Giants, Melchizedek, and the spirits in prison

     One of the most fundamental principles that should guide us when studying the Bible is context – the context of the passage, the book, and the whole Bible, particularly other verses on the same subject. Failure to do this is perhaps the most common path to error. There are many common examples, such as Philippians 4:13 which says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” This is often misinterpreted to mean God will back me up in anything I try. It actually means the opposite, and the context of verses 11-12 shows this. Paul is saying that he can be content despite whether his circumstances are favorable or not. Another example is Ephesians 2:8-9. Calvinists often quote these verses to substantiate their doctrine. The problem is that they never quote verse 10. The point of the passage is that although our salvation is based on the grace of God, we are to have a clear change of lifestyle and behavior for our salvation to mean anything. Otherwise, what are we saved from? James 2:14-26 says it well.

     Some people are drawn to the mystical. There is a big difference between mystery and the mystical. In the New Testament, the mystery is the gospel that was not previously revealed but now is (Rom 16:25-26, Eph 6:19, Col 1:26-27). We should not shy away from the book of Revelation despite its symbolic and visionary language, but neither should we seek fanciful and unscriptural interpretations. The book itself warns us about this in the most serious terms (Rev 22:18-19). The first five words of the book declare the overarching point of the book: “The revelation of Jesus Christ”.

     There is perhaps no greater subject that is unscripturally overmystified than angels. Both angels of God and fallen angels are real and are spoken of throughout the Bible. However, some people stretch the meaning and even assert things that the Bible never says. Some people think they are being superspiritual because they look up words in the original language. This is a worthy thing when it is done in pursuit of the truth, but it can also be used to put forth unsound doctrine (Gal 1:6-9, 2Pet 3:16). Sometimes Hebrew and Greek words have multiple connotations, and the dictionaries such as Gesenius’ and Thayer’s will show how the same word in English can have many connotations depending on the context. That does not mean we can take a connotation from one context and extrapolate it onto others.

     One popular passage that has been the victim of the above errors is Genesis 6:1-4 which states “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Some interpret this passage to mean that fallen angels married women who gave birth to hybrid creatures which they call the Nephilim. There are several issues with this interpretation.

     1. The phrase “sons of God” is not exclusive to angels. It is used more often to refer to men,

          particularly New Testament Christians (Jn 1:12, Rom 8:14 & 19, Gal 4:6, Phil 2:14, 1Jn

          3:1-2). It is only used to mean angels here and in the book of Job (Job 1:6, Job 2:1, Job

          38:7).

     2. The context of Genesis 4-5 shows us the two lineages which came from Cain and Seth.

     3. There were giants throughout the Old Testament, and there was nothing supernatural

          about them. They were just bigger than normal. Perhaps the most famous was Goliath who

          stood about 9.5 feet tall. If he had any supernatural powers, he failed to use them when he

          was slain by a teenage shepherd boy who did bring something supernatural to the fight –

          the name and covenant of the Lord (1Sam 17). There were other giants slain by regular

          people as well (Num 21:33-35, Deut 3:10, 2Sam 21:19-22). Robert Pershing Wadlow lived

          in Alton, Illinois in the 20^th century. He was 8’11” and died at 22. Fallen angels had

          nothing to do with his conception, and there was nothing unusually supernatural about

          him.

     4. Angels are spirits. They do not have flesh and bones nor reproductive seed (Heb 1:13-14,

         Lk 24:39, Heb 2:16).

     5. Jesus said angels do not marry (Mt 22:30).

     6. The word translated giants in Genesis 6:3 is napil, which is often stated in English as

         nephilim. There was nothing supernatural attributed to them. They were bigger than

normal and they were famous. So was Andre the Giant. In fact, this passage shows a

degradation of man rather than a supernatural enhancement. They were flesh and their

lifespans were greatly reduced from the 900 or more years in Genesis 5 to 120 years, and

then later to the current one of 75-80 years (Ps 90:10). The children of Anak which the

Israelites saw in Canaan were also called giants (napil). They were to be destroyed and/or driven out by the regular human Israelites.

     7. The idea that the Nephilim were hybrids comes from the book of 1Enoch which is not

          included in the Bible for several reasons, although it is included in the Ethiopian Bible. It

          is neither older nor in harmony than what Jews and early Christians recognized as

          scripture. Why did Jude quote 1Enoch if it is not scripture? It was for the same reason

          Paul quoted two pagan poets in Acts 17 on Mars Hill. Quoting a phrase from a book

          doesn’t equal approval of all of it. There is much also made of an alleged category of

          angels called the watchers. This word appears three times in Daniel 4 and nowhere else.

          There is a problem with building an entire doctrine off one reference, as some also do with

          Genesis 6:3.

Often, the same people who assert the above say that Melchizedek was not a human but a theophany. They base this on a misinterpretation of Hebrews 7:3 which says that he was “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.” Again, the context guides us to the correct meaning. The context of the passage and the entire book of Hebrews is that Jesus is better than anyone before Him, and that the new covenant He offers is better than any previous one. The word better appears 13 times, i.e. Hebrews 7:19 & 22, Hebrews 8:6, Hebrews 9:23, Hebrews 11:40, and Hebrews 12:24. The word descent in Hebrews 7:3 in the phrase “without descent” is also used in verse 6 in the phrase “he whose descent”.  Both words mean genealogy. The author’s point in verse 3 is not that Melchizedek was a theophany, but that he did not come from the line of Levi and therefore his priesthood is different as is that of Jesus Christ.

     This leads us to 1Peter 3:19 which states, “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison”. All of the above applies here as well. Let us examine the scriptural and contextual answers about what this means.

     1. How was the preaching mentioned in verse 19 done? By the Spirit (the Holy Ghost)

     2. Who preached? Christ (vs 18), by the same Spirit that raised Him

     3. Who did He preach to? The spirits in prison. Who are they? According to Thayer’s

         Lexicon, the specific meaning here is “a human soul that has left the body”. Why would He

         preach to fallen angels who are not offered a chance to repent (2Pet 2:4, Jude 6)? There is

         no scripture for preaching to angels and offering them an opportunity to repent.

     4. Where were those He preached to? In prison. The Greek word here is phylakē, which

          appears 47 times. The only other references this word makes to a prison other than a

          regular earthly prison are Revelation 2:10 and Revelation 20:7 with the possibility of

          Revelation 18:2. The word in as used in the phrase “in prison”  is a preposition denoting

          time or location.

     5. When did this preaching occur? In the days of Noah before the flood.

Based on this information, the only proper interpretation of this passage is that the same Spirit that spoke through all of the prophets (1Pet 1:10-12) also spoke through Noah to warn the sinners to repent and get on the ark (Heb 11:7, 2Pet 2:5).

     The Bible is certainly a spiritual book with many revelations that we can never exhaust. However, it is not a secret, mystical, occultic book that requires a special cipher or decoder ring to understand. Most often the plain reading is the right reading unless there is clear evidence that it is otherwise, such as visions and symbolic prophecies.