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The Untold Truth Of Fallen Angels

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First, a bit of a disclaimer: Organized religion is equally complicated equally the people who follow it. Taking on even a minor section of theology is a massive undertaking, and honestly, it's just a mess of different versions of all kinds of stories and beliefs. So that being said, let's talk about some of the bad boys of several religions: fallen angels.

Anybody knows what angels are — wings, halos, all kinds of bright calorie-free and grace. Fallen angels started out non-so-different at all, and there'due south a lesson to be learned there. The commencement — and often, the just — fallen angel most people call up of is the Christian version of Match, who took on God, savage from heaven, and went on to run a nightclub and consult with the LAPD.

Merely he's definitely not the only one, and different religious traditions fifty-fifty have their ain and very unlike pantheons of fallen angels. They're a fascinating glimpse into what mere mortals fear most, and looking at simply who fallen angels are and what they practice tells just us just as much nigh ourselves as it does about them.

What makes a fallen angel, well, fallen?

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So hither's where things go complicated. Fallen angels are basically angels that have given upwards on the good and righteous path and turned to evil, anybody knows that, correct? But in some religions, there's more than to the story. According to Whitney Hopler of George Bricklayer University's Center for the Advocacy of Well-Being, the Jewish and Christian traditions believe that fallen angels were originally simply equally holy as any of the other angels, merely roughshod when the most cute of them all — Lucifer — decided to rebel and enticed others to become with him. The rebellion and their loss to Michael and his angelic army turned them evil, and a lot of them — virtually a third of all angels — cruel with Lucifer.

In Hindu traditions, it's a little dissimilar. They believe that the creator god, Brahma, actually fabricated some celestial beings good and some evil from the very showtime. Why? Because information technology's meant to illustrate the natural order of things, and residual in the universe.

And fallen angels don't exist in Islam, where traditions say that all angels are proficient — including the ones tasked with overseeing those whose evil souls who have landed them in hell. They're lording over hell, yes, but they're still doing divine work. In that location'due south another explanation for Satan there, too, and information technology basically says he'southward non an angel, he'southward a jinn: a creature made from fire and free will.

Where most of our knowledge of fallen angels comes from

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Whitney Hopler of George Mason University'southward Heart for the Advancement of Well-Being says those who believe in fallen angels typically believe them to exist responsible for things like tempting mortals into sin. And they're catchy about it, besides, sometimes masquerading equally skilful angels every bit they torment and tempt.

How do we know all this? A lot of our cognition of fallen angels comes from the non-canonical Book of Enoch, which was written about 350 B.C. and was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's pretty heavy stuff, besides, according to the Biblical Archaeology Order Library. The texts claim to be the revelations of Enoch, who was taken up to heaven and told the universe'southward deepest secrets, so shown just what would happen during mankind'due south ultimate judgment.

Enoch shows up in other texts, and according to the Gnostic Society Library, there are a ton of stories about him. He lived to be 365 years former, eventually telling his tales to his son, Methuselah, who achieved an impressive 969 years on Earth. Strangely, even though the stories of Enoch were influenced by the mythology of places like Babylon and, in plow, influenced Judaism and Christianity, the just place that all 100 chapters of the volume survived was Ethiopia. Among those chapters was a fascinating explanation of fallen angels.

Lust destroyed the angels of the Book of Enoch

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One of the most widely told tales of fallen angels says it was Lucifer who rebelled against God and brought a bunch of angels downward with him, but the story told in the Volume of Enoch is very, very different.

According to the Gnostic Society Library, the Book of Enoch tells the tale of angels who are destroyed past lust. (The story besides shows up in Genesis, simply in less detail.) Before the Great Flood, angels and humans met and mingled pretty ordinarily, and the inevitable happened: children. Those children were the sons and daughters of 200 angels, and they were a race of 450-foot-tall giants. The angels started teaching their giant offspring evil ways, and God not only imprisoned them, merely subjected them to judgment and sent the flood to hit the reset button on his creations. (It'southward likewise worth noting that Les Enluminures says Noah is the peachy-grandson of Enoch.)

