So, what exactly are the Nephilim?
There are many ideas and theories, and of course most ‘serious’ academics relegate them to the realm of myth and fantasy. Myth and fantasy though have foundations in realities that someone at some point experienced in life.
They are introduced in this passage from the first book of the Bible.
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:1–4)
The term “Nephilim” is derived from the Hebrew root נָפַל, n-p-l, meaning “to fall”. It is often translated as “giants” or “fallen ones”. Some view the “sons of God” as divine beings or angels, while others interpret them as human leaders.
The Book of Enoch is an ancient text that is not included in the Hebrew scripture but is referenced in both Hebrew and Christian texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nephilim were the result of rebellious angels known as the Watchers who descended to Earth and mated with human women, producing a race of destructive giants that corrupted the world and prompted God to send the flood.
My take in the world of Argan is that these Nephilim were indeed creatures made by the mating and humans and fallen angels, the latter perhaps what we think of today as aliens or some kind of transdimensional beings. What ever they are, they are not human therefore any mating was likely not completed in the traditional human way but would have been accomplished perhaps by scientific means in a lab similar to modern day gene splicing and cloning, creating a hybrid species. The creatures designed by this pairing were the foundations of the myths of the demigods of future pantheons. For example the archetypal warrior hero, son of a god and a human female with immense physical strength and intelligence who outsmarts gods and monsters alike. The archetype is seen in Heracles of the Greeks, Gilgamesh of Mesopotamia, Cu Chullainn of Ireland, Karna of India, Sigurd of Scandinavia, or Sun Wukong of China. All very similar in general attributes, all super human offspring of non-human fathers, but with serious flaws.
What if those mythical heroes of old were based upon one real being, perhaps one who was considered a great hero who may even have done some good in their early life, but who, being the creation of fallen angels, perhaps mixed and modified in a laboratory even, lacked the one thing that actually makes them human: the Breath of Life, that is…a Soul.
They are immortal if left alone, but can be killed, although it is very difficult. As their lives grew longer and longer and they experienced success and glory their hearts grew more and more wicked. While typically sterile, the few offspring they had were increasingly warped and twisted, evil creatures that soon devolved to little more than lustful appetites. In time humanity was in absolute fear of them, and they were only barely controlled by their parents, either human or angelic.
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.(Genesis 6:5-8)
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:22-23)
What if, when mankind was wiped away, reduced to eight individuals to rebuild the human population, the Nephilim that survived the flood were still there. And those are who Argan now hunts.
