Genesis 6:4 suggests "giants".
The root is generally understood to be NAPHAL (נפל) = "to fall" whence Nephilim = "the fallen ones" - but "fallen" from what: the skies, like ET: grace?. Theologians, looking back from our epistemology rather than trying to understand theirs, have therefore taken them to be the ones who fell with Lucifer; however this Miltonian idea does not belong to Judaism at all. "There were giants on the Earth in those days" is the usual Jewish translation of Genesis 6:4, and as such is treated as a residual memory of the antediluvian age (i.e. the aboriginal settlers), hinting at the same source as the Kena'ani Anakim (ענקים) and Chorim (חֹרִים) or Horites, and the Greek Titans. And in fact this applies to all the aboriginal tribes of Kena'an, whose names were all probably relics of the hunt, attributed in the same way that a football team might be the Dodgers or the Spurs - see also the Eymim ("Terrors"), Repha'im ("Weakeners"), Giborim ("Giant Heroes"), Zamzumim ("Achievers"), and Avim ("Devastators" or "Serpents") et al.
There is a very different case to be made, that we should not translate Genesis 6:4 as "there were giants in those days", but rather as "there were shamans in those days"; recognising that "shamans" is probably not accurate either, but at least it conveys the right general domain. My hypothesis requires substantiation, and there is plenty:
Numbers 24:4 speaks of Bil'am (Balaam) the prophet, "falling into a trance" before making prophecies, and doing so "in the manner of one who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened."
Isaiah 9:7 (click footnote 13 at the link for the comment) (9:8 in some versions; this link is to the text only, the other link to a commentary) likewise conveys a message from the heavens through the idea of "falling":
DAVAR SHALACH ADONAI BE YA'AKOV VE NAPHAL BE YISRA-EL
Daniel 4:28 tells us (in Aramaic) that, "While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from the heavens (MIN SHEMAYA NEPHAL - מִן שְׁמַיָּא נְפַל): "O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom is taken from you."
דָּבָר שָׁלַח אֲדֹנָי בְּיַעֲקֹב וְנָפַל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל
My Lord sent his Word to Ya'akov, and it fell upon Yisra-El.
Daniel 4:28 tells us (in Aramaic) that, "While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from the heavens (MIN SHEMAYA NEPHAL - מִן שְׁמַיָּא נְפַל): "O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom is taken from you."
Ezekiel 8:1 offers a significant variation, as here it is the hand of YHVH that falls on him; but Yechezke-El returns to the older, "shamanistic" usage in 11:5, where "the spirit of YHVH fell upon me - וַתִּפֹּל עָלַי רוּחַ יְהוָה", expressing the visionary state in a manner that is still used today.
All of which, and there are many, many other examples, but these seem to me sufficient, convey a trance-like visionary state through which the word of the deity "falls upon" the chosen medium of its communication, and that receiver "falls" prostrate on the floor in worship. Whether this involved drugs or not is rarely stated, though when it is stated, the drug in question is invariably haoma.
This does not, however, exclude the possibility of translating Nephilim as "giants" in Genesis 6:4, for we are told that the Nephilim were responsible for "the sons of Ha Elohim" marrying "the daughters of men", out of which came the Giborim (גבורים) or "heroes". This describes the Nephilim as something like the Greek Titans (the following will also be found on the blog-page "Titans").
Who were these "sons of Ha Elohim"? Angels? Epithets for the people who worshipped Elohim? Raphael Patai suggests they were Semitic El-worshippers and cattle-breeders, and that "the daughters of Adam", which is his preferred rendering of "Benot Adam - בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם", were goddess-worshipping Kena'ani land-workers. If so, it reflects the historic first meeting of East and West. More likely, we are talking about aboriginal tribes (Hittites, Aramaeans, African Egyptians, Yoktanite Arabs) who converged and intermarried in pre-Yisra-Eli Kena'an, forming thereby the Kena'ani peoples - probably between 30,000 and 3,000 BCE.
A second possibility is that we are dealing with the mythical-ritualistic seduction of mortal women by gods, à la Grec, ritually, through the hierophant May King bedding the priestess-hierodule, with their progeny called Nephilim or Fallen Ones.
These "creatures" were also known as Eymim (Terrors), Repha'im (Weakeners), Giborim (Giant Heroes), Zamzumim (Achievers), Anakim (Long-Necked or Wearers of Necklaces), and Avim (Devastators or Serpents).
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A Nephil named Arba built Kiryat Arba (Genesis 23:2 and Joshua 14:15) and fathered Anak, whose sons Achi-Man (אֲחִימַן) Sheshai (שֵׁשַׁי),and Talmai (תַלְמַי) were expelled from the town (by then called Chevron) by Kalev (Caleb) - cf Numbers 13:22.
The Kena'ani giants conquered by Kedar-la-Omer (Genesis 14) were called Eymim (terrors) by the Beney Mo-Av, Zamzumim or Zuzim (busy ones) by the Beney Amon, and Repha'im (weakeners) by the Beney Gil'ad - so it may be that they were all actually the same people, in much the same way that we might speak of Holland, the Netherlands and the Dutch, not realising they are three ways of describing a single nation. Ugaritic mythology treats them as spectres.
And finally, as a wonderful "proof" of the evolution of Humankind from the apes, by way of the Neanderthals, to homo erectus, but with a previously unknown epoch of giantism between the two...a wonderful hoax for you to follow on the Internet, by clicking here, or here, or here.
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