Who Were the Nephilim in the Bible?

Jude 6 describes angels who did not remain within their own position of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling and are now kept in chains until judgment. The very next verse turns to Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that the cities likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued “different flesh.” The connection between the verses is essential. Jude is not randomly listing unrelated examples of wickedness. His grammar places the angelic transgression and Sodom in deliberate comparison.

This means the question is not only, “What sins did Sodom commit?” Genesis clearly presents the city as sexually violent and wicked. Jude asks the reader to notice a more specific parallel: why does he place Sodom’s sexual transgression immediately after angels abandoning their proper heavenly order, and why does he describe Sodom’s object of desire as different flesh?

What “Sarkos Heteras” Actually Means

The Greek phrase is sarkos heteras. Sarx means flesh, while heteros means other, another, or different. The phrase therefore carries the straightforward sense “other flesh” or “different flesh.” The lexical meaning should not be exaggerated into a technical biological definition. Heteros by itself does not mean “another species,” nor does the phrase automatically prove every theological conclusion drawn from the passage.

The strength of the argument comes from context. Jude has just described angels abandoning their proper dwelling. He then says Sodom and the surrounding cities acted “likewise” and pursued different flesh. Genesis 19 identifies the visitors in Lot’s house as angels. The lexical wording, grammatical connection, and narrative identity of the visitors work together. The point is stronger than any etymological shortcut.

Genesis 19 Identifies Lot’s Visitors as Angels

Genesis 19 opens by saying that two angels came to Sodom in the evening. Lot receives them into his house. Before they sleep, the men of the city surround the house and demand that Lot bring the visitors out so they may “know” them. The context makes the sexual intent unmistakable. The men of Sodom believe the visitors are men because the angels appear in human form, but the narrator has already told the reader what they truly are: heavenly beings.

Jude’s language therefore draws attention not merely to the gender of the visitors but to the order of being involved. The men of Sodom pursue sexual access to angelic visitors. Their desire reaches toward flesh that does not belong to their own human order. Jude’s phrase “different flesh” fits the narrative precisely because the reader knows more about the visitors than the mob does.

The Direction Reverses the Genesis 6 Rebellion

The comparison with Jude 6 becomes striking when Genesis 6 is placed beside Genesis 19. In Genesis 6, heavenly beings cross downward into the human realm and take women. In Genesis 19, human beings seek sexual relations with heavenly visitors. The direction of the pursuit reverses, but the boundary-crossing pattern remains. One scene portrays heavenly beings reaching beyond their appointed order toward humanity; the other portrays humans reaching toward angelic beings.

Jude links the examples because both involve creatures refusing divinely established boundaries. The angels “left” what belonged to them. Sodom pursued what was “different.” Both stories therefore become warnings about rebellion that seeks what God has not assigned. The comparison is moral, sexual, and cosmic at the same time.

Distinct Orders of Flesh in the Biblical Worldview

Paul’s language in 1 Corinthians 15 helps illustrate the broader biblical concept that creation contains distinct orders. He says not all flesh is the same: humans have one kind, animals another, birds another, fish another. He then distinguishes heavenly bodies from earthly bodies. Paul is not commenting on Jude directly, but his language shows that biblical writers can speak of created orders as genuinely distinct.

That larger conceptual world makes Jude’s “different flesh” intelligible. The phrase should not be turned into a scientific classification system, but neither should it be flattened into a generic synonym for sexual immorality. Jude already says the cities committed sexual immorality; then he adds the more specific description that they pursued different flesh. The second phrase clarifies the distinctive character of the transgression he wants his readers to notice.

Jude’s Enochic Background Matters

Jude is deeply familiar with the Watcher tradition preserved in 1 Enoch. He later cites a prophecy from 1 Enoch 1:9, and his description of angels in chains closely parallels Enoch’s account of Watchers who abandoned heavenly order, united themselves with women, and were imprisoned until judgment. This background makes Jude 6 naturally read as a reference to the Genesis 6 rebellion.

When Jude then moves directly to Sodom, the comparison is not between a vague angelic fall and ordinary sexual sin. It is between two boundary violations involving heavenly and earthly orders. First Enoch is not Scripture and does not create Jude’s doctrine, but it illuminates the interpretive world in which his readers would have understood the angels who sinned.

Peter Preserves the Same Pattern

Second Peter 2 moves through the same sequence of examples: angels who sinned, the ancient world of Noah, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter adds the remarkable statement that the angels were cast into Tartarus and held in chains of darkness. The parallels between Peter and Jude are too extensive to ignore. Both authors speak of a specific angelic transgression, connect it with pre-Flood history, and place Sodom nearby as another example of rebellion under divine judgment.

The shared structure strengthens the Genesis 6 interpretation. Peter’s angels are not simply a general reference to evil spirits, and Jude’s angels are not merely symbolic. They are heavenly beings whose specific sin resulted in imprisonment. Sodom then functions as a later earthly mirror of the same rejection of created boundaries.

