The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim (5 page)

Now, I am not going to suggest that the Book of Genesis is not factual. Nor will I suggest that the God of the Bible is not who the writers of those books say He is. I will, however, state emphatically that the Bible is a book of faith, governed by the dictates of a faith-based spirituality, thus rendering its facts the products of not only a faith-based culture, but a theocratic one.

For the purposes of scholarly integrity, I have chosen—as a leaping-off point—to examine first, the Hebrew source of the word Nephilim—
—and to do that, we have to take the whole thing back a notch further to the headwaters of the source point: the Hebrew scriptures. If the Nephilim are the mythical offspring of the Sons of God—the
bene haElohim
—then who is the Father? Who is this Elohim that bequeathed them?

When I first learned that one of the most common names for God was a plurality, I began to question the way I thought about much of what I had been taught about the Bible. And by “plurality,” I don’t mean the triune manifestations of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (in other words: the Trinity). I am referring to the Old Testament name
Elohim
—
—who is said to have bequeathed the
bene-haElohim
—
, the Sons of God—who then had intercourse with human women and gave birth to the hybridic race of Nephilim.

More than 2,500 times in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word used in reference to the name of God is
Elohim
. Interestingly enough, the word is not a mere name alone, but it is also a descriptor, in that it details physical attributes of the Hebrew God, also known as Yahweh [Jehovah]. The word
Elohim
, itself, denotes plurality, specifically “more than two.” But it is also most commonly used in the Hebrew texts only
in conjunction with a singular verb or adjective, which can sometimes indicate a singular, individual God with a plurality of vast and many powers, depending on the context of the passage wherein it is found. There is also the argument that
Elohim
is a statement of the
Hashalush HaKadosh
, or the Trinity, despite the fact that there is no indicated number limiting the plurality of
Elohim
to “three.” Anti-Trinitarians would tell you that the term
Elohim
suggests only the multiplicity of power and majesty, as opposed to suggesting the word indicates a plurality of beings or multiplicity of entities individually combined into a collective, singular God. The word
Elohim
is also used as a collective plural reference to the many denounced false gods and idols throughout the Old Testament.

The literal translation of the word
Elohim
is “God of Many Gods,” more simply: “God of Gods.” But to render this as a wholly polytheistic term would fly in the face of how Judaism’s staunchest scholars would interpret the word. No higher authority on the Hebrew language can be found than the great Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius. He wrote that the plural nature of
Elohim
was for the purpose of intensification, and was related to the plural of majesty and used for amplification. Gesenius states that “the language has entirely rejected the idea of numerical plurality in Elohim (whenever it denotes one God) and is proved especially by its being almost invariably joined with a singular attribute.”
¹

“That the language has entirely rejected the idea of
numerical plurality in
(whenever it denotes one God), is proved especially by its being almost invariably
joined with a singular attribute (cf. § 132 h), e.g.
710, &c. Hence
may have been
used originally not only as a numerical but also as an
abstract plural (corresponding to the Latin numen, and
our Godhead), and, like other abstracts of the same kind, have been transferred to a concrete single god
(even of the heathen).”
²

In other words, although it is very tempting to extrapolate from the word
Elohim
a definition that renders it literally as “God of Many Gods,” it is more likely than not that in the Old Testament, a Jewish book of faith, it would be wholly inconsistent with the Jewish religion to present their God as anything but a singular, individual, monotheistic deity. To render the word
Elohim
as signifying that the Jews held to a polytheistic expression of God, would simply fly in the face of their entire monotheistic belief system.

Though certainly debated, the name
Elohim
(most probably) has to do with the first God-encounter that humans experienced,
³
at least within the Hebraic Jewish mindset. Those initial experiences produced awe or fear for the multiple powers of nature, as is reflected in the Old Testament where the word
Elohim
is used for God Himself. But it is also used for the complete plurality of so-called idolatrous gods, the wooden and stone images that people worshipped in their homes and village localities.
Elohim
is even used to mean “angels” and “judges.”

In the final analysis, the name
Elohim
has something to do with powers: The Powers That Be; The Many Powered; Power and Majesty. In the traditional Jewish view,
Elohim
is the Name of God as the Creator and Judge of the universe. In Exodus 3:6, the plural name of
Elohim
is modified by its singular personal pronouns, said to be spoken by God in the first person:

“The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to those, ‘You
want to know my name? I am called according to my
actions. When I judge the creatures I am Elohim, and
when I have mercy with My world, I am named YHWH
(Jehovah)….’”

(Exodus 3:6)

Yet, the Hebrew word
Elohim
does, without question, signify a plurality. Deciding whether or not that plurality indicates “more than one God” versus “many powers and amplified majesty” is where the debate
starts and ends. When one usage of the word is said to mean a singular God with a vast array of powers, and another translation of the word indicates a plurality and/or vast array of idols and “false gods,” you see the inherent conflict and subsequent confusion. However, as we talked about earlier, it is all about context and the usage of the word as it is modified by the surrounding verbs and adjectives.

“In the beginning, God (“Elohim”—plural) created
(“bara”—singular) the heavens and the earth.”

(Genesis 1:1)

Is the word
Elohim
being used in this context a demonstration of the creative power of God representing the volitional act of a divine collective of many gods engaging in the act of the first creation? Is it a singular entity representing many gods? Or is it the God of Vast and Many Powers doing the creating? You could argue that the act of creation is being done by a singular representation of
Elohim
, or, if you take it outside the religious mindset of the author of Genesis, you could interpret the language as meaning the creative act performed by a vast host of many gods embodied in the singular
Elohim
. However, you would have to consider the point-of-view of the author of the Book of Genesis: Moses, so says Jewish tradition (and I believe there is no reason to doubt this fact, as I will demonstrate in the following chapter on Moses and the 18th Dynasty of Egypt). Moses was the great “Law Giver” of the Hebrews, establishing the Ten Commandments, whose very first mandate in the first commandment was,
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Should the emphasis of this commandment be placed on the person of the singular
Elohim
who commands that “nothing” should be put before him in the act of worship? Or should the emphasis be on the “other gods,” interpolating that other gods exist, but Jehovah God is the one who is demanding your worship if you are to follow him, alone? Or is it simply metaphoric language?

“Then God (Elohim) said, ‘Let us make mankind in
our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over
the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all
the creatures that move along the ground.’”