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Human Mutation

The
mutant humans (giants), referred to in Genesis six as symptomatic of the cause of the Great Flood, also occur in later human history in spite of their annihilation in the Flood. This time it is in Moses and Joshua's Canaan and is part of the reason for the compulsory obliteration of that society, apart from their practices of infant sacrifice, homosexuality and bestiality (Lev.18:21-28).
 
 
The depraved morality which allowed this second occurrence of mutation is what God referred to with Abraham as the iniquity of the Amorites becoming "full" (Gen.15:16). For this very reason no-one was to be spared in obliterating Canaanite society.
 
 
Obviously this is unjust to many innocent individuals, but the judgments of God within human history always cause suffering to innocents, just as God's blessings in history bring blessing upon corrupt individuals. Therefore God's just judgment for every individual, outside of the mercy of God in Christ, occurs outside of human history in the Last Judgment (Rev.20:11).
 
 
In the time of Moses and Joshua this human aberration is encountered by Israel in the regions of Kiriath Arba (Hebron), Jebus (Jerusalem) and Bashan (Golan). They were defeated by Moses and later by Caleb. Their refugees settled among the Philistines. Goliath and his brother were descendants of this group.
(See 1 Chron.20:6 "...a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot: and he also was the son [descendant] of the giants").
 
 
The alternate interpretation, that Nephilim or 'giants' (Gen.6:1-4) merely refers to spiritually or socially great persons in preFlood earth, does not accord with the use of the Hebrew term elsewhere in holy Scripture. Sadly, this interpretation most often arises from a sinful subjugation of the meaning of Scripture to acceptable human theology. In this explanation the Genesis 'sons of God' are then read as descendants of Seth (a so-called godly line) who intermarried with the presumed ungodly female descendants of Cain, and this religious miscegenation then triggered the Flood catastrophe. 
 
 
We simply do not know 'how' supernatural beings (fallen angels) could become sexually joined to human women. Our ignorance however must not change our treatment of holy Scripture. What is written is written and it is to be understood in its own context and not the artificial constructs of the human mind.
 
Though
it should be born in mind that the ultimate purpose of this development is presented to us as "These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown" (Gen.6:4).
 
 
Whatever genetic manipulation produced such men succeeded in providing much admired role-models to human society which effect resulted in God giving up any possibility of a moral reclamation of that society –
 
 
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart." (Gen.6:5-6).

 
 
Use of the Hebrew term 'nephilim' and its associated terms - 'mighty men', 'giants'
Pre-Flood Nephilim
Genesis 6:4 "
There were Nephilim in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God (supernatural beings) came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Post-Flood Nephilim
Numbers 13:33 "
And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, which come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Giants in Palestine and Transjordan
Deuteronomy 2:11 "
Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.
Deuteronomy 2:20 "
(That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; ...
Deuteronomy 3:11 "
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
Deuteronomy 3:13 "
And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.
Joshua 12:4 "
And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, ...
Joshua 13:12 "
All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out.
Joshua 15:8 "
And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south, side of the Jebusite;  the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward:...
Joshua 17:15 "
And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.
Joshua 18:16 "
And the border came down to the end of the mountain that lieth before the valley of the son of Hinnom, and which is in the valley of the giants on the north, and descended to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of Jebus on the south, and descended to En-rogel, ..."

 
 
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