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Updated: 2021.04.06
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הַנְּפִילִ֛ים (pl.) — At the dawn of recorded history, ancients could only codify limited, spotty and conflicting oral tales, told around campfires, of their particular culture's most important stalwarts in memory. Beyone that was the indistinct designation for the unknown, legendary, forbears, from distant and dim antiquity—encapsulated in אָדָ֔ם (perceived by ancients to have been originally created by, i.e. a direct son of ël•ōh•imꞋ) and Khau•âhꞋ (perceived in antiquity to have been created from man, i.e. a daughter of man).
The male descendants of the נְּפִילִ֛ים married בְּנ֣וֹת־הָֽאָדָ֔ם, who gave birth to אַנְשֵׁ֥י הַשֵּֽׁם, who were הַגִּבֹּרִ֛ים from the prehistoric era down to the time of NōꞋakh. Confirming that Scripture is speaking of mortals, the Tar•gumꞋ OnꞋᵊqᵊlos translates both נְּפִלִים and הָגִּבֹּרִים with the same Aramaic term: גִּבָּרַיָּא
Thus, recorded—written history—of בְּנֵ֤י־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ (i.e. human men) marrying בְּנ֣וֹת־הָֽאָדָ֔ם (i.e. human women), producing אַנְשֵׁ֥י הַשֵּֽׁם (mortal-men of the Name), who were הַגִּבֹּרִ֛ים (heroic warriors), begins with the dawn of the Bronze Age. The unfathomable presence of אָדָ֔ם and Khau•âhꞋ, along with their ancestors of cultural memory, was drawn entirely from cultural oral lore pre-dating writing and scribes, handed down from the prehistorical mist of the Neolithic Period.
A priori, it was during the Early Bronze Era that scribes first wrote down the summary of their cultural oral lore from the Neolithic Period. The resulting corpus of codified oral lore comprises the earliest extant ancestry of הַנְּפִילִ֛ים—of the Neolithic Period and thereafter (into the Bronze Age).
According to the Text, the ancestry of הַנְּפִילִ֛ים continued in the Bronze Age; down to the time of NōꞋakh, his sons and grandsons—specifically until the birth of Kᵊna•anꞋ, son of Khâm (and grandson of NōꞋakh) cBCE 2452. "It was in those days and thereafter" that הַנְּפִילִ֛ים were in the land." Perhaps due to the forbidden deed of his father, Khâm, Kᵊna•anꞋ was cursed, thereby becoming the original נָּפִיל.
Scripture focuses on the line of הַנְּפִילִ֛ים from the original cursed נָּפִיל, Kᵊna•anꞋ, through the eponymous עֲנָ֖ק (i.e. the בְּנֵ֥י־עֲנָ֖ק, aka עֲנָקִ֖ים) down to the eponymous אַרְבַּ֔ע (of Qi•rᵊy•atꞋ ArᵊbaꞋ; original name of Khë•vᵊr•ōnꞋ), to חֵ֖ת, eponymous patriarch of the בְּנֵי־חֵ֖ת inhabitants of Khë•vᵊr•ōnꞋ in the time of Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ (cBCE 2000).
Confirming these things half a millennium later, Yᵊhō•shūꞋa Bin-Nun (cBCE 1542) identified ArᵊbaꞋ as a renowned descendent of the בְּנֵ֣י־הָעֲנָ֑ק, confirming that the בְּנֵ֥י־עֲנָ֖ק still inhabited Khë•vᵊr•ōnꞋ.
The scribe(s) of bᵊ-Mi•dᵊbarꞋ further inform that the 12 scouts sent ahead by Yᵊhō•shūꞋa Bin-Nun to evaluate the military forces occupying Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ's ranch and pasturing ranges reported seeing בְּנֵ֥י־עֲנָ֖ק there, describing them as from הַנְּפִילִ֛ים!
Yᵊkhë•zᵊq•eilꞋ 32.27 identifies הַגִּבֹּרִ֛ים נֹפְלִ֖ים as יָרְדֽוּ־שְׁא֣וֹל! Ergo, those who went down to שְׁא֣וֹל are one and the same as הַנְּפִילִ֛ים—also called רְפָאִים! Moreover, Dᵊvâr•imꞋ 2.11 further identifies עֲנָקִים with the רְפָאִים.
Thus, the הַנְּפִלִ֞ים were synonymous with the Kᵊna•an•imꞋ, from whom עֲנָ֖ק distinguished himself, becoming patriarch of the בְּנֵ֥י־עֲנָ֖ק.
נְּפִלִים are related to "sons of ël•oh•imꞋ" – misperceived by Medieval European Christians and rabbis (!) as "divine or angelic beings" (EJ, "Nephilim," 12.962) – in bᵊ-Reish•itꞋ 6.4; see also bᵊ-Mi•dᵊbarꞋ 13.33).
The association with עֲנָקִים is based on the (much later) only two other citations, both in bᵊ-Mi•dᵊ
While נְּפִלִים are described as עֲנָקִים, the latter is also a description for the רְפָאִים. Ergo, נְּפִלִים/Kᵊna•an•imꞋ are the overall people of the Levant, subsuming the עֲנָקִים and the רְפָאִים.
Medieval European rabbis understood this to be "an ancient tradition … equating the Nephilim and the gibborim as offspring of the union of angels and mortals."
It was only "[i]n apocryphal writings of the Second Temple period this fragmentary narrative was elaborated as rebels against God: lured by the charms of women, they 'fell' (Heb. nfl נפל), defiled their heavenly purity, and introduced all manner of sinfulness to earth. Their giant offspring were wicked and violent…" (EJ, loc. cit.).
It wasn't until about the 5th century C.E. that the Tal•
In a note to the above, the Artscroll editors commented: "A most esoteric Mi•dᵊ
“בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים are the angels Uzza and Azael whose abode was in the heavens but descended to earth to prove themselves. …
Godsaid to them: 'If you lived on earth like these people and beheld the beauty of their women, the [YeiꞋtzër hâ-Ra] would enter you, too, and cause you to sin!'" (Artscroll "Bereshis" I.181). ”
Sons of] Ël•oh•
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who must shield their eyes and flee. (According to this Ultra-Orthodox reasoning, when married, the husband is somehow immune and his wife becomes magically sacred to him alone—but one must cover her up, and she may not sing within range of a man's hearing, so that she isn't a "satanic" influence abominating others. "Satanic" influence is strictly for the Ultra-Orthodox husband!)
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