Nachash

REPHAIM [Heb rĕpā˒ı̂m (רְפָאִים)]. A term in the Hebrew Bible whose uses fall generally into two categories: (A) descriptions of the dead in the underworld, or (B) references to a group or nation of giants or warriors.

7497 רְפָאִים, רְפָאִים [rapha’, raphah /raw·faw/] n pr gent. From 7495 in the sense of invigorating; TWOT 2198d; GK 8328 and 8329; 25 occurrences; AV translates as “giant” 17 times, and “Rephaim” eight times. 1 giants, Rephaim. 1a old race of giants. n: noun pr: proper noun or pronoun gent: gentilic

• A. The Rephaim as the Dead

• In the OT the Rephaim are frequently described as dead humans who dwell in the underworld. Ps 88:11 Eng 88:10 sets the Rephaim (RSV “shades”) in parallelism with the dead, asking if God’s love is declared in the grave and if God?s wondrous acts are known in “the darkness” and “the land of forgetfulness” (vv 1213Eng 1112). The psalmist implores God not to consign him to death and the grave as well as to the underworld where the dead go after life. The same parallelism between the Rephaim (”shades”) and the dead occurs in Isa 26:14, 19. Fifth-century Phoenician inscriptions likewise attest to the Rephaim as those whom the living join in dying (KAI 13:7;8; 14:8). A Punic-Latin bilingual text renders “the divine Rephaim” with the Lat “the sacred shades,” that is, the dead (KAI 177: 1; Horwitz 1979: 41; L’Heureux 1979: 112′27; Cooper 1981: 460?67).
• References to the Rephaim in the book of Proverbs also indicate that they are the dead dwelling in the netherworld. In Prov 2:18 the house of folly leads (or, sinks down) to death and to the Rephaim. The foolish man does not know that the Rephaim (RSV “dead”) are in the underworld, according to Prov 9:18. Prov 21:16 characterizes the Rephaim as a “congregation” or “assembly” (q’h'l).
• Further specification of the abode of the dead Rephaim comes from Job 26:5. In this verse the extent of God’s power reaches down beneath the waters of the oceans, down to the abode of the Rephaim. There in the underworld the Rephaim (RSV “shades”) tremble at God’s might. (The final passage of the Ugaritic Baal cycle, CTA 6.6.46′52, also juxtaposes the sea with the Rephaim in the netherworld).
• Unlike the references to the Rephaim in Psalm 88, references in the book of Proverbs, Job 26, and Isa 14:9 describe the Rephaim as dead kings. This latter passage is a genuine reminiscence of the Rephaim as a line of deceased monarchs. When the Lord relegates the king of Babylon to the netherworld, the netherworld and its inhabitants respond in the following way to the latter?s arrival:

  Sheol beneath is stirred up
  to meet you when you come,
  it rouses the Rephaim to greet you,
  it raises from their thrones
  all the kings of the nations.

• Unlike any other biblical text, this passage preserves vestiges of a 2d-millennium understanding of the Rephaim. For, while other biblical passages as well as the Phoenician inscriptions and the Punic-Latin bilingual know the Rephaim only as the dead in a general sense, the concept of the Rephaim in Isa 14:9 is similar to the Ugaritic notion of the Rephaim as the ancestral line of dead heroes and kings.

• 2 Chr 16:12 may contain yet another reference to the dead Rephaim. This passage faults the ailing king Asa for consulting “doctors” . It has been proposed (Jastrow 1909: 49 n. 23) that Asa did not consult “doctors” but the Rephaim, perhaps much as Saul asked the witch of Endor to consult the dead (1 Samuel 28). It is difficult to criticize Asa for seeking medical aid unless the help was sought from theologically dangerous sources, such as the dead Rephaim.

