The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. – Genesis 6:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 11, 2015): Genesis 6

I enjoyed the 2014 Movie “Noah” starring Russell Crowe. Noah was a little more angst ridden than the church usually imagines him to be, but then again, how do you go through the great flood in a big box filled with animals and get to the other side and realize that you are the only survivor, without at least a little of what we call survivor guilt. Maybe the angst in the movie is a lot closer to the truth than the happy story that we tend to tell our children.

But since the release of the movie, the Christian community seems to have been split over the biblical merits of the movie. And the movie does depart from the biblical story in certain places – it does get the story wrong. But more often what the movie does is reimagine the story. And one of these re-imaginings is with regard to the rock creatures that inhabit the earth in the days before the flood. The movie builds on the idea of these creatures being watchers, picking up on later Hebrew writings in places like the Book of Enoch. The watchers were essentially fallen angels whose punishment seemed to be that they had to watch the race of men without being able to help them. In the movie it is not so much that they were unable to help as it was that they were unwilling to help. They were bitter over the ways that the race of men had mistreated them and destroyed creation. They were giants that seemed to be separate from either the descendants of Cain or the descendants of Seth. Maybe they were the offspring of the intermarriage between the angels and the daughters of the earth. In the movie, these watchers finally come to the place where they can begin to help Noah build the Ark. And as a reward for this help, God finally releases them from their stone exteriors and restores them to heaven. And in the Bible, these watchers are often referred to as the Nephilim. I have often described this passage as proof that alien life exists, and that they visited earth. But the truth is that we just don’t know who or what the Nephilim really were.

So the argument by some people within the Christian Church that these rock creatures aren’t biblical is not completely true. The movie simply reimagines these Nephilim, complex creatures that we simply do not understand. If the question is whether or not the Nephilim looked like the Rock Creatures of the movie “Noah,” the answer is probably not. Are the Nephilim the alien life forms of my imagination? Probably not. We simply do not know what the Nephilim were. And, as humans, when we don’t know our imaginations run wild with possibilities. And that is okay. I encourage you to allow your imagination to run free as you try to imagine what these Nephilim might have been like, because every guess has as much merit as any other.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 7

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my sister, Cheri, who is of an undisclosed age. Have a great day Sis!