We’ve been looking at theories regarding the origin of demons. These are each theories or speculations because scripture does not specifically speak to the issue. Each view has strengths and weaknesses and you will need to decide which seems most plausible if you need to adopt one. The good news is that we have what we need in Christ to deal with the demonic without knowing their origins, but because so many believers ask the question, we’ll continue.
The Nephilim Theory
In Genesis 6 and Numbers 13 there are small sections of scripture that grab your attention because they are so unusual while at the same time causing you to wonder what those verses are all about.
After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth. When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 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. The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (Gen.5:32-6:4).
They gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Num.13:32-33).
This theory suggests that the “sons of God” who were attracted to the daughters of men were angels. That phrase seems to apply to angels in Job 1:6 when the “son’s of God” came to present themselves before God and Satan also came with them. Some translations use the word “angels” in place of “sons of God.”
This view of demons states that angels (not necessarily those cast down with Satan) were so taken by the daughters of men that they essentially abandoned their nature as angels and married them. The children from those unions were extraordinary, large, and powerful. They were the Nephilim and their descendants were seen as giants by the Israeli spies who went into Canaan in the Numbers passage. Remember Goliath was seen as a “giant” and he was approximately nine feet tall so you don’t have to think of “Jack and the Bean Stalk giants” here.
The theory states that these half-human, half-angelic beings were destroyed in the flood but their spirits remained on the earth and are the demons that now serve Satan and attempt to enter human bodies to satisfy their desires – especially sexual desire since that was what tempted them to abandon their angelic nature in the first place. Certainly, Satan was a tempter of angels as well as men or a third of the angelic population would not have joined him in the rebellion spoken of in Revelation 12.
Another interesting twist of this theory is that the Nephilim were said to be on the earth “in those days and also afterward.” That phrase suggests that they were on the earth before the flood and after the flood so that their descendants were living in Canaan at the time of the Exodus – descendants of Anak. Of course, you see the problem immediately. How could these Nephilim have descendants after the flood if all flesh, other than Noah and his family, was destroyed by the flood? This view responds that their spirits remained on the earth after the flood and are the demonic spirits spoken of in scripture.
The objections to this view revolve mostly around the notion of angels producing offspring with humans. In response to a question about a man being married multiple times and which previous wife would be his at the resurrection, Jesus responded, “For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven” (Mt. 12;25). Many scholars take the view that this passage indicates that angels are not sexual since we have no scriptural record of them reproducing nor marrying. If angels are not sexual then how could they reproduce with women? However, in Luke 20:36 which is a parallel passage to this, Jesus seems to say that in the resurrection, the righteous do not marry but are like the angels in that they are not subject to death.
The objection still stands, however, that we have no clear passages suggesting that angels are sexual nor do we have any passages suggesting that angels can give up their “angelness” (for lack of a better term) to become human or superhuman. Many scholars are convinced that the “son’s of God marrying the daughters of men” refers to those who worshipped Jehovah marrying those who were not worshippers. That would be consistent with the drumbeat of Judaism forbidding marriage outside the faith and taking foreign wives. Adam himself was referred to as a “son of God” in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus and he was not an angel. Lastly, if the Nephilim where on the earth after the flood simply as spirits, how did they reproduce so that their descendants were in Canaan? I think these are significant objections to this view, although this may be the most interesting theory.
There is one final view of demons that I will mention. Some believe that there was a world created by God before Adam that was thrown into darkness and chaos when Satan was cast down from heaven. That explains why the world outside the Garden needed to be subdued. This view suggests that the Genesis account of creation was actually a re-creation. Demons, according to this view are the wicked spirits of this pre-Adamic race. Again, we have to speculate a great deal about the origin of demons.
So, choose one of these or construct your own view of the origin of demons. As I said in the beginning, none are completely satisfying and the speculation sometimes raises more questions than it answers. Tomorrow, we will move into more practical and constructive areas when it comes to dealing with the demonic.