• B. The Rephaim as Giants
  The Rephaim are also described in the OT as a people. In Gen 14:5, Chedorlaomer and his cohorts smite the Rephaim in Ashtaroth-karnaim along with peoples called Zuzim and Emim. According to Deut 2:10, the Emim had once lived in Moab. They were as tall as the Anakim, who were giants (Num 13:33). According to Deut 2:11, they were also known as the Rephaim, but the Moabites called them Emim. Deut 2:20 relates that the territory of Ammon, like that of Moab, was known as the land of the Rephaim, but that the Ammonites called them Zamzummim. From the perspective of Deuteronomy, the Rephaim were a legendary race of giants existing in the distant past. See also REPHAIM, VALLEY OF. Unlike Gen 14:5, which describes the Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim as distinct peoples,
• Deuteronomy understands them as different names for the same people.
  Gen 15:20 lists the Rephaim with various “ethnic” groups which inhabited the areas between the Nile and the Euphrates. Because the term Rephaim lacks the formal grammatical indicator for a people in biblical Hebrew, the Rephaim were likely not an actual nation or people, but a loosely defined group used to fill out this list. (One may compare Josh 5:1 or Num 13:29, where the Rephaim are omitted [Rosenberg 1980: 204].) The Genesis and Deuteronomy 2 passages transformed old traditions about the Rephaim from legendary giants into a people comparable to other nations. In Deuteronomy, the Rephaim serve part of a further theological purpose. In describing the dispossession of the Rephaim by Moab and Ammon, the Horites by Seir, and the Avvim by Caphtor, Israel’s dispossession of the Canaanites is shown to be no less moral (Rosenberg 1980: 208).
• Other passages in Deuteronomy and Joshua also have a vague view of the Rephaim. Deut 3:11, 13 as well as Josh 12:4 and 13:12 recall Og of Bashan as a remnant of the Rephaim. All of these passages describe the Rephaim as some type of group or nation living in the distant past.
• The Rephaim as a line of warriors is apparently preserved in the epithet “the Raphites” (RSV “giants”) found in 2 Sam 21:16, 18, 20 and 1 Chr 20:4, 6, 8 (L’Heureux 1976: 83′85). This expression may have derived from an eponymous ancestor named Rapah or the like (cf. Talmon 1983: 237?41). An Ugaritic text (RS 24.252 = KTU 1.108) describes a figure named Rapa’u (Ug rp’u,the vocalization of which is based on the biblical Hebrew h’r'pâ). This personage has the same address as Og. Both figures are said to dwell in Ashtarot and Edrei (assuming that the Ugaritic words ”trt and hdr’y are place names). Judging from this Ugaritic evidence and Deuteronomy 3, the biblical traditions regarding the Rephaim may have originated in the area of NE Transjordan.C. Conclusions
  How one reconciles these different views of the Rephaim in the OT has been the subject of much scholarly discussion. Fortunately the Ugaritic texts as well as the later biblical and Phoenician texts clarify the process which led to different presentations of the Rephaim in the Bible. In 2d-millennium Ugarit, the Rephaim were the line of dead kings and heroes, as the Ugaritic text, RS 34.126 = KTU 1.161 indicates (Pitard 1979; Bordreuil and Pardee 1982; Levine and de Tarragon 1984). Generally this precise understanding of the Rephaim was lost in the course of the 1st millennium (see Horwitz 1979: 41′43). While Isa 14:9 preserves the older understanding of the Rephaim, in other occurrences the older concept of the Rephaim was fractured, bifurcating into various descriptions of the Rephaim. The Rephaim as a line or group of heroes and monarchs at Ugarit corresponds to the biblical view of them as a people or nation. As heroes and monarchs, the Rephaim survived in the Bible as giants or warriors. The royal aspect of the Rephaim is most evident in Isa 14:9. The Ugaritic view of the Rephaim as a dead group has broadened in the biblical texts describing the Rephaim as the dead in general.
• The NT also preserves a reference to the Ugaritic god Rapa’u. In his defense speech before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7, Stephen contrasts the fidelity of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses with the infidelity of their fellow Israelites. As an example of the latter?s unfaithfulness, Stephen cites in Acts 7:43 a version of Amos 5:26:

  And you took up the tent of Moloch,
  and the star of the god Rephan,
  the figures which you made to worship;
  and I will remove you beyond Babylon.

