Ben Masada
New member
A Word About the Nephilim
I have an either-or response to the text about the Nephilim. First, when Ezra, the most famous Scribe in the History of Israel organized the Tanach into the Canon when still in Babylon, he found, for some reason useful to add the text about the Nephilim in Genesis 6, just prior to the Flood to illustrate the condition of Mankind by then. The text existed already as a folkloric legend in Babylon literature.
On the other hand, the text could be looked at as mix-marriages between the children of God with the daughters of man, expressions very common when Ezra was dealing with the struggle to solve the problem with the fact that thousands of Jews had married non-Jewish women in Babylon and that was making extremely difficult for Ezra to establish the second Jewish Commonwealth in the post-exilic era after the 70 years in Babylon. IMHO, I go for the second interpretation because it makes much more sense.
I have an either-or response to the text about the Nephilim. First, when Ezra, the most famous Scribe in the History of Israel organized the Tanach into the Canon when still in Babylon, he found, for some reason useful to add the text about the Nephilim in Genesis 6, just prior to the Flood to illustrate the condition of Mankind by then. The text existed already as a folkloric legend in Babylon literature.
On the other hand, the text could be looked at as mix-marriages between the children of God with the daughters of man, expressions very common when Ezra was dealing with the struggle to solve the problem with the fact that thousands of Jews had married non-Jewish women in Babylon and that was making extremely difficult for Ezra to establish the second Jewish Commonwealth in the post-exilic era after the 70 years in Babylon. IMHO, I go for the second interpretation because it makes much more sense.
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