Enoch, the story says, tried to speak on behalf of the angels and their giant children — simply sadly, a lot of the texts are missing. We practise know that Enoch was the one God selected to act every bit an intermediary to the fallen angels, instructing him to tell them what their punishment would exist for their transgressions. They were to be condemned to the ends of the earth, and punishment was definitely going to be a big function of their version of eternity.

Fallen angels were disobedient to God in other traditions

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Co-ordinate to Les Enluminures, Enoch was considered a prophet to early Jewish writers. When Christianity started to adopt his teachings, he largely fell out of favor with Judaism. Christian writers took the Book of Enoch with them when they converted the rather isolated areas of Ethiopia in the fourth and fifth centuries, preserving the text in that location, where it stayed before being brought to Europe in 1773. Meanwhile, Christian scholars and writers were doing some serious interpreting of the version of the Bible approved past the church, and the thing is, information technology's never said that Satan is a fallen angel.

How he became one is a scrap of tricky logic, says Live Science. The reasoning went similar this: God created everything in the universe, and therefore, God created Satan. But the only things God creates are proficient things, so therefore, Satan must have been good at one signal. He needed to have the gratis will to turn bad, and then he became a fallen angel.

To go technical nigh it, the get-go Biblical grapheme given the moniker "match" wasn't a fallen angel at all — it was Jesus. He was called "Lucifer" in an sometime translation of the Bible, and the name was just afterward applied to the world's least favorite fallen angel when, in Luke 10:18, Jesus said, "I accept observed Satan fall similar lightning from the sky" (via Franciscan Media).

The kickoff of the fallen angels

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Co-ordinate to the Book of Enoch, each one of the commencement of the fallen angels was responsible for teaching flesh something that led them to sin. Take Asbeel. He's the ane who gave the evilest of counsel to the "holy sons of God," and introduced them to the wonders — and basest evils — that came with hooking upwards with women. Kasdeja was the one who brought flesh knowledge most spirits and demons, and who showed them "the smitings of the embryo in the womb" and "the smitings which befall through the noontide heat."

The creation of a race of giants (half-angels, half-human being) was said to have been the work of one angel in particular: the leader of the fallen, Shernihaza (via the Gnostic Lodge Library). Other sources cite variations of the proper name, like Samjaza, just he was the one that led to the ultimate imprisonment of the fallen and the terminate of the world with the Flood. The Volume of Giants tells the story of some of his children — like Ohya and Hahya — but sadly, much of the manuscript has been lost.

Maybe the strangest of all was Penemue, the fallen angel credited with giving mankind something that led to all kinds of evil: the written language. With writing came the noesis of devastation, and writing was supposedly responsible for widespread death and descent into darkness.

The one you know? That'south Gadreel

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At that place's one fallen angel in particular that warrants talking most on his own, and that's Gadreel. According to the Book of Enoch, Gadreel was responsible for a lot of problem on his own and even though most might non recognize his name, they're familiar with his work. He'due south the one who's credited with enticing Eve with the forbidden fruit and leading otherwise unsuspecting, holy humans downwards the path of sin in the first place. He's also the ane who gave mankind "all the weapons of expiry," along with shields and armor, and he first showed people how to impale each other.

That'due south completely different than the picture many have most just what went down in the Garden of Eden, an human action of temptation that's usually credited to Satan in the guise of a snake. But according to the Biblical Archæology Society, that absolutely wasn't on anyone's listen when it was first written, mostly because at the time there was no concept of the devil every bit nosotros think of him today. Personification of the snake started with Enoch and Gadreel, simply information technology took a few centuries before the fallen angel morphed into one much more well-known.

Fallen angels originally looked quite unlike

Quick, describe a fallen affections. There are probably some scowly faces, bat-like wings, maybe even some horns or cloven hooves. But National Geographic says it wasn't always like that. In early Christian fine art, fallen angels looked pretty much the same as their holier counterparts. One of the earliest representations of the idea that there were angels and fallen angels opposing each other in an otherworldly battle is featured in a mosaic (above) in the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italia. Jesus is in the middle, and on one side are an affections in red with some sheep. The sheep are the faithful, and red was originally used to describe the holy kingdom. (It didn't become associated with brimstone and hellfire until after.)

