A Giant’s Nature Is Inherently Corrupt and Bent Toward Evil
The biblical and traditional accounts of the giants—called the Nephilim in Genesis 6—portray them as more than physically imposing figures. As part-divine, part-human beings, they were the unnatural offspring of the rebellious Watchers and human women. While Scripture does not always explicitly state that their nature was corrupt from birth, their origin outside of God’s design and their subsequent actions show a persistent bent toward rebellion, violence, and opposition to both God and humanity.
Ancient Jewish tradition, preserved in texts like 1 Enoch, presents these giants as beings whose existence was rooted in defiance of God’s created order. Their violence, idolatry, and corrupting influence on human society marked them as agents of chaos. Even in death, their spirits—described as demons—were believed to continue oppressing humanity. Their story underscores that evil is not always confined to one moment in time; it can persist in spiritual forms, influencing generations.
1. Reveal the Unnatural Origin of the Giants’ Nature
Genesis 6:1–4 tells us that “the sons of God” took human wives, producing the Nephilim—“the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” The phrase “sons of God” is widely understood in ancient interpretation to refer to angelic beings. The Book of 1 Enoch expands on this, describing the Watchers’ deliberate decision to leave their heavenly estate, take human wives, and bear hybrid offspring.
This unnatural union violated the boundaries God established between heavenly and earthly beings. As a result, the giants were not merely humans with exceptional traits—they were the product of a spiritual and physical corruption that distorted God’s creation. Psalm 51:5 speaks to the broader human condition of being “brought forth in iniquity,” but the giants’ birth carried an additional layer of inherited rebellion. They were conceived in defiance, and that defiance shaped their identity from the start.
2. Record the Evidence of the Giants’ Corruption in Life
The giants’ actions reveal the character of their nature. Genesis 6:5 describes the days in which they lived as a time when “every inclination of the thoughts of [human] hearts was only evil continually.” While this applies to humanity as a whole, the giants were a catalyst for this corruption.
According to 1 Enoch, the giants consumed all of humanity’s resources, turned to cannibalism, and committed violence against animals and each other. They spread forbidden knowledge—warfare, sorcery, occult practices—further entrenching evil in human culture. Numbers 13:33 records the terror they inspired: “We seemed like grasshoppers… and so we seemed to them.” Their presence intensified fear, idolatry, and rebellion against God.
The giants’ nature was displayed not in occasional lapses but in sustained patterns of domination, destruction, and spiritual seduction. In biblical theology, such persistent opposition to God is evidence of a corrupt nature.
3. Recognize the Spiritual Legacy of the Giants after Death
The corruption of the giants did not end with their physical destruction in the Flood. Jewish tradition and 1 Enoch assert that their disembodied spirits became demons, unclean spirits bound to the earthly realm. These spirits, restless and hostile, continued to influence humanity, oppressing individuals and leading societies deeper into rebellion.
Jesus’ ministry directly confronted these spirits through exorcisms, demonstrating His authority over them. When He drove out demons, He was, in effect, dismantling the ongoing legacy of the giants. In Luke 8:31, demons begged Him not to send them “into the abyss,” a reminder that they know their time is limited under God’s sovereign plan.
This enduring presence of evil underscores that the giants’ nature—rooted in rebellion—continued to manifest long after their bodies perished, reinforcing the seriousness of their corruption.
4. Recall God’s Judgment as a Response to Their Nature
The Flood narrative in Genesis 6–9 is God’s decisive response to a world dominated by corruption. The giants, as central figures in that corruption, were destroyed. The Watchers were bound in chains (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4), and the physical presence of the giants was erased from the earth—though their spirits remained until the final judgment.
This judgment demonstrates God’s unwillingness to allow unchecked rebellion to persist indefinitely. It also reveals that divine justice addresses both physical and spiritual dimensions of evil. While the giants’ power seemed overwhelming, it was no match for the authority of the Creator.
5. Reflect on the Giants as a Portrait of Spiritual Opposition
The giants embody the characteristics of spiritual opposition to God:
Rebellion – inherited from their Watcher fathers.
Violence – against humanity, animals, and the created order.
Corruption – through the spread of forbidden knowledge.
Defiance – refusing to submit to God’s authority.
Ephesians 6:12 reminds believers that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against… the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The giants illustrate that such forces can manifest in tangible, cultural, and even physical ways. Their nature serves as a warning about the reality and persistence of evil in the world.
6. Reaffirm the Gospel’s Answer to the Giants’ Corruption
The Gospel confronts the corruption of the giants at its root. In His death and resurrection, Christ disarmed “the rulers and authorities” and “triumphed over them” (Colossians 2:15). This includes the demonic powers that trace their lineage to the giants.
In 1 Peter 3:19–20, Christ is said to have proclaimed victory to the “spirits in prison”—a likely reference to the bound Watchers. Just as Noah and his family were saved through the Flood, believers are brought into salvation through Christ, passing from the dominion of darkness into His kingdom (Colossians 1:13).
The giants’ nature was to oppose God; Christ’s nature is to redeem, restore, and reign. The believer’s security is found in being united to Him, the ultimate conqueror of every corrupt power.
Conclusion
The giants’ inherently corrupt nature was not merely a product of their choices but of their unnatural origin—born from the union of rebellious angels and human women. Their lives were marked by violence, idolatry, and oppression, and their spirits continued to afflict humanity long after their deaths.
Yet the biblical narrative makes it clear: God’s authority over them was never in question. Their rise and fall served to highlight His justice, His power to judge, and His plan to redeem. In Christ, the corruption they embodied is decisively overcome. The believer’s hope rests not in avoiding encounters with such powers but in standing firm in the victory that has already been won.
Bible Verses about the Giants’ Corruption and Opposition to God
Genesis 6:1–4 – “When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.”
Genesis 6:5 – “When the LORD saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.”
Numbers 13:33 – “We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”
Deuteronomy 2:10–11 – “The Emim, a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim, had previously lived there. They were also regarded as Rephaim, like the Anakim, though the Moabites called them Emim.”
Jude 6 – “And the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling—he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.”
2 Peter 2:4 – “For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment.”
Psalm 82:6–7 – “I said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. However, you will die like humans and fall like any other ruler.’”
Mark 1:27 – “They were all amazed, and so they began to ask each other: ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’”
Luke 8:31 – “And they begged him not to banish them to the abyss.”
Colossians 2:15 – “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.”
