes of old and gods of grandeur.
