What are the Nephilim? The Promised Head-Crusher Prophecy was a sentence of doom for Satan: "The Seed of the Woman -- the Messiah -- will crush your head" (Genesis 3:15). In this episode with Mark Russak, we explore the possibility that fallen angels impregnated women in a vain attempt to corrupt the human bloodline and thwart the Messiah from coming. Admittedly, this is difficult to process for the Western mind. Dive deep with us. You decide. Part 2 of 2.
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See the full episode transcript below.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to episode 218 of Jesus Smart, the podcast. This is part two of my dialogue with Mark Russick exploring Genesis 6 and the Nephilim giants.
Brian: I believe that Jesus Christ knows how our lives work best in the now and that he is passionate about developing his followers as intimate friends and co-agents in his kingdom. I just took my shot of Linda's sweet honey Ohio Raw natural wildflower premium honey straight out of the bottle. By drinking out of the bottle, I ensure that none of my daughters or wife will access any of my honey. I don't watch sitcoms—I like to make my own sitcoms by giving shock value to the women around me. Penny and I with our daughters finally got together with my mom and sister for Christmas on January 23rd. My mom had Covid before Christmas, so we had to delay that gathering.
Understanding Your Promised Land
Brian: We have a new episode feature called Jesus Dynamics—applying the Jesus way to all dimensions of life. We all have a land we're designed to fight for and possess. David said in Psalm 16:5-6, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places." The Lord himself is our inheritance. Then the Lord supports our lot in life. The Lord determines the dimensions of your life with your engagement. Not others, not your past, not even yourself apart from Christ.
Your view of the Lord and your view of yourself affects your ability to fight for and possess what the Lord has for you. Don't look at your land through the lens of your grasshopper self. David said, "I have set the Lord continually before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken."
The promised head crusher prophecy was a sentence of doom for Satan in Genesis 3:15. In this episode we explore the probability that fallen angels impregnated women who bore these mysterious Nephilim. This is one of the most difficult passages in all of Scripture, but we're convinced by using solid historical, grammatical hermeneutics that this plain reading of Genesis 6:1-4 shows these were spiritual beings who engaged human daughters and produced the Nephilim.
The Book of Enoch and Dead Sea Scrolls
Brian: We see Enoch quoted in Jude and referenced in Hebrews 11:5: "Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death." It's not included in the Old Testament canon, but the early church was very familiar with his writings.
Mark: That's correct. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid-20th century included all the Old Testament except Esther. What's important is the Book of Enoch and other books were also included, which means the early church held high validity to these writings. There's Jasher and the Book of Jubilees which allude to Genesis 6:4 and the antediluvian period. The Ethiopian church also includes it as part of their canon.
Brian: So it's not inspired scripture that we hold, but a corollary piece of literature quoted in the New Testament. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovery was massive for Old Testament scholarship, right?
Mark: That's correct. It comes within 98% accuracy of what we read today. We can have high confidence that the Bible we read today is the same Bible written and quoted by Jesus and his disciples. All the prophecies of the Messiah's birth and crucifixion were written hundreds of years before Jesus and validated in the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery.
Harmonizing Ancient Texts with Genesis
Brian: What about harmonizing this verbiage from the Book of Enoch with Genesis?
Mark: Genesis 6:1-2 says, "When man began to multiply and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as wives any they chose." Enoch 6 writes: "The angels, the children of the heavens, saw and lusted after them and said to one another, come, let us choose wives from among the children of men, and beget us children."
The Book of Jubilees, Jasher, and Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews all corroborate this. Josephus wrote: "Many angels of God accompanied with women and begat sons that were proved unjust despisers of all that was good. For the tradition is that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants." He also said the giants had bodies so large and countenances so entirely different from other men. The bones of these men are still shown to this day.
Brian: So Jewish scholarship preceding Christ and the early Christian tradition believed these were angels in Genesis 6. Only later came the sons of Seth view. I like to look at the generations closest to the events—the early church of the first, second, third centuries.
For a richer transcript and additional resources to go deeper, visit jesussmart.com/giants.
How Angels Reproduced with Humans
Brian: How do these angels materialize with reproductive systems? Could they have heavily demonized men and worked through possessing their bodies?
Mark: It's not thoroughly conclusive, but Jude says they left their place, their assigned position, and came down to earth to Mount Hermon. I believe they could have imparted themselves into men, that they had ability to utilize sexual parts. There are accounts in ancient Egyptian cultures and in Enoch of very freaky things. It would be my contention they had some means of either possessing or engaging with men.
Brian: We know angels can eat. Angels visited Abraham and sat down to a meal. They looked like men. Manna was called angel's food. Hebrews says entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unaware. Is it possible that angelic traffic around Christ's birth and the early church was so high because of spiritual conflict and warfare?
Mark: I absolutely believe so. Think about the birth of Christ and the announcement the Lord made, that the heavens were rejoicing. The shepherds in the field, the signs in the heavens—angels are sometimes referred to as stars. There was the rejoicing, the overwhelming party that Jesus arrived on earth to save mankind.
