Nephilim: Noah Primeval Part 25

Heiser shows that the first spelling of Nephilim in the verse is the Hebrew spelling, but the second spelling of Nephilim is a variation that is clearly the Aramaic spelling of "giants." And should there really be any question when the text then describes these Anakim who are descendants of the Nephilim as being gigantic in stature such that they felt like small gra.s.shoppers?

Now, let's take a look at the Anakim and the other giants that the Bible speaks about. The Anakim or "sons of Anak" are unquestionably defined as giants throughout the Bible because of their tall height (Num. 13:33; Deut. 1:28; 2:10, 21; 9:2). One of the most famous of all those Anakim giants was Goliath.[45] He stood at 9 feet 9 inches tall.[46] His coat of mail alone weighed about 125 pounds, the weight of his spearhead was 15 pounds (1 Sam. 17:4-7). There is no doubt Goliath was unnaturally huge in stature. And his brother Lahmi was of the same genetic material (1 Chron. 20:5). Philistia had a big problem with these Anakim giants, as 1 Chronicles 20:4-8 attests to no less than four of them who had to be killed by King David's men in an apparent campaign against the giants.

But if we go back in time from David to Joshua and the conquest of the Promised Land, we see that the giant Anakim that David was fighting were merely the leftovers from Joshua's own campaign to wipe them out: Josh. 11:21-22 Then Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab and from all the hill country of Judah and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. There were no Anakim left in the land of the sons of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod some remained.

As it turns out, the Anakim were not the only giants in the land. Evidently the land in and around Canaan was crawling with giants that were called by different names in different locations, such as the Emim, Rephaim, Zamzummim, Horim, Avvim and possibly Caphtorim: Deut. 2:10-11, 20-23 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim... (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there-but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim- a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) King Og of Bashan is described as one of the last of "the remnant of the Rephaim" whose bed was over 13 feet long and made of iron (Deut. 3:11). That is no kingly bed alone; that was a large strong iron bed to hold a giant.

The Rephaim have an interesting Biblical history that connects them literarily to the Nephilim in the Bible. First, the Nephilim are described as gibborim, or "mighty men," "men of renown" in Genesis 6:4. This word gibborim is used extensively throughout the Old Testament of warriors such as David's "mighty men" (2 Sam. 16:6) and even of the giant Goliath (1Sam. 17:51) and many others.[47] The Nephilim were mighty warriors. The Rephaim were mighty warrior kings.

In the Bible, Rephaim were Anakim giants, descendants of the Nephilim (Deut. 2:11; Num. 13:33), who were so significant they even had a valley named after them ("Valley of the Rephaim," Josh. 15:8). But there is more to the Rephaim than that. Og, king of Bashan, was a Rephaim giant, and all his portion of the land of Bashan was called "the land of the Rephaim" (Deut. 3:13), an ambiguous wording that could equally be translated as "the 'h.e.l.l' of the Rephaim."[48] Bashan was a deeply significant spiritual location to the Canaanites and the Hebrews. And as the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible puts it, Biblical geographical tradition agrees with the mythological and cultic data of the Canaanites of Ugarit that "the Bashan region, or a part of it, clearly represented 'h.e.l.l', the celestial and infernal abode of their deified dead kings," the Rephaim.[49]

Mount Hermon was in Bashan, and Mount Hermon was a location in the Bible that was linked to the Rephaim (Josh. 12:1-5), but was also the legendary location where the sons of G.o.d were considered to have come to earth and have s.e.xual union with the daughters of men to produce the giant Nephilim.[50]

There are two places in the Bible that hint at the Rephaim being warrior kings brought down to Sheol in similar language to the Ugaritic notion of the Rephaim warrior kings in the underworld: Is. 14:9 Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades [The Hebrew word Rephaim] to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.

Ezek. 32:21 They shall fall amid those who are slain by the sword... The mighty chiefs [Rephaim] shall speak of them, with their helpers, out of the midst of Sheol: "They have come down, they lie still, the uncirc.u.mcised, slain by the sword."