What the Passage Does and Does Not Say

Jude does not deny the broader sexual wickedness of Sodom. Genesis portrays attempted sexual violence, arrogance, injustice, and grievous corruption. The point is that Jude selects one feature that serves his immediate argument: the pursuit of different flesh. His comparison with the angels makes that phrase especially significant. The passage therefore should not be reduced either to “Sodom was only about homosexuality” or to “Sodom had nothing to do with sexual sin.” Jude’s focus is the form of sexual rebellion that crosses the boundary between human and angelic orders.

The argument also does not depend on inventing a Greek phrase Jude supposedly would have used for same-sex desire. That kind of lexical speculation is unnecessary. The actual words, the actual grammar, Genesis 19’s identification of the visitors, and the immediate connection to Jude 6 already provide the cumulative case.

Why Older English Bibles Say “Strange Flesh”

The King James Version’s phrase “strange flesh” can sound mysterious to modern ears because the English word strange has narrowed in everyday usage. In older English, strange could mean foreign, belonging to another, or not one’s own. That older sense fits heteros well. Modern readers should therefore hear “strange flesh” not as bizarre flesh but as flesh belonging to another or different order.

This translation history helps explain why the phrase once communicated more clearly than it may today. The underlying Greek has not changed. The task is to recover its contextual force without turning it into a technical term it does not contain. Jude’s grammar and Genesis 19 do the interpretive work: the flesh pursued belonged to beings the narrator identifies as angels.

Jude Selects This Detail Because It Serves His Judgment Argument

Genesis and the prophets describe many sins associated with Sodom, including pride, injustice, violence, and sexual wickedness. Jude does not deny those dimensions. He selects the feature most relevant to the warning he is constructing. His letter emphasizes rebellious beings who reject God-given order, whether angels abandoning proper habitation or cities reaching after flesh outside their appointed realm.

That rhetorical purpose explains why Jude can place the Watchers and Sodom beside one another without claiming their histories are identical. Both become examples of presumption: created beings cross a boundary, pursue what is not theirs, and encounter catastrophic judgment. Jude’s concern is not curiosity about ancient sexuality. It is the certainty that rebellion against divine order brings divine sentence.

Angels Appearing in Human Form Makes the Comparison Possible

Genesis 19 presents the visitors as angels while simultaneously showing them interacting with Lot, entering a house, eating, speaking, taking people by the hand, and being perceived by the men of Sodom as ordinary male visitors. The narrative therefore assumes that heavenly beings can appear in embodied humanlike form. The mob’s ignorance of their true identity does not change the narrator’s identification of them.

This matters for Jude because the object of Sodom’s pursuit is defined by the inspired narrator, not by the attackers’ understanding. They believe they are pursuing men, but the reader knows they are pursuing angelic visitors. Jude can therefore describe the episode according to the reality of the beings involved: the city reached after flesh that belonged to another created order.

The Comparison Is About Presumption as Much as Desire

Jude’s letter repeatedly condemns beings who reject assigned authority, slander what they do not understand, and pursue what does not belong to them. The angels leave their proper dwelling. Sodom reaches after different flesh. Cain, Balaam, and Korah later become additional examples of rebellion driven by self-will. The common thread is presumption: created beings refuse to remain under the boundaries and authority of God.

Seen in that literary context, “different flesh” is not an isolated sexual phrase. It participates in Jude’s larger theology of rebellion. Desire becomes destructive when it is joined to the rejection of divine order. That is why the examples culminate in judgment: chains, fire, destruction, and the certainty that God will hold rebels accountable.

Conclusion

Jude says Sodom pursued “different flesh” because the men of the city sought relations with visitors Genesis identifies as angels. The phrase sarkos heteras means other or different flesh, and Jude deliberately connects that pursuit to angels who abandoned their proper heavenly dwelling. Genesis 6 and Genesis 19 move in opposite directions but share the same pattern: creatures crossing boundaries God established between the heavenly and human orders. Jude turns both stories into warnings that no created being can reject divine order without facing divine judgment.

Continue the Study

Jude’s comparison points back to the Watchers and forward to Peter’s description of their imprisonment. Reading Jude 6–7 together with Genesis 6, Genesis 19, and 2 Peter 2 reveals how deeply New Testament judgment language is rooted in the supernatural worldview of ancient Judaism.

Learn More

For a fuller treatment of Jude 6–7, “different flesh,” the Watcher rebellion, Sodom, and the imprisonment of the angels, see Jonathan Lugo’s The Bible You Thought You Knew: Recovering the Supernatural Narrative of the Scriptures.

Sources & Further Reading

• Jude 6–7; Genesis 6:1–4; Genesis 19:1–11; 2 Peter 2:4–6; 1 Corinthians 15:39–40.

• 1 Enoch 6–16, especially the Watcher rebellion and imprisonment traditions.

• Spiros Zodhiates, Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, “Sarx,” “Heteros,” and “Oikētērion.”

• Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter.

• George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation.