Namar
Anbu Operative 🎭
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I've been asking myself this for a long time and i've finally decided to discuss it with someone.
The question is "Are the Nephilims and the Demigods the same thing" just seen from different religious angles and times?
The term of demigod comes from the Greek Mythology while the term of Nephilim comes from the Bible.
From sources such as wikipedia:
1. Demigod: a divine or supernatural being in classical mythology. The term has been used in various ways at different times and can refer to a figure who has attained divine status after death, a minor deity, or a mortal who is the offspring of a god and a human.
Etymology
The English term is a calque of the Latin semideus, "half god", which is probably a coining by the Roman poet Ovid in reference to less important gods, such as dryads.
2.The Nephilim /ˈnɛfɨˌlɪm/ were the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" according to Genesis 6:4; and giants who inhabited Canaan according to Numbers 13:33. A similar biblical Hebrew word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors.
Etymology
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives the meaning of Nephilim as "giants." Many suggested interpretations are based on the assumption that the word is a derivative of Hebrew verbal root n-ph-l "fall." Robert Baker Girdlestone argued the word comes from the Hiphil causative stem, implying that the Nephilim are to be perceived as "those that cause others to fall down." Adam Clarke took it as passive, "fallen," "apostates." Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form "ones who have fallen," equivalent grammatically to paqid "one who is appointed" (i.e., overseer), asir, "one who is bound," (i.e., prisoner) etc. According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, the basic etymology of the word Nephilim is "dub[ious]," and various suggested interpretations are "all very precarious."
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The majority of ancient biblical versions, including the Septuagint, Theodotion, Latin Vulgate, Samaritan Targum, Targum Onkelos and Targum Neofiti, interpret the word to mean "giants." Symmachus translates it as "the violent ones" and Aquila's translation has been interpreted to mean either "the fallen ones" or "the ones falling [upon their enemies]."
It's not possible to say that the two groups are identical, although there are some partial parallels. The Greek terminology for demigods could be applied to either dead heroes or minor gods. Additionally, they could be the offspring of human and divine parents, or two gods, or of two humans. By way of contrast the Nephilim were clearly parented by male angels (since the term "sons of god" is consistently used in the Hebrew Bible for angels) and female humans (the "daughters of men").
We are also told in Genesis that the Nephalim were the ancient "heroes" and "men of renown". This ties in a little more closely with one type of Greek demigod - dead heroes and warriors. There was a strong and ancient Jewish interpretative tradition that identified them as giants, and an apparently related Hebrew word is used in Ezekiel to refer to dead foreign warriors who rest in their graves with their weapons. This whole complex of associations, based on the Genesis references, is further elaborated in Jewish apocryphal literature where the myth of fallen angels with a demonic leader and a antediluvian race of evil and warlike giants becomes full blown.
In the Enochic versions of this myth, quite possibly influenced partially by Greek traditions about Titans, heroes and giants, we get a hint about the ultimate origins of these ideas. Two of the giants in Enoch can be identified with characters from the much older Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh. Since a whole cycle of Babylonian myths and legends underlies the first eleven chapters of Genesis, these giant "heroes" are likely to be ultimately based characters like Gilgamesh, the two thirds divine, violent, and impulsive king of Uruk in Babylonia who was reputed to be of huge proportions. The likelihood of such an origin for the Genesis story increases considerably when we remember that the Genesis flood story that follows the reference to the Nephilim borrows heavily from the Mesopotamian flood myth found in the same Epic of Gilgamesh.
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This is the comment someone gave to the same question, but there is still no actual fact if they are the same thing. He only speaks of assumptions and some facts that lead to these assumptions.
The question is "Are the Nephilims and the Demigods the same thing" just seen from different religious angles and times?
The term of demigod comes from the Greek Mythology while the term of Nephilim comes from the Bible.
From sources such as wikipedia:
1. Demigod: a divine or supernatural being in classical mythology. The term has been used in various ways at different times and can refer to a figure who has attained divine status after death, a minor deity, or a mortal who is the offspring of a god and a human.
Etymology
The English term is a calque of the Latin semideus, "half god", which is probably a coining by the Roman poet Ovid in reference to less important gods, such as dryads.
2.The Nephilim /ˈnɛfɨˌlɪm/ were the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" according to Genesis 6:4; and giants who inhabited Canaan according to Numbers 13:33. A similar biblical Hebrew word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors.
Etymology
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives the meaning of Nephilim as "giants." Many suggested interpretations are based on the assumption that the word is a derivative of Hebrew verbal root n-ph-l "fall." Robert Baker Girdlestone argued the word comes from the Hiphil causative stem, implying that the Nephilim are to be perceived as "those that cause others to fall down." Adam Clarke took it as passive, "fallen," "apostates." Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form "ones who have fallen," equivalent grammatically to paqid "one who is appointed" (i.e., overseer), asir, "one who is bound," (i.e., prisoner) etc. According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, the basic etymology of the word Nephilim is "dub[ious]," and various suggested interpretations are "all very precarious."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The majority of ancient biblical versions, including the Septuagint, Theodotion, Latin Vulgate, Samaritan Targum, Targum Onkelos and Targum Neofiti, interpret the word to mean "giants." Symmachus translates it as "the violent ones" and Aquila's translation has been interpreted to mean either "the fallen ones" or "the ones falling [upon their enemies]."
It's not possible to say that the two groups are identical, although there are some partial parallels. The Greek terminology for demigods could be applied to either dead heroes or minor gods. Additionally, they could be the offspring of human and divine parents, or two gods, or of two humans. By way of contrast the Nephilim were clearly parented by male angels (since the term "sons of god" is consistently used in the Hebrew Bible for angels) and female humans (the "daughters of men").
We are also told in Genesis that the Nephalim were the ancient "heroes" and "men of renown". This ties in a little more closely with one type of Greek demigod - dead heroes and warriors. There was a strong and ancient Jewish interpretative tradition that identified them as giants, and an apparently related Hebrew word is used in Ezekiel to refer to dead foreign warriors who rest in their graves with their weapons. This whole complex of associations, based on the Genesis references, is further elaborated in Jewish apocryphal literature where the myth of fallen angels with a demonic leader and a antediluvian race of evil and warlike giants becomes full blown.
In the Enochic versions of this myth, quite possibly influenced partially by Greek traditions about Titans, heroes and giants, we get a hint about the ultimate origins of these ideas. Two of the giants in Enoch can be identified with characters from the much older Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh. Since a whole cycle of Babylonian myths and legends underlies the first eleven chapters of Genesis, these giant "heroes" are likely to be ultimately based characters like Gilgamesh, the two thirds divine, violent, and impulsive king of Uruk in Babylonia who was reputed to be of huge proportions. The likelihood of such an origin for the Genesis story increases considerably when we remember that the Genesis flood story that follows the reference to the Nephilim borrows heavily from the Mesopotamian flood myth found in the same Epic of Gilgamesh.
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This is the comment someone gave to the same question, but there is still no actual fact if they are the same thing. He only speaks of assumptions and some facts that lead to these assumptions.
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