Were the Nephilim Superheroes? - Episode 165

Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and today I've got a simple question for you. Were the Nephilim basically superheroes?

[00:00:25] Okay, well, you know, we're gonna talk a lot more than just about superheroes today, but this is our starting question. We're gonna frame superhero and what that means to us, and we're gonna ask how that does or does not fit into the narrative of the text. The problem isn't just what we think nephilim are, it's that we are bringing some suppositions with that idea.

[00:00:56] I think what's really obvious, and I hope this isn't a spoiler to anybody, but Genesis isn't inviting us to admire the Nephilim. My suggestion is that this is exposing a counterfeit immortality project of power, fame, and self-made identity.

[00:01:17] Now, that's not to say that we can't bring in the context of superheroes. This idea of ancient demigods with great power of some sort. But are we talking about a lost Marvel origin story here? I mean, honestly, that is how some people talk about it. And there are some reasons for that because Genesis six gives us some of those raw ingredients for that idea, especially when we read it in certain translations.

[00:01:48] We have mighty men. Sometimes we might even have the idea of heroes embedded into our translation. Many translations will say men of renown. That sounds like a fairly positive thing, like if you have people who are of renown, aren't they being honored and upheld in some great way?

[00:02:10] And then of course, throughout history, many people have associated the Nephilim with giants and folklore and epic traditions. And so the framework of superhero feels like a natural translation of this idea of legendary.

[00:02:29] But the real question is, are we reading their world with our categories? And I can almost guarantee that we are doing that. Oh, maybe not entirely, because we do have the idea of the polemic here. So the text is probably suggesting something very much like this idea of the legendary hero. But I'll get into a little bit of the assumptions that we bring to the text here as we talk about this today.

[00:02:59] But certainly the tone of the whole flood narrative is not one of joy. We have God's grief over humanity. We have violence filling the earth. We have judgment. So the heroes or the men of renown line functions as part of dark escalation.

[00:03:20] Now the Hebrew idea behind "men of renown" is actually closer to a phrase like men of the name. And so today we're gonna talk about this thread through Scripture of "name." And in particular, we're gonna connect that with some of the things we talked about last week with blotting out and remembrance, because this idea of having a name is definitely associated in the ancient world with the idea of immortality or afterlife or that legendary status that you want to have perpetuate through time.

[00:04:01] Part of this is asking a question and answering it. How do we outlast death through these ideas, through being remembered, through being feared, perhaps, or praised? Basically having a permanent reputation. If your name continues on the earth, then something of you is lasting.

[00:04:24] Now, I do want to point you back to the episodes I did talking about J Harvey Walton's dissertation. Those were episodes 140 and 141. Walton describes how Genesis one through 11 is a polemic against all of the ideas that the Mesopotamians had to explain civilization and post death theodocies, like explanations for how it is okay that you die, but here's how you do that while still lasting in some sense. So all of that is going to kind of tie into what we're talking about today, but I won't rehash all of that.

[00:05:06] Now, there's three things that we kind of wanna focus on here. The first concept is one of power. I'm going to suggest a picture of mighty men who are warriors, and they are this way because of a purpose. Their intent and their goal and their natural way of being is domination. Now, that is to not say that every time we're gonna see some of these associated words, that it is always about domination. But nonetheless, that's kind of this background. If you're not a righteous or just person, then you're going to end up on the domination spectrum.

[00:05:50] Okay, so our second concept is one of fame, having some renown or a name.

[00:05:57] The third point that is going to be crucial is that this is a self-made identity here. Humanity is authoring its own permanence and meaning, and I've talked about how when we go down those kinds of paths, it leads to things like false worship and it connects to things like justice. So that is how we get to something like the flood, where we have all of these people who are trying to make this name for themselves, they're trying to make an identity that is only theirs, th according to their own desires, and that has cataclysmic consequences.

[00:06:40] This whole thing is a pattern all throughout Genesis one through 11. In Genesis four, we have Cain who builds a city. The idea here is durability and permanence. That is one way to make a name for yourself. Of course, we have this part here in Genesis six, but we're also gonna talk a lot about the Tower of Babel today. Let us make a name for ourselves. Part of that is durability through civilizational achievement.

[00:07:11] Then we're gonna go past Genesis one through 11, and we're gonna loop in the patriarch Abraham. God tells Abram that he will make his name great. So unlike the Tower of Babel incident, Abram's name is a gift. It is not taken.