Hebrew scholar, Michael S. Heiser concludes about this connection of Rephaim with dead warrior kings in Sheol and Bashan: That the Israelites and the biblical writers considered the spirits of the dead giant warrior kings to be demonic is evident from the fearful aura attached to the geographical location of Bashan. As noted above, Bashan is the region of the cities Ashtaroth and Edrei, whichboth the Bible and the Ugaritic texts mention as abodes of the Rephaim. What's even more fascinating is that in the Ugaritic language, this region was known not as Bashan, but Bathan-the Semitic people of Ugarit p.r.o.nounced the Hebrew "sh" as "th" in their dialect. Why is that of interest? Because "Bathan" is a common word across all the Semitic languages, biblical Hebrew included, for "serpent." The region of Bashan was known as "the place of the serpent." It was ground zero for the Rephaim giant clan and, spiritually speaking, the gateway to the abode of the infernal deified Rephaim spirits.[51]

List of Giants The Bible reveals that there are many different clans that either were giants or had giants among them that were ultimately related in a line all the way back to the Nephilim of Genesis: Nephilim (Gen. 6:1-4; Num. 13:33) Anakim (Num. 13:28-33; Deut. 1:28; 2:10-11, 21; 9:2; Josh. 14:12) Amorites (Amos 2:9-10) Emim (Deut. 2:10-11) Rephaim (Deut. 2:10-11, 20; 3:11) Zamzummin (Deut. 2:20) Zuzim (Gen. 14:5) Perizzites (Gen. 15:20; Josh. 17:15) Philistines (2 Sam. 21:18-22) Horites/Horim (Deut. 2:21-22) Avvim (Deut. 2:23) Caphtorim (Deut. 2:23) The following are implied as including giants by their connection to the descendants of Anak in Numbers 13:28-29: Amalekites. .h.i.tt.i.tes Jebusites-The word means "Those who trample"

Amorites (Amos 2:9-10 links the Amorites as giant in size and strength) Hivites (Has the same consonants as a Hebrew name for snake) Here were the towns, cities or locations that were said to have had giants in them: Gob (2 Sam. 21:18) Hebron/Kiriatharba (Num. 13:22; Josh. 14:15) Ar (Deut. 2:9) Seir (Deut. 2:21-22) Debir/ Kiriath-sepher (Josh. 11:21-22) Anab (Josh. 11:21-22) Gaza (Josh. 11:21-22) Gath (Josh. 11:21-22) Ashdod (Josh. 11:21-22) Bashan (Deut. 3:10-11) Ashteroth-karnaim (Gen. 14:5) Ham (Gen. 14:5) Shaveh-kiriathaim (Gen. 14:5) Valley of the Rephaim (Josh. 15:8) Moab (1 Chron. 11:22) Many significant individuals are described in the Bible implicitly or explicitly as giants being struck down in war against Israel: Goliath (1 Sam. 17) Lahmi, Goliath's brother (1 Chron. 20:5; 2 Sam. 21:19) Ishbi-ben.o.b (2 Sam. 21:16) Saph/Sippai (2 Sam. 21:17; 1 Chron. 20:4) Arba (Josh. 14:15) Sheshai (Josh.15:14, Num. 13:22) Ahiman (Josh. 15:14, Num. 13:22) Talmai (Josh. 15:14, Num. 13:22) An unnamed warrior giant (1 Chron. 20:6) And unnamed Egyptian giant (1 Chron. 11:23) Og of Bashan (Deut. 3:10-11) The ubiquitous presence of giants throughout the narrative of the Old Testament is no small matter. When G.o.d commanded the people of Israel to enter Canaan and devote certain of those peoples to complete destruction (Deut. 20:16-17), it is no coincidence that most of these peoples we have already seen were connected in some way to the Anakim giants, and Joshua's campaign explicitly included the elimination of the Anakim/Sons of Anak giants. Could these giants that were from the lineage of the Nephilim (who were the offspring of the Sons of G.o.d) be the very Seed of the Serpent that would be at enmity with the promised messianic Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15)? You will have to read the sequels to Noah Primeval to find out.

Appendix C Leviathan In my novel Noah Primeval, I have a sea dragon called "Leviathan" that is crucial to the plot of the story. While it is a monster of the waters, a symbol of chaos, it nevertheless is providentially used by Elohim and tamed for his own purposes. I found this character in the pages of the Bible itself and had always been befuddled by its presence. It kept popping up in strange places like the book of Job and the Psalms. Was this a mythical creature in holy writ? Was G.o.d's power over Leviathan as described in Job just a poetic way of saying G.o.d is in control and nothing is too powerful for him? I would soon find out that this recurring sea dragon was so much more.

Job 41 is devoted to this strange creature. Here is that chapter in its entirety: "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?

Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

Will traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants?

Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fis.h.i.+ng spears?

Lay your hands on him; remember the battle-you will not do it again!

Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him.

No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

Who can strip off his outer garment?

Who would come near him with a bridle?

Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth is terror.

His back is made of rows of s.h.i.+elds, shut up closely as with a seal.

One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth.

Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him.

The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.

His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone.

When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; At the cras.h.i.+ng they are beside themselves.

Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble.

Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a thres.h.i.+ng sledge on the mire.