On the other side is a figure thought to be Lucifer or Satan, but he doesn't wait very Satanic. He stands side by side to goats instead of sheep, and he'due south wearing blue, which was the color of the damned. The mosaic besides suggests fallen angels kept their iconic halos, which were a symbol of power, not holiness.

According to the British Library, this epitome of fallen angels started to morph into something much more than grotesque in the Middle Ages, and they were designed to be an evil estimation of a traditionally celestial course. Withal, fallen angels retained the power to disguise their truthful form, and that'due south extremely creepy.

Our ideas near fallen angels were largely created past fiction writers

If fallen angels started out looking similar, well, angels, why do we think of them equally horrible, twisted, demonic creatures? The respond, says National Geographic, involved John Milton'due south Paradise Lost and his depiction of Lucifer. Simply it's more complicated than that. Milton — who was writing in the 17th century — tapped into what was essentially a pop culture depiction of a fallen affections who wasn't described in the Bible at all.

Throughout the Middle Ages, a foreign thing started to happen. Creatures from aboriginal Babylonian texts — called Lilitu — started to take on a new life as these winged seductresses became associated with Adam'south first married woman, Lilith. At the aforementioned time, parallels were drawn between Satan and the ancient Canaanite deity Beelzebub, and the aboriginal Roman half-goat, half-human being god of nature, Pan.

Then, in the 14th century, Dante described Satan as lording over the deepest depths of hell, and gave him his bat wings. Milton hopped on board a flake later — when Satan had been transformed from a passive adversary into an active evil — and wrote the descriptions of the fallen angels that we now think of today, existing in "Adamantine Chains and penal Burn." (Above, Milton's fallen angels are illustrated getting totally wrecked in battle.)

Fallen angels were a huge problem for theologists

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The existence of fallen angels has presented theologians with some serious problems; namely, how could they fifty-fifty exist? Since God created everything, that besides meant God had created something evil or with the capacity to be evil, and that only wasn't going to wing with most Christian scholars. The implications of that were terrifying, and then at that place had to be another explanation.

Until the twelfth century, "pride" was the typical answer as to why fallen angels fell. But that meant God would have had to create something with a crippling, all-powerful amount of pride, and that didn't fly. So scholars came up with the idea that angels had been created with a natural love that allowed them to honey God, themselves, and each other. Office of that love was involuntary, and another part was voluntary. That voluntary honey was further divided into the idea of friendship and the idea that some love exists because it makes someone happy.

It was farther argued that angels' honey of God was the involuntary kind, and all was fine. Until, that is, one angel realized that he loved God because God made him powerful, and that made it voluntary. In one case that angel — Lucifer — realized how overnice it was to love and be loved for selfish pleasance instead of simply for love's sake, well, that's when all the problems started.

After Lucifer, the other angels vicious because they were lonely

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The idea that Lucifer kicked off the fall of the angels because he started experiencing love for a selfish reason is all well and good, and information technology kind of makes sense. Information technology'southward another side to the pride coin, but a twisted, dark, selfish love ... that's something most people can sympathize. That may have fabricated it possible for that Lucifer to autumn, merely what nearly the other angels that went with him?

That presented another theological problem because other angels only weren't on the aforementioned level as Match, God's most beautiful creation. Scholars thought it was a piffling unbelievable that lesser angels could mayhap love in the same way, so what's upward with that? The explanation is actually pretty heartbreaking.

The theory developed by thinkers of the Center Ages says those angels fell non considering they hated God but because they loved Lucifer. God was largely an absent, distant figure, later all, and Friction match was their friend. Rather than condemning themselves to struggle for the credence of an unreachable male parent, maybe they followed their brother into exile.

Fallen angels' lack of animalism for men was used to condemn anyone who was gay

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Religion impacts the cloth, human being world in strange ways, and 1 of those ways, says scholars from the Mirabilia Periodical, is that the thought of fallen angels impacted simply how homophobic the world was for a long time. Scholars have long debated about whether fallen angels and demons are capable of love, and some described it not as a dearest similar most know information technology, simply as a desire for other creatures as a sort of stepping rock in the cosmos of their own evil ends.