[00:07:31] Just like how I was saying, how Walton talks about Genesis one through 11 being a polemic against Mesopotamian civilization and ideas. Genesis is not saying that cities are bad or agriculture is bad, or even having a name is bad, but those things themselves are not the way goodness gets perpetuated and cultivated. Being in covenant with God and receiving his gifts and blessings is how we get that. So it's not that having a great name is a bad thing, but it is a gift from God, not something we create ourselves as we see and take what we desire.

[00:08:15] So I'm gonna suggest that Genesis is not inviting us to admire ancient superheroes. It is showing how power and renown become a counterfeit path to permanence when humans try to make a name for themselves. And that path is not just another option, but it leads to death and destruction.

[00:08:37] So I hope with this episode you'll see how Babel and even Abraham are interpretive keys for looking at Genesis six.

[00:08:46] All right, so if you look into Genesis six, chapter four, the very tail end of this is what we're gonna focus on here today. Let's look at a couple of different translations. The KJV says that there are men of renown. The NLT says they are heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. The CSB says they were powerful men of old, the famous men. And then you'll find other interpretations that go a little bit more literalist. Young's Literal Translation actually has the words, men of name, and that shows us that underlying Hebrew structure.

[00:09:31] So our questions here are, what would Genesis's original audience hear when they heard this phrase, men of the name? And then I'm gonna ask, how does this relate to memory, legacy, and afterlife preservation? The ancient sense of being remembered and lasting through time. And also how can the Bible both acknowledge preserving a name and still critique the way that humans chase it?

[00:10:01] I mean, that's probably not a really super hard question to answer, but I think it's one that is worthwhile to meditate on because that is really where the rubber hits the road for ourselves as well when we come to bring this into interpretation in our own personal lives.

[00:10:22] So our first question here, what would Genesis's original audience hear when they heard "men of the name"? Now for the ancient world, a name is not merely a label or something that you are called. It involves reputation, memorial. Often it is a way to refer to your entire identity. And so that's how we can see how the idea of name is associated with afterlife continuation. If your identity is really contained within your name, whatever your name is-- and there's some options we got here in Scripture; again, a name is not just a personal label-- but if your identity is wrapped up in this name, whatever it is, and that name lasts through time, then you are lasting through time within that name.

[00:11:20] Another thing we'll loop in here with the idea of name is the connection with authority.

[00:11:26] Now, if you read the early chapters of Genesis, it's pretty obvious how these are actually connected. You go into Genesis 11 and the people say, Let us make a name for ourselves. That's a very clear callback to Genesis six, and it flags that these are the kinds of figures that generate stories, songs, and legends.

[00:11:50] In other words, they are the ones that everyone remembers. So even if all of the Nephilim got destroyed in the flood in Genesis six, their project is being perpetuated here in some form. And Genesis is telegraphing what kind of cultural capital that these figures had. They had a name and that matters for how we are to evaluate them, especially in regards to how they gain that name.

[00:12:20] So I mentioned how this connects to the idea of afterlife, and I'm gonna say this a few different times throughout the episode because this is one of those sticking points for us. As Christians, we think of preservation through the idea of bodily resurrection. As we should. I'm not trying to dismantle that at all.

[00:12:43] But this is not the only way to think about the question. We think of it in terms of kind of a scientific reality, which is mapped onto a cosmic geography. Where do our souls go?

[00:12:58] But a broader question might be, how do humans resist the finality of death? Not the only answer, but one of the major ancient answers was that your name could live on through descendants, your children, your family, your tribe, even adopted people within your tribe. All of those could continue to perpetuate your name through time. You also had monuments. We have stories or public renown.

[00:13:32] We won't get into this today, but it's pretty obvious how this will all connect into ancestral worship, which is not a good thing, but obviously very common, especially in the ancient world.

[00:13:45] Genesis one through 11 keeps showing humans building permanence projects. Cain builds the city. We have men of the name, we have Babel. And so there's this natural human desire to outlast death, but what is the path that we secure that with?

[00:14:07] You can see here the question is not just about what happens to me in the afterlife realm. I'm not trying to take away the idea that there was the concept of Sheol and the perpetuation of the spirit or the soul in that location.

[00:14:24] But the way that would happen was very much connected to remembrance of your name. For the ancient person, there was a connection between those realms, was very direct and it had a causal relationship. So if people on this mortal side of the realm weren't remembering your name, you may not exist on the other side anymore.

[00:14:50] So that is one of those ways of how it connects to that concept of ancestral worship.

