Erich von Daniken, The Tayos Cave Scandal and the Crespi Collection Forgeries

In his 1973 book The Gold of the Gods Erich von Daniken claimed that he and a local guide Juan Moricz explored a cave system in Ecuador known as Cueva de los Tayos (Cave of the Oilbirds) which was supposed to be an underground tunnel system which ran for hundreds of miles. He wrote,

“To me this is the most incredible, fantastic story of the century. It could easily have come from the realms of Science Fiction if I had not seen and photographed the incredible truth in person. What I saw was not the product of dreams and imagination, it was real and tangible.” (Erich von Daniken, The Gold of the Gods, Corgi, London, 1975, p 1)

Von Daniken described entering the cave, “We switched on our torches and the lamps on our helmets, and there in front of us was the gaping hole which led down to the depths. We slid down a rope to the first platform 250 feet below the surface. From there we made two further descents of 250 feet. Then our visit to the age-old underworld of a strange unknown race really began.” (The Gold of the Gods, p 6)

Someone, who reads this and von Daniken’s use of the first person, would conclude that von Daniken is saying he went into the cave and saw these things himself.

He described how they entered “a hall as big as the hangar of a Jumbo Jet … Galleries leading in different directions branched off it.” (The Gold of the Gods, p 7) They went down a side passage to another hall which measured 153 feet by 164 feet where there was a library comprising 2-3000 metal plaques, about three feet high and one foot wide with writing upon them (The Gold of the Gods, p 9-10) .

It sounds like the greatest archaeological discovery of all time.

However, not long after The Gold of the Gods was published, Juan Moricz told a reporter from the German magazine Der Spiegel, “Daniken was never in the caves – unless it was in a flying saucer. … If he claims to have seen the library and other things then that’s a lie. That’s extremely indecent. We didn’t show him these things.” (Ronald Story, The Space Gods Revealed, New English Library, London, 1978, p 88)

In a 1974 interview with Playboy, von Daniken was asked, “Which of you is telling the truth?”

Von Daniken replied, “I guess we both are telling half the truth.” He went on, “In German we say a writer, if he is not writing pure science, is allowed to use some dramaturgisch effekte – some theatrical effects. And that is what I’ve done.”

The interviewer asked, “Did you, in fact, see things you describe? Seven chairs made of a plastic like material, a zoo of solid-gold animals, a library of gold plates?”

Von Daniken replied. “Definitely. No doubt. I must say I am not sure, anymore, if the so-called zoo is made of gold. It could be something different.” (“Playboy Interview: Erich von Daniken,”, Playboy, August, 1974, p 58)

In his 2009 book History is Wrong von Daniken quotes his description of the metal library from The Gold of the Gods, but it is edited in such a way that he now does not claim to have seen it himself (Erich von Daniken, History is Wrong, New Page Books, New Jersey, 2009, p 91) . He now says the description of the metal library came from Juan Moricz who told von Daniken about it in a restaurant and only took him into a side cave (History is Wrong, p 98-109) .

“Afterward, we crawled a few meters into the cave. From deep within the dull depths we could hear the rumbling of water … Apart from a few strange figures and stone sculptures that stood out in the scampering torchlight, there was little to see. Certainly no metal library.” (History is Wrong, p 109)

Von Daniken does not admit he did anything wrong or acted dishonestly. It was everyone else’s fault. Von Daniken wrote his second book Return to the Stars (Gods from Outer Space) while he was in prison in Switzerland in 1970 for fraud and embezzlement from the hotel which he had managed. An article in The New York Times reported, “A court psychiatrist examined von Daniken and found him a prestige-seeker, a liar and an unstable and criminal psychopath with a hysterical character.” That would explain a lot.

Moricz claimed that the gold library was real, only that von Daniken had not seen it. In 1976 a British Cave Research Association expedition, which included Neil Armstrong, explored the cave and, not surprisingly, did not find any gold library.