Since Christian writers every bit far back as Paul warn women of alluring the lusty gazes of fallen angels, it's safe to say they believed there was something going on there. But it's not and so much beloved every bit it is lust, and the male person demons and fallen angels seem to only have these affections for women. Early scholars declared that since not even fallen angels would lust afterward their own sexual practice, there was something very fundamentally wrong with humans who did that. The office of fallen angels is to tempt in the most horrible and basest of ways, and fifty-fifty they wouldn't tempt other men. Cue centuries of persecution.

Other angels are tasked specifically with punishing fallen angels

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If you think most it — really, really think about it — at that place's nothing in our contemporary version of things that suggests in that location's actually any kind of penalty for the fallen angels that joined Lucifer from his descent from the heavens. Certain, there's a hell, but they're not exactly at the mercy of all the demons there ... they are the demons. Right?

Not quite. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the 7 archangels counted the punishing of the fallen angels amongst their heavenly duties. Each ane of the archangels was in charge of detail facets of the otherworldly life: Jeremiel, for case, keeps lookout man over the souls in the underworld, while Michael protects State of israel, Gabriel is the overseer of Paradise, and Uriel leads the host. They're the ones with directly access to God, and they're also in charge of punishing the fallen.

Punish how? Have Azazel, who was the one who taught mankind how to make weapons. According to the Watkins Dictionary of Angels, he was punished by Raphael, who put him in chains, threw him in a pit full of abrupt rocks in the eye of the desert, and brought the darkness down on him while he waited for his condemnation after the terminal judgment. Sounds similar a grand ol' fourth dimension.

Birds of paradise were once idea to be fallen angels

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Birds of paradise are a species from New Republic of guinea and the nearby islands, and they're so breathtakingly cute, they don't look real. But beauty in the brute world comes with a devastating toll — National Geographic says their feathers were and then prized that hunters nearly drove them to extinction. When those birds were first seen by European eyes, they were already expressionless and dried, with legs and wings removed. The Public Domain Review says information technology wasn't until the 16th and 17th centuries that explorers and traders brought the birds to Europe, so unsurprisingly, people had a tough time trying to decide just what these lifeless things were.

They had no doubts that they were something special: the earliest arrived in 1522, and were said to accept come from a "terrestrial Paradise" and, in spite of the feathers, they supposedly never flew. Information technology's no wonder that information technology didn't take long before the birds were described as angels — fallen angels that had lost their ability to fly, and instead lived in the magical, mystical world that was the Far East. They became mythologized in religious texts, works of art, and allegories every bit beautiful, ethereal beings who had clearly done something terrible to lose their wings.

In the early on 17th century, naturalists got a hold of other birds, ones with their wings and legs intact. The fallen affections mythology faded a bit, simply they've long remained a symbol of the flightless fallen.

The fairies of Irish mythology were really fallen angels

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Few modern-day cultures are as closely tied to their ancient traditions as Republic of ireland, and consequently, anybody'southward familiar with the thought of the fairies and the fae folk that have inhabited the Emerald Island since time began. Merely Irish gaelic fairies aren't of the typical flowers-and-glitter sort — and one of the theories as to where they came from is that they were originally fallen angels. Due west.B. Yeats cataloged one-time Irish beliefs in Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish gaelic Peasantry, and he wrote of the fairies: "Who are they? 'Fallen angels who were non skillful enough to be saved, nor bad enough to exist lost,' say the peasantry."

Legends say that these particular fallen angels were less guilty than the ones that actively opposed God, and were sentenced to an eternity in the nigh remote places on earth: some were cast into the bounding main and became merfolk, some went surreptitious to become goblins and trolls, while others were sent to the harshest areas of the countryside, and became leprechauns (via Texas Land Academy).

The other theory of fairy origin is that they were in one case ancient heroes and deities who ceased to be worshiped and began to fade into creatures of lesser power, but Yeats says there's a lot of support for the thought that fairies could trace their lineage dorsum to fallen angels. Most telling of all was their beliefs: they were always said to exist proficient and kind to those who were adept to them, but would unleash hell on world to those who were evil or disrespectful.

Why take they always been and so important?

