The Myth of the Nephilim: The Fallen Angels, the Daughters of Men, and the Book of Enoch
The Descent on Mount Hermon In the early chapters of the Book of Genesis, just before the narrative of the Great Deluge, a brief and enigmatic passage recorded an event that altered the destiny of humanity. The text states: "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." This passage, which translates the Hebrew Nephilim as "Fallen Ones" or "Giants," became the foundation of a rich, apocryphal literature that was excluded from the biblical canon but preserved in the ancient Book of Enoch (discovered in Ge'ez manuscripts in Ethiopia in the eighteenth century). According to the Book of Enoch, a group of two hundred angels belonging to the order of the Watchers ( Egregori ), led by the angel Semjaza, looked down from the heavens and desired the beautiful daughters of men. They bound themselves by a mutual oath...