One would not know this from reading what David Hatcher Childress wrote in Ancient Aliens, The Official Companion Book in 2016,

“Maybe the most mysterious network is the Tayos cave system. This part of Ecuador is very remote and dangerous to reach. Back in the 1970s, several Ecuadorians contacted Erich von Daniken and told him the could take him there, and that inside the cave he would find alien artifacts, gold tablets, copper tablets, and mysterious statues. He went and ended up writing his third book, The Gold of the Gods, largely about the experience and all the things he had seen there, which were just as the Ecuadorians had promised. In the mid-1970s, a British Special forces expedition explored Tayos, as did Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, Many people were fascinated by the stories around Tayos.” (David Hatcher Childress, “Tombs of Blood and Gold”, Ancient Aliens, The official Companion Book, Harper Collins, New York, 2016, p 79)

Childress was still giving the impression that von Daniken had seen the gold library when he had admitted he made it up. The mid-1970s “British Special Forces expedition” presumably means the 1976 British Cave Research Association expedition which included Neil Armstrong. Childress does not make it clear that the 1976 expedition did not find any gold plates.

In a 2018 episode of the Travel Channel’s Expedition Unknown titled, “Hunt for the Metal Library” the host Josh Gates led an expedition which explored even more of the Tayos Cave. They did not find anything man-made, including the alleged gold library.

Childress also writes, “The Tayos caves are said to connect with a vast underground tunnel system that connects Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil.”  (Ancient Aliens, The Official Companion Book, p 79)It may be “said”, but there is no evidence it is true. The British Cave Association and Expedition Unknown expeditions could only explore a few kilometres. There is nothing to suggest the cave is part of “a vast underground tunnel system.”

In The Gold of the Gods von Daniken also describes visiting Father Carlo Crespi in Cuenca, Ecuador. He writes that Crespi was “a trustworthy friend of the Indians, who during past decades fetched the most valuable gold, silver, and metal objects from their hiding places piece by piece and gave them to him.”(The Gold of the Gods, p 21)

“Father Crespi led us through his treasure chambers. Room I houses stonemason’s work; Room II contains Inca artifacts of gold, silver, copper and brass, while Room III holds the gold treasure, which he seldom shows anyone, and then unwillingly. Cuenca has a “Gold Museum” of its own, but it cannot compare with Father Crespi’s.”(The Gold of the Gods, p 21-22)

Von Daniken wrote about one of Crespi’s artifacts,

“The showpiece was a stele (Fig. 26), 20 ½ inches high, 5 ½ inches wide and 1 ½ inches thick. Fifty-six different character are “stamped” on its 56 sqaures. I had seen absolutely identical characters on the leaves in the metal library in the Great Hall.” (The Gold of the Gods, p 22)

Von Daniken specifically said he had seen the same symbols in the gold library in the Tayos Cave – the cave he had never been in.

In History is Wrong, in which he now said he had never been in the Tayos Cave, he wrote about the stele,

“The most impressive piece from the Crespi collection remains the roughly 60-centimeter-tall gilded metal panel with its 56 “stamped” symbols. As Father Crespi assured me – I visited him several times – this was just one prize example from an entire metal library that lay in secret hiding places.” (History is Wrong, p 82)

So now, Von Daniken is telling us that he did not see it in the gold library, which he had never been in. Rather, Crespi told him it was from the gold library. Does von Daniken think no one reads his older books anymore?

The skeptic James Randi visited Father Crespi in the late 1960s. He was not so impressed with the collection,

“The collection was a total fraud from wall to wall, Scraps of tin cans, brass sheets, and copper strips abounded, mixed with piles of rusted chains, shards of armor, and bits of miscellaneous machinery. Some of the embossed sheets were embossed and scratched with everything from elephants to dinosaurs. Crude and rather poor designs were plentiful in the margins and backgrounds, and there were more representations of pyramids than I cold count.” (James Randi, Flim-Flam, Prometheus Books, New York, 1982, p 125)

Randi only saw one piece of gold, “It was quite obviously a scrap from a larger artifact, chopped out of the original and reworked by human hands.”(Flim-Flam, p 125)

Randi continued, “Some of it doubtless came from the artefact factories that abound in Ecuador. But the nature of the entire collection was proven to me when, in looking over the pile of debris, I came upon a cooper float for a toilet tank and an embossed tin on which the words “product of Argentina” were still visible. But it was all good enough to fool von Daniken, And/or his readers. I can only conclude, based on these facts, that von Daniken is a liar and an incompetent fake.” (Flim-Flam, p 127)

David Hatcher Childress claims that the Crespi collection “had vanished” (Ancient Aliens, The Official Companion Book, 79). Actually, 5,000 pieces from the Crespi collection are in the Pumapungo Museum in Cuenca. In the Expedition Unknown episode “Hunt for the Metal Library” the host Josh Gates examines some pieces with an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer which reveals they contained lead and zinc, which was not used by pre-Columbian Americans, so they must be modern forgeries.

