Who or what were the Nephilim (the giants) in Genesis 6?
The Nephilim were "giants in the earth" before the flood (Gen 6:4), offspring associated with "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men." The oldest view, and the one this platform holds, is that "sons of God" were fallen angels whose union produced them, one cause of the wickedness God judged in the flood.
What the text states
Genesis 6:1-4 says "the sons of God saw the daughters of men... and they bare children to them," and there were "giants [nephilim] in the earth in those days." "Sons of God" (bene elohim) elsewhere means angels (Job 1:6, 2:1), and Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 speak of angels who "kept not their first estate" and are now imprisoned, which fits this event. The result was a corruption so great that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil" (Gen 6:5), and the flood followed. The KJV keeps the word "giants."
Others read "sons of God" as the godly line of Seth marrying the ungodly line of Cain. We hold the fallen-angel view as the older and the one 2 Peter and Jude support.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 62 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Wave 5. 62 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, splitting at every ellipsis. FOUR CORRECTIONS, each to the KJV row: Acts 4:12 "in none other" is not contiguous, replaced with "none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"; Deut 1:39 "have no knowledge" corrected to "had no knowledge"; Eph 3:2 "dispensation of grace" corrected to "dispensation of the grace of God"; Rom 11:23 "shall be graffed in again" corrected to "shall be graffed in" (the KJV runs "shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again").