It’s time to dig a little deeper into the biblical flood story, particularly in regards to the story of the Watchers. I’m sorry about the length of this one and, I fear, it is going to sound a bit overly critical of the church or even of “God”. I do not mean any offense by any of this. I’m simply sharing my own understanding, thoughts, questions and conclusions on the matter of the Watchers. I understand that they may be very different than yours and that this material may be difficult to read and come across a bit offensive. I apologize in advance.
In my previous blog posts I have been reviewing the book The Watchers, Lost Secrets of Ascension, Resurrection and Perfection. While reading this book the author made a strange comment about the flood that kind of threw me off at first when looked at from my former Christian perspective:
The Bible tells us that both the Watchers and their Nephilim offspring survived the Flood. We know this because this race, and their secrets, were hunted by humans after the Flood during Old Testament times. Some of the other Hebrew words used to describe the ‘nephilim’ are: ‘Anakim’ a race of hybrids, half human, half alien. (Sons of Anakuam 13:33) ‘’Rephaim’ (as in Genesis 14:5; 2 Sam. 5:18) from the root word, ‘rapha’ which means spirits or shades. ‘Emim’ meaning ‘proud deserters’ but also a race of giants. (See Deut.2:9, 10 ‘Og’ (Deut. 3:11) ‘Zamzummims’ these were the ‘evil plotters’ of Deut. 2:20. ‘Zuzim’ meaning ‘roaming things’, evil ones (Gen. 14:5).
The Watchers: Lost Secrets of Ascension, Resurrection and Perfection, by William Henry, location 407
This comment threw me off because of two primary reasons. One, because the story of the biblical flood sort of links the sins of the Watchers directly to the cause of the flood in the first place so if God intended to wipe them out, how could they survive? Secondly, how exactly do we KNOW they survived?
The author states that the Bible itself tells us the Watchers and their offspring survived the flood. So, let’s review the evidence by starting with the reason for the flood in the first place as recorded in the book of Genesis:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Genesis 6:1-7
Now again, Genesis is perhaps a BIT vague on the topic but several things are strung together here which make the meaning clear. I think it helps to break it down a little. The key points are:
- The world was getting populated with more women
- The “sons of God” began to take notice that the “daughter’s of men” were beautiful (again, the phrase “sons of God” is a term frequently used in the Bible in reference to angels
- The “sons of God” began taking wives from among women as they chose
- THEN God became angry (presumably at that very things listed above)
- There were giants in the land during this time when the “sons of God” were taking wives from among the “daughters of men.
- The “sons of God” were having sexual relations with the “daughters of men” and having children with them.
- Man was becoming more and more evil
- God became sorry he even made man so he decided to kill them all in a flood
Again, the wording does not SPECIFICALLY state that the giants were the offspring of the “sons of God” and “daughter’s of men” but I would argue that’s exactly what is suggested. Furthermore, when this story is combined with other extra biblical sources regarding the same event (such as the Book of Enoch which was widely read by believers in the time of Jesus), the link between the sins of the Watchers and the flood is unmistakable. I want to examine the same story in the Book of Enoch now because it leaves no ambiguity as to what the flood was about:
And when the sons of men had multiplied, in those days, beautiful and comely daughters were born to them. And the watchers, the sons of heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another, “Come, let us choose for ourselves wives from the daughters of men, and let us beget for ourselves children.”… Then they all swore together and bound one another with a curse. And they were, all of them, two hundred, who descended in the days of Jared onto the peak of Mount Hermon.…
These and all the others with them took for themselves wives from among them such as they chose. And they began to go in to them, and to defile themselves through them, and to teach them sorcery and charms, and to reveal to them the cutting of roots and plants. And they conceived from them and bore to them great giants. And the giants begat Nephilim…Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.
