Rephaim: The Oxford Companion to the Bible goes into some detail on this term, and I summarize the material from Ackerman's article in this vocabulary entry. Several biblical texts, including Isaiah 26:14 and Proverbs 2:18, refer to rephaim--dead 'shades' (NRSV) or 'ghosts.' These passages suggest the rephaim inhabit the underworld. In other biblical texts like Deuteronomy 2:20, Deuteronomy 3:11-13, and Joshua 12:4 and Joshua 13:12, these beings are described as a race of terrible giants who once lived in parts of Palestine and the Transjordan region and were somehow related to the Nephilim. In outdated scholarship from the 19th century, Hebrew linguists thought that these two meanings--ghost and giant--were distinct from each other. However, the discovery of Ugaritic texts in 1928 strongly suggests the two terms are at the very least closely related and probably synonymous. At Ugarit (modern Syria), the word Rephaim signified members of the once-living aristocracy who attained some sort of semi-divine or superhuman powers after death in Ugaritic belief. In the underworld, these beings were thought to have the power to harm or aid the living. Accordingly, most Biblical scholars think the term Rephaim probably referred to those among the deceased, especially the spirits of the deceased giant Nephilim, who continued to exercise their powers after death in most Semitic beliefs of the region. The conjunction can best be seen in Isaiah 14:9, where the Rephaim of the underworld are explicitly described as those 'who were leaders of the earth' and those 'who were kings of the nations.' See Ackerman's entry in Metzger and Coogan, page 647, for more information.

 

Related Words

Rephaim: The Oxford Companion to the Bible goes into some detail on this term, and I summarize the material from Ackerman's article in this vocabulary entry. Several biblical texts, including Isaiah . . . View Full Definition

Nephilim: In ancient Hebrew tradition, the Nephilim (singular Naphil) were a race of giants referred to in Genesis 6:4 (Now giants were upon the earth in those days') and in Numbers 13:33 (We saw the . . . View Full Definition