  The gods Moloch and Rephan are lacking in the Hebrew text of Amos 5:26, and extant in only a few mss of the LXX of the same verse. The deity Moloch was known in Israel and perhaps in Punic Carthage as the god to whom children were sacrificed in fire. This god is also attested in texts from Ugarit. The name Rephan in Acts 7:43 varies a great deal in NT mss. The origin of the name has been attributed to two scribal errors, since the name of the deity in question in the Hebrew text of Amos 5:26 is Kaiwan (kywn). In this case, the Greek form Rephan is assumed to have resulted from the mistaking of Hebrew kap for re? and the transliteration of Hebrew waw by Greek phi. With the recent discovery of the Ugaritic god Rapa’u, it has been suggested as an alternative that Rephan is a vestige of this Ugaritic deity (Pope 1977: 170). Accordingly, Stephen?s citation of Rephan with Moloch as examples of Israelite idolatry captures the flavor of Canaanite paganism which the Israelites were said to have enjoyed and the Israelite prophets so zealously condemned.

   

To find out who the Fallen Angels are that defiled the daughters of man and themselves, what they taught humankind and what their punishment is, we have to turn to the first book of Enoch.

The bible sometimes calls the Sons of God “Watchers”. There are good Watchers in the bible, holy ones that are loyal to God, as we see in the book of Daniel (Dan 3:13 and Dan 3:32). In the first book of Enoch, also called “The Book of the Watchers”, we find the evil Watchers, those that fell away from God by trespassing the boundaries of heaven and earth.

1 Enoch 1:4: “And everyone shall be afraid, and the Watchers will quiver” (footnote on “Watchers”: lit. “diligent guards” [Watchers are fallen angels], quoted here and in the following from James H. Charlesworth (ed.): The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

According to 1 Enoch 6-8, those Watchers, 200 by number, plot together to choose wives from among the fair daughters of man, and to have children with them. The Watchers bind each other to this sin by a curse. They are completely aware of the fact that this is a great sin from the very beginning (1 Enoch 6:3), and Semyaz, their leader, doesn’t want to be responsible for it all alone. And so after binding each other to the evil deed by a curse, they go down to earth, take wives, lie with them, and teach them all kinds of things that mankind is not supposed to be taught - they teach magical medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots and about plants, astrology and the knowledge of the signs, seeing the stars and the course of the moon, and the deception of man.

But the worst thing taught is what Azazel has to teach: His teaching revolves around the art of making swords and knives, shields and breastplates, plus, interestingly enough, everything about outward adornment and cosmetics: bracelets and decoration, beautifying and shadowing of the eyelids, precious stones, all coloring tinctures, and alchemy, and these are classified as “all forms of oppression” (1 Enoch 9:6). The art of war and the art of seduction by outward adornment are lumped together here as forms of oppression… and then we wonder why in the New Testament, costly array is connected to whoredom while godly women are warned explicitly not to adorn themselves outwardly (1 Pe 3:3-4), to name just one example ?

So all these skills, arts and crafts, even if called “eternal secrets” (1 Enoch 9:6), are corrupted, they are called “every kind of sin” (1 Enoch 9:9) and “rejected mysteries” (1 Enoch 16:3), since those were the only mysteries the fallen angels were privy to according to 1 Enoch 16:3. Mind you, it doesn’t say that this knowledge, in parts magical, is just a fraud. The Watchers teach mankind these things which are as real as any other knowledge, but this knowledge is not meant for mankind. Mankind is susceptible to wanting to be like God. Therefore, divine knowledge corrupts the human heart, just like in the garden of Eden when Eve was tempted and gave in to the promise of the Nachash to become like God, and know good from evil (Gen 3). In 1 Enoch 16:3, it states plainly what this kind of knowledge breeds:

“Those ones (the rejected mysteries) you have broadcast to the women in the hardness of your hearts and by those mysteries the women and men multiply evil deeds upon the earth.” (In 1 Enoch 16:3)

In the meantime, the women who married those fallen angels have given birth to giants who are oppressing the people and the land, eating all their produce and when the people don’t want to feed them anymore, they eat the people and drink blood and turn against each other, too.

