Chuck Larsen

In the first few verses of Genesis six, we see demons cohabiting with women and generating a legacy of violence on the earth. The Nephilim were not only large and warlike but also sexual predators who “took any woman” they wanted to sleep with. In this, we might see the first Satanic attempt to thwart God’s plan of the redemption of man through the “offspring” of a woman. The children born of the Nephilim advanced the Satanic cause of sex and violence. It spread to all humanity. It seems to have been worse with each generation. God watched it. The English Standard Version translates Genesis 6:5 this way: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

In Matthew chapter five, Jesus taught us that murder begins with being “angry” with a brother. Just as Cain was jealous and angry with Abel. Adultery, according to Jesus, begins with “the thoughts of the heart” when a man looks at a woman to lust after her, as the fallen angels did with the daughters of men. Murder and adultery, sex and violence, begin on the inside and work their way out to action. Look at King David for an example of how this works. But I don’t think Bathsheba was innocent either. The curse in Genesis three involves a struggle between the sexes. Both men and women will seek to dominate each other in one way or another. Women use sexuality to dominate and control men. Men use brute force to dominate and control women. Bathsheba knew that she was beautiful. She knew that her bathing location outside would put her in view of the king’s balcony. The woman in the workplace knows which button on her blouse is not fastened. In the position of strength and power, David took her as the demons did in Genesis chapter six. We have wicked and deceitful hearts. Satan and his minions use this truth to lead us into sin. When sinful desires become the practice of the people, society degenerates. It goes down and down into a spiral of sex and violence.

An internet article from Psychology Today reports, “A perplexing link between human sexual behavior and violence is evident from an early age when boys tease and punch girls they are attracted to.  Some major league baseball players look at pornography right before they go to the plate to increase their level of aggression. Thirty percent of all internet traffic is pornography, and 88 percent of this contains physical aggression. In the extreme, sadistic sexual behavior can develop from the intertwining of sex and violence in the human brain.  As crowds grow and become unruly, especially if alcohol and other drugs are involved, gang sexual assault can erupt with awful spontaneity.”[1] Kent Hughes may have gone a little too far, but he makes a good point. He writes, “I once heard ex-heavyweight champion Mike Tyson talk up his upcoming fight by saying that he would kill his opponent and that he would do anything because he (Tyson) was a convicted rapist! Here was a man gleefully referencing his sexual violence before the world. This is the same man who bit off part of an opponent’s ear! Do we think the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) is a joke? I hope not! Sensuality, violence, comic-book fantasy, testosterone, steroids, Viagra, blood—that is what the voyeurs drink. The next time you read of someone beaten to death or dragged to death, remember all the negative models. Video stores rent movies of animal attacks on people so you can view the real thing—humans being torn apart—while you eat popcorn. Truly a feast of demons.”^[2]

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-brain/201601/the-explosive-mix-sex-and-violence

^[2] Hughes, R. Kent. 2004. Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

One of the more controversial verses in the Bible is Genesis 6:4. It says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” The big issue surrounds the “Nephilim.” The Greek translation calls them “Giants,” as does the Latin Vulgate. Some English translations use the term “giants” as well, but most transliterate the Hebrew into English; thus, the word “Nephilim” is what we see in many English translations. It’s reasonable to refer to them as giants because when Moses sent the spies into Canaan to check out the land, ten of the spies reported seeing giants. Numbers 13:33 seems to suggest they were very large people. It says, “And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” One Commentary doesn’t think the term refers to the size, however. It says, “The term in Hebrew implies not so much the idea of great stature as of reckless ferocity, impious and daring characters, who spread devastation and carnage far and wide.”^[1]

Other early writings seem to include both ideas: large and ferocious warriors. In the Apocryphal book, The Wisdom of Solomon 14:6, we read, “Why, in the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft and, steered by your hand, preserved the seed of a new generation for the ages to come.” And Baruch 3:26-28 says, “In it were born the giants, famous from the beginning, immensely tall, expert in war; God’s choice did not fall on these, he did not show them the way of knowledge; they perished for lack of wisdom, perished by their own folly.” Both passages deal with the giants perishing in the flood because of their evil nature. But Genesis 6:4 mentions that these creatures were on the earth in the days before the flood and “also afterward.”

The biggest problem with this is that we’d have to assume that fallen angels continued to cohabit with human women even after the flood since the Nephilim of Genesis six were all destroyed in the flood. There is enough biblical evidence of demonic activity in the New Testament to infer that this is a real possibility. As Courson observes, we also see legends of these creatures in many ancient cultures. He writes, “Some of these demons, evidently, had sexual relations with human women, resulting in nephalim—giants, legendary men, men of renown. That is why every culture contains stories of giants similar to those found in Greek mythology and Roman folklore.”^[2] Don’t forget about Goliath, a descendant of the Anakim who was extremely large in size. Most think in our measurements, Goliath was over 9 feet tall. I guess that would qualify as a giant. Further, the description of Goliath given in the Bible presents him as a ferocious warrior wanting to stand toe to toe with anyone. It seems to me both size and warlike nature are involved, along with his hatred of the people of God.

^[1] Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown. 1997. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. Vol. 1. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^[2] Courson, Jon. 2005. Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Volume One: Genesis–Job. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Genesis 6:3 is one of the most interesting verses in the book of Genesis. In the New English Version, it reads, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.’” I used to believe, along with some good commentators, that this verse referred to how long God would give humanity to repent before the flood would come and destroy them. But I’ve changed my mind! I now agree with the New Living Translation that puts it this way: “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.” Thelma Sutcliffe of Omaha helped change my mind. There was an article in the Omaha World-Herald about her recently. She passed away at 115 years of age. She was the oldest living person, verified by responsible sources, since the passing away of Kane Tanaka of Japan, who lived to be 119 years of age. Others claim to have lived longer, but their ages could not be verified. As far as I can find out, Lucile Randon celebrated her 118^th birthday in February of 2022 and is the oldest living person alive today. That could change at any minute and might have between me writing this and you reading it!

