Christopher Nolan, director of the blockbuster movie The Odyssey, which is on its way to grossing over 1 billion dollar worldwide, took on an amazingly bold task of bringing Homer’s epic poem Iliad and the Odyssey to the modern big screen.

He did a great job. The movie is exciting with big effects and literally bigger than life characters, and creatures.

I imagine that most people only have vague recollections of their attempt to read this literary piece in high school or even recall their study of Greek and Roman mythology.

Homer’s work was produced in the 7th-8th centuries BC. Today his authorship is highly debated by scholars. Most claim that these works were composed independently and survived via oral and written tradition. The Iliad primarily dealt with the classic story of various Greek factions uniting and defeating Troy with their clever Trojan Horse. With Odysseus as hero, The Odyssey depicts the long journey home after the battle with Troy.

Along the way there are various adventures with mythical figures, monsters, and trials as Odysseus encounters legendary perils of the Underworld with monsters (Cyclops), sorcerers (Circe), ghosts of Greek gods (Athena), and giant warriors (Laestrygonians).

Nolan intertwines Greek and Roman mythology with his own storytelling and interpretations that allow for great film-making and special effects in a great revenge tale. Like Gladiator and Braveheart, (and Die Hard), I’ll watch this movie again and again over the years. 

I actually think my wife will like it too.

What’s It Got to Do With the Bible?
Certainly from Christopher Nolan’s perspective and approach, this movie actually has little to do with the Bible. His film-making gift is writing and creating intriguing psychological studies of human and non-human adventures with next-level special effects.

But this movie does open the door to plenty of Biblical discussions. The Bible connection here is the storyline that is easily cast aside as mythology, vague to us, yet odd. As we were all taught in school that the Greeks and Romans believed in Zeus, Neptune, Pluto, and Poseidon, those of us who are Christians see these as simply pagans believing in pagan gods.

And we’re okay with the notion that these then, overtime, became myths. 

But have you ever considered it odd that two distinct cultures (Greek and Roman) both describe a race of giant beings or entities that are the offspring of gods that existed thousands of years ago? 

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4)

Depending on your upbringing, Christian training, or pastor, or Bible study notes, many have read over this passage as merely strange, or were told that the sons of God were descendants of Seth, or Cain. 

Now if you read Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm, the Nephilim were the unholy offspring of disobedient spiritual beings coming to earth and mating with human women.

If you are open to 1 Enoch, that book details the havoc wreaked on earth by the Nephilim. Note that the next passage in Genesis, God’s wrath is played out in the destructive global Flood and the saving of Noah and his family in the ark. (Genesis 6:5-9:28)

1 Enoch also states:

“and the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens.”

Hmmm. Makes the Sirens of Titan scene in The Odyssey movie, and Homer’s work, come to life in a new way.

Also, the Nephilim, or these hybrid offspring, get named in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was popular in the days of Jesus, as gigantes, the same word used by Homer for their own heroes and monsters.

So, simply put, though they belong to separate religious and cultural traditions, the Nephilim are Biblical giants described as offspring of “sons of God” and mortal women, while Greek myths feature demigods and heroes born from immortal gods and humans.

So What Am I Saying?
First of all, if you like adventures and exciting film-making, go see The Odyssey. For pure enjoyment, not Bible study.

If you want to open a can of worms, read Michael Heiser’s work The Unseen Realm, and consider researching the background of 1 Enoch and how it fell out of favor with the Roman Catholic Church while still preserved in the Ethiopian Bible. I’m still wading through the volumes of materials coming out on these topics that I believe, like many topics these days, have not been well addressed and are due deeper study.

Enjoy the movie!

Have you an open mind to new perspectives on things you’ve always understood?
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Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. – Ephesians 6:11