Those Nasty Nephilim

The idea that an omnipotent creator god could callously seek to exterminate an entire species for the sins of a few shocks and outrages the conscience, but the Biblical “flood” had nothing to do with human sin; instead, fallen angels had been skinny-dipping in the human gene-pool:

“To theologians and philosophers, it is a fact, that from the copulation of humans [men or women] with the demon, human beings are sometimes born… the children generated in this manner by the incubi are tall, very strong, very daring, very magnificent and very wicked. We also read in the Scriptures (Genesis 6:4) that giants were born as a result of intercourse between the sons of God and the daughters of Man: this is the very letter of the sacred text.

Now these giants were men of tall stature… and far superior to other men. Besides their monstrous size, they called attention by their strength, their plunders, their tyranny. And it is to the crimes of these giants that we must attribute the main and primary cause of the Flood…” ((Vallee, Jacques. Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact. Ballantine Books, 1988. 131.))

APOCRYPHAL ANTICS

An apocryphal Jewish scripture called the “Book of Enoch” tells a similar story: 200 fallen angels called the “Watchers” left Heaven to “sleep with [human] women,” teaching them how to make weapons, cosmetics, jewelry, and “mirrors.” ((Enoch 8:1))

The children spawned by these interspecies couplings were called “Nephilim,” or “the Fallen Ones” – fierce ogres who ravaged the planet, sodomizing and eating men, women and animals before finally attacking and devouring each other:

“…when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood…” ((Enoch 1:4-7))

God was so disgusted with the Nephilim that he imprisoned them deep in the bowels of the Earth, there to await their final destruction on Judgement Day.

GIGIANTISM

While the Bible and Enoch both seem to agree that these angelic hybrids were freakishly large, it’s unclear how the Nephilim walked (let alone fell to Earth) in defiance of the laws of physics:

“We could not be twice as tall as we are, for the kinetic energy of a fall would then be 16 to 32 times as great, and our sheer weight (increased eightfold) would be more than our legs could support. Human giants of eight to nine feet have either died young or been crippled early by failure of joints and bones… our size has limited our activities and, to a great extent, shaped our evolution.” ((Gould, Stephen Jay . “Sizing Up Human Intelligence.” Physical Anthropology 96/97. Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1996. 50-51.))

Perhaps the giants weren’t so gigantic after all – were they still cannibals, or is this an exaggeration too?

If the “giants” were indeed cannibalistic, then somehow the practice has survived their extermination – the Bible even tells us that many of Noah’s descendents eventually succumbed to this same, repulsive habit:

“Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel!…You who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people, and their flesh from off their bones; who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron…” ((Micah 3))

EPILOGUE

So are humans really descended from a race of subterranean ghouls? We still have the gifts the “Watchers” brought with them – mirrors, jewelry and edged weapons – but there’s nothing particularly sinister about these.

What is chilling to consider is the fact that up to 50% of modern Europeans are immune to prion diseases like “mad cow” – diseases which spread when abnormally shaped proteins (called “prions”) are introduced to the brain by contaminated meat.

How did so many modern peoples become immune to these strange, flesh-borne plagues? According to a recent study, they may owe their protection to the depraved appetites of our cave-dwelling ancestors:

“The University College of London Science journal has published a study…revealing that some of our prehistoric ancestors are believed to have been frequent consumers of human flesh, which can spread “prion” diseases. The practice of cannibalism was widespread, and “not just some rarity that happened in New Guinea”, study author John Collinge said. This meant that natural selection allowed the spread of mutant versions of the prion protein genes, which would have given prehistoric humans a better chance of surviving prion disease epidemics. “What we are showing here is evidence that selection for these polymorphisms (mutations) has been widespread or happened very early in the evolution of modern humans, before human beings spread all over the planet,” Mr Collinge said.” ((ABC News Online. “Ancient cannibalism may protect us from ‘mad cow’ ailments: study.” Monday, April 14, 2003., http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s830923.htm))

Perhaps the giants’ evil influence was never removed in the first place – either that, or Noah and his crew must have have eaten a few bites of human flesh during their forty days and forty nights at sea.