Nephilim: Who were they?

Genesis 6:1-7
1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown." NIV


Wow...that's some few lines. Don't you hate it when the Bible drops some bomb on you like this but fails to elaborate further!

So, who WERE the Nephilim?

This is a very interesting question which deserves much study and discussion. Too much so to adequately do here! In short, the Nephilim were the offspring between the spirit sons of God and the daughters of men. They were Hybrids much larger than average men. Apparently they begot sons of their own and started the tribes of giants often times found written in the Bible and other ancient writings such as Gilgamesh, the book of Enoch and last but not least, the Book of Giants (found with the Dead Sea scrolls).

Giants in the Bible after the flood?

Yes, when reading the Genesis account of the Nephilim, you will read that they existed in those days and afterwords. Many scholars suggest that the Canaanites and Amorites the Israelites encountered were the offspring of these giant races of hybrids. In fact, Moses called Og, an Amorite king, "of the last of the remnant of Rephaites ("giants" in the King James version), whose bed was 13 feet long (Deuteronomy 3:11).

Could the nephilim have been the offspring of Cain and Seth's decedents?

There are modern understandings of these versus that have nothing to do with fallen angels. Some believe that the union described here is one between the offspring of Cain (daughters of men) and Seth (sons of God). You see this is a perfect example of how we tend to read into older writings what fits best for us in our time. We so often neglect the meaning that the original authors gave to their own writings! The theory that the 'sons of God' were referring to the sons of Seth is not what the original authors were trying to convey when they wrote those words.

Considering that we are looking into the meaning of old Jewish writings lets see what the Jews say about it:

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=24&letter=F

In addition, the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus clearly states in his 'Antiquities of the Jews' book 1 section 99 that the Nephilim were products of angles and woman. Read it for yourself here:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/.

A screenshot of this page can be found here. Notice the footnote that states, "This notion, that the fallen angels were, in some sense, the fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity."

This should leave no doubt that the people who actually wrote down these stories, clearly believed that the angles of God fathered these giants. Now, to modern people this sounds crazy, and maybe it is -- This would explain why some modern preachers have tried to change the meaning. But the facts remain, the people who originally told these stories (and wrote them down) were quite clear as to what they thought.