One of the great unsolved mysteries of my father is his viewpoint on God and religion. After he passed, I found his personal Bible that was presented to him when he was fifteen years old. It is a leather-bound King James Version Bible that's very old-school. What surprised me was that every single page is packed with his tiny, hand-written notes. So what's the big mystery? Sounds like he was a believer, right? The mystery is that he never once spoke to me about his religious beliefs. My family notes that he didn't bring it up to them either. I don't know what to make of it.
I have my own complicated relationship with religion. I went to a Pentecostal church when I was a kid. For those who don't know, the people in this denomination are referred to as "holy rollers" because of the high-energy worship and speaking in tongues. I just remember feeling bad about myself a lot. I had a lot of guilt about being a "sinner" and trying to be perfect in the eyes of God. I read passages from the Bible, but I found them very hard to understand, like Shakespeare. Once I was off on my own in college and beyond, I did not return to regular churchgoing or even studying the Bible or any other religions.
Over the past year, I resurrected (pun intended) my dad's Bible and decided I would start learning more about this famous book. It helps that a friend of mine does daily study as well and we can converse about various scriptures and our interpretations.
One of the passages I find fascinating is in Genesis 6. I shall quote it here from the KJV and provide my humble commentary:
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. 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.
"When men began to multiply" refers to men in general. This is not a specific race or group of people. The same with "daughters", which refers to daughters in general.
In Hebrew, the phrase "sons of God" is Bene HaElohim. This phrase is used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to a direct creation of God. Adam was a son of God as are the angels. In fact, if you search the Old Testament for the Hebrew phrase, it always refers to angels.
In Hebrew, the phrase "daughters of men" is Benoth Adam, which translates to "daughters of Adam."
The word "giants" was translated from the Hebrew word Nephilim, which translates to "the fallen ones." The Hebrew root word is nephal, which means to fall, be cast down to fall away or desert. In Greek, the word is translated to gigantes, from the root gigas meaning earth-born. This is the same word used in Greek mythology for the titans--the demigods that were produced from procreation between the Greek gods and human women. Titans such as Atlas and Hercules were described as having abilities beyond mortal men.
So what is my interpretation of this passage? According to the Bible, there were fallen angels that descended from Heaven to earth and decided to take human wives to create hybrid offspring that were half-human and half-non-human. This created a race of giants who could have been 10 or 12 or 15 feet tall with superhuman strength. These giants existed prior to the Great Flood, but also after the flood.
Is there any archeological evidence of these giants? Yes, but you have to look really hard to find it. For some reason, the evidence is suppressed throughout the world. Go to any museum and you will find dinosaur bones, but where are the bones of giants? I have seen multiple pictures and read countless accounts of people encountering the remains of giants.
The autobiography of William Cody (Buffalo Bill) has an interesting passage:
While we were in the sandhills scouting the Niobrara country, the Pawnee Indians brought into camp some very large bones, one of which the surgeon of the expedition pronounced to be the thigh bone of a human being. The Indians said the bones were those of a race of people who long ago had lived in that country. They said these people were three times the size of of a man of the present day, that they were so swift and strong that they could run by the side of a buffalo, and, taking the animal in one arm, could tear off a leg and eat it as they ran.
If you want a deep dive on this topic, I would suggest Chuck Missler's study. I'm sure I have seun 's attention with this topic.
Hello Brandon, You embarked on a quest that is unending. There is no definite answer that you can find, the dogma, in my opinion is just confusing unless you develop your own understanding based on experience. You can begin to untangle dogma, trace stories find relics or decrypt old papirus but that is only intelectual play. To find God you don't even have to go very far, it's surprisingly close to you every second of your waking existence.
To be honest I haven't studied Genesis 6. Majorly because The Bible is a Christ-centered material. It is Christocentric. Jesus Christ is its focus.
Jesus mentioned it in Luke 24
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Verse 27 explains how the Bible should be read.
Paul says the same in 2 Timothy 3:15
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
The essence of the Holy Scriptures (hierros gramma) is to point us to Jesus. When we have that mindset we can safely ignore the confusing parts of the Old Testament as they usually don't edify.
Ahh but when scripture relates to prophesy and what is to come, I find it quite edifying. Matthew 24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed; The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.
seun
You embarked on a quest that is unending. There is no definite answer that you can find, the dogma, in my opinion is just confusing unless you develop your own understanding based on experience. You can begin to untangle dogma, trace stories find relics or decrypt old papirus but that is only intelectual play. To find God you don't even have to go very far, it's surprisingly close to you every second of your waking existence.
You do have my attention. Nice pun in there.
To be honest I haven't studied Genesis 6. Majorly because The Bible is a Christ-centered material. It is Christocentric. Jesus Christ is its focus.
Jesus mentioned it in Luke 24
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Verse 27 explains how the Bible should be read.
Paul says the same in 2 Timothy 3:15
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
The essence of the Holy Scriptures (hierros gramma) is to point us to Jesus. When we have that mindset we can safely ignore the confusing parts of the Old Testament as they usually don't edify.