[00:14:57] Again, we have our easy question of how the Bible can acknowledge that we preserve names, but critique the way that humans go about that. There's many things that are good here, family continuity, memory inheritance, but there is a danger, the idea of name- making as self- salvation or deciding what that's gonna look like.

[00:15:23] We'll look at a few of these texts, but I'll just drop a couple of them here. In Deuteronomy 25 of verses five through 10, we have Leverate marriage, the idea that if a man dies and he doesn't have children, then his brother is supposed to take his wife and bear children in his brother's name. That actually connects directly to our blotted out language. And remember last week I mentioned as an aside, how much of this language of remembrance has something to do with having children.

[00:15:56] These are key pieces that we're gonna miss if we only look at it from this Christian perspective of bodily resurrection. Again, I'm not discounting that. But there's a richer picture here to see.

[00:16:11] Ruth chapter four is an interesting place to see this. This is just an interesting chapter. I'll let you have a look at it. But there's this idea of inheritance and perpetuating the name of people who are dead so that they won't be cut off. And other people are called to be witnesses in that.

[00:16:34] In second Samuel 18, verse 18, Absalom puts up a pillar because he has no son to keep his name in remembrance.

[00:16:44] But of course in Genesis six and in Genesis 11, we have a dark side of this.

[00:16:52] And this is directly contrasted with what we have in Genesis 12 with Abram, who God tells him he's going to make his name great. So the Bible is comfortable with people receiving a name, but suspicious of manufacturing a name as a substitute for God, or according to their own purposes.

[00:17:15] Okay, so let's go back to that superhero frame and why it's a bit misleading. So our modern idea of the superhero, it's a pretty prominent concept today. It implies admiration and moral heroism. That's just the default positive. Of course we have stories of anti-heroes that people end up admiring because of their characteristics for whatever reason.

[00:17:44] But that is the exception that proves the rule. They wouldn't be called anti-heroes if heroes weren't supposed to be like the goodie two shoes, Superman type.

[00:17:56] And so Genesis six flows immediately toward violence and judgment. And so that's going to make us automatically suspicious of a positive reading here. And I think most people will see how the two connect. But as you can see, there's a whole host of packaged imagery that we're missing in the superhero frame that we don't necessarily have with this ancient picture of the men of the name.

[00:18:24] Now, of course, in our modern idea of the superhero, we do have the superhero in the category of power. Usually they literally have a superpower, and if they don't have a superpower, then they are really strongly driven by a motivation, and they have resources to overcome the fact that they don't have a superpower.

[00:18:48] But we should not ignore the idea that superhero is also a moral category. It's not just about power. It's not just about strength. A superhero is somebody who's worthy of admiration. So default assumptions that are embedded into this word, heroism is about moral goodness or a story that celebrates the hero, at least .

[00:19:15] The power is for protection. It's for saving, defending, rescuing. Of course, we have those really tense stories where maybe the superhero is tempted by using his power in a bad way, and in that case, that superhero would no longer be a hero. For the superhero, the renown is earned, or it's very strongly justified. They're famous because they're good.

[00:19:45] So the moment that we call something a superhero, we've already decided how we feel about them. And so for bringing that idea to the text, we're not allowing Genesis to tell us how we should be feeling about these Nephilim.

[00:20:02] The obvious test here is what does the narrator do right after the Nephilim are introduced? It doesn't go in and tell us the great deeds that the Nephilim did. It goes directly into divine indictment with a very strong description of the depth of human evil. God's grief and his resolve to judge, and the earth is filled with violence and there is that decision to end all of that.

[00:20:32] So Genesis itself really gives us a very direct interpretation of what it means here. The mighty men or the men of the name sits right on the doorstep of violence filling the earth. So whatever heroes means here, it's not a compliment in a modern sense.

[00:20:53] Now, if you read older literature, a hero can mean a legendary figure more than just a good guy. That it doesn't always have to be a moral category in all of the literature you read, when we're thinking of legendary figures. We can have people who are much more complex than what you usually have with Superman.

[00:21:17] So, you know, Genesis can acknowledge that these were famous without endorsing them and propping them up as being great. We can bring some moral ambiguity into here. But importantly, the renown seems to be functioning as a warning light, especially when you read the rest of Scripture. And the Bible critiques greatness when it is self-made or self-determined, or it comes from our human desires.

[00:21:49] Okay, so now let's look at a word that is associated here. We have men of the name, but we also have the word mighty men. Now this word in Hebrew has a wide range of meaning. It does not just mean morally good, but it does often resonate with strength or warrior might, but admittedly it doesn't always mean violent conqueror. So we have to look at the immediate context of where it is used in order to kind of see some of that.

