Godlorica

A few days ago in Godlorica, we discussed the "Bridegroom of Blood" story -- the most mysterious tale in the Bible. The second most enigmatic story deals with the Nephilim in Genesis 6:1-4. In Genesis 6:2 we find that the "sons of God saw that daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose." Scholars speculate that the "sons of god" might have been angels who took wives from the daughters of humans. The offspring of these angel-human marriages, were the Nephilim, the "heros that were of old, warriors of renown." The Nephilim are mentioned only once again in the Hebrew scriptures, and the word also literally translates to "the fallen ones." The Nephilim had superhuman powers. Notice that they should have been destroyed in the great Flood, but we do find them in Canaan during the time of Moses, according to the book of Numbers.

Some have speculated that the strange Biblical reference to Nephilim may represent a deep, past, collective memory of the time when Neanderthals coexisted with Homo sapiens. We know that Neanderthals inhabited Europe and the Middle East during the late Pleistocene Epoch, about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago. The Neanderthals were the first hominids to intentionally bury their dead, and they had larger brain cases than modern humans. Examination of skeletal remains indicates that Neanderthals were a physically powerful and war-scarred race. While controversial, some researchers suggest that the Nephilim might refer to either Neanderthals or strongly muscled but possibly sterile hybrids produced by the mating of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Even today, scientists do not fully understand the Neanderthal's evolutionary origin and final fading from the world scene.