Female Nephilim?
I have a question and have done a search on this page without finding an answer, so any thoughts on this would be super useful! Can someone please tell me if there are any female Nephilim? If the fallen angels reproduced with human women and that offspring became the Nephilim/giants, then a) were there any women giants; and b) were the giants infertile since hybrids usually are? I would consider the giants a hybrid. So, in the lands where the giants would dwell, were they just men giants? They are always referred to in the masculine sense. And to add more to this, did the giants reproduce with human women, too, or maybe they couldn't? Thank you for your insights.
were the giants able to reproduce with human women and/or female giants (if there were female giants)?
I suppose it somewhat depends on your take of the continuity of the giant clans with the incident of Genesis 6.
Personally, I think there's a strong disconnect between the two stories/incidents...there's etiological connection, but that doesn't mean ontological or biological connection, if that distinction makes sense. I'd rather say "etiological" connection than "narrative" or "figurative" connection, though those might be the same things in some ways. (Etiology = the cause or origin of something.)
Genesis 6 forms a backstory and an explanation for further happenings, but it's in primeval history...which is a time so far back that only these legends/histories exist and it's not like a modern history book giving you an exact layout. It's like the incident with Ham being the "original" explanation as to why the Canaanites were so terrible. It's very hyperbolic, etc. Scientific in a narrative etiological way, but not scientific as in, "every Canaanite ever is evil."
The texts and stories seem to be pretty clear that demons/unclean spirits come from the incident before the flood, not the giant clans afterwards. There's zero early texts that I know about that talk about female nephilim/giants, probably because being a giant would be a problem in a militaristic way.
So there's the nephilim, and then there's the "giant clans." Two different things.
The giant clans in the land, as clans, would obviously not just be a bunch of men. As I said, the men were the problem, militarily, and being a "giant" would be more intimidating, etc. (Remember the factor of hyperbole.) The women in the land would be a problem, seductively.
So the questions of reproduction, sex, etc, are really more scientific than etiological. Or maybe I should say those are focused on a particular scientific etiology that is just not the framework of the Bible's narrative.
And why is that when clearly the bloodlines and genealogy seem to matter so much? Why wouldn't *biology* matter?
Well, because of the ideas of adoption, inheritance, being in family in a way that isn't strictly biological. You "inherit" not due to strict biology, but because a patriarch has put you in or out of the family, and what a patriarch does sets the stage for the whole family. Who a patriarch worships, etc. It's ALL about allegiance (allegiance to the right deity, but in tandem to that would be allegiance to the "vice regent" of that deity--the king or patriarch or head of the family).
So you can say it's about "bloodlines" but it isn't biological, it's tribal/familial because all of that is about allegiance, which makes you either holy or monstrous.
Carey Griffel
Carey Griffel has a Masters of Biblical Studies with Redemption Seminary and is passionate about teaching about the Bible from a biblical theology perspective with a healthy dose of creative thinking thrown in to the mix.
Carey can be found on Instagram and Facebook. She has her own Facebook discussion group for her podcast and is an administrator and moderator of several other FB groups, such as Reading Genesis 50 Times and Divine Council Worldview, official group of Dr. Michael Heiser.
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