[00:22:22] So the word gibbor, you'll see different translations of that. Sometimes you'll see mighty one or a strong one. Often it's associated with being a warrior. So let's look at some of the uses here. We have the warrior or military mighty man. The picture here is a capable fighter, a champion, somebody within the soldier class, perhaps a man of valor. There's David's Mighty men. There's a list of them in two Samuel 23 and one Chronicles 11.

[00:22:59] You'll find this show up in poetry as well. Psalm 33, verse 16 says, quote, " The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength." End quote.

[00:23:16] There we have it in the form of the word translated warrior.

[00:23:21] It is also associated with having a high status, kind of an elite leader type. So mighty man, or gibbor, can signal social weight and influence, not just military fighting. Let's look in Isaiah chapter three. The mighty man comes alongside the judge, the prophet, and the elder. So these are kind of like the power brokers, not really comic book heroes here.

[00:23:53] Isaiah chapter three says, quote, " For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply. All support of bread and all support of water. The mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of 50 and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one, his fellow and everyone his neighbor. The youth will be insolent to the elder and the despised to the honorable." End quote.

[00:24:43] This term is also used in ways that clearly do not connotate anything about giants. So the word gibbor is not a synonym for nephilim or giant. In fact, in Psalm 103, verse 20, it uses mighty ones for spiritual beings. Quote, "Bless the Lord, oh you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word." End quote.

[00:25:14] Now here they are being obedient, certainly not being violent and oppressive. They're doing God's word, and so they're manifesting God's power when they do that. Gibbor is not a species label.

[00:25:30] And of course we have many places where this word is ironic or negative, and it's got corrupt annotations. Isaiah chapter five, 22 says, quote, " Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink." End quote.

[00:25:55] If you remember my episodes about alcohol, you'll see how this passage is going to connect to perverting justice in the book of Isaiah as well. Strength is turned to crookedness.

[00:26:09] Psalm 52 verse one says, quote, "Why do you boast of evil, oh mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day." End quote.

[00:26:22] Okay, that's clearly not a full frame analysis of the word gibbor, but it can mean warrior, champion, elite, or even spiritual beings.

[00:26:34] Now, another point I want to make, that heroes of old or the men of renown, this idea of the legendary figure from the past. That does serve as a cultural memory, and they aren't always morally great. In many cultures, the heroic age of the past is full of violence, exploitation, and semi divine injustice.

[00:27:01] So again, that's why I'm saying that if we call them superheroes, we're missing out on some of that context. If you look at the Mesopotamian context of the flood, as Dr. Heiser described it, and you're looking at that context of the apkallu, quite frequently, the apkallu or the divine sages who bring knowledge that leads to the flood, sometimes in Mesopotamian literature, those apkallu are described as really positive, but they aren't always. Even within Mesopotamia, there were occasional polemics against those great sages of the past.

[00:27:44] So in different cultures, at different times, depending on the different authors, they look back at that primeval history, the way that they articulate it. Sometimes it's a golden age of greatness where we fell from, right? But not always. A lot of times it's not a great time and you do not want to go back to that primeval time.

[00:28:07] And the reason you don't wanna do that is because, well, we've grown past that. We have now gotten civilization. We've figured all of that out. So we certainly don't wanna go back to that primitive past.

[00:28:22] Now a thread that I do not have time to track through in this episode today is how we have Genesis six and Genesis 11, but there is that bridge in the middle with Nimrod. Nimrod is a mighty one and a mighty hunter.

[00:28:41] Now, many people through time have speculated that this means that Nimrod is a giant. But as we can see, if you're not necessarily bringing in giant context here, or even if you are, at minimum, it is a sign in the text that connects these places and associates this with world- shaping power, the kind that builds kingdoms.

[00:29:08] So if Nimrod was successful at what he was doing, then what we have with the Tower of Babel is like, well, we're going be successful too, because we're following in this path.

[00:29:21] Okay, let's dig a little bit deeper in Scripture with this idea of the men of the name. We've already described it in the ancient context here, being remembered after death, having a lineage that carries on, having authority that perpetuates even when you're alive as well, and not being cut off from the community's memory is key.

[00:29:47] Let's look at that passage that I mentioned earlier in Deuteronomy 25, starting in verse five, quote, " If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he persists saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house, and the name of his house shall be called in Israel, the house of him who had his sandal pulled off." End quote.

