5 highlights from Wes Huff's interview with Shawn Ryan about suffering, giants and Dead Sea Scrolls

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, February 14, 2026

5. Books of Enoch and giant demon offspring: 'I'm very cautious'

Huff, who went viral earlier this month for dismissing news stories suggesting an ancient Egyptian papyrus in the British Museum confirmed the biblical account of ancient giants, said he remains "cautious" regarding the claims in the apocryphal three books of Enoch, portions of which were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and claim fallen angels copulated with women.

Despite being cited in the New Testament book of Jude, the books of Enoch are non-canonical Jewish apocalyptic literature that Huff said are evidently pseudepigraphal, a word describing ancient texts from roughly 300 BC to 300 AD that were falsely attributed to famous biblical figures to gain authority.

Supposedly written by Noah's great-grandfather, the books of Enoch maintain that the wicked Nephilim of Genesis 6 were the giant offspring of women and disobedient angels before the Flood. Destroyed in the deluge, the books say their disembodied spirits were condemned to aimlessly wander the Earth, where they have since possessed humans in an attempt to regain a physical form and satisfy their insatiable appetites.

"And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, [but nevertheless hunger] and thirst, and cause offenses," according to 1 Enoch 15, the earliest full text of which exists only in the Ethiopic language. "And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded [from them]."

Huff, who has said he believes the Genesis account that giants existed in distant antiquity, noted to Ryan that while he does not believe the Enochian literature is authentic or canonical, he nevertheless finds it "very, very interesting."

He said the books show that people were attempting to make sense of demons around the time of Jesus, whose ministry was frequently marked by demonic encounters.

"I think some of it makes sense," Huff said. "I think, on things that Scripture whispers about, I don't want to yell too loudly. I'm very cautious. I think it's entirely plausible, given what we see within Scripture, and the fact that it's not 100 percent clear exactly what demons or even angels are."

"But that's what something like the book of Enoch is trying to flesh out," he added.

Huff added that the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote an extensive history of the Jews and provided an eyewitness account of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, maintained that the prevailing view among the Jews of his time was that no Scripture had been written before Moses.

Huff suggested the position of Josephus historically disqualifies the claim that any Scripture had been written by the seventh son of Adam, though Josephus himself interpreted the Genesis 6 account as referring to sinful supernatural beings.

Christian theologians throughout church history have disagreed about the Nephilim and the books of Enoch, with early church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Tertullian affirming the account of fallen angels provoking divine judgment by corrupting humanity with women.

Augustine of Hippo, the influential fourth-century church father who famously penned The City of God, believed evil giants once existed and acknowledged Jude's reference, but dismissed the Enochian literature as impossibly ancient and the angel-human hybrid theory as "fables." His view that Genesis 6 referred to the godly sons of Seth intermarrying with the evil daughters of Cain prevailed in medieval Christianity and among the Protestant Reformers.