NEKODAN (Nexwidv, AV Necodan), 1 Es 57= Nekoda, Ezr 2®, Neh 7%. The name is Noeba in 1 Es 5",
NEMUEL.—See JEMUEL. Gray, Heb. Prop. Names, 307, considers Jemuel the corruption and Nemuel the original form. ‘Either form is ety- mologically obscure.’ Nemuelites, the patronymic of the family of Nemuel, occurs in Nu 26".
NEPHEG (353).—1. Son of Izhar and brother of Korah, Ex 6% (Ndgex), 2. One of David’s sons, born at Jerusalem, 2S 5! (Ndgex)=1 Ch 37 (B Ndgex, A Νάφεγ) 145 (B Νάφαθ, A Νάφαγ).
NEPHEW.—In his Select Glossary (p. 146) Trench points out that the Eng. word ‘nephew’ has under- gone exactly the same change of meaning that nepos in Latin underwent. In the Augustan age nepos meant ‘ grandson,’ in the post-Augustan age sister’s or brother’s son. Nephew (which comes from nepos through the Fr. neveu, the original Anglo-Sax. nefa having dropped out) formerl signified grandson or more generally some tenet ant, and only within a century or more came to be restricted to its present meaning. The meaning of ‘grandson’ is clearly seen in fiolland, Plutarch’s Morals, p. 555, ‘The warts, black moles, spots and freckles of fathers, not appearing at all upon their own children’s skin, begin afterwards to put forth and show themselves in their nephews, to wit, the children of their sons and daughters’; and in Tymme’s Calvin's Genesis, p. 872, ‘Jacob layeth his handes uppon his nephewes. To what end? Namely, to prove that he giveth them place among his sonnes, and that so, Joseph being but one, might make two heads.’
n AV the word occurs four times. In Jg 191 ‘ He had forty sons and thirty nephews,’ the Heb. (03 23) is exactly expressed in AVm and RV ‘sons’ sons.’ In Job 1819 and Is 14% the Heb. (13)) is more general, ‘descendant.’ So also in 1 Ti δ' (écyovos), though in this place the meaning is clearly ‘grandchild’: ‘If any widow have children or nephews’ (RV ‘ grandchildren’). J. HasTines.
NEPHTHAR
NEPHILIM. — This word (0% '}), translatel ‘giants’ in the AV, is found in two passa; in the OT. The first passage is the note, syn- tactically separate from its context, in Gn 6¢ ‘The Néephilim were in the earth in those days, and also afterward, forasmuch as the sons of God used to go in to the daughters of man, and they bare them children; they were the heroes that were of old, the men of name.’ The connective ‘forasmuch as’ articulates the statement better than the word ‘when,’ used in the English ver- sions. It is not explicitly said that the Néphiltm were the heroes borne by women to the ‘sons of God,’ and some scholars have held that they were not; but this writer certainly meant that they were, for otherwise it is impossible to account for his mentioning them at all. There is much here not easy to understand ; but in these four verses we certainly have an allusion to that region of mythology so copiously treated in the sacred legends a other peoples, the region of demigods and heroes. The Néphilim, whatever else may be true of them, are thought of as beings analogous to the demigods of the nations.
The other passage is most naturally thus trans- lated: ‘And there we saw the NépAilim, sons of Anak of the Néphilim ; and we were in our eyes as grasshoppers, and so were we in their eyes’ (Nu 13°), Evidently, the word Néphilim here has exactly the same meaning as in Genesis. These men are trying to find the strongest possible lan- guage for expressing the terribleness of the gigantic Anakim ; and this they effect by saying that the Anakim are veritable demigods. Per- haps they intended to be understood to imply that the Anakim were descended from the demigods ; or perhaps their language is metaphorical. It raat the Anakim seem more dreadful thus to suggest that there was something supernatural and uncanny about them.
When we have examined these two passages we have exhausted the direct evidence in regard to the Néphilim. Among the derivations proposed for the name, one makes it to be from naphal, “to fall’ ; either as meaning beings fallen from a
revious high estate (cf. Is 14%, Lk 1018), or as
ghters who fall upon the enemy fiercely. The latter view has been supposed to be favoured by the Greek versions, the LXX having γίγαντες, aie ἐπιπίπτοντες, and Symmachus βιαῖοι, but see Dillm. on Gn 64.
In former generations the passage in Genesis was voluminously discussed, especially the question as to who the ‘sons of God’ there mentioned were. Some account of these discussions, with references to the literature, may be found in Smith’s DB under art. ‘Giants’; see also the various com- mentaries on this passage ; Lenormant, Beginnings of History ; art. GIANT (in vol. ii.) with the litera- ture there{mentioned ; Budde, Urgeschichte, 30 ff.; Wellhausen, Comp. 308. W. J. BEECHER.
NEPHISHESIM, NEPHISIM.—See NAPHISH. NEPHTHAI.—See NEPHTHAR.
NEPHTHAR (Νεφθάρ, AV Naphthar), Nephthal (Νεφθαί, AV Nephi).—In 2 Mac 18 there is a legendary account of the hiding of the sacred fire of the temple at the Captivity, and of its recovery by Nehemiah. It states that the fire was concealed by the priests at the command of Jeremiah (see 2!) in a dry well or pit. When Nehemiah had built the temple and the altar (sic), and was about to offer sacrifice, he sent the descendants of those who had hidden the fire to bring it back. They found in the well only a thick liquid (ὕδωρ παχύ), which was drawn up and sprinkled upon the wood and