Why my last episode was a struggle

I really wrestled with my research last weekend. I wanted to do an episode about the Nephilim Civil War mentioned in Enoch 10. There are actually some other sources of information that go in-depth on it. Unfortunately, they were just too detached from the Bible.

I ended up scrapping that episode and moving forward to the next one:

But what do those other ancient sources tell us about this “intramural” conflict amongst the antediluvian giants? That’s what we’ll explore today.

By the way, the latest episode set a new record for day-one downloads of the podcast, and March itself set a new record high for monthly downloads. I am glad you all are enjoying the current Enoch series (I am, too!)

And one more note I want to get to before I share today’s strange Sunday study: my previous newsletter had a bizarre number of typos. The typos were due to a technical glitch when I saved my newsletter for the last time before sending it off that week. I made a number of tweaks to spellings/capitalizations on my last proofreading, and when I went to save my changes, the program apparently glitched and removed all the letters and words I had changed, including an entire paragraph at one point. So I apologize for that snafu and I’ll try to see what I can do to prevent that happening again. I’ve repaired the archived version, and I’m in the process of creating an improved version of that article for the website.

The typos may not have been a big deal to you (I hope), but this is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night.

Giant Tribal Warfare

Alright, now let’s get into the subject of today’s letter. For review, let’s re-visit the judgment which was pronounced against the Watchers in Enoch 10. They were to be bound in the underworld (AKA Sheol, or hell), but in a way that they can observe what’s going on above-ground. And as part of their punishment, they’ll have to watch their offspring, the Nephilim/giants, slay one another in conflict. In fact, God dispatches the angel Gabriel to instigate a Nephilim Civil War.

Enoch 10 reads: And to Gabriel said the Lord: 'Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy [the children of fornication and] the children of the Watchers from amongst men [and cause them to go forth]: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have. And no request that they (i.e. their fathers) make of thee shall be granted unto their fathers on their behalf; for they hope to live an eternal life, and that each one of them will live five hundred years.'

The Greek there in the original manuscript is reportedly hard to translate, but here’s the meaning: though the Watchers hoped that their giant children would live forever, God is going to wipe them out within 500 years.

Does this mean that these words were spoken 500 years before the flood? Possibly, but I actually think that this was even earlier than that. I take it that God is saying that the first wave of Nephilim children would be killed in an internal conflict even before that.

And what was that conflict? Well, the Nephilim show themselves to be tribal, just like the rest of humanity. In the Old Testament, we read about a variety of Nephilim tribes- which I have catalogued before on my website.

In the post-flood Nephilim, we see the Emim, the Zamzummim, the Anakim, the Rephaim, and perhaps the Amorites.

In the pre-flood world, we had some giant tribes as well- and somehow, Gabriel got them fighting with each other. The ancient book of Jubilees describes this in its seventh chapter: And they begat sons the Nâphîdîm [Nephilim], and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Nâphîl, and the Nâphîl slew the Eljô, and the Eljô mankind, and one man another. And every one sold himself to work iniquity and to shed much blood, and the earth was filled with iniquity. 

We see some classes/tribes/subgroups of giants called Naphil and Eljo right there.

Why give any credibility to Jubilees? You don’t have to, but Jubilees is one of the ancient texts preserved at Qumran among the Dead Sea Scrolls. These documents were discovered in the 1940s at a cave, and they had been preserved for thousands of years- since even before the days of Jesus.

The entire Old Testament (other than Esther and some of the Psalms) was found there, as well as various writings of Second Temple literature.

This means the Jewish writings (both biblical and extra-biblical) that were studied at the time of Jesus. They include books you may or may not have heard of, including Tobit, Sirach, additional psalms, as well as Jubilees (which describes Creation and the Pre-Flood world) and another text called The Book of the Giants.

(Oh yeah, and additional copies of the Book of Enoch were found there as well. Prior to this, we only had the Ethiopian preservation of the Book of Enoch.)

I am not making any claims as to the veracity of Jubilees or any of these other books, but it appears that these writings were taken as reliable sources of information by some of the ancient Jews. Since the Book of Enoch is cited within the Bible itself, I feel the most comfortable relying on what it says.

As we’ve covered before on the podcast, there are lots of ancient cultures which speak about the giants of old- as well as the flood- they have their own alternative versions of history. The Bible, of course, is the true story.

The Greeks referred to the Watchers as the Titans. They created the next generation of gods (what we would call the Nephilim, but what the Greeks called the Olympians). There was a huge war between them called the Titanomachy. According to Wikipedia: “In the aftermath of this war, the vanquished Titans were banished from the upper world and held imprisoned under guard in Tartarus.”

Sound familiar? This is exactly what the Book of Enoch describes happening to the Watchers. So while I don’t believe in Greek mythology, I do believe there are elements of these ancient stories that relate to the true story found in Enoch and the Bible.

Is it wrong to research these ancient texts to discover clues about the primordial world? I don’t believe so; as long as we remember that the Bible itself is the source of all truth and the only text we can trust as immaculate and perfectly preserved. In fact, this is part of the reason why Genesis and some of the psalms were written- because other cultures had their own versions of history, and God wanted to give us the true story.

Genesis 6:4 - The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

When Genesis refers to the giants as “the men of renown,” it’s basically saying: “You’ve heard of these guys- the ‘mighty men.’ You may have heard that they were gods, or children of gods- but here’s the real story. Their creation was an unsanctioned act of rebellion, a transgression of boundaries by the Sons of God.”

Other texts may contain elements of the truth, but only the Bible is perfect.

He is Risen!

Hope you are having a blessed day celebrating the resurrection of Jesus! 2000 years ago, Jesus just finished pronouncing His judgment on the imprisoned Watchers in the heart of the earth!

I Peter 3:18-20 - ¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹ in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Jesus’ life meant their plan to corrupt the human bloodline and stop the Messiah FAILED. The resurrection meant Satan’s backup plan to kill the Messiah in His human body FAILED. And His church remains here today to reclaim this world for His Kingdom and glory.

As we learn more about what His victory meant, let it spur you on to faith and good works: regaining Holy Ground and occupying ‘til He returns!

-Luke