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Fallen angels are something of a consistent, running theme throughout numerous religions, which brings upward a question: why have we and then regularly told stories of them, and why accept we been so fascinated with them? Dr. Miryam Brand of the WF Albright Establish of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem attempted to answer that question (via The Torah), and says there's a few things at work. Beginning, they requite the states an answer to why we sin, and why human evil exists. Information technology's not our fault, not entirely, at least, just it's the mistake of the fallen angels we were corrupted by. And it'due south prissy to have a scapegoat.

They also explained why mankind continues to sin — considering nosotros're however existence tempted by them — and at the same time, they present the states with something surprising: hope. If sin and evil is the cause of the fallen angels, when the ultimate battle betwixt adept and evil comes, in that location's going to exist a redemption. Everyone loves a expert redemption story.

And, in that location's but one more than thing. The presence of these angels gives God an out considering now, He'south not the ane that's behind sin and temptation, illness, hate, or any of the other approximately 1 1000000 evils present in the world. It'south those pesky fallen angels, and having them take a prominent identify in religious beliefs means people have someone also God to blame for all that's bad.

How fallen angels condemned mankind by showing them their beauty

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Ever starting time to recollect that information technology'south mankind's vanity and sense of self-importance that'due south going to be the end of u.s.a.? That's not a new thought and in fact, one of the offset things fallen angels taught usa to kick-start our own fall from grace was vanity.

Originally, New Dawn Magazine notes, it was said that there were 200 fallen angels that headed to earth to crusade some serious havoc. At their head was an angel chosen Match, Azazel, or Lumiel, and he'due south the one that taught men how to make armor so that, you know, it took a little more try to kill each other. Merely he taught the women something also: how to use cosmetics and specifically kohl, a black center product popular since ancient times. He also introduced them to the idea of jewelry like bracelets and rings, and how to use their finery and their feminine wiles to seduce men.

And this, says Dr. Miryam Brand of the WF Albright Plant of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (via The Torah), was considered forbidden noesis that started mankind on the road to corruption. Information technology's also the reason for an historic period-erstwhile do in numerous religions: the tradition that women needed to cover themselves, lest they tempt the men effectually them. Even St. Paul was a huge supporter of the thought that women needed to cover their hair, and we tin can all give thanks fallen angels for that one, as well.

The eternal punishment of one fallen angel

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Surely, fallen angels will have to pay for all this problem they've caused flesh... right? There's ane fascinating tale that says at to the lowest degree ane already has — and we see him all the time.

Shemyaza is another proper noun given to the leader of the fallen angels, although researcher Andrew Collins notes that at some signal before the Volume of Enoch, Shemyaza and Azazel (or Lucifer) became 2 different angels. At any rate, it was Shemyaza who taught men the art of magic, and along the way, he also meets a mortal woman named Ishtar. The story varies in the telling — sometimes, information technology'southward said Ishtar was already a Babylonian deity when he fell in honey with her (via New Dawn Magazine) — only either fashion, she promised him a little chamber action if he would only let her in on i little secret: God's truthful and hidden name. (Other versions, according to The Manitoban, say that she pestered him until he let her endeavour on his wings.) He, of course, caves to her demands and she uses her newfound cognition — sometimes she uses it to arise into the heavens, sometimes she uses it to plow from a mortal woman into a deity.

Whatever the details are, Shemyaza pays the same price: he'south sentenced to hang for an eternity, upside-down, among the stars. He's still there, as a constellation in the nighttime sky, although we more commonly telephone call him Orion.

The fallen angels that sort of accidentally fell

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Take a deep swoop into the various religions of the world, and you'll detect they take a lot in common — and as Harvard notes, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic texts all characteristic the story of twin angels who fell and were punished for eternity.

Take Harut and Marut, fallen angels Britannica describes equally "unwittingly" condign evil. Their story is a little unlike than that of, say, Match, every bit they didn't consciously determine, "Hey, the heck with Heaven, this evil stuff seems pretty fun." Instead, they were part of a grouping of angels who laughed at flesh for their apparent inability to resist sin and temptation. God overheard it and, declaring that angels would fare no ameliorate in the face up of the same temptation, selected Harut and Marut to go to Globe and endeavour to resist. They absolutely couldn't: They were immediately seduced past a human woman and so killed the man who'd seen them with her. Harut and Marut were forced to admit that they'd been wrong, and they were allowed to choose their punishment.

