Nephilim and Nephele Etymology

Factual Questions
1

I have a lot of ignorance with respect to mythology and etymology, but I do have at least a dilettante’s interest in them.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I looked up nephilim in a dictionary; I was curious about the etymology. I know there’s all kinds of speculation about who they were; I was just interested in the original roots of the word (on a tangent, looking in a dictionary, I get the impression our knowledge of etymology of many European languages kind of bottoms out with things like Greek and Latin. How much do we know about the linguistic ancestors of those languages (and Hebrew?))

Anyway, nephilim wasn’t in the dictionary, but Nephele was. I wasn’t familiar with that story, but the dictionary’s description of her as a “counterfeit god” reminded me of what I’ve heard of the nephilim mythology

Is this a coincidence, or do they have a common mythology/etymology?

2

The Nephimum is only mentioned once in the conventional bible in Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

But the term ‘mighty men’ has been used, for instance to describe some of King David’s key warriors.

The term nephimun is also mentioned in some apocryphal books such as the Book of Enoch and others.

Besides that, though not called nephilum, you have the greek myths of the god/man hybrids which Alexander the Great claimed to be one.

3

As your own link notes, the root for Nephilim is נפל (NFL), “to fall”.

4

Which ties in with American Football season! It all becomes clearer now…

5

Thanks. I did notice that, but I’m primarily curious in whether there’s any historical connection between the origins of the two words.

6

Between the Hebrew word for “to fall” and the Greek word for “cloud”? Unlikely.

7

The answer is no.

There is no connection between the two.

8

I figured Satan his demons had to be backing the Giants. :cool:

9

According to Biblical legend, they were a race of giants not completely wiped out by the Noah flood. 1 legend says that 1 of them clung on to the ark & simply walked off when it made landfall (altho who could he then reproduce with?), another one says Goliath was a descendant, and yet another was that Abraham took part in a battle of 4 kings vs. 5, of which 1 was a kingdom of giants (Genesis, dunno the numbers but the section is Lech Licha).
Interestingly, a very slight change in pronunciation of *Nefilim *is nefalim, which means ‘failures’ or ‘losers’ in Israeli slang singular nefel. In Hebrew, this minor variation usually implies a relationship between the 2 words, i.e. this race of ‘giants’ got wiped out, thus they’re losers. Whom to believe?