Nephilim in Aotearoa New Zealand: Reading Māori Narratives of Tāwhaki with Gen 6:1–4’s Ancient Divine Heroes

Abstract

The 2023 Bible Society New Zealand’s translation of sample biblical passages into the Māori language, He Tīmatanga, caused controversy by incorporating names of Māori gods. Those who objected typically assumed inconsistency with the Bible’s purported monotheism. But ‘monotheism’, in the sense that only one god exists, is not present in the Bible. Moreover, missionary adherence to monotheism in the mid-nineteenth century widely assumed a ‘degeneration model’ that also promoted European religious, moral, and cultural superiority. This article adopts a hermeneutical strategy to counter monotheistic misreadings of the Bible, and their racist effects, by reading Māori stories of the ancient divine hero Tāwhaki alongside the ancient divine heroes who feature in Gen 6:1–4’s account of the Nephilim. First, the comparison provides resources for the translation of Gen 6:1–4 into the Māori language and worldview. Second, the Tāwhaki narratives stimulate a reappraisal of longstanding problems in the interpretation of Gen 6:1–4, especially the meaning of the phrase “the sons of the gods”. Supported by analysis also of the Sumerian King List, this article argues that all three major interpretations of “the sons of the gods” are fundamentally consistent: they are gods, elite human rulers, and also Sethites.