He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

Behind him he leaves a s.h.i.+ning wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired.

On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.

He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride."

As this chapter describes, this is no known species on earth. From the smoke and fire out of its mouth to the armor plating on back and belly, this monster of the abyss was more than a mere example of showcasing G.o.d's omnipotent power over the mightiest of creatures, it was symbolic of something much more. And that much more can be found by understanding Leviathan in its ancient Near Eastern (ANE) and Biblical covenantal background.

In ANE religious mythologies, the sea and the sea dragon were symbols of chaos that had to be overcome to bring order to the universe, or more exactly, the political world order of the myth's originating culture. Some scholars call this battle Chaoskampf-the divine struggle to create order out of chaos.

Hermann Gunkel first suggested in Creation and Chaos (1895) that some ANE creation myths contained a cosmic conflict between deity and sea, as well as sea dragons or serpents that expressed the creation of order out of chaos.[52] Gunkel argued that Genesis borrowed this idea from the Babylonian tale of Marduk battling the G.o.ddess Tiamat, serpent of chaos, whom he vanquished, and out of whose body he created the heavens and earth.[53] After this victory, Marduk ascended to power in the Mesopotamian pantheon. This creation story gave mythical justification to the rise of Babylon as an ancient world power most likely in the First Babylonian Dynasty under Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.).[54] As the prologue of the Code of Hammurabi explains, "Anu, the majestic, King of the Anunnaki, and Bel, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who established the fate of the land, had given to Marduk, the ruling son of Ea, dominion over mankind, and called Babylon by his great name; when they made it great upon the earth by founding therein an eternal kingdom, whose foundations are as firmly grounded as are those of heaven and earth."[55] The foundation of Hammurabi's "eternal kingdom" is literarily linked to Marduk's foundational creation of heaven and earth.

Later, John Day argued in light of the discovery of the Ugarit tablets in 1928, that Canaan, not Babylonia is the source of the combat motif in Genesis,[56] reflected in Yahweh's own complaint that Israel had become polluted by Canaanite culture.[57] In the Baal cycle, Baal battles Yam (Sea) and conquers it, along with "the dragon," "the twisting serpent," to be enthroned as chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon.[58]

Creation accounts were often veiled polemics for the establishment of a king or kingdom's claim to sovereignty.[59] Richard Clifford quotes, "In Mesopotamia, Ugarit, and Israel the Chaoskampf appears not only in cosmological contexts but just as frequently-and this was fundamentally true right from the first-in political contexts. The repulsion and the destruction of the enemy, and thereby the maintenance of political order, always const.i.tute one of the major dimensions of the battle against chaos."[60]

The Sumerians had three stories where the G.o.ds Enki, Ninurta, and Inanna all destroy sea monsters in their pursuit of establis.h.i.+ng order. The sea monster in two of those versions, according to Sumerian expert Samuel Noah Kramer, is "conceived as a large serpent which lived in the bottom of the "great below" where the latter came in contact with the primeval waters."[61] The prophet Amos uses this same mythopoeic reference to a serpent at the bottom of the sea as G.o.d's tool of judgment: "If they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them" (Amos 9:3). One Sumerian text, The Return of Ninurta to Nippur, refers to "the seven-headed serpent" that must be defeated by the divine Ninurta to ill.u.s.trate his power to overcome chaos.[62]

Perhaps the closest comparison with the Biblical Leviathan comes from Canaanite texts at Ugarit as John Day argued. In 1929, an archeological excavation at a mound in northern Syria called Ras Shamra unearthed the remains of a significant port city called Ugarit whose developed culture reaches back as far as 3000 B.C.[63] Among the important finds were literary tablets written in multiple ancient languages, which opened the door to a deeper understanding of ancient Near Eastern culture and the Bible. Ugaritic language and culture shares much in common with Hebrew that sheds light on the meaning of things such as Leviathan.

A side-by-side comparison of some Ugaritic religious texts about the Canaanite G.o.d Baal with Old Testament pa.s.sages reveals a common narrative: Yahweh, the charioteer of the clouds, metaphorically battles with Sea (Hebrew: yam) and River (Hebrew: nahar), just as Baal, the charioteer of the clouds, struggled with Yam (sea) and Nahar (river), which is also linked to victory over a sea dragon/serpent.

UGARTIC TEXTS.

'Dry him up. O Valiant Baal!

Dry him up, O Charioteer of the Clouds!

For our captive is Prince Yam [Sea], for our captive is Ruler Nahar [River]!'

(KTU 1.2:4.8-9)[64].

What manner of enemy has arisen against Baal, of foe against the Charioteer of the Clouds?