Another reason I changed my mind is the phrase “his days shall be.” Walton convinced me. He wrote, “Of nearly one hundred occurrences of the plural ‘days’ with pronominal suffix, almost all refer to life span. The exceptions that offer the greatest deviation from that pattern are references like Deut. 12:19, which pertains to Israel’s tenure in the land. It should also be noted that the refrain of ch. 5 is ‘All the days of X were Y years, and he died,’ so the reader is used to seeing the life-span formula.”^[1]

Notice also that death was pronounced upon Adam and Eve upon eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the sentence was not carried out immediately. The genealogy of Chapter five of Genesis shows the patriarchs lived to be nearly a thousand years old at times. After the flood, we see the decreasing lifespans of the patriarchs from Abraham at 175 to Jacob at 143, and then at the end of Deuteronomy, we see Moses’ age at his death is given at 120 years exactly. Furthermore, the point of Genesis 6:3 is that “all” mankind will experience the consequences of the sin arising before the flood. It would not just affect the current generation. But “Life span limits all of us, not just some.”^[2]

^[1] Walton, John H. 2001. Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

^[2] Roop, Eugene F. 1987. Genesis. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.

I Enoch refers to the fallen angels of Genesis 6:1f as “Watchers.” They were angels sent to watch over humans but were seduced in their lusts for the daughters of men and cohabited with them. The book of Daniel refers to angels as “Watchers” three times. 200 of the heavenly watchers united in defiance of God and became demons upon the earth. I Enoch gives the names of the 20 leaders of ten. Another of the two hundred is mentioned by name: Azazel. He is credited with leading the human race astray. I Enoch chapter 8 says, “Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways.” The holy “watchers,” Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel saw all the evil and reported it to the Most High. They told God, “Thou seest what Azazel hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were preserved in heaven, which men were striving to learn.”

God sends Raphael to deal personally with Azazel. He tells him to, “Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.” Dudael is the prison of all the fallen angels, especially the evil Watchers. The way this place is described, Dudael is sometimes considered as a region of the underworld, comparable to Tartarus or Gehenna. The last two letters “el” is a reference to God Almighty. It is the “Dungeon of God” or the “Prison of God.” The most interesting thing about Azazel is that God tells the Holy Ones to attribute the current state of man’s sinfulness to him. God says, “And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.”

In Leviticus, we read about the “scapegoat.” Two goats are to be selected and Leviticus 16:8-10 says, “And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.” The blood of the first goat makes atonement for the sins of man. Those sins are then removed from man and symbolically placed on the head of the scapegoat and returned to the one who corrupted all mankind.  According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, “Far from involving the recognition of Azazel as a deity, the sending of the goat was, as stated by Naḥmanides, a symbolic expression of the idea that the people’s sins and their evil consequences were to be sent back to the spirit of desolation and ruin, the source of all impurity.”[1]

[1] https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2203-azazel

According to the book of I Enoch, Angels sent to watch over humans, became corrupt when they decided to take daughters of men as wives as mentioned in Genesis Chapter 6. The offspring of this unholy union were “giants.” I wonder if “monsters” could be a possible translation for that ancient word. According to the Lexham Bible Dictionary, the word Rephaim and Nephilim and Anakim are just transliterations of the ancient language and not a real translation because we don’t have a word that means the same thing. In some modern translations, when the term is translated, it is rendered “giants.” But one or another of these terms is also used in the Bible to refer to the spirits of the dead, shades, or simply the dead. “It is difficult to identify whether the Rephaim were humans (living or dead), quasi-divine figures, or disembodied spirits. Old Testament usage associates the term with all these possibilities, while external Semitic source texts in which the term is found (Ugaritic, Phoenician) do not describe the Rephaim as giants.”^[1] Enoch explains that the “giants” took over the world and consumed everything that men produced. Men had to serve these giants and bring them whatever they had. Then in I Enoch, chapter 7, it says, “And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.” Could this mean that the offspring of the demons fed on man’s flesh? It sounds like it. Verse 5 says, “And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood.” If Enoch is actually written by the 7^th from Adam, we might find the source of the prohibition of drinking blood in this reference.

According to a Wikipedia article, “Cannibalism has been well documented in much of the world, including Fiji, the Amazon Basin, the Congo, and the Māori people of New Zealand. Neanderthals are believed to have practiced cannibalism, and Neanderthals may have been eaten by anatomically modern humans. Cannibalism was also practiced in ancient Egypt, Roman Egypt and during famines in Egypt such as the great famine of 1199–1202.”[2] Some Native American Indians also practiced cannibalism. An article in the Seattle Times reports, “The first unequivocal evidence that American Indians practiced cannibalism has been discovered by researchers studying a small Anasazi settlement in what is now southwestern Colorado that was mysteriously abandoned about 1150 A.D.”[3]

There are even modern examples of cannibalism practiced for reasons other than survival.  Jeffrey Dahmer and Albert Fish were notorious cannibals. Modern science denounces the idea of Satanic possession and refers to this cannibalism as “mental illness.” There are other less famous cases as well, but we don’t like to think about demonic possession. Yet, Genesis chapters six and 1 Enoch speaks of it. 1 Enoch posits that the origin of cannibalism is demonic. In Kerth Barker’s 2014 book, “Cannibalism, Blood Drinking & High-Adept Satanism,” he talks about Satanism as a worldwide movement and how some practice cannibalism and blood-drinking.

^[1] Heiser, Michael S. 2016. “Rephaim.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cannibalism

[3] https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20000907&slug=4041058