Pastors fight, theologians squabble and rabbis debate the Biblical N'filim. This antediluvian race, an offspring of giants fathered by fallen angels with female mortals is first introduced in Genesis 6:1-4. It is their existence that caused the flood and their existence why God commanded the Hebrews to finish the race's extinction under Moses and Joshua. This angelic/divine half-breed race is spoken of in every ancient civilization and appears to be the precursor of most polytheistic mythology and vampire lore. Whether or not you believe in the Judeo-Christian N'filim, modern society is still drenched with their tales, creating heated theological debates and the most thrilling entities in supernatural horror films. In exploring the N'filim, let us first look at their Jewish sources, then their vampire characteristics, and finally their connection to ancient polytheistic religions.

N'filim Origins

According to Genesis and the Book of Enoch, sometime between 460 and 1,065 years after the creation of man, 200 angels descended to earth and took wives for themselves. These angels taught their wives knowledge that God did not want humans to possess: the art of weaponry and metallurgy; the art of enchantments and sorceries; the art of cosmetology; the art of abortion; and the art of astrology, signs and the dividing of roots. Mankind became corrupt by abusing the knowledge for selfish gains and hurting all who stood in their way.

The offspring of these angels and women, called the N'filim, were giants on the earth and turned to humans for sustenance and slavery. The Book of Jasher and the Book of Enoch recount tales of N'filim drinking the blood of mortals and feasting on their carcasses. Then they began mating with animals to create N'filim entities with a mixture of human and animal body parts. All in all, mankind - the chosen race to rule the earth and all it contained - had become the prey and was hunted, and ruled over by a half-breed race stronger than they. To save humanity, God chose Noah, an unblemished man, with his family and drowned the N'filim and thus the corruptions plaguing His creation.

Furthermore, the Book of Enoch explains that when the mortal portion of a N'filim died away, its spirit became trapped here on earth waiting to be judged with the rest of mankind. Their ghosts and spirits were noted to be of a cloud-like substance and were known to possess and torment humans. These evil spirits and demons were not washed away by the flood and are exorcised by Jesus Christ numerous times in the New Testament.

Were all N'filim evil? In Genesis 6:4 it states: The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward - when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. It appears that some N'filim were heroes, and with their Biblical presence post flood, we must presume that God spared a few either for their righteousness or for other reasons. A few Jewish myths claim that Noah spared the N'filim Og who promised to be their slave for all time. Others point out that Japheth's wife (Japheth is Noah's eldest son) may have been a N'filim since two of Japheth's sons, Gog and Magog, are documented later in the Bible to be of N'filim lineage.

For whatever reason, some N'filim survived the flood. During Abraham's days, it is recorded that the giants warred amongst themselves. In Deuteronomy 3:11 it states that: Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites (Rapha means giant, the Rephaites are Biblically recorded to be the descendants of the N'filim)...Og was defeated and killed by Moses, but other Rapha (giant) tribes still blocked the path to Israel's Promised Land. The Bible mentions Goliath and several tribes as being descendants of the N'filim including the Anakim, Amorites and Assyrians.

Vampire Traits

Both historical and Biblical records recount that humans worshipped a pantheon of gods made up of N'filim and fallen angels. Most polytheistic religions required human sacrifices and drank the sacrificial blood. Assyrians, descendants of N'filim, were noted to drink the blood of conquered nations while sieging their next conquest for intimidation purposes. As the Hebrews' Book of Enoch includes the records of semi-divine entities drinking blood straight from a human, so do many other ancient religions. The Egyptian Sekhmet, the Greek Hecate, the Indian Kali and the Babylonian Lilitu demons are just a few examples.

In Jewish texts, the post-flood N'filim race has been described as having unnaturally long lives, grew to heights of nine to twelve feet, and had skin much paler than mortals. Historically, these N'filim tribes were known to drink blood from skulls, flay people alive, and sacrifice babies to demons/gods. Therefore, we are presented with an unnaturally long-lived, pale, paranormal tribe known for drinking blood recorded by both ancient civilizations and religious texts.

Polytheistic Religions

Did the Hebrew tales of N'filim create the rest of the world's mythologies? There is a good probability of this. Scholars acknowledge that the Greek gods closely resemble what the Hebrews would call fallen angels living amongst and having children with mortal women. We still hear tales of Hercules, Medusa, Thor and other half divine heroes and villains who survived a great flood. In Norse mythology, great battles were fought between the gods (fallen angels) and cannibalistic giants before a flood wiped out the giants for the humans to repopulate the earth. Celtic mythology of the Tuatha de Danaan continues this trend and has documentation for their ancestors originally hailing from the Middle East where tales of the N'filim were first recorded. In almost every ancient religion there are tales of angel-like/divine creatures mating with humans and/or animals to create their god-kings or a superior semi-divine race worshipped by humans. Furthermore, every ancient religion has evil spirits and demons tormenting and possessing humans and provide methods of protection against these entities. The Hebrews are the only ones to give a thorough explanation for all supernatural entities documented in the ancient world.

In conclusion, every ancient civilization and religion speaks of these N'filim and their blood-drinking and possessing habits. Each ancient and modern culture provides its own knowledge of how to protect themselves from N'filim entities: demons, spirits, ghosts and vampires. Even today, accounts and testimonials of N'filim entities are still being recorded. The N'filim appear to still roam the world amongst us whether in reality or in legends.