What Does Genesis 6:4 Mean?
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humankind and they bore children to them, these became the mighty ones from the ages, men of the name.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.THE KEY
The verse calls them mighty men, then tells you what their might leaves behind: a name that carries their nature.
THE MEANING
Power does not end at what it can do; it takes on a name and becomes an identity that can outlast its beginnings. The verse gathers the Nephilim, the mighty, and “men of the name” into one unsettling picture of force becoming renown. It gives that renown no moral verdict.
THE ROOT
הַשֵּׁם
hashem
GROWS FROM
שֵׁם
Name, designation, remembered identity.
The Hebrew says “men of the name,” where English says “men of renown.” The phrase makes their fame more than recognition: a name carries the nature and identity by which power is remembered.
ALSO GROWS
shem: name
שֵׁם
The verse’s “renown” is literally built around this word for name.
shemot: names
שֵׁמוֹת
The plural form keeps the same word at the center: identity is carried and remembered through names.
נְפִלִים
Nephilim
GROWS FROM
נפל
n-p-l
To fall.
“the Nephilim” in this verse is Nephilim. “Giants” presents a picture of size, while the Hebrew word is commonly connected with the root for falling. The derivation and precise sense of Nephilim remain debated, so the root opens a connection to falling without deciding who falls or how.
ALSO GROWS
naphal: to fall
נָפַל
This is the root commonly associated with Nephilim.
mappalah: a downfall or ruin
מַפָּלָה
This related word shows how the root can describe a fall that becomes a larger collapse.
גִּבֹּרִים
gibborim
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong or prevail.
“the mighty ones” in this verse is gibborim. The root names prevailing strength, not merely impressive size. Beside “men of the name,” that strength is joined to the lasting identity and reputation it leaves behind.
ALSO GROWS
gibbor: a mighty person or warrior
גִּבּוֹר
The singular form carries the same language of prevailing strength.
gevurah: might or strength
גְּבוּרָה
This related noun shows the root’s broader sense of power, not only a particular kind of man.
THE PATTERN
A name in scripture carries an identity that shapes how power and belonging are remembered.
And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its head in the heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered across the face of the whole earth.And I was with you wherever you walked, and I cut off all your enemies from your face, and I made for you a great name, like the name of the great men who are in the earth.The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will by no means go out again. I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of the heavens from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.THE THREAD
And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its head in the heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered across the face of the whole earth.“Men of the name” in Genesis 6:4 uses the same Hebrew word that the builders later seek to make for themselves. That shared word opens renown as more than fame: it asks what nature is carried in a name.
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