Brian: There was a lot of angelic activity—showing up in dreams, guiding Joseph, the Magi. Those shepherds must have looked up and saw the host, the militant armies of angels. We know Satan was trying to kill Jesus through Herod.
Mark: No question. That's one of the missions and strategies of Satan—to destroy the bloodline leading up to the Messiah.
Satan's Attack on the Messianic Bloodline
Brian: Can you give us a survey of Satan's attempt to corrupt the Messianic bloodline throughout Old Testament history?
Mark: You think about Exodus, trying to destroy the male child—that's how Moses was set free. Then the ten plagues. Then Herod. Scripture points to no less than ten separate attacks on the bloodline from David in Second Samuel, Second Chronicles, Second Kings, and Esther. This was part of the strategy with the Nephilim.
Brian: This traces back to Genesis 3:15, the death sentence upon Satan.
Mark: That's where Satan received his death sentence. Then it continues after Jesus is born—the Spanish Inquisition, World War II. In 70 AD when Romans conquered Jerusalem, they killed over a million Jews. It's the bloodline of Jesus and his family.
Brian: Israel reconstituting as a nation in 1948—that had to be another death knell for Satan.
Mark: Put yourself in Satan's shoes. He sees in 1943-44 the buildup in Israel. So he invades Hitler himself and attempts to eliminate the Jews.
Brian: As to the reproductive process, are you saying these angelic beings materialized with reproductive systems or did it through demonization of humans?
Mark: I would say it's not definitive, but it could be either one or both.
Jesus' Statement About Angels and Marriage
Brian: What about Jesus' statement that angels do not marry in heaven? In Matthew 22, Jesus says they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. How is that different from Genesis 6?
Mark: He's speaking about what would happen to us after we die. But remember Jude where they left their assigned place. Now they are in the earth and it says they married. I would contend they forced themselves on these women. I would not equate it to our marriages today.
Brian: The state of angels in heaven who haven't abandoned their proper domain is different from those who have, right?
Mark: Correct.
Giants After the Flood
Brian: What about giants appearing post-flood in the Promised Land? It's as if Satan made the Promised Land a minefield. Where did they come from?
Mark: It's a question Christians wrestle with. God eliminated the Nephilim himself. After the flood, God empowered the Israelites to eliminate the Nephilim. He listed seven tribes—Goliath, King Og, and others—where he assigned Joshua to kill, destroy, eliminate every man, woman, and animal. That's unlike God's nature, so clearly there was something important there.
It's possible they could have gone in the water during the flood. First Corinthians 15 says there are different kinds of flesh—men, beasts, fishes, birds. Genesis 6 eliminates every man except Noah's family, beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air, never alluding to anything in the water. Satan is often referred to as Leviathan, that ancient serpent, which is aquatic in nature.
The other possibility: Genesis 9 says Ham is the father of the Canaanites, and the Canaanites were one of the giant tribes ordered eliminated. In Jasher, the wives were selected seven days before the ark. Scripture says Noah and his family were pure, but that may refer specifically to Noah, his wife, and the three sons, potentially leaving open the question of the sons' wives.
Brian: Could there be another option, that this event happened again, that other angels abandoned their proper abode?
Mark: It's certainly possible, but there is no mention of it in Scripture.
Brian: We just know there were giants, right? Are you talking about archaeological evidence around the world?
Mark: I would refer to megalithic structures. The pyramids are built with such sophistication and weight that they needed supernatural beings. Stonehenge—45-50 tons put together with sophisticated pins. Puma Punku with 25-foot structures of 100 tons. Easter Island heads—13 feet high, 14 tons. Stone jugs of Laos at 30,000 pounds. Mayan villages and pyramids in Peru and Mexico. We're littered with this. Plus archaeological digs of colossal giants with skeletal structures 15, 18, 20, 25 feet long.
Brian: So this could have been a planetary event?
Mark: I think it clearly started near Israel in the Middle East. The pyramids' sophistication and cosmological alignment is astonishing. It can't be done by man. But we see it in South America, Central America, Easter Island. It definitely expanded beyond the Middle East.
For a richer transcript and additional resources to go deeper, visit jesussmart.com/giants.
UFOs and Spiritual Warfare
Brian: What about those in the New Age movement or extreme pursuit of knowledge about aliens? How do you differentiate that from the biblical account?
Mark: The Word says we are in this world but not of this world, alluding to another world outside of here. I think it's interesting that the government last year released accounts of UFO sightings with videos of military pilots. It's well documented. A lot of that goes directly into the ocean. This is possibly alluding to things that may have been available back then. Why is this information being released by the government now? For years you were considered a crackpot. Now the government says we've been visited and it defies anything we know. There are some who believe, if you believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, that this would be the reason they'd use as to why Christians are gone—that they were taken by aliens.