[00:31:07] Those are some really kind of interesting details, right? Surely what we have going on here is a contextual thing where if somebody was treated in this way, they would then endure shame. Their name would be sullied within the community, not necessarily cut off or blotted out, but in an honor- shame culture, it's really important to keep that memory of your name alive and well and treated well within the community. If you're shamed, that's not good. It's one of the worst things that can happen to you if the center of your community is built on honor and shame.

[00:31:54] Now, a lot of people will point out that this is probably also to help take care of the widow, because if she's taken in by the brother and she has a child and that child legitimately belongs to her in a way that doesn't really belong to her new husband, then there is this idea that she's going to be certainly taken care of because her line is also going to be continued, even though it's really the man's name who's being perpetuated. But at any case, this story really highlights some of these key aspects that are really not quite understood for us today.

[00:32:33] And in this story here in Deuteronomy 25, the idea is the continuation of the family line, but it's not about biology here is it? The idea of the continuation of the name isn't about continuation of genetics, and I think this is one of the key ways and the things that we really struggle with here.

[00:32:57] So if we bring in the ideas of inheritance and perpetuation within a community, then let's go back to the Tower incident. One of the things I've heard of discussed as a reason for why God saw the tower as being so bad is because God tells people to multiply and be fruitful, and that implies that they're supposed to spread throughout the earth, right?

[00:33:27] And it's like, oh, well look, they're not spreading through the earth. They're congregating in one place. And that's very clear to some degree in Genesis 11 because they are scattered, they don't wanna be scattered. So it is about chasing fame and honor, and they do seem to be trying to prevent dispersal. Probably because if you are in a group, then you are less vulnerable and things of that nature.

[00:33:59] And so this idea that they are supposed to scatter throughout the world is probably part of this, but I don't think it's quite as core to the idea as some of these other things that I'm talking about here regarding the idea that they're doing this of their own accord. They're trying to create a name that is powerful.

[00:34:21] I mean, if you're building an ancient city, you're probably doing it for a few reasons beyond just gathering people together. I mean, sure you can have some settled agriculture and you can do things in a society that you couldn't do otherwise, but you're also probably defending yourself against other people. Or perhaps setting yourself in a place where you can conquer others as well, and you can gain even more land and more people.

[00:34:54] In ancient Mesopotamia, the greatest thing was civilization, and that happened within cities. If you didn't have a city, you weren't civilized, you weren't living the good life, and you certainly weren't gonna be remembered as well as a nomadic people.

[00:35:13] So even though I do think we have some of that context of centralizing versus spreading out, I think the more core idea is that making a name apart from God was spiritually dangerous and probably connected, as I've said before, to false worship.

[00:35:34] The inversion of that happens immediately afterwards with Abram. The humans at the tower are like, let us make a name for ourselves. But God says to Abram that I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. Make your name great. And also there is a key aspect of that as well. So that you will be a blessing. Now, if you're making your own name great, then probably your focus is a little bit more selfish, a little bit more self-centered, isn't it?

[00:36:11] Now, did Abram go along with what God was trying to do and Abram was an amazingly selfless person? Uh, no. I don't think that is the case, but that's not really what we should expect of a human right. We do see that God's purposes are driven forward in the narrative where Abraham's family is a blessing to all nations, right?

[00:36:37] And Abraham is very concerned about this throughout his own personal life story as well. He calls God to the mat to say, look, you are not doing what you said you would do. How am I gonna have my name preserved without children? He doesn't say that directly, but that's kind of this underlying logic we have here. How am I gonna bless the nations if I don't have my own children that are going to perpetuate that blessing into the future?

[00:37:10] And what's fascinating, what's absolutely fascinating is all of the name changes that happen in Genesis. God literally changes the name as part of the promise. From Abram to Abraham, from Sariah to Sarah, from Jacob to Israel. But if you read through Genesis, it's not like the name Jacob just vanishes and it's not used. But the name change here is part of this outworking of the promise so that people could be regularly remembered of God's promise.

[00:37:47] So once you see these ideas kinda circulating in the water together, the name theme stops being entirely about fame and starts being about worship as well. Because the question becomes who gets to define me and what am I trusting to secure my future?

[00:38:10] So throughout the thread of the last few episodes, I've been talking a lot about worship and how that interplays with things in ways that we don't expect. Because for us, worship is often a thing we just do on Sunday when we get together with other believers. Often it's the singing part of the worship service.

