<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Andrew Mason <andrew.mason53@googlemail.com><br><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></b></font><br>
Lee Berman wrote:<br><br> > > The Bible implies that<br>> > the Flood here on Earth was necessary because fallen angels/demons had come down and mated<br>> > with human women, creating a giant race of Nephilim and all manner of wickedness among humans.<br>> > Dr. Talos' play contains allusions to all this.<br><br>This got me interested. In a bit of looking around, I found there's no agreement on this passage (Gen. 6:1-4): what the word "Nephilim" means; what the Nephilim were, including whether they were literally gigantic; whether they were the "sons of God" or the sons' children with "the daughters of Adam/man"; whether they were notably good or evil; and whether this passage is related to the story of Noah where it appears or is one of the many extraneous interruptions found in Genesis. So I think, Lee, that "the Bible implies" may be a bit strong, though if Wolfe can believe an unconventional interpretation of the
passage or make an original one, you can too.<br><br>> Wolfe, however, reads the Nephilim differently; he explains this in<br>> 'Castle of the Otter'. He thinks they were the children of human women<br>> with non-rational hominid fathers (who, being non-rational, were<br>> incapable of sin and so could be called 'sons of God').<br>...<br><br>Thanks, I'd forgotten that (and most of the rest of _Castle of the Otter_). One interpretation of the Nephilim is that they were descendants of Cain, which leads us through Beowulf and Michael Crichton to the Neandertals! (I hope I didn't spoil anything for anyone.)<br><br>Another possibly amusing connection is that if Genesis 6:4 is part of the story of Noah, it appears to say that at least some of the Nephilim survived the flood (apparently stated explicitly in the apocryphal _Book of Jubilees_). Now who do we know that can live under water?<br><br>Jerry Friedman<br></div></div>
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