For all these things that the Watchers brought upon the earth, teachings and evil offspring alike, they are punished: They will never have peace (1 Enoch 16:3), and will be killed on Judgment Day, since their transgression cost them their immortality, basically (1 Enoch 10). Their offspring will roam the earth as evil spirits on the earth (1 Enoch 15:9), they will cause great sorrow and fight against the people (1 Enoch 15:11-12). How this all is linked to the curse against the Nachash in Gen 3, we will explain in a different post. For the moment, just keep in mind that there is and has always been war between the Fallen Sons of God and their seed, and the woman and her seed, the godly people, and the great and final battle that will settle all accounts will be fought in the end times according to biblical prophesy.

Among all those Watchers that are punished, Azazel is the one that is counted most guilty, in fact, it says that all the guilt should be on his head (1 Enoch 10:8). This explains why the Hebrew word for “scapegoat” as used in the respective verses in Leviticus 16 is “Azazel” (Lev 16:8,10 and 26). A scapegoat, in short, is sent into the desert, bearing all the sins of the Israelites. According to Enoch, Azazel is bound hand and foot and thrown into a hole into the desert, covered with rocks and stones, and will be released only at Armageddon, to meet his final fate (1 Enoch 10:4-5).

As for the people that have been defiled and corrupted by the Watchers and their knowledge, God sends the great deluge to destroy them all except Noah and his family (1 Enoch 10:1-3). But since the spirits of the nephilim are not killed by the flood, they breed again afterwards, and will continue to do so, roam the earth and defile and corrupt those that are not among the elect until the final battle, where the loyal Sons of God and the Fallen Sons of God, and with them the elect and the sinners, will fight it out. The outcome of the battle is known already though, to the Antichrist as well as to all of us, by God’s word, and when all accounts are settled, Christ will reign for a thousand years of peace.

“And the earth will be cleansed from all pollution and from all sin and from all plague, and from all suffering; and it shall not happen again that I shall send these upon the earth from generation to generation and forever. And in those days I shall open the storerooms of blessing which are in the heavens, so that I shall send them down upon the earth, over the work and the toil of the children of man. And peace and truth shall become partners together in all the days of the world, and in all the generations of the world.” (1 Enoch 10:22-11:2)

For all those who are interested in Fallen Angels and such, and have missed the obviously rather un-Christian ABC mini series that was broadcast over the weekend, you might be interested in reading a summary and commentary someone else posted on his blog:

http://rapturealert.blogspot.com/2007/08/fallen.html

While I cannot say anything about that mini series itself for I missed it too, not having watched television in years, I do have a few comments to make about the biblical background the author sums up - mainly because most of what he says seems to come from extra biblical sources, at best, or thin air, at worst.

The author gives background information on what a Nephilim is, since the main character of that series is identified as one.
Besides the fact that the author himself doesn’t seem to believe that Nephilim are giants - he says that many believe Goliath was a Nephilim, but he puts the word “giant” in parenthesis -, he presents a rather interesting version of how these Nephilim came into the world. He says that, when God threw Lucifer and those that followed him from heaven, some of those fallen angels didn’t go to hell with Lucifer, but chose to go to earth instead and have children with human women, those children being the Nephilim.

While it is certainly biblical that some of the Sons of God decided to go down to earth, marry daughters of man and produce offspring that we have come to know as the Nephilim, giants, men of renown, and while it is certainly true that those Sons of God as well as humankind did not go unpunished for this great trespass (see our biblical background post for a closer description of all this), the scenario described by the author of the mentioned article is conspicuously absent. If we want to consider the book of Enoch and follow some people in their assumption that Azazel was actually Lucifer, then we find that he was among those that defiled themselves and the women, and that he was the one who took most of the blame. But we do not really need to rely on assumptions or even hermeneutic gymnastics to find biblical proof for Lucifer being cast from heaven all on his own, and quite aside from the incident that created the Nephilim.

