The Nephilim in Ancient
Texts
The Book of Enoch
The Fallen Angel version of the Nephilim
begins with a story that
Originated in the Book of Enoch {The legends of the Jews
Apocrypha}
.
Shemhazai or Shernihaza, an angel
of high rank, led a sect of angels in a descent to
earth to instruct humans in righteousness. {The legends of the Jews
} . The mission lasted
for a few centuries, but soon the
soldiers/missionaries/angels became corrupted in
their lusting after human females. After lusting,
the fallen angels instructed the women in magic and
conjuring, mated with them, and produced offspring,
who would later be referred to as the Nephilim.
Enoch
was probably as well known to the ancient readers as
he is unknown to modern readers . Genesis says of
him only that he "walked with God," and afterward
"he was not, because God had taken him" (Gen. 5:24).
This passage made Enoch an exalted figure of
considerable fascination.
Book of
Enoch and Enochian Legends
The Book of Giants
The Book of Giants builds upon the Fallen Angel
saga presented in the Book of Enoch .
Also known as the Book of Ogias the Giant,
it is believed to be based on the Book of Enoch. Whether by design
or coincidence it fills in many details about the
giants and their offspring that the book of Enoch
leaves out. It is another work concerned with
the fallen Angels and Enoch , It was widely read in
ancient Rome and Greece but only fragments of it,
some un-translated currently are known.
Aramaic fragments of this book, along with
other fragments of the Book of Enoch, were found
among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.
The following are some relevant excerpts, even
with the large volume of missing sections we can
still extract a basic overall meaning
[?] they knew the secrets of
[?] [ ? si]n was great in the earth [ ? [?] [ . . .
] and they killed many [ ? ] [? they begat] giants [
? ]
[ ?everything that the] earth produced [?] [ ?] the
great fish [?] [ ? ] the sky with all that grew [?]
[ ? fruit of] the earth and all kinds of grain and
all the trees [?] 1... male and female, and among
humans [?]
It is interesting to note that one the Giants
referred to in this work is Gilgamesh, for any who
are familiar with the. (i.e., 4Q531, 6Q8 Frag. 2 and
4Q530 Col. 2), "the name of one of the giants is
Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero and subject of a
great epic written in the third millennium B.C.E." -
(1996) p. 247
Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees
describes the origin of angels and the story of how
a group of fallen angels mated with mortal females,
giving rise to a race of giants known as the
Nephilim. Their hybrid children, the Nephilim in
existence during the time of Noah, were decimated
out by the great flood.
However, Biblical references to the Nephilim
continue after the flood, they can be found in
Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua . The antediluvian
Nephilim are referred to as "Anakim" or "Rephaim".
(As in Num. 13:33, which refers to the sons of Anak
as 'Nephilim'.) These references do not necessarily
contradict the account of the original Nephilim
being completely destroyed in the Deluge.
Jubilees does state that God granted ten
percent of the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim
to try to lead mankind astray after the flood.
The Ethiopian version states that the "angels"
were in fact the disobedient offspring of Seth (Deqiqa
Set), while the "mortal females" were daughters of
Cain. This is also the view held by most of the
earliest commentators.
Ethiopian Book of Jubilees - tribe.net