The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Genesis 6:4-5 NIV
In Genesis we find this strange account of the Nephilim. Scholars have long debated about the origin and meaning of the word and there are various explanations concerning them. A quick glance at Wikipedia can give you this in some detail. However, I have found none of these explanations satisfactory.
However, while receiving leaders’ training for the Betel Bible Series I received the alternate view that follows. The most important principle of the Bethel study is to “Think Hebrew when reading the Bible. Most of us tend to “Think Greek.” We want the Bible to make sense logically. We ask questions like, “Where did Cain’s wife come from?” We want to know exactly who these Nephilim were. We want to know where they came from and when they disappeared. If they were giants we want to know how big!
Our instructor for the course at Bethel was The Rev. Robert Wise. He is indeed one of the wisest teachers I ever had. After helping us understand that what we have here is probably a remnant of some older myth, he summed up the meaning of this short episode saying: “When the powerful take the beautiful for their own desires there will be hell to pay!”
At the time the country was in the midst of trying to understand the President Clinton / Lewinsky scandal! Yes, the Bible, even the first book, is still relevant. How the mighty have fallen. At the time of this writing it is also true. “Giants” of Cinema, Television, and News have taken beautiful women against their will and again we have seen “how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth.”
What I hope you gain from this is the idea that is so clear here; even what may seem obscure in the Bible has some deeper meaning if we keep meditating upon it.