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In the X-Files Episode "All Souls" (S5 E17), Fr. McHugh tells Scully the story of the Nephilim. In his version, there were four Nephilim, children of a Seraph1 and a human woman, who were not "meant to be," so the Seraph came back to earth to take their souls to Heaven before the Devil could get them. He attributes this story to an unspecified non-canonical work.

I have been unable to find any story about the Nephilim (outside of this episode) in which

  1. The angelic father is specifically a Seraph2,

  2. there are exactly four Nephilim, or

  3. the angelic father is sent to reclaim them.

Is this a real thing? My search results are so full of Supernatural Wiki and Madeline L'Engle criticism that I'm unwilling to take my inability to find it as real evidence. OTOH, there's plenty of other Catholic material in TXF that they just made up.

1 The four-faced angel described by Fr. McHugh is actually a cherub, but I guess that doesn't sound as badass.
1 Ibid.

|improve this question
  • I know I've heard of the Nephelim - the cursed offspring of angels and humans - being mentioned in sources outside of X-Files or Supernatural, although the more specific details of this episode aren't necessarily part of it. I don't know of any official religious canon on them, but in general I believe they're treated as soulless abominations, forsaken by God. – Steve-O Feb 22 '17 at 4:24
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    The primary source for the Nephilim, besides Genesis 6.1-4, is the First Book of Enoch, but it says nothing resembling this story. If I had to guess, this particular variation was invented by the X-Files writers. – user33616 Feb 22 '17 at 6:37
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    A proper, scholarly answer that compiled various folklore and legends about the Nephilim, and concluded that this was entirely invented by the writers — alas, I think the people best equipped to do that have too many other things on their hands. – can-ned_food Aug 2 '17 at 13:42

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