Netanel wrote:
for the record, the actual account makes clear that the n'filim were already on the earth in those days, when the crimes committed by the bnei elohim are described as taking place.
Furthermore, at least three of the n'filim − the giant Anak's three sons Aḥiman,
Shéshai and Talmai (Ptolemy) − actually survived the Flood and were still alive eight centuries later when Mosheh's
twelve "investigators" reported that they had seen them living at Ḥevron....
כב. וַֽיַּֽעֲל֣וּ בַנֶ֘גֶב֘ וַיָּבֹ֣א עַד־חֶבְרוֹן֒ וְשָׁ֤ם אֲחִימָן֙ שֵׁשַׁ֣י וְתַלְמַ֔י יְלִידֵ֖י הָֽעֲנָ֑ק וְחֶבְר֗וֹן שֶׁ֤בַע שָׁנִים֙ נִבְנְתָ֔ה לִפְנֵ֖י צֹ֥עַן מִצְרָֽיִם׃22So they passed up through the south [of the country] and he [i.e. Kalév alone] came to Ḥevron; and Aḥiman, Shéshai and Talmai [Ptolemy], the children of the giant, were there! (Ḥevron had been built seven years earlier than Tzo'an of Egypt.)
.....
לג. וְשָׁ֣ם רָאִ֗ינוּ אֶת־הַנְּפִילִ֛ים בְּנֵ֥י עֲנָק מִן־הַנְּפִלִ֑ים וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֨ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵֽינֵיהֶֽם׃
.....
"...and we saw the N'filim there − the sons of Anak, [one] of the N'filim − [they were so huge that] we felt like bugs compared to them, and we seemed the same to them"
(B'midbar 13:22 and 13:33)
Netanel wrote:
Never in 2,000 years of Jewish history preceding the Greek occupation did virgin birth via a god ever show up in Jewish belief.
Does "virgin" mean a girl or a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man, or one whose hymeneal
membrane is still intact? These two definitions will be usually the same but not in all cases. A girl can split her hymen by
engaging in gymnastics or horse-riding (and also by inserting a finger into the vagina), and it is also possible in rare cases for the membrane to remain
unruptured even after sexual intercourse has taken place.
The Jewish definition of virginity is the latter, as evidenced by a discussion in the Talmud (starting at the bottom of folio 14b of Treatise
Ḥagigah and continuing onto folio 15a) about whether a Chief Kohén (who, per Vayikra 21:13-14, was only allowed to marry a Jewish
"virgin") could marry a "virgin" who had previously been pregnant:
Is that far-fetched? Not at all; spermatozoa cannot usually live very long outside a man's body because the temperature is too low, but if semen is discharged into the warmed water of a bath-tub it is possible for it to survive long enough to enter a woman's body and impregnate her if she were to bathe in the same water, even if she is still virgo intacta.שָׁאֲלוּ אֶת בֶּן־זוֹמָא: בְּתוּלָה שֶׁעִבְּרָה - מַהוּ לְכֹהֵן גָּדוֹל? מִי חַיְישִׁינָּן לְדִשְׁמוּאֵל, דַּאֲמַר שְׁמוּאֵל "יָכוֹל אָֽנִי לִבְעוֹל כַּמָּה בְּעִילוֹת בְּלֹא דָּם" - אוֹ דִּלְמָא דִשְׁמוּאֵל לֹא שְׁכִיחָא?They asked ben-Zoma: "Is a virgin who has been pregnant permitted [as a wife] to a Kohén Gadol? Are we to take Sh'muél's claim into consideration (for Sh'muél boasted that he was able to have intercourse on numerous occasions without causing bleeding), or is Sh'muél's case rare [in which case it should not be taken into consideration and such a marriage would be unlawful]?
אֲמַר לְהוּ: דִּשְׁמוּאֵל לֹא שְׁכִיחַ וְחַיְישִׁינָּן שֶׁמָּא בְּאַמְבְּטִי עִבְּרָה
He answered them: "That of Sh'muél is rare, but we must consider the possibility that she might have conceived in a bath-tub...." (Talmud, Treatise Ḥagigah, folios 14b-15a)
