Nephilim, Orthodoxy, & Rabbis: The Quest for "Secret Knowledge"

An alarm that needs to be sounded

There’s no feeling quite like stumbling across a Bible truth you hadn’t seen before.

Whether it’s a typological reading, where something in the Old Testament clearly foreshadows a later happening, or a Greek or Hebrew word that unlocks a connection by its use in multiple contexts, or any other bit of knowledge that adds to or changes what we knew before, it’s an exciting discovery to make.

Just when you thought you had a general grasp of the Bible and that there was little left to learn outside of trivia, you stumble upon a door that shows you there’s so much more exploring to do.

However… this excitement and desire to know more can easily be pointed in the wrong direction

I’m all in favor of the kind of teaching that gets people excited to dig deeper in the Bible. But purveyors of secret or hidden or at least under-discussed knowledge have their audiences on the back foot from minute one. “I bet you didn’t know that! And if you didn’t know that, guess what else you don’t know?”

To be clear, this is not a generic warning.

In recent years the internet has seen the rise of multiple strains of “hidden knowledge,” and while some of it is helpful, our guard needs to be up.

Three particular examples come to mind:

Angels and giants and demons, oh my

“Nephilim” is instantly one of the most intriguing words in the Bible (Genesis 6:4). What exactly were they? Mythical human-angel demigods, or just great men who ruled after the holy and wicked lines intermarried? Does this have anything to do with the war in heaven and some kind of council of Divine beings? How do all of these dots connect?

As intriguing as the topic is, the Bible only leaves a faint trail of breadcrumbs. What we can know for certain is dwarfed by what we must try to fill in by deduction at best and conjecture at worst. Consider that many Bibles have 1,000 pages, give or take. All of the verses on these beings and the spiritual realm collected in one place might take up about four of those pages.

God did this on purpose. He was perfectly capable of giving us a heavenly being lineup card, but He focused elsewhere. We should let that temper our approach to this issue.

Why it matters

If we’re not careful we can start using Ancient Near Eastern mythology to fill in the gaps in such a way that we equate it with inspired Scripture or let it frame our understanding of the Word.

Next thing you know you hear ideas like “Job didn’t actually exist” and “Genesis is just Israel’s version of the creation myth” and “Yahweh is just one God of many, but He’s the one who won out.” We can learn from extrabiblical sources, but we can’t let them trump the Bible. The Book of 1 Enoch is a lot of fun, for example, but it also didn’t get anywhere near the canon for a reason.

Reading with the Rabbis

I’m a bit shocked at how often I have conversations with people who are huge fans of rabbi podcasts or YouTube channels, in which the Jewish approach to literary interpretation is applied to Scripture to bring out the authors’ supposed richer meanings.

You may have heard the old claim that Jesus’s line of “a camel through the eye of a needle” was not a metaphor but an allusion to a specific, small gate in the wall of Jerusalem called the Needle’s Eye, and camel riders could only pass through it with perfect precision. It sounds plausible, and it’s hard to fact check if you’re just hearing it from a pulpit.

But, it’s totally made up. More importantly, if it were true it would totally subvert Jesus’ point. He did not mean rich people could be saved with the right amount of expertise. He meant it would be literally impossible apart from God (Matthew 19:26).

While that example does not come from the kinds of blogs and podcasts I’m talking about, it is exactly in line with the kinds of things they do say. It’s a tidbit that makes you think you know the text deeper, based in historical context you had no way of knowing previously. But, it’s not grounded in reality, and it doesn’t fit with the actual text.

On at least four occasions, from four separate Christians, I’ve been told a deeper textual insight they got from a rabbinical teaching that, upon further inspection, turned out to be wrong. And they weren’t just wrong. The “facts” were verifiably incorrect and appeared to be totally made up. Like the Needle’s Eye story, they also would subvert the clear meaning of the text at hand, too.

The more rabbinical writing you read, the more you see that speculation and creative license is a staple of their writings. Their more Eastern, symbolic readings of the text can sound really neat, and some of their insights are certainly true. But it should all be taken with a MASSIVE grain of salt.

Why it matters

Obviously, first and foremost we want to have our facts straight. It's not good to hold and repeat ideas that were presented as true but are not, and so discernment is needed.

But it also can quickly become subversive to our doctrinal views. It’s bizarre how increasingly often I see Christians talking about observing the Torah, practicing Shabbat, and such. They’d be far better off reading through Hebrews a few times for a reminder that we are no longer under the Law and that God’s chosen people are His church.

It also quickly becomes clear that Christian values and many Jewish values are not aligned whatsoever. It is easy to find compromised takes on abortion, sexuality, and more because they still use the twisted, Pharisaic reading of the Old Law that Jesus confronted in His day.

So, the rabbis’ questionable exegetical insights can serve as the gateway to doctrinal compromise if we’re not careful.

Go East, young man

Much ink has been spilled discussing the pull of Eastern Orthodoxy, especially for young men. Their high church practices and claims of a direct, ancient lineage are a strong selling point for people who are looking for something far more rooted than the local, big box, coffee-shop-featuring megachurch.

Along with that is a fascination with the Early Church Fathers. Their writings serve as an expansion pack of sorts, helping explain the Bible and providing a deeper look into what the early Christians’ practices looked like.

And, the reading is almost endless. There’s always more to be discovered in the writings of the Clements, Tertullian, Chrysostom, and co.

Why it matters

While it’s easy to take a swipe at the community churches, young men are leaving us for Orthodoxy, too. Their discipleship requirements, church aesthetic, and endless well of study material make for a big appeal that pulls people away. And, having the church authority issue seemingly settled is a nice perk, as it ends all the “fellowship issue” debates we have to hash out.

The Orthodox charge that Protestants are all dead-set on our own interpretation of Scripture, but they themselves got to where they are by… well, their own interpretation of Scripture. Picking which interpreter of which church fathers one is going to follow is not the silver bullet it appears to be.

The church fathers don’t even agree on everything. The idea that they are a monolithic voice of what we should and should not do is a misrepresentation. Yes, they can add to our knowledge. But no, we don’t need them to explain the faith to us entirely.

The Most Important Point

The biggest issue here is the potential to miss the forest for the trees.

It doesn’t matter how much you can tell me about the Nephilim if you aren’t bringing your life under Christ’s control, leading your family spiritually, etc.

It doesn’t matter if the etymological meaning of Bethsaida hints at a potential obscure reference to an extrabiblical historical event, if you haven’t learned the basics of the faith or how to exegete a passage for yourself.

It doesn’t matter what some early Christian wrote if it goes against what the Scripture says. Those men weren’t inspired.

One more thing

One thing we preachers and teachers can take away from this is that people are starving for more. They might be bored by the 472nd time they’ve heard the 5 steps of salvation, but that doesn’t mean the Bible is inherently boring.

There are endless textual rabbit trails that can be followed, countless companion writings to read and analyze, and when we do it properly, people will get right on board and follow. So, we should take it as our imperative to give them the truth in an interesting way.

However, we should not fall captive to the constant need to come up with some new take on the Scriptures, some hidden insight. That’s a breeding ground for heresy, and is one of the reasons I wrote this article. Some things will always serve strictly as reminders of what we already know, because we will always need those (2 Peter 1:13).

Rather, we should wring every drop out of the text. Look for type and anti-type. Understand the historic and geographical references. Notice how the Bible echoes itself. Just keep it grounded in the fundamentals.

The desire for more is a good thing. We just have to be extremely cautious to pursue it in the right direction, especially in these times of information overload.

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Notes

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