Archoseum
Museum Exhibition
Preparing the exhibition
0%Giants Collection · Research Collection
A focused examination of the Nephilim in Scripture and related ancient traditions.
01 · Identity
The Hebrew Bible names the Nephilim in only two passages: Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. Genesis places them in the world before the Flood and connects their appearance with the union of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men.” Numbers uses the same name in the spies’ report from Canaan and associates it with the sons of Anak.
Genesis 6:4 places the Nephilim in the generation immediately preceding the Flood.
The verse places them alongside the sons of God taking human women and the birth of extraordinary offspring.
Genesis describes the resulting figures as “mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Numbers 13:33 uses the name again in connection with the Anakim encountered in Canaan.
02 · The Primary Passage
Several modern English translations preserve the Hebrew name Nephilim rather than translating it. The King James Version renders the same Hebrew word as “giants.” Reading them together makes the translation choice immediately visible.
NIV: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days...”
ESV: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days...”
NASB: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days...”
NRSVue: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days...”
These translations transliterate the Hebrew term instead of replacing it with an English description.
4There 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.
The second biblical occurrence comes from the spies’ report. Modern translations again commonly retain Nephilim; the KJV again uses “giants.”
32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
03 · Language
Nephilim is the English transliteration of Hebrew נְפִילִים (nephilim). The exact etymology is debated. It has often been associated with the Hebrew root n-p-l, “to fall,” producing explanations such as “fallen ones,” while the ancient Greek Septuagint rendered the term gigantes, the source behind the traditional English association with giants.
| Form | Rendering | What It Tells Us |
|---|---|---|
| Hebrew נְפִילִים | Nephilim | The proper designation used in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. |
| Septuagint Greek | gigantes | An ancient Jewish Greek translation associated the term with gigantic or extraordinary beings. |
| King James Version | giants | The KJV follows the long translation tradition represented by the Greek rendering. |
| Many modern versions | Nephilim | NIV, ESV, NASB and NRSVue preserve the Hebrew name in English. |
04 · Origin
Genesis 6:1–4 gives the sequence. Humanity multiplied. The “sons of God” saw the daughters of men, took wives, and children were born. Verse 4 places the Nephilim in this setting and identifies extraordinary “mighty men” and “men of renown.”
The phrase bene ha’elohim, “sons of God,” is also used in Job for heavenly beings. This is one reason the supernatural reading became prominent in ancient Jewish interpretation.
Genesis identifies the women as human daughters. The narrative emphasizes a boundary-crossing union between the two groups.
Genesis explicitly says that the women “bare children to them.” The verse then speaks of the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Within the ancient supernatural interpretation, the Nephilim are understood as the extraordinary offspring produced by these unions. 1 Enoch makes that interpretation explicit and calls the offspring giants.
05 · Ancient Witnesses
Ancient literature outside the biblical canon expands the brief Genesis account. These writings are valuable historical witnesses to how Jewish communities interpreted the passage, but they are presented here separately from canonical Scripture.
Ancient Jewish Interpretation
1 Enoch 6–16
1 Enoch identifies a company of heavenly Watchers who descend, take human wives, and father giants. The giants consume the produce of humanity, turn against human beings, and fill the earth with bloodshed and violence.
Ancient Jewish Interpretation
Jubilees 5
Jubilees retells the Genesis episode and likewise understands the heavenly beings as angels who took wives and produced giants. The narrative connects their presence with escalating violence and corruption before the Flood.
Dead Sea Scrolls
Qumran fragments including 4Q530–4Q532
The fragmentary Book of Giants belongs to the same broad Watcher tradition. It preserves stories concerning giant figures, ominous dreams, judgment, and the consequences of the rebellion associated with the Watchers.
Later Traditional Witness
Traditional retelling associated with Genesis
The later Book of Jasher tradition expands the corruption of the generations before the Flood. Because the surviving work commonly called Jasher is much later than Genesis and the Second Temple texts, this museum treats it as a traditional witness rather than evidence for the original wording of Genesis.
06 · The Difficult Phrase
Genesis 6:4 contains one of the most important phrases in the entire giants collection: the Nephilim were present “in those days; and also after that.” Numbers 13:33 later reports Nephilim in Canaan. The relationship between these two notices has generated several interpretations.
| Observation | What the Text Says | What Remains a Question |
|---|---|---|
| Before the Flood | Genesis 6:4 places Nephilim in the pre-Flood world. | How precisely the term relates to the “mighty men” in the second half of the verse. |
| “Also after that” | The phrase itself anticipates or acknowledges a later presence. | Whether it refers to a repeated event, continuing lineage, or simply a later remembered category. |
| Numbers 13:33 | The spies say they saw Nephilim and identify the sons of Anak with them. | The spies’ report is explicitly called an “evil report” in Numbers 13:32, so interpreters differ on how literally every element of their description should be taken. |
| Later giant peoples | Scripture names Anakim, Rephaim and other unusually formidable peoples. | Scripture does not simply call every later giant clan “Nephilim.” |
Continue from the Nephilim to the post-Flood peoples named in the biblical record, including Anakim, Rephaim, Emim and Zamzummim.
OPEN THE GIANT CLANS →07 · Classification
The names overlap in the larger tradition, but the museum keeps them distinct so that one category is not silently substituted for another.
| Group | Identity in the Record | Primary References | Museum Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sons of God / Watchers | Heavenly beings in the ancient supernatural interpretation of Genesis 6. | Genesis 6:1–4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; 1 Enoch 6–16 | Watchers exhibit |
| Nephilim | The extraordinary beings named in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33; interpreted in 1 Enoch as giant offspring of the Watchers and women. | Genesis 6:4; Numbers 13:33 | Current exhibit |
| Anakim | A people of great stature associated with Hebron and Canaan; Numbers 13:33 connects the sons of Anak with the Nephilim in the spies’ report. | Numbers 13; Deuteronomy 1–2; Joshua 11 | Giant Clans exhibit |
| Rephaim | A post-Flood people or ancestral designation associated with unusually formidable figures, including Og of Bashan. | Deuteronomy 2–3; Joshua 12–13 | Giant Clans exhibit |
| Named Giants | Individual giant figures such as Og and Goliath, preserved in later biblical narratives. | Deuteronomy 3; 1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 21 | Giant Kings & Named Giants |
08 · Research Conclusion
The Nephilim are named in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. Genesis associates their era with the sons of God, daughters of men, extraordinary offspring, mighty men, and men of renown. Numbers associates the name with the sons of Anak and men of great stature.
1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Book of Giants show that an ancient Jewish interpretive stream understood Genesis 6 as a supernatural rebellion involving heavenly beings and giant offspring.
The KJV translates Nephilim as “giants.” Several modern translations instead preserve the Hebrew name. The ancient Greek Septuagint’s gigantes helps explain the long-standing giant terminology.
Genesis does not explain in detail how the post-Flood notice relates to the pre-Flood Nephilim. That question belongs to interpretation, and the museum keeps the distinction visible rather than presenting a theory as though it were an explicit verse.
Regional Collection 08 examines how the giant tradition continued through Ethiopia's preservation of 1 Enoch and later Ethiopian literature.
OPEN AFRICA · REGIONAL COLLECTION 08 →Explore the Giants Collection
View Giants Collection Overview →