1 Enoch 6:1-5 and 1 Enoch 7:1-3
So again, the author pointed out in the quoted passage that starts this blog today that the Nephilim were also called Anakim (or sons of Anak). And, we find, that when the Israelites encountered the Anakim after the flood (as recorded in the Bible) they were terrified of them because the the sons of Anak were giants. You can read the entire account of the encounter with the Anakim or Nephilim in Numbers chapter 13 for yourself but I’ll hit the high points here:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send out men for yourself to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give the sons of Israel…When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into the Negev… show yourselves courageous and get some of the fruit of the land”…. Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and from there they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men… When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel….But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, because they are too strong for us.”… “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. 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.”
Numbers 13:1-33
So take notice in the “biblical” account in Numbers several key points. One, the sons of Anak are “part of the Nephilim”. Two, that even a “single cluster of grapes” were so large they had to be carried on a pole between two men. Thirdly, the Israelites said they were men of “great stature” and that they were like grasshoppers to the sons of Anak. Four, the land of giants devours it’s in habitants.
Now compare that language in Numbers to both the Genesis account and the further explanation in the book of Enoch. In Genesis we were told “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Another way of translating “men of great renown” would be “men of great stature”.
For over a thousand years now the church has tried desperately to hide the original story of the watchers still contained within their writings. They reinterpret “sons of God” to meaning just “righteous men” and reinterpret “giants” as meaning just men who were considered really important or of “great renown” (rather than great stature). The church apparently wants no part of the story of the Watchers and yet the remnants of evidence remains.
Also compare the description in Numbers to the account of giants “devouring” everything given in the Book of Enoch where we are told that the “giants turned against them and devoured mankind…and to devour one anther’s flesh and drink blood.”
So there you have it on that one passage alone. This event is AFTER the biblical flood in which God became so angry over the sins of the Watchers that he decided to wipe out the entire population. And yet, the Bible does indeed tell us that the Nephilim somehow survived the flood. Or, if not survived, then at a minimum NEW Nephilim were created in the same manner as the first. There are also other stories in the “Bible” about the “giants” in Canaan which we are all familiar with. Remember the story of David and Goliath? Goliath was not just “a” giant, he was from a race of giants (the Philistines) who were themselves sons of Anak according to Biblical scholars. Clearly the Bible records that the Nephilim were giants and that their kind survived the flood.
The Book of Enoch helps make a few vague verses in the accepted cannon of the Bible perfectly clear and impossible to re-interpret. It’s no wonder to me that the book was officially banished and rejected because with the book, the story of the Watchers really can’t be re-interpreted and forgotten.
I cannot stress enough two important points. Firstly, the the book of Enoch was widely read by the early believers (both by those who were Jewish and also those early “gentile converts” whom people today mistakenly call early “Christians”). The book of Enoch was not fully rejected by the “church” until several hundred years after Jesus died. Secondly, the Jewish historian Josephus confirms that the belief that angels had sexual relations with women prior to the flood was the consistent and commonly held belief at the time.
This is also confirmed by many other biblical scholars. As one historian puts it:
If one were to ask a modern Christian, ‘Why is the world and all humanity so thoroughly wicked?’ the chances are very high that an answer of ‘the Fall’ would be forthcoming. We have been conditioned by church history (ancient and modern) to look only to Genesis 3 for such theology. But if you asked a Jew living in the Second Temple Period the same question, the answer would be dramatically different. Yes, the entrance of sin into God’s good world occurred in Eden, but the unanimous testimony of Second Temple Judaism is that the Watchers are to blame for the proliferation of evil on the earth.”
Heiser, Michael S. Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, Kindle location 101-107
This is a good place to stop for the day as there was a lot of boring, dry material here. Again, I fear sounding overly critical of “God” when I write this final conclusion today but it always bothered me, even as a young Christian, how it is God could kill everyone to rid the world of sin and yet only within the span of less than 200 years after the flood, the world full of sin again and God must again come down and intervene in the affairs of man to confuse their languages at the tower of Babel. Did “God” make a mistake? Did he accidently not actually wipe out all the Nephilim? Did he not realize that sin would crop up again in the world even if everyone but Noah’s family were destroyed? And what about that rainbow that appeared after the flood? Was it really ONLY a sign or was there deeper meaning behind the “rainbow” between heaven and earth?