Then there is the theory that Father Crespi was actually Adolf Hitler hiding out in South America, but not even Erich von Daniken will touch that one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christianization of the Ancient Aliens Theory Part Two The Nephilim Problem

In an earlier blog The Christianization of the Ancient Aliens Theory Part One I discussed how some Christians have been using the same flawed and fabricated evidence  which the ancient aliens movement uses, except they attribute it to an advanced human civilization from before the Flood, rather than aliens. In this follow up post  I will look at how other Christians have aslo been using the same evidence  which they attribute to the Nephilim or giants instead of ancient aliens visitors.

In fact,  there appear to be more Christian books, which assume  that the ancient aliens evidence is basically sound and they can still us it  as long as they attribute it to the Nephilim or giants rather than aliens, than there are books by Christians, such as Clifford Wilson, debunking the ancient aliens theory and its dodgy evidence.

The Nephilim are mentioned on Genesis 6,

“Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took for themselves, whomever they chose … The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-2,4 NASB)

In other Old Testament passages, the “sons of God” meant angels (Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7). The traditional Jewish interpretation of this passage was that the “sons of God” were fallen angels or demons who had sex with human women and their offspring, the Nephilim were human/angel hybrids. “Nephilim” appears to be derived from the Hebrew “naphal”, meaning “to fall” and means “fallen ones”. However, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible) and the King James version translate it as “giants”.

The apocryphal Book of Enoch elaborates on the Genesis 6 passage. It says that 200 angels called Watchers led by Samjaza landed on Mount Hermon. They married human women and their children were the giants who were 300 cubits (137 metres) tall. Some Watchers, led by Azaayel, taught humans metallurgy, sorcery, astrology and even cosmetics. The giants became violent and resorted to cannibalism. The oppressed humans cried out to God who imprisoned the Watchers under the earth and sent the Flood to destroy the giants (Enoch 7-10).

The early Christians also subscribed to the fallen angel interpretation of Genesis 6, until it was replaced by the Sethite interpretation. This argued that the sons of God were not angels, but the godly descendants of Adam’s son Seth who had previously called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). The daughters of men were descendants of Cain. The Sethites married the immoral Cainite women and were corrupted by them, similar to what later happened with the Israelites and the Midianite women (Numbers 25).

The Sethite theory has been the dominant Christian interpretation. For example, John Calvin believed in the Sethite theory and wrote about the fallen angels theory, “That ancient figment, concerning the intercourse of angels with women, is abundantly refuted by its own absurdity: and it is surprising that learned men should formerly have been fascinated by ravings so gross and prodigious.” (John Calvin, A Commentary on Genesis, Banner of Truth Trust, London, 1965, p 238)

While most Christians assumed that the sons of God were humans, Erich von Daniken and other ancient aliens writers took the fallen angels interpretation and argued that the angles were really aliens who had sex with humans, resulting in human/alien hybrids In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest among some Christians in the fallen angel interpretation and the Nephilim, their supposed human/angel hybrid offspring, which is often connected with UFOs and Bible prophecy. These Nephilim researchers are Christians but they have clearly been influenced by the ancient aliens theory and appear to be cashing in on it. They use many of the same arguments and evidence but they attribute it to the Nephilim or giants instead of aliens.

In The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse Patrick Heron acknowledges this,

“In discussing the pyramids and other ancient monuments and other ancient monuments, many profess to believe that aliens or extra-terrestrials came to Earth from afar and were responsible for these buildings. The theory advanced here would support this supposition. The only difference is that the Scriptures do not label these beings as “aliens” or “extra-terrestrials”, but refer to them as “fallen angels”, “sons of God” or the “Nephilim”. Enoch called them “stars’, “spiritual beings” and the “Watchers”. (Patrick Heron, The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse, Citadel Press, New York, 2004, p 113)

In The Omega Conspiracy I.D. E. Thomas tries to make the sons of God of Genesis 6 sound like extra-terrestrials. He calls them “spirit beings from outer space”(I.D.E. Thomas, The Omega Conspiracy, Anomolas Publishing, Missouri, 2008, p 92) and “space beings called fallen angels” who showed primitive humans how to build the pyramids and other monuments. ( p 116)

In Giants, Fallen Angels and the Return of the Nephilim, Dennis Lindsay says about the sons of God and angels of Genesis 6,

“In today’s common vernacular one might call these beings aliens or extraterrestrials, Yes, it appears these creatures have visited Planet Earth in the past, and as we shall see, in the near future they will begin to appear once more.” (Dennis Lindsay, Giants, Fallen Angels and the Return of the Nephilim, Destiny Image, Pennsylvania, 2018, p 131)

This is the ancient aliens theory for Christians. They are making the Bible’s angels sound like aliens.

While ancient aliens believes claim that aliens built the Great Pyramid or gave human the technology to build it, Christian Nephilim researchers say the Nephilim or giants built the Great Pyramid.

I. D. E. Thomas says we could not build the Great today (The Omega Conspiracy, p 9, 11, 13). In Alien Agenda, The Return of the Nephilim Aaron Judkins writes, “Today, with all our modern science and engineering, we would not be able to build a Great Pyramid of Giza.” (Aaron Judkins, Alien Agenda, The Return of the Nephilim, Maverick Publishing, Texas, 2012, p 98)

This is reminiscent of what von Daniken wrote in Chariots of the Gods?,

“Today, in the twentieth century, no architect could build a copy of the Pyramid of Cheops, even if the technical resources of every continent were at his disposal.” (Erich von Daniken, Chariots of the Gods?, Corgi, London, 1972, p 100)

Of course, engineers could build the Great Pyramid today, but why would they bother?

I.D.E. Thomas writes, “As for the Great Pyramid, many scientists suggest a date back generations before the Flood.” (The Omega Conspiracy, p 114) Who are these scientists?

Patrick Heron writes the Great Pyramid “was the first to have been built” (The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse, p 1)and seems “to have just popped up out of nowhere”(p 43). It wasn’t and it didn’t. Again, this is reminiscent of what von Daniken wrote in Chariots of the Gods? that ancient Egypt ”appears suddenly and without transition with a fantastic ready-made civilisation.”(Chariots of the Gods?, p 96) Egyptologists believe ancient Egyptian civilization developed gradually over thousands of years.

Aaron Judkins and L.A. Marzulli repeat the ancient aliens claim that the Great Pyramid was used to generate energy and was part of a world grid (L.A. Marzulli, On the Trail of the Nephilim, Spiral of Life Publishing, Kentucky, 2013, p 218-220, Alien Agenda, The Return of the Nephilim, p 102-103). This same claim is made in the Ancient Aliens episodes “The Evidence” and “Alien Power Plants”.

Like their ancient aliens equivalents, Nephilim researchers do not sound like they know much about ancient Egypt and the pyramids. They do not appear to have read many books by qualified Egyptologists on how the pyramids were probably built. They do not know so they assume it was the Nephilim or giants.

In ancient Egyptian art Rameses II (1303-1213 BC) and other Pharaohs were sometimes depicted a larger than everyone else. Patrick Heron and Rob Skiba take these depictions literally and claim that Rameses II and other Pharaohs really were giants (Rob Skiba, Archon Invasion, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim, King’s Gate Media, Texas, 2012,  p 222-223, The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse, p 93-96) .Dennis Lindsay thinks this is evidence that giants built the pyramids (Giants, Fallen Angels and the  Return of the Nephilim, p 73-74). We know Rameses II was not a giant – he was 170 cm tall – because his mummy is in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. It was a convention in Egyptian art to portray the Pharaoh a larger than everyone else because he was more important than everyone else. It was not meant to be taken literally any more than the depiction of ancient Egyptians with their eyes on the sides of their heads should be taken literally.

Nephilim researchers do not limit themselves to ancient Egypt. They also claim that Baalbek, Cuzco, Stonehenge, Nazca and other monuments which the ancient aliens movement claims were built with the help of aliens, were actually built by the Nephilim or giants (Steve Quayle, Genesis 6 Giants, End Time Thunder Publishers, Montana, 2015 p 174, Alien Agenda, The Return of the Nephilim, p 98, 127-131, The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse, p 1-5, 79, 100-101, The Omega Conspiracy, p 112-114, Archon, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim, p 16, 219, On the Trail of the Nephilim , p174-194, Giants, Fallen Angels and the Return of the Nephilim, p 75-86). Rob Skiba suggests that the Great Wall of China was built to keep out the giants (Archon Invasion, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim, p 287-289).

Some  ancient aliens writers and Nephilim researchers like to describe themselves as “explorers”. They are explorers. They are tourists.  They go to tourist attractions like Giza or Cuzco, often wearing a hat like Indiana Jones, which presumably makes them qualified to speak on archaeology. Ancient aliens believers look at these monuments and say “Ooo, aliens must have built it.” Nephilim writers  look at the same monuments and say “Ooo, the Nephilim must have built it.”

They repeat other flawed arguments of the ancient aliens movement. Steve Quayle cites the Vaimmanika Shastra and the supposed nuclear war in the Mahabharata (Genesis 6 Giants, p 114-115) which I have addressed in The Case Against Ancient Aliens Part Six Vimanas and Nuclear War in Ancient India. He also mentions ooparts, like the Antikythera Device and the Baghdad Batteries (Genesis 6 Giants, p 112-113).

Thomas Horn and Aaron Judkins use Zecharia Sitchin’s fabricated definition of Anunnaki (Thomas Horn, Nephilim Stargates, The Year 2012 and the Return of the Watchers, Anomalos Publishing, Oregon, 2007, p 26, Alien Agenda, The Return of the Nephilim, p 72). Rob Skiba has written, “According to the ancient texts, these Anunnaki were said to have genetically life here on earth.” (Archon Invasion, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim, p 63) It sounds like he has been reading Sitchin.  I have discussed the claims of Zecharia Sitchin  in an article The Case Against Ancient Aliens Part Four Zecharia Sitchin which was published in the Australian magazine Ufologist, Vol. 21, No. 6, March-April 2018. A good website exposing Sitchin is Michael Heiser’s Sitchin is Wrong.

Steve Quayle and Aaron Judkins repeat the ancient aliens claim that Alexander the Great saw UFOs which looked like flying shields (Genesis 6 Giants, p 115, Alien Agenda, The Return of the Nephilim, p 17). There is no historical evidence for this. It was made up by Frank Edwards in his 1959 book Stranger  Than Science ((Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck, Wonders in the Sky, Jeremy Tarcher, New York, 2010, p 379-380).

Patrick Heron and Rob Skiba suggest that the half man/half animal creatures of mythology were real, the result of genetic experiments by fallen angels or the Nephilim (The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse, p 62-63,  Archon Invasion, The Rise, Fall and Return of the Nephilim, p 146-147). This is reminiscent of Ancient Aliens episodes “Gods and Aliens”, “Aliens and Monsters” and “Aliens and Sacred Spaces” which suggest that these mythological monsters were genetic experiments created by aliens . Steve Quayle suggests that that dinosaurs were genetic experiments carried out by fallen angels (Genesis 6 Giants, p 167-168). The Ancient Aliens episode “Aliens and Dinosaurs” says aliens created dinosaurs.

Jesus said that before his Second Coming it would be ‘just like the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37). Nephilim researchers believe this not only refers to the moral conditions. They believe there will be a “return of the Nephilim” which is connected to the UFO abduction phenomenon.

Many Christian UFO researchers have concluded that the authentic UFO phenomenon, particularly UFO abductions, is demonic in origin, such as Gary Bates, Alien Intrusion, Master Books, Arizona, 2005, Joseph Jordan and David Ruffino, Unholy Communion, Defender Press, Missouri, 2010, John Ankerberg and John Weldon, The Facts on UFOs and Other Supernatural Phenomena, Harvest House, Oregon, 1992. There is a sexual component in nearly all UFO abductions. Abductees are either forced to have sex with the UFO entities or they experience violating medical procedures (Kevin Randle, et al, The Abduction Enigma, Forge Books, New York, 1991, p 81). During their experiences UFO abductees often report seeing “human/alien hybrids” which are supposed to be the product of these sexual encounters and genetic experiments. The similarity between these modern human/demon hybrids and the pre-Flood human/demon hybrids, the Nephilim, seems obvious. Nephilim researchers believe that before the Second Coming there will be a generation of human/demon hybrids which are created in UFO abductions. Some have suggested the Antichrist will be a modern Nephilim (Chuck Missler, Alien Encounters, Koinonia House, Idaho, 1997, p 280-281, Nephilim Stargates, The Year 2012 and the Return of the Watchers, p 184-186, 196)

I agree UFO abductions are demonic. I have written about this in Identifying the UFO Entities Part One (Ufologist, Vol,. 15, No. 2, July-August 2011) Identifying the UFO Entities Part Two (Ufologist, Vol 15, No. 3, September-October  2011) and UFOs, The Bible and the World View Problem, (Ufologist, Vol. 16, No. 6, March-April 2013.

However, the Nephilim-UFO abduction connection argument is flawed because UFO abductions do not appear to be physically real. There have been no credible cases where independent witnesses saw an abductee being taken aboard a UFO. In fact, there have been cases where someone believed they had been taken onto a UFO but others saw them asleep or in a trance (Jenny Randles, Abduction, Guild Publishing, London, 1980, p 139-140, Jenny Randles, Alien Contact, Coronet Books, Great Britain, 1981, p 64-66, Karla Turner, Taken, Rose Printing, Tallahassee, 1988, p 8-9). The only case in which a UFO abduction was observed by UFO researchers was the case of Maureen Puddy. In 1973 she was in a car near Melbourne, Victoria, with two investigators from the Victorian UFO Research Society. She believed she was taken aboard a UFO, but the two investigators said she had been in a trance in the car the whole time (Keith Basterfield, UFOs: A Report on Australian Encounters, Reed Books, Victoria, 1997, p 11-17). This is apparently the only case in which a UFO abduction was witnessed by UFO investigators and the abductee did not go anywhere.

I do not believe UFO abductees are physically taken aboard UFOs. The abduction experience appears to be implanted in their minds by demonic entities while they are in an altered state of consciousness (Clifford Wilson, Close Encounters: A Better Explanation,  Master Books, San  Diego, 1978, p 124-125, The Facts on UFOs and Other Supernatural Phenomena, p 32-34). If UFO abductions are not physically real, then the hybrid children, which abductees see during their experiences, cannot be real either.

Moreover, the whole theory that the Nephilim were the offspring of fallen angels and human women is doubtful. When the Sadducees asked Jesus about marriage after the resurrection, he said, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30)

Jesus appears to be saying that angels cannot marry or have sex. This would mean that the sons of God in Genesis 6 could not have been angels and the Nephilim could not have been their human/angel hybrid children.

Defenders of the fallen angel theory argue this only means that angels in heaven do not marry, but they are still capable of marrying and having sex on earth (Genesis 6 Giants, p 5, Alien Encounters, p 212). This is not convincing. Those, who subscribe to the fallen angel theory, want us to believe that God created angels with male genitalia, capable of producing sperm, but they were not allowed to marry and have sex. What were they supposed to do? It is no wonder it ended in disaster.

Angels sometimes appear identical to humans (Genesis 18, 19, Hebrews 13:2), but they are not the same. God made humans “a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5). Even if angels have DNA, they are not the same species as humans. Offspring of the two should be impossible.

In The Nephilim Deception C. M. Boyer argues, “Demon-human reproduction cannot have taken place, it is biologically impossible for anything other than the human male sperm to fertilize a human female oocyte, with the exception of the Holy Spirit in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (C.M. Boyer, The Nephilim Deception, Create Space independent Publishers, USA, 2016, p 1)

However, other New Testament passages appear to suggest that angels had sex with human women and were punished for it.

“And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chians for the judgement of the great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flash, and set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 6-7)

“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tartaros) and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but spared Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making theme an example to those who live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) – then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgement.(2 Peter 2:4-9)

Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research has proposed a solution which incorporates elements of the fallen angel and Sethite theories. He suggests that the angels or sons of God lusted after the human women so they demonically possessed the men and experienced having sex through them (Henry Morris, The Genesis Record, Baker, Michigan, 1996, p 169). This theory manages to reconcile Matthew 22, which says angels cannot marry or presumably have sex, with 2 Peter 2 and Jude which suggest that they did. It also resolves the problem of “angel DNA” and how angels and humans could have offspring. This is not an identical scenario to modern UFO abductions, but both involve some form of demonic influence or possession.

It means the Nephilim would have been fully human, but they were raised by demon-possessed parents. They would have grown up to evil, violent people. Genesis says the Nephilim were the “mighty men of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4). They were men or humans, not half-human, half-angel hybrids. The Flood was sent because “the wickedness of men was great on the earth” (Genesis 6:5). The wicked men were the Nephilim.

This theory about the identity of the Nephilim is admittedly specualtive. Even if the fallen angels theory is still correct, that still does not mean the Nephilim built the pyramids. We cannot Christianize  the ancient aliens theory, we cannot use the same evidence if we cross out “aliens ” and write “Nephilim” because their evidence is wrong on the first place.