HistoricalChristian.Faith

Nemesius of Emesa on the Nephilim

Dates: c. 390 Summary: Nemesius of Emesa (fl. c. 390) supplies the angelic framing for the fall that lies behind Genesis 6. Among the incorporeal beings, he says, only some angels fell — those who "inclined to things below" and set their desire on earthly things, withdrawing from God. This describes the angelic descent traditionally read into the "sons of God" who took the daughters of men.

Claims & evidence

Only some angels fell — those who inclined toward earthly things

Of the incorporeal beings, only angels fell away, and not all of them, but some only, that inclined to things below and set their desire on things of earth, withdrawing themselves from their relations with things above, even from God.

— On the Nature of Man 58, trans. W. Telfer (Library of Christian Classics 4, 1955); the full work is online in George Wither's 1636 translation, archive.org. Nemesius frames the fall of angels as a downward inclination toward earthly things, the conceptual basis for the angelic reading of the "sons of God."

Notes

• Nemesius represents the angelic stream: a fall of certain angels who turned toward earthly things, the standard backdrop for reading the "sons of God" as fallen angels.
• He treats the angelic fall philosophically (incorporeal beings inclining to the corporeal) rather than narrating the Genesis 6 union itself.