HistoricalChristian.Faith

Eusebius of Caesarea on the Nephilim

Dates: c. 339 Summary: Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. 339) reads Genesis 6 in supernatural terms within an apologetic argument against pagan religion. He identifies the giants born of "the angels of God" and the daughters of men with the daemons of Greek myth, and argues that the spirits of these giants were later "deified by the subsequent generations of men" — that is, the pagan gods are the deified spirits of the antediluvian giants.

Claims & evidence

The giants of Genesis 6 are daemons whose spirits were later deified as the pagan gods

Of this kind then perhaps were the statements in the Sacred Scripture concerning the giants before the flood, and those concerning their progenitors, of whom it is said, 'And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, they took unto them wives of all that they chose,' and of these were born 'the giants the men of renown which were of old.'

For one might say that these daemons are those giants, and that their spirits have been deified by the subsequent generations of men, and that their battles, and their quarrels among themselves, and their wars are the subjects of these legends that are told as of gods.

— Preparation for the Gospel, BOOK V, CHAPTER IV, source. Eusebius adduces Plutarch's reading of myth as daemon-narrative to argue the Greek gods are deified antediluvian giants, supporting his case against pagan worship.

Notes

• Eusebius reflects the older angelic/supernatural stream: the begetters are "the angels of God," the offspring are real giants, and their spirits persist as daemons.
• The apologetic framing — equating the giants with the daemons behind pagan worship — connects the Genesis 6 narrative to the wider patristic polemic that the gods were once men or spirits.