Biblical Nephilim Could Be Quraanic Jinn
While reveiwing various religious studies, I began to wonder if there was a discernible connection between the Biblical Nephilim and the Quranic Jinn.
Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root JNN (Arabic: جَنّ / جُنّ, jann), whose primary meaning is "to hide". Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, "beings that are concealed from the senses". Cognates include the Arabic majnūn ("possessed", or generally "insane"), jannah ("garden"), and janīn ("embryo"). Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinni. -Wikipedia
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives the meaning of Nephilim as "giants". Many suggested interpretations are based on the assumption that the word is a derivative of Hebrew verbal root n-ph-l "fall". Robert Baker Girdlestone argued the word comes from the Hiphil causative stem, implying that the Nephilim are to be perceived as "those that cause others to fall down". Adam Clarke took it as a perfect participle, "fallen", "apostates". Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form "ones who have fallen", equivalent grammatically to paqid "one who is appointed" (i.e., overseer), asir, "one who is bound", (i.e., prisoner) etc. According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, the basic etymology of the word Nephilim is "dub[ious]", and various suggested interpretations are "all very precarious".
The majority of ancient biblical versions, including the Septuagint, Theodotion, Latin Vulgate, Samaritan Targum, Targum Onkelos and Targum Neofiti, interpret the word to mean "giants". Symmachus translates it as "the violent ones" and Aquila's translation has been interpreted to mean either "the fallen ones" or "the ones falling [upon their enemies]". -Wikipedia
Furthermore, I can tell you that the root word of Nephilim is "Nephal" which, as it applies to beings, means: to fall, to be low born or low, earth born, lost, degraded, and other things along these lines. The Nephilim were the offspring of celestial beings, born onto this planet.
My core question was: can the Quranic Jinn be the Biblical Nephilim? I find, for the most part that they can be. There is nothing about the Islaamic description that would preclude the Biblical description. Furthermore, The term Nephilim more refers to these beings when they take on the flesh, while Jinn more refers to what Nephilim become when they die, ie., disembodied spirits, demons, terrors, etc. In the flesh, The Nephilim are described as having evil thoughts and behaviors, like a madness, all of the time. In death, these same beings, having lost their bodies, seek to inhabit whatever bodies they can.
Muslims will be quick to point out, correctly, that the Jinn are made of a smokeless fire. True. They will also point out that Jinn and angels are two distinct classes of being. Also true. Nonetheless, certain hadith (see Sunan Abu Da'uwd) describe some of the Jinn as Malaika = angels. They were of the company of proper angels and shared some of their distinctions and honors. The Bible describes this grouping as BeneHaElohim = The sons (or tribe) belonging to Elohim, in other words "Gods divine beings". Some early Christian scholars doubted that angels could even do some of what is ascribed to the fallen angels, and rightly so. Nonetheless, there appears to be at least one class of these beings that have the faculty of free will or at least limited free will.
I find nothing in this matter which definatively precludes the possibility that the Nephilim of the Bible are the Jinn of the Quran.
Rather than overwhelm you with my never-ending thoughts, I'll stop for now. Pending comments, I'll resume this matter, at a later date.
Interesting article, which I mainly agree with. I wholeheartedly believe the Nephilim in the Bible are the Jinn in the Quran. The relationship is much clearer than you might think.
There are many misconceptions in the Islamic literature, nowhere to be found in the Quran, despite many clues from the Hadith. The Jinn simply means "The Fallen Ones", which makes perfect sense in the Quranic text.
“And (remember) when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves unto Adam.” So they prostrated themselves except Iblis (Satan). He was one of the FALLEN ONES (jinn); he disobeyed the command of his Lord....." [18:50]
This fundamental misunderstanding caused the fabrication of many human made facts and concepts, none of which has any bearing on the Quran... Some include...
that the Jinn are spiritual and/or invisible beings (openly contradict the Quran).
whether Iblis is a Jinn or an Angel (Quran says he is both, a Fallen and an angel, a FALLEN ANGEL)
that the Angels have no free will (openly contradicts the above example, where an angel was able to fall from grace, by using free will, along with his followers and progeny!). Nowhere in Quran, it says Angels have no free will. On the contrary, Quran states that the Angels FEAR God, and worship only him because of their FEAR. A robot with no free will has no reason to fall or fear.
that Jinn are spiritual beings. Openly contradicts Quran which says they are mortal beings, living in tribes, often mixing with humans, subject to a human messenger, having men from them, with eyes, hearth, ears, and noses etc... Likewise, at least on earth, all angels are also depicted like humans, appearing physically so. There are no spirits in Quran's earth.