[00:38:31] And I'm not talking about singing here, so how does it connect to worship? Well, name language is about who authorizes the identity and who secures the future. So making a name is not neutral. It is a worship move. It is inherently connected to the idea of worship, even if the people are not worshiping a particular deity. I mean, maybe they are and it's just not described. I think that's quite likely personally. But we can't divorce the idea that people are self-driven and that the purpose of this is their desire.

[00:39:14] It is still about the self versus God. Now, usually that's gonna loop in all of those rebellious creatures, right? ' cause they're going to take advantage of you in that position.

[00:39:27] Now, this doesn't mean that we don't do meaningful things and we don't try and go out there and do things that are great, but what is our impulse?

[00:39:40] One way to define worship is to do so in functional terms. Worship is whatever you treat as ultimate, whatever you rely on to define you and secure you. So the name logic touches two worship questions, who authorizes my identity and who secures the future?

[00:40:03] Now I would be quite remiss if I did not bring up Carmen Imes' work in all of this as well. If you have not read her book about bearing God's name, I highly recommend it. It's a very easy read and talks about what we have in the 10 Commandments about taking God's name in vain. It's not just about speech. It's about carrying or bearing that name in life in a false way.

[00:40:32] This is also seen in many other places in Scripture. Let me read Numbers six, starting in verse 22, quote, " The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel. You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them." End quote.

[00:41:10] So you see, our name is not just about what we are personally called. Our identity is not just wrapped up in us as individuals.

[00:41:21] Deuteronomy 28, verse 10 says, quote, " And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you." End quote.

[00:41:35] The nations are to see Israel as being called by the name of Yahweh. This is a public identity and this is part of the manifestation of the glory and honor of God himself as well.

[00:41:51] Jeremiah 14 verse nine says, quote, " Why should you be like a man confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot save, yet you oh Lord, are in the midst of us. And we are called by your name. Do not leave us." End quote.

[00:42:11] I neglected to mention earlier that the word gibbor can be referring to God himself because he is the ultimate mighty warrior. The one who saves. And if you are called by his name, then you are part of that salvation matrix.

[00:42:30] Obviously this connects to many things in the New Testament. I believe I mentioned Acts four last time, which says, quote, " And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." End quote.

[00:42:51] And so now there's a whole bunch of different pastoral directions we could take this, right? What are you building that if you lost that thing, you would feel lost? Or you would feel like your identity was gone? What are you building that if God asked you to walk away from it would feel like death to you?

[00:43:13] That's a hard question, right? Because we have these projects in life that we're doing, we become very attached to them. We do insert our identities within those things, and it's not wrong to do those things. It's not even wrong to take pride in them, I think. And it's not wrong to include that as part of your identity, especially if that's a ministry or a service that you are doing for God's people. That can be part of bearing God's name. Absolutely.

[00:43:48] But I think a lot of us have to admit that we have this latent fear, even if we don't think about it consciously, that if we lose the things that currently build our lives, that we ourselves would be lost. And that would be, a terrifying situation to face something like that.

[00:44:09] And I'm not trying to hit you over the head with this idea, but I think it's worth considering. It's not about saying you have to stop doing those things and give up right now. The idea is not to sacrifice it just because you think that would be a righteous move.

[00:44:27] No. That's not the righteous move. The righteous move is to live your life in alignment with God, and that is going to mean that you're going to do things. Part of bearing his name is to bring glory to him through your actions. That is how you live out, actively, imaging God purposely.

[00:44:49] But we also know that there's a measure of trust that we have to have when we have some sort of complicated project or really when we're just living normal life. We can trust God that he will perpetuate what we're working on, when what we're working on is associated with making his name great.

[00:45:12] Okay, so I have a little more time today, so I'm gonna go ahead and touch very briefly on the reception history of these ideas. When I say reception history, I'm talking about the ways that people have used and interpreted Genesis through time.

[00:45:33] That is going to include things like First Enoch, because first Enoch, being a text from the second temple period, is part of this long line of reception history where people are taking the inspired text, wrestling with it in their own context, and trying to figure out exactly what it means and why it says the things that it does.

[00:45:57] A lot of these things are going to fill in gaps. And it's not that that's really a problem. This, this is just what people do. We fill in gaps all the time. We have to do that because we have new ways of thinking and we're now in a context where we have to try to understand the past.

[00:46:17] The problem is a lot of people have taken these things that fill in the gaps, and then we presume that those are just the same as the text of Genesis and that historical context. And I'm gonna tell you, hold your horses there. Because quite frankly, a lot of the reception history is made up.

[00:46:43] It is not native to the text. It is just an interpolation. There's a whole bunch of detail in one Enoch that really does not show up in Genesis.

