At the beginning of the scientific revolution of the 20th Century Bible stories and myths across the world were shunned as total fiction and useless to determine historical events. More recently as new scientific evidence comes out they're taking a closer look at old myths, as some are appearing more truthful than we used to think. Personally I think many of them are a mix of accounts of real events witnessed; then passed down for generations before written word existed, with fictional elements thrown in and distortions due to the many years of passing from person to person.
In any case I think it's fun to examine ancient myths and try to put them to a real event that could've happened.
Lately I've been reading about the so called "Apocryphal books of the Bible". In BCE times there was no "bible" as it is today; just a huge collection of separate books. Around 300 AD the Roman Catholics held a meeting known as the Council of Laodicea; where they made the bible official and decided what to include and what not to include in the big book. To some degree or another this is the bible you would find in an American Hotel today. There are actually a large number of ancient biblical books and letters that they left out, of which they considered 'non-canonical'.
The Book of Enoch
This book expands upon an existing story only mentioned briefly in Genesis, and casts light on some things about other parts of the bible. Enoch himself is mentioned several times in the rest of the bible as a descendant of Adam and Seth who lived years before the flood (one of the earliest stories in the bible). And as a rare man who was faithful during a time of sin ("the earth was filled with badness"), lived for over 300 years then possibly went to heaven or entered heaven without dying.
Summary:
The beginning is like a sermon;
-Enoch (assuming himself to be the writer or speaker here) establishes himself as a prophet of God.
-A brief explanation of seasons and astronomy.
-reprimands people (everyone?) as sinning and not appreciating God. Makes a distinct separation between holy and unholy people.
Chapter 7 is where it begins to get interesting; telling the famous story of the "Fallen Angels"
-This story is mentioned but only briefly in Genesis, right before the Noah's Ark story. It actually appears very similar but like an abridged or compact version, omitting the details.
-A group of angels (200 in total), several "leaders" being mentioned by name (and apparently all male) descend to earth to mate with female humans.
-When these women became pregnant they gave birth to giants who terrorized humans.
[Some versions use other terms like "Nephelim" and some versions elaborate saying there were multiple races, or that the giants had children of their own who were also giants etc]*
In Genesis there is a particular verse referring to these things as "These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown."
The follow parts are not mentioned in Genesis:
-Each named angel goes on to teach something to the people of the earth; "how to make weapons, shields, mirrors, workmanship, paint and use of makeup/fashion, sorcery, astronomy, astrology, divination etc"
"and the world became altered"
"And men, being destroyed, cried out; and their voice reached to heaven."
-Then the good angels in heaven talk with God about what to do about all this. An interesting passage:
"You have seen what Azazyel [one of the fallen angels] has done, how he has taught every species of iniquity upon earth, and has disclosed to the world all the secret things which are done in the heavens."
-God gives on order to punish the fallen angels by throwing them into "an opening in the desert" of darkness.
-God sends Enoch to tell the fallen angels this and reprimand them.
-The angels ask Enoch to ask God to forgive them.
-Enoch has a prophetic dream:
It speaks of clouds and mist, fire and "agitated stars" (multiple times), flashes of light and wind. He flies up to heaven and sees an enormous building made of crystal and vibrating flames. He admits to being terrified and shaking in fear.
During this dream God speaks directly to Enoch and tells him how the bad people/angels will be punished. Then the dream continues and Enoch continues to see strange things.
This is all I've read so far. As unrealistic as all this sounds; I believe most of this can be extrapolated into real history.
-The Giants
It's currently known that many different species of early humans existed; and as we learn more about the evolution of humans we learn it was no straight line from ape to human. There were Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, homo-sapien etc. More recent evidence suggests some of these subtly different species existed on earth at the same time. Let's assume they even cohabited. Humans were spreading over the earth at this time; many being nomads, partly due to changing climates during this time (especially during the ice age).
It is well proven that human stature during the time of Christ was considerably shorter than us today. Human height increased a great deal during the Middle ages, like the 'Medieval Warm Period'. I don't know all the reasons for this (or if it is known at all) but the sizes and shapes of the various species (Neanderthals etc) were noticeably different from their skeletons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo#Names_and_taxonomy(scroll down a bit for a picture (I didn't post directly as it's a artist rendition and a semi nude picture))
If a civilization of the smaller humans got visited (or more likely invaded) by the larger civilization; they would've appeared like "giants" to them, even if not to us. And it seems likely the larger group would've dominated the little group, possibly gone to war with them, or used them as slaves. Bother civilizations may not have gone away from the exchange unscathed.
This likely could've happened long before writing existed but possibly oral tradition had started. This tradition was passed down for eons until it became "The Nephilim"
-The Fallen Angels
Not only here but repeatedly in the bible it speaks of angels appearing like humans (or in human form at one point or another). Here it seems revealing that these "angels" taught men all matter of things, intelligent things like how to build weapons and astronomy, and the "secrets of the heavens".
Besides the different species of humans being different in stature they could've been separate in intelligence and technology. This story could simply be an account of two separate ancient human races meeting for the first time and the more advanced one sharing it's technology; and the predictable stress and culture upheaval this would've had.
I don't know if it's known if these different races were compatible with each other but seems okay to assume they were; interbreeding would've just been another memorable part of this story.
-Enoch's dream/vision
Enoch (and characters in the bible as well, similar to this) describes characteristics quite similar to experiences people today describe after taking hallucinogenic drugs like DMT or psylocybin.
These experiences often include; bright colors, geometric shapes, seeing animals or creatures, lighting or strange weather, hearing voices. Having intense emotions; far more powerful then ordinary sober emotions.
The most interesting example to me is the verse:
"So greatly did it excel in all points, in glory, in magnificence, and in magnitude, that it is impossible to describe to you either the splendour or the extent of it."
-Again people who have taken a drug like this say that the altered state of mind is too strange to describe in words to someone who's never tried it themselves. Many cherish the experience as a spiritual thing, even if they weren't spiritual people, the most unique thing they ever experienced.
-Types of fungus and plants containing the drugs necessary to supply this experience (like Acacia) were available in the Mesopotamian area at that time and in fact, the Acacia bush is mentioned many times symbolically in the bible. In fact recent archaeological digs found stone sculptures of mushrooms in some of the most ancient sites ever found.
1) a bit of side commentary; this book reminds me a little bit of Greek and Roman mythology; I wonder if that's part of the reason for it's exclusion.
2) The verse in Genesis "the heros of old, warriors renown" makes it sound like this was an already old legend at the time of writing the bible. Which makes sense as these books were written I think between 1 and 1,000 BC. These interactions with different species would've happened possible 10,000+ years prior.