Surely I smote the Beloved of El, Yam [Sea]?

Surely I exterminated Nahar [River], the mighty G.o.d?

Surely I lifted up the dragon, I overpowered him?

I smote the writhing serpent, Encircler-with-seven-heads!

(KTU 1.3:3.38-41)[65].

OLD TESTAMENT.

Did Yahweh rage against the rivers, Or was Your anger against the rivers (nahar), Or was Your wrath against the sea (yam), That You rode on Your horses, On Your chariots of salvation?

(Hab. 3:8) In that day Yahweh will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

(Isa 27:1) "You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.

You crushed the heads of Leviathan.

(Psa 74:13-14) Baal fights Sea and River to establish his sovereignty. He wins by drinking up Sea and River, draining them dry, which results in Baal's supremacy over the pantheon and the Canaanite world order.[66] In the second pa.s.sage, Baal's battle with Sea and River is retold in other words as a battle with a "dragon," the "writhing serpent" with seven heads.[67] Another Baal text calls this same dragon, "Lotan, the wriggling serpent."[68] The Hebrew equivalents of the Ugaritic words tannin (dragon) and lotan are tannin (dragon) and liwyatan (Leviathan) respectively.[69] The words are etymologically equivalent. Not only that, but so are the Ugaritic words describing the serpent as "wriggling" and "writhing" in the Ugaritic text (brh and 'qltn) with the words Isaiah 27 uses of Leviathan as "fleeing" and "twisting" (bariah and 'aqalaton).[70] Notice the last Scripture in the chart that refers to Leviathan as having multiple heads just like the Canaanite Leviathan. Bible scholar Mitch.e.l.l Dahood argued that in that pa.s.sage of Psalm 74:12-17 the author implied the seven heads by using seven "you" references to G.o.d's powerful activities surrounding this mythopoeic defeat of Leviathan.[71]

The Apostle John adapted this seven-headed dragon into his Revelation as a symbol of Satan as well as a chaotic demonic empire (Rev 12:3; 13:1; 17:3). Jewish Christians in the first century carried on this motif in texts such as the Odes of Solomon that explain Christ as overthrowing "the dragon with seven heads... that I might destroy his seed."[72]

Thus, the Canaanite narrative of Lotan (Leviathan) the sea dragon or serpent is undeniably employed in Old Testament Scriptures and carried over into the New Testament as well.[73]

And notice as well the reference to the Red Sea event also a.s.sociated with Leviathan in the Biblical text. In Psalm 74 above, G.o.d's parting of the waters is connected to the motif of the Mosaic covenant as the creation of a new world order in the same way that Baal's victory over the waters and the dragon are emblematic of his establishment of authority in the Canaanite pantheon. This covenant motif is described as a Chaoskampf battle with the Sea and Leviathan (sometimes called Rahab[74]) in this and other Biblical references.

Psa. 74:12-17 You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

You crushed the heads of Leviathan;...

You have prepared the light and the sun.

You have established all the boundaries of the earth; Psa. 89:9-10 You [Yahweh] rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

You crushed Rahab like a carca.s.s; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

Isa. 51:9-10 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.

Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon?

Was it not You who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a pathway For the redeemed to cross over?

Isa. 27:1 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

The story of deity battling the river, the sea, and the sea dragon Leviathan is clearly a common covenant motif in the Old Testament and its surrounding ancient Near Eastern cultures.[75] The fact that Hebrew Scripture shares common words, concepts, and stories with Ugaritic scripture does not mean that Israel is affirming the same mythology or pantheon of deities, but rather that Israel lives within a common cultural environment, and G.o.d uses that cultural connection to subvert those words, concepts and stories with his own poetic meaning and purpose.

Chaoskampf and creation language are used as word pictures for G.o.d's covenant activity in the Bible. For G.o.d, describing the creation of the heavens and earth was a way of saying he has established his covenant with his people through exodus into the Promised Land,[76] reaffirming that covenant with the kingly line of David, and finalizing the covenant by bringing them out of exile. The reader should understand that the Scriptures listed above, exemplary of Chaoskampf, were deliberately abbreviated to make a further point below. I will now add the missing text in those pa.s.sages in underline to reveal a deeper motif at play in the text-a motif of creation language as covenantal formation.

Psa. 74:12-17 Yet G.o.d my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

You divided the sea by your might; [A reference to the Exodus deliverance of the covenant at Sinai]

You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

You crushed the heads of Leviathan;...

You have prepared the light and the sun.

You have established all the boundaries of the earth; Psa. 89:9-12; 19-29 You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

You crushed Rahab like a carca.s.s; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.