Positive evidence that a local flood is in view might also be
adduced from Num 13:33, where the Anakim are said by Israelite spies to be
descended from the Nephilim, a race sired by illicit unions prior to the flood,
a belief that contradicts the universal destruction wrought by the flood. But
it is plausible that the pentateuchal author regards the spies’ report as
exaggeration inspired by cowardice (“we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers,
and so we seemed to them”). Despite a poetic text like Amos 2:9-10, there is no
account of Joshua’s having encountered giants in his conquest of the tribes of
Canaan (Josh 11:21). The report of the spies does show that belief in
descendants of the antediluvian race might exist in Israel, despite the flood
story, though such belief is consistent with the spies’ not being particularly
acute. John Day hypothesizes that a redactor, conscious of the fact that the
Nephilim were still around later, added the phrase “and also afterward” to Gen
6:4 (Day, From Creation to Babel, 86). But that would be to introduce a
contradiction into the flood story rather than resolve a problem. And it would
seem strange that an especially wicked race of people should be thought to have
been spared God’s judgement. (William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical
Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
2021], 125-26)
