If the Flood judged the Nephilim, why do the Anakim and Rephaim appear afterward? Three explanations, weighed.
Genesis 6:4 contains a curious phrase: the Nephilim were on the earth "and also afterward." If the Flood was a judgment on that corruption, how do giant clans reappear in the days of Abraham and Moses?
Three explanations dominate the discussion. The first proposes a second incursion after the Flood. The second suggests the bloodline passed through one of Noah's sons' wives. The third argues the later "giants" are ordinary tall peoples described in the language of legend.
Each reading has to reckon with the same biblical data: the Anakim, Rephaim, Emim, and Zamzummim who occupy the land east and west of the Jordan.
Where This Lands
C.K. Quarterman holds the first view: a second angelic incursion after the Flood. Genesis 6:4 marks the corruption as recurring, not sealed shut by the judgment that opened the passage. The full case for that reading, along with why the Anakim and Rephaim read as a fresh intrusion rather than a thinning bloodline, is laid out in the CKQ Commentary on the Genesis 6:4 Scripture Card.
Explore in the Encyclopedia
Giant Tribes
Giant Tribes in the Bible
Nimrod
The mighty hunter "before the Lord" who founded Babel and the first kingdoms in the land of Shinar.
The Ziggurat and the Second Incursion
The Ziggurat and the Second Incursion: the stepped temple tower of Babel in Shinar, built to lift a shrine toward heaven, and the place where the second incursion of fallen angels is understood to have begun.
Second Incursion
Second Incursion: the return of fallen angels to earth after the Flood, understood as the source of the Nephilim in Canaan.
Tamim
Tamim: the Hebrew word in Genesis 6:9 meaning complete, whole, or without blemish, used of Noah as “perfect in his generations.”
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