[00:46:55] So one of those things that people love to take and speculate on is Nimrod. And like I said, I'm sure we'll be doing some very deep dives on Nimrod in the future once we get to that part of Genesis, but he is crucial to this storyline here.

[00:47:13] I do want to caution you that reception history can be illuminating, but it is not necessarily, exegetical. It does not always come from the text. There is nothing in Genesis, nothing in the Old Testament that says anything at all about the rows of giant teeth.

[00:47:36] So far everything I've been talking about is rooted in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The narrative logic, the context of the name, the inversion between Babel and Abram. But when we want to look at how historical interpretation treats things, we're going to ask how did later communities interpret and elaborate these texts?

[00:48:01] Now, again, I'm going to remind you that we can interpret the word nephilim as giant. There's reasons for that. But notice in Genesis, we do not have any mention of height. That doesn't come until the book of Numbers. And so are we really talking about tall, giant people? I

[00:48:23] mean, maybe, maybe we are, but what if we're not? What if that's a later idea? What if that's part of the reception history that is involved in the conquest and it really has no bearing in Genesis itself? It's possible. I'm just saying. I know we have plenty of ancient cultures that talk about tall giant figures and monsters and semi divine figures and all of these, and we just wanna kind of mash all of that together in one. But we don't have to. I'm saying. We don't have to.

[00:49:01] But quite frequently what we have going on is Genesis six, the Nephilim are seen as literal giants. Nimrod is also seen as literal giant, and then Nimrod is often connected to the building of the Tower, and so the Tower of Babel is also built by giants. You can kind of see this logic and how it really plays into our modern narratives of ancient aliens and people of the past who, well, they couldn't build these monumental buildings unless they were monumentally- sized people.

[00:49:39] If you want to find a lot of really interesting material on all of that, I will point you over to Dr. Heiser's blog. He talked about it frequently. And he has a lot of really interesting stuff there you can go read about.

[00:49:54] But my point here is that it's quite possible that the vast majority of that is not inherent to Genesis, but is just part of this reception history that I'm talking about here.

[00:50:09] Genesis does tell us that Nimrod is a a mighty one, and he's associated with early kingdom- building things, right? And so this connection here is very natural. Nimrod becomes the archetypical rebel king, and so he becomes involved with Babel directly as a builder or a leader. And as interesting as I know all of that is, it's not directly there in Genesis. And when we can realize that or mighty one is not a species term, then these things are not necessary connections. They're interpretive bridges.

[00:50:54] Is it possible? Sure. A lot of things are possible, though. A lot of things. Don't mistake the possible for the probable. What is absolutely clear is that Nimrod is in the context of kingdoms and cities. And so, again, I get it. It's natural to then treat him as the representative and the strong man and the giant, the civilization legend, right? And people do, people have done that many times through history.

[00:51:28] Another place I will point you to is Dr. Heiser's Reversing Hermon. That lays out a lot of this stuff in detail. So if you kinda wanna do a deep dive into some of it from a really good perspective, and not like an ancient aliens perspective, then I'm gonna go point you over to the work of Dr. Heiser.

[00:51:49] But I will suggest you keep two things in mind. What does the text say explicitly. And what does the text infer or imply? Because the implications are those places where it's going to be really easy for us to insert our ideas into the text.

[00:52:08] When you go and read the work of Dr. Heiser and others, what's going to be really helpful is to find these intertextual patterns, but let's not get too hasty in trying to go further than we should with them.

[00:52:24] All right, let me just go ahead and wrap all of this up. The perfect way to end this is to look at the Old Testament and the New Testament and how that brings these categories together. God's prerogative to make a name reaches its climax in Jesus and the divine name that is given and borne by him.

[00:52:46] Philippians chapter two verses nine through 11 says, quote, " Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." End quote.

[00:53:14] So even Jesus is given a name. In fact, we see this from the beginning of the gospels. Matthew chapter one, verse 21 says, quote," She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." End quote.

[00:53:34] It's easy to read this as, oh, isn't this nice? We're given the moment when Jesus is given a name. And I'm not gonna say that's not what's going on here. But this is more than just the story of Jesus getting what people call him. People of the time would be recalling Joshua, the entry into the promised land, the fulfillment of the exodus, the defeat of all the evil, and the Promised Land.

[00:54:05] And we are given that name when we are in Christ. And so there's this hierarchy here, which is really quite incredible.

[00:54:15] John 17 verse six says, quote, " I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me. And they have kept your word." End quote.

