Ken Ham’s View on Who the Nephilim Were

Genesis 6 opens with a description of the sons of God and daughters of men, then mentions the intriguingly named Nephilim:

Now it happened, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good in appearance; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever because he indeed is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1–4)

Who were the Nephilim? This has been debated throughout church history. Three primary views, and one less common, have arisen:

1. The fallen angel view: According to this interpretation, the sons of God are fallen angels who married human women and produced offspring, the Nephilim.
2. The Sethite or godly line view: According to this interpretation, “sons of God” refers to the godly line of Seth, while “daughters of men” refers to the ungodly line of Cain. The Nephilim in this case would be mighty, violent men who were born of these unions and ruled before the flood.
3. The royalty or tyrant view: According to this interpretation, the sons of God are human rulers, kings who saw themselves as divine, who took as many wives as they pleased, forming dynasties that produced violent, tyrant offspring.
4. The mixed or mighty men view: According to this view, “sons of God” refers to powerful men, possibly rulers, with the Nephilim simply being men of great size or reputation. This is the least common of these interpretations.

I explain each of these views in more detail in this video we recently released for my YouTube channel. I encourage you to check it out.

So who were the Nephilim? Well, as I shared in the video, we won’t know for sure until we get to heaven, because the Bible simply doesn’t provide enough detail, but the view one takes of the Nephilim doesn’t impact any core biblical doctrines, so it’s something interesting to think about and debate.

What we do know for sure is that the world at that time was so wicked that God judged it with a global Flood, but he offered mercy to Noah and his family on the Ark. And just like those before the Flood, we’re sinners in rebellion against God and we need an ark of salvation—and our ark is the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us from our sins and offers eternal life.

Oh—and there were Nephilim living after the Flood. Watch the video to learn more.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.