nephilim among us

In the newest edition of Science, researchers compared human genes with Neanderthal genes. What did they find? People from Europe and Asia have a little, tiny bit of Neanderthal in them (Green et al., 2010). This doesn't imply that we descended from Neanderthals*, it indicates that a long, long time ago, we mated with them.

What's interesting is that the Bible may have pointed to this thousands of years ago:

• Numbers 13: 32-33 "We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
• Genesis 6:4 "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown"

No one really knows what the Bible is talking about when it mentions these mysterious "Nephilim," but wouldn't it be interesting if they turned out to be Neanderthals?


*There is some misunderstanding about the relationship between humans and our non-human ancestors. According to evolutionary theory, humans did not descend from monkey, apes, or even 'cave men.' A simplified version of the theory is that many, many years ago there was an animal, let's call it a yarp, that was all over the place. Over time, and in response to different environmental stressors, some yarps in some areas became more human-like, whereas others in other areas became more monkey like. Eventually, we ended up with humans and monkeys and neanderthals.