[00:54:31] So in Genesis, humans try to make a name and God promises to make a name. And in the New Testament, that pattern reaches its full climax where God bestows the decisive name on Jesus, the name above every name, so that ultimate allegiance and ultimate security are no longer anchored in our own projects, in our renown or our legacy, although those things can be associated with what we have going on as we bear the name.

[00:55:06] All right, so just a quick summary here. Genesis is critiquing the name- and so no, the Nephilim are not just superheroes, but as we see playing out in Scripture time and time again, this is the pattern. God doesn't just crush us for our desires, like our desires need to be reframed in accordance with his will. But he guides us along to this point where we are meant to be from the beginning.

[00:55:38] He gives us gifts. These are promises that come directly from God, and it's not an either or, right? It is an either or if the way that you're pursuing your name is contrary to God.

[00:55:53] So I hope that I've given you some things to consider in regards to how you can trace this pattern through Scripture. How you can put a little bit of guardrails on so you don't get into overly speculative territory. I know you're probably gonna do that anyway and it's okay.

[00:56:12] Like part of what we can do with the text is this thing that has happened throughout history. That's why we have this reception history because many people have done this. You're not the first, you're not gonna be the last. It's not even really necessarily a problem to go and speculate on all of these things.

[00:56:35] The problem comes in when we have determined that all of the speculation is now on the same level as the inspired text that we have. Like there's a difference here. And I'm not even gonna say that you can't go into rabbinic material and things like that to then help you to interpret things.

[00:56:58] But the hard thing is if you're trying to do this very carefully. Later ideas can help illuminate earlier ones, because the earlier ones don't even include all of the information, right? Like sometimes we're not quite sure how to interpret a passage until we get some more data that we get from later people who are kind of explaining how that is naturally interpreted.

[00:57:23] Because most things don't have to be interpreted initially. It's just later on when things start getting fuzzy, that we need actual interpretation to step in. So reception history can help us to forensically look at the earlier interpretation that we're not quite sure about or that could have a couple of different options.

[00:57:46] But it is so obvious, as well, that while we're doing those interpretive moves, we're also speculating. And speculation is speculation. I know that's really a shocking thing to say, right? But it feels like a lot of people don't realize that. They don't realize that Oh yeah, people really do have new ideas sometimes, and when they're inserting new ideas into the old ideas, it can be hard to take those apart and try to see which one is which.

[00:58:20] Which is why the interpretive process ought to be one that is humbling, and that leaves us with a little bit of an open hand.

[00:58:30] So I'm not gonna promise that this is gonna be my last nephilim dive for a while, but it might be. Just warning you now. I know a lot of you like these kinds of deep dives into that. I know a lot of people love the nephilim track. And I understand it. I get it. It's interesting, but I hope you can see the broader narrative here instead of just drilling down into, oh, obviously it is...

[00:58:58] But the narrative path is one that is going to give you a lot of fruitful study for the future if you can start seeing these connections in a literary fashion rather than just about being genetics or what have you.

[00:59:13] Again, Genesis calls the idea of making a name, really what it is. It's kind of a self- salvation project, where if you build enough permanence, then you won't get scattered. You won't get lost through time, and so on.

[00:59:29] But God refuses that. He patiently offers the alternative. The lasting name is the one that God gives. And that does include our children. It does include our ministry projects, and just our normal lives because life isn't separated out into strict ministry and secular life, right?

[00:59:53] But I do encourage you to think about this for yourself because it's a hard place. At least for me, it is, because I don't want to lose things that I've done. I have always been creative and losing things that I have created is heart wrenching.

[01:00:10] it's horrible. It's an awful experience, and I'm not wishing it upon anyone. But we should consider what would happen if we did, and how much of our heart and ourselves are we pouring into those projects versus our relationship with God? It's a hard question for me, so I'm gonna leave it for you as well to think about.

[01:00:32] But I'll go ahead and wrap up here, and thank you all for listening. Thank you for supporting me in the various ways that you do, you guys. I love it. it's really helpful if you guys share the episodes or talk about it with other people.

[01:00:47] And I invite you all over to my biblical theology community to talk about it there as well. And bring some friends on into the community as well. If you have a study group or friends at church or family or whatever, invite them over to my community at On This Rock. The link will be in the show notes. It's free to join. Just come on in and have some conversations with us. We would love to have you. I want to give a big shout out to my financial supporters. You guys are absolutely awesome, and I am so blessed by you, and I want you to know that. At any rate, I wish you all a blessed week and we will see you later.