Brian: Yeah, priming the global population to have a really erroneous excuse as to what happened. I think that's a very clear possibility.
Practical Applications for Spiritual Warfare
Brian: How can this shape our understanding of spiritual warfare? Can it scale up our prayer and change our worldview?
Mark: Look at the degree Satan has gone in attacking Jesus, attacking mankind, attempting to impart his will. He is at war and we are supposed to be at war. I think in the West we don't acknowledge the gravity of what we're at war with.
These Nephilim, when they die, where do they go? They're part angelic being but part human, not created by God. According to Enoch, these are spirits that roam the earth. So we're possibly dealing with spirits here. One of the gifts we have is the discerning of spirits. Do we tap into these gifts? Do we acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit? The Word says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. Do we put on the weapons of our warfare? Are we willing to engage in intercessory prayer, to free the oppressed, to free the sick?
I believe many mental institutions and hospitals are filled with people who are demon possessed. There's a mission field there for the church. Why did Jesus give us the gift of discerning of spirits? We need to tap into it. I think it's important to engage people in conversation. Look at the megalithic structures. Look at what anybody can see with their own eyes. We need to be studying, spending time in the Word. Let's look at early church writings. There's so much information we can glean. That's part of what you and I are doing right now—building up the church and edifying one another, but also reaching out to the lost.
Brian: Well said. Did not Jesus say, if I cast out evil spirits by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you? A core capacity of the kingdom is the displacement of dark powers. It's a shame if the world is becoming more interested in spiritual things—
Mark: That's an opening for us. There was a recent survey by Pew looking at Millennials. They acknowledge Jesus is real, but they felt like the church is glossing over it or trying to appease them. They're hungry for relationships with Jesus. Mario Morello said we don't need skinny jeans and fog machines. We need the preaching of the gospel in the church. I think we try to appease the culture rather than stick to who Jesus is and the authority he's given us.
Brian: A lot of times we're in these theological systems of belief that are limiting. We have to be open to the Word of God, to the Holy Spirit. If the Lord wants to break us out into new understanding, we have to be willing to follow Jesus in that.
I appreciate this so much, Mark. How can people learn more about your content?
Mark: Thank you and God bless you for the work that you're doing. You're such a precious commodity to the body of Christ. Russakoutlook.com is the website, and I try to post videos at least once or twice a week. There's a YouTube channel—just look up Russak Outlook. We're on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I'm looking to engage people with proper information, and if they don't know the Lord, this will give them information to consider.
Brian: It's R-U-S-S-A-K, Russak Outlook. There's a podcast on all major podcast platforms and YouTube with PowerPoint presentations.
Mark: What I do is PowerPoint presentations on YouTube, and the audio is streamed on podcast platforms. This year I'm building a video studio, expanding into live streaming, hopefully having some guests. I'd love to have you on to return the favor. I'm looking to where the Lord leads. I believe he's impressed upon me to engage more in video, live streaming, and engaging with others. My efforts are to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Brian: I appreciate that you're leaning into it. I think there is a rising tide of content creators. I believe the Holy Spirit is surfacing and emerging fresh new voices. It's happening. Well, thank you, Mark. God bless you.
Mark: God bless you. I'll talk to you soon.
Expert Perspective: Dr. Hugh Ross
Brian: Here's that promised audio excerpt from Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe. Who were the Nephilim?
Dr. Hugh Ross: Like with any controversial issue in the Bible, you want to look at all 66 books, not just Genesis 6. This subject pops up again and again. Genesis 6 says they were present before the flood and after. They're the result of the sons of God visiting the daughters of men. As you go through the Bible's chronologies, they show up with different names—the Anakites, the Rephaim, the Nephilim. They're all interchangeable terms. The last appearance is in King David's time. David's mighty men wiped out the last of the Nephilim.
They're tall—Goliath was at least 9 feet 9 inches. The king of Bashan had a bed at least 13 feet long made of iron. These were big people. No mention of women. They're all men with birth defects like six fingers and six toes. We know they're all evil. None are good. But they were mighty men in battle and a threat to the emerging Hebrew nation. That's why God set up procedure where they could be eliminated.
Jude 6 talks about a subcategory of evil angels who left their estate. Because they left their estate, they were consigned to the abyss, a place demons don't like. Every time Jesus cast out demons, they said don't send us to the abyss. Jude indicates it's a special place for demons who crossed the line.
Brian: What would be your recommendation as people study Genesis 6?
Dr. Hugh Ross: What I did in Navigating Genesis is lay out the three predominant hypotheses, give people the Scripture passages, and tell them: read these passages and draw your own conclusion.
Brian: Thanks again, Mark Russick. Explore the Russak Outlook podcast on your favorite app. He has a YouTube channel. The show notes page jesussmart.com/giants is rich with links and resources. You can stay connected with the podcast and jesussmart.com. Subscribe to be notified when new podcasts go live. Sign up for the e-letter to stay updated about new things...
