I. Name

The bald allusion to the Nephilim (lit. fallen ones) in Gen. 6.3 (‘The Nephilim were on the earth in those days …’) fits uneasily into a context that has always presented a challenge to exegetes. Although designated an ‘antiquarian gloss’ (Skinner 1910:147) the sentence in which it appears does bind it to the theological scene which depicts a fresh threat to the God-given distinction between divine beings and humans. It raises again the worst fears expressed at the close of Gen. 3 (‘the man has become l…