Let me quote three passages from the bible that all refer to an enemy of God being cast from heaven, condemned to be as lowly as one can get, to give you a more biblical idea of Lucifer’s Fall, quite aside from the whole incident in Genesis 6:

“The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” “(Gen 3:14-15)

As a side note: Gen 3 and Gen 6 indeed have something to do with each other when it comes to explaining who the “seed of the Nachash” actually is, this “brute of vipers” that we still encounter in the NT, and who the “seed of the woman” is, and why the whole bible can be viewed as a divine turf war, to put it a little flippantly, but that does not justify an idea like the one summed up above. We will explain this whole scenario in a different post.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” (Isa 14:12-15)

“And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” ” (Luk 10:18-20)

If you look at these three passages, the similar feature in them is God’s enemy being cast down, onto the ground, into Sheol, from heaven. This is about as close as we can get to knowing what happened when Lucifer fell, and there is no indication that he took a flock of followers with him just then. Isaiah tells us that Lucifer wanted to be like God, in Gen 3 we see that the Nachash enticed the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit so that she would be like God, and Jesus points out that He, God incarnate, has given his followers the power to tread on serpents, after watching Lucifer falling. While there is no question that there are Fallen Sons of God who defile and lead astray those peoples that God gave up to them, there is little indication that this has a direct connection to Lucifer’s fall.

So this is our conclusion:
The bible does not support the view that Lucifer was cast out together with some followers who basically produced the Nephilim while taking a detour to earth on their way to hell, so to speak. Besides, it is also quite difficult to ignore the existence of giants in the bible, quite aside from Goliath, as we mentioned elsewhere. If you want to point at people presenting unbiblical views, and be consistent and believable in your criticism, it might be a good idea to get the biblical facts straight first, so as to not run the risk of becoming a false teacher.

“And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” (Luk 6:31)

The first rebellion that we find in the bible, if we go by how bibles are laid out nowadays usually, is the rebellion of the “snake” in Genesis 3. The “snake” deceives Eve, according to her own words, meaning that it tells her to rebel against God’s word and that instead of being harmful to her, it would make her benefit greatly, since she would be like God if she ate from the tree that gave her the knowledge of good and evil. If you know what is good and what is evil, that is, if it is up for you to decide what is good and what is evil, then you are a god, a law giver, someone who sets the rules instead of obeying them.Who is this snake that tells Eve all this, and what are the consequences of this little episode in Genesis 3 ?

In Hebrew, the being that deceives Eve is called “nachash”, commonly translated as “snake”. Since the bible doesn’t indicate that in the garden of Eden, animals had the gift of speech, and since Eve did not seem astonished to be addressed by the Nachash, another possible translation for the word nachash, “Shining One”, seems a lot more logical to us - see Michael S. Heiser’s work on the subject if you are interested in this matter, since much of what is presented in this blog, both about the nachash and about Fallen Sons of God, is based on his work (http://www.michaelsheiser.com).

So the one that talks to Eve in Eden is not an animal, but a shining being, and it’s purpose is to bring disaster on newly created mankind, for it tries to bring God’s anger down on Adam and Eve. God said Adam and Eve would die if they ate from the said tree, and so this seems to be the goal of the Nachash.

This shining being is cursed at the end of the chapter, of course, and what does this curse include?

“The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” (Gen 3:14)

Hmmm - what does this remind us of ?

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!” (Isa 14:12)

And also…

“And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”.” (Luk 10:18)

The Nachash is the same deceiver that we meet throughout the bible, the first one to promise knowledge to mankind that is not for mankind to have, exactly the type of knowledge that threatens the world in the video game “Adam Syndrome”…
Stay tuned for more, as we are about to explain tomorrow how all this will help us understand the nature of Fallen Angels, Nephilim, and Fallen Sons of God.