This article is about the biblical race of giants; for other meanings, see: Nephilim (disambiguation).
The Nephilim (in Hebrew הנּפלים or "beings fallen") were a race of giants fathered by angels who had left Heaven to mate with mortal women. There are two clear biblical references to the Nephilim, one at Genesis 6:1-4
[1]
as the offspring of "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men",
and the other in the Book of Numbers 13:33
[1].
The story of the Nephilim is chronicled more fully in the pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch.
The Anakim and the Rephaim, which are mentioned in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, are races of giants which descended from the Nephilim. There are also allusions to these descendants in the apocryphal books of Judith, Sirach, Baruch, and the Wisdom of Solomon.
It is sometimes suggested that ridding the Earth of this race of giants was God's real purpose in flooding the Earth in Noah's time.