The story says that they're trapped on World until Judgement Twenty-four hour period — in Jewish sources, they're confined to the Mountains of Darkness (forth with the X Lost Tribes of State of israel, and Gog and Magog), trapped behind a bulwark put up by Alexander the Great. Still, humans occasionally visit them in search of knowledge: Information technology'due south said they gave Genun the Canaanite musical instruments, beer, and iron weapons, although about of the people who go to meet them are looking to larn magic.

The belief that God and fallen angels are working together

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Fallen angels are unremarkably rebelling against God, right? Simply hither'southward the weird thing — co-ordinate to Founding Gods, Inventing Nations, that's not always the instance: Sometimes, they fell with God's permission.

Qur'anic texts suggest that God and the fallen angels are essentially in cahoots, working to show which humans are good and which are evil. And information technology started manner back with Iblis: When God casts him down, he asks for permission to lure humans away with the promises of evil and sin. God 100-pct gives information technology — Iblis is the one that'southward ultimately likewise known every bit Satan, and in spite of the fact that Iblis is full of constant mockery and backtalk, he's but allowed to exercise what he does because God says it's okay.

And he does a lot — even convincing mankind that the worship of idols is a good idea is all his doing ... even so with God'southward permission. Other fallen angels — like Harut and Marut — laissez passer on knowledge of magic and gifts that promote sinful beliefs to mankind, but they, as well, are doing so with God's leave. What's in it for God? Information technology's a handy way to separate the true believers and the faithful from the wicked and sinful.

The fallen angels ... according to Dante

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Dante's view of the world we're all destined for is nothing short of terrifying ... if you're a sinner, at least.

As Dante is escorted deeper and deeper into the circles of Hell by his guide, Virgil, he sees the punishments that await sinners of all kinds. And the fallen angels are there, too — they're guarding the walls of the City of Dis. They slam the gates shut on Dante and his guide, and that's about the time that the Furies and Medusa show up to cause some more anarchy. Virgil assures Dante that an angel — a real, heavenly sort of affections — is going to come up and open the way for them, and one does. Clearly, he's the one in charge here: He opens the gate and reproaches the fallen, reminding them what happens when someone steps out of line.

Dante and Virgil pass and get to run into what the angels were guarding. The urban center beyond is the 6th circle, and immediately beyond the gates guarded by the fallen angels are the heretics. They're the leaders of cults and their followers, and their punishment is an eternity bars to tombs engulfed in flames, heated blood-red-hot. Further on are other groups of sinners, including the violent and fraudsters (flatterers, false prophets, alchemists, and the like).

I of the nigh famous descendants of the fallen angels: Goliath

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When it comes to Bible stories, the tale of David and Goliath is ane of the well-nigh famous, the story of an underdog coming out on top in spite of facing insurmountable odds. Those odds get fifty-fifty steeper if you subscribe to the theory that Goliath is a giant because he's descended from the fallen angels.

It's compelling stuff, and it starts with the Nephilim. According to Answers in Genesis, when angels fell, they hooked up with mortal women, who gave nascency to a race of giants chosen the Nephilim. (As a side annotation, it'south worth mentioning that this is just one theory acknowledged every bit having Biblical support — when it comes to Biblical tales, there's e'er more than one version.)

The Nephilim then, in plow, bred as well and split into different lines. One of those lines was the Anakim, a grouping of giants living in Canaan during the Exodus. Hold that idea, and allow'due south spring over to Goliath. Goliath, Joshua tells us, was from a identify called Gath, and Gath was 1 of three places where the Anakim lived. Given his stature and his hometown, scholars say information technology'southward entirely possible that he could trace his lineage back to the fallen angels. Mentions of other giants in the Bible can also be interpreted as supporting the thought that they were born of the Anakim, who were, in turn, part of the Nephilim.

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Source: https://www.grunge.com/159512/the-untold-truth-of-fallen-angels/

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