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These `nephilim' were in the earth immediately before the flood, and `after
that' as Genesis 6:4 continues: `And also after that, when the sons of God
came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same
became mighty men which were of old, men of renown'. The giants which the
spies saw were evidently descended from those Nephilim that were in the earth
after the flood. The word Nephilim does not of itself indicate gigantic
structure, it rather looks to the height from which these beings have fallen.
Naphal in Hebrew means `to fall' and the Nephilim are `fallen ones'. Genesis
3:15 contains not only a promise concerning the seed of the woman but a
warning that there would be a seed of the serpent, and that the conflict
between these two seeds would constitute the conflict of the ages.
By the time of, and as a countermove of Satan to Abraham's call, this
evil seed were concentrated in the land of Canaan, and the sword of Israel
was as necessary as the previous waters of the flood, if the purposes of
grace were to prosper. Another name given to this evil seed is the Rephaim
(Gen. 14:5) which is translated `giants' in Deuteronomy 2:11,20; 3:11,13;
Joshua 12:4; 13:12; 15:8; 17:15; 18:16 and 1 Chronicles 20:4,6, and 8. These
Rephaim (Isa. 26:14 `deceased' in A.V.), have no resurrection. For the
particular application to dispensational truth of this subject see the
article entitled Giants2.
New.
The words translated `new' in the New Testament are:
Agnaphos, unsmoothed, unfulled, used of cloth (Matt. 9:16; Mark 2:21).
Kainos, entirely new, not something recent but something different,
something never seen before. This word occurs forty -three times.
Kainotes, `newness', occurs twice, namely in Romans 6:4 and 7:6.
Neos means something young, something recently originated or lately
established and occurs thirteen times, eleven occurrences being
translated `new', once `new man' and once `young woman'.
Dr. Bullinger has the following note in his Lexicon:
`When the two words are used of the same thing there is always this
difference: thus, the kainos anthropos "the new man" (Eph. 2:15 and
4:24) is one who differs from the former; the neos (Col. 3:10), is one
who is renewed after the image of Him that created him'.
Prosphatos, Hebrews 10:20, means something very recent.
See the adverb
in Acts 18:2.
When the Saviour said, `I am the door of the sheep' (John 10:7), He
followed that figure with another, saying, `I am the good Shepherd: the good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep' (John 10:11). By this door, if any
man `enter in' he shall be saved. Again He said, `I am the way, the truth,
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me' (John 14:6). In
Hebrews 10:20 this `way' is spoken of as `new' and `living'. The true
meaning of John 14:6 is, `I am the True and Living Way' even as Hebrews 10:20
reveals Him as `the New and Living Way'. `True' as contrasted with all the
types and shadows of the law; `new' as contrasted with all that pertains to
the old covenant that, waxing old, must vanish away. The Companion Bible