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When I was a child of six or seven, reading Genesis for the first time, I
came to chapter six and found the word “giants” for the first time. At that
tender, innocent age, I accepted that the Bible was true, so there was no
problem in my mind with the word. It said what it meant, and it meant what it
said.
However, when I was in my teens I came across some comments by a
theologian, which reduced the whole meaning of the word “giants” down to
“Men who were very bad”. Suddenly I had a choice between reading some hidden
meaning into what the Bible said, or accepting it at face value.
Since that time I have discovered that there are two well-defined groups
– those who say the giants were really giants, and those who say they were
just ordinary people only very wicked. It seems to me that either God says what
He means, or perhaps He deliberately writes in an ambiguous way because He likes
to start controversies! Obviously the second choice cannot be true because it is
out of character for God to do such a thing, so what are we to think about these
“giants”?
Gen.6:4 “There were giants on the earth in those days . . .”
“giants” = Heb. “nephilim”. This word comes from another word meaning
“to fall”. These giants were fallen ones, or mighty ones who had fallen.
They were, apparently, of great size and also very wicked. They might be called
superhuman. They were abnormal humans, and their destruction was essential in
order to preserve the human race.
Gen. 6: 4 gives the origin of these giants. “The sons of God came in
the daughters of men, and they bore children to them”. In other words,
humans and angels interbred. The main objection to this is the biological one.
How can human and angelic DNA combine? Surely the two are different species? The
offspring, if offspring was at all possible, should have been sterile? But this
objection is based on the assumption that DNA was involved from both sides.
Other assumptions are also included as the human mind tries to assimilate a
miraculous event and explain it in literal, earthly terms. (Without wanting to
degrade the incarnation, was that not also a sort of combining of God with Man
in a human woman’s womb?”)
Another explanation is often brought in here. The “sons of God” it is
said, were actually a line of humans directly linked to Adam’s chosen lineage
which would eventually come through to Mary the mother of Jesus. But this
explanation misses the meaning of the expression “sons of God” which means
“sons of El” – the angelic beings. It is not correct to call one line of
humans “sons of God” and another line “children of men” because even
Gentiles are able to be saved through faith, which would make nonsense of the
expression if even a single Gentile was included in the “sons of God line”
i.e. Ruth and Rahab.
“Sons of God” = angels. See Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7.
The flood, we are told, was brought in “upon the ungodly” (2Pet.2:5),
something which Jude also predicted (Jude 14) and a good reason for that Flood
would be the removal of these ‘nephilim’, who were a threat to the human
race. Sadly, of course, the human race was also so corrupted it had to be
destroyed too, but at least the ‘nephilim’ were gone.
But when we come to Numbers 13:33 we find that the ‘nephilim’ are in
the story again. How did they get there? Gen. 6:4 tells us “There were giants
in the earth in those days (before the flood) and also after that . . .( that
is, after the flood). It seems clear that after the Flood there was a second
irruption of angels interbreeding with humans, only this time they were fewer in
number (perhaps because of the consequences of their first attempt) and their
area of contamination was limited
to the land of Palestine. Apparently these giants were already occupying the
land before Israel arrived, and, as the spies said when they returned to Moses:
“There we saw the giants, (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and
we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight”
(Num.13:33)
The giants had many large families, and soon the nations known as the
Canaanites were a cross-section of humans and hybrids, all pagan and
antagonistic to the Israelites. Satan’s plan, of course, was to destroy Israel
because he knew that some how God was working out a plan through these people.
Whether he knew all the details I could not say, but whatever God loved, Satan
hated, so he organised a force of resistance and placed his armies in readiness
in the Promised Land, to stop the Abrahamic Covenant promises from being
fulfilled.
In Gen. 14:5 a number of nephilim families are mentioned. They are called
“Rephaim” and “Zuzims” and “Emims”. They were well established in
Ashteroth and Shaveh Kiriathaim. As Gen.12:6 says “the Canaanite was then
(i.e. “already”) in the land”. By itself this verse only implies that
there were nephilim in the land when Abraham arrived from Haran, but we can
safely assume that Satan was organising things in his attempt to destroy the
promised “seed” which God said would come through Abraham. This “seed”
was meant to inherit the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7)
In Gen.15:18-21 the Canaanite nations are named. At this time the
nephilim were mixed in amongst them. For further information, see Gen.15:18-21,
and Ex.3:8, 17, 23:23, and Deut. 20:17 and Josh.12:8.
God said the Canaanites were to be “cut off” which means “utterly
destroyed’ – Deut.20:7, Josh 3:10. But Israel failed to obey this command
fully – Josh.13:13, 15:63, 16:10, 17:18, Judg.1:19-36, 2:1-5, 3:1-7, and many
nephilim were scattered into the countries around Palestine. It is highly likely
that the stories about these giants filtered down through myths and legends, and
soon became the Greek gods and other deities. There are several reasons why this
is likely: 1. Most ancient pagan stories have a mixture of immoral and immoral
heroes, 2. The supernatural is frequently involved, 3. Many of the stories are
phantasmagorical. The many stories also pose the question as to where they came
from – are they purely the result of unaided imagination, or is there some
substance to them?
Another names for these giants was the Anakim.
The Anakim – Num.13:23. They were descended from Anak, who was the son
of Arba, one of the “sons of Heth” – Gen.23:3, who, seven years before the
building of Zoar in Egypt (Gen.23:2, Num.13:22, Josh.15:13, 45), built Hebron,
which was called Kirjath-arba, which means ‘the city of Arba’. Anak, his
son, had three distinguished descendants in the days of Moses and Joshua (about
1490 BC) Num.13:22. Their names were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai. They lived in
Hebron. The Israelites, we have already noted, said they were “like
grasshoppers’ compared to these huge men, Num.13:28, 33, which greatly
disheartened the rest of Israel – Deut.1:28.
So, rather than building a case out of almost nothing, we have a great
deal of information about these nephilim – their names, their cities, and
where they lived. From these facts were may conjecture that since these nephilim
were larger than the average human, they might need larger buildings to live in,
which might explain why many of the ruins of the ‘ancient world’ are made
from such large blocks of stone. Perhaps, too, the technology which was used in
those days was based on ‘giant’s’ intellects, and used larger workers who
could haul and lift stones with greater strength?
The Anakim were great, and many, and tall, but they were not
invulnerable. They were actually driven out of their land by the Moabites
(Deut.2:10-12) but it was a common saying, or proverb “Who can stand before
the sons of Anakim?” – Deut.9:2. Yet Joshua, powered by God, was able to cut
them down, from the mountains and wherever he found them – Josh.11:21, 22.
These giants had great and fenced cities, the chief of which was Hebron,
which they called Kirjath-arba, but Joshua was able to destroy all he came
against. He drove out the three leading descendants of Anak and the Kohathites
inherited the city – Josh.21:11.
Just in passing it is interesting to notice how few if any
Bible picture books illustrate these events with the inclusion of the giants.
Once again the artists have done the Church and public a grave disservice by
omitting the truth.
The Rephaim (Gen.14:5, 15:20) were also called the Zamzummims, the
Zuzim, the Emim and the Anakim.
Zamzummim means “powerful” or “vigorous” (Deut.2:20).
Emim means “the terrible”. Being a race of gigantic stature,
they originally lived on the east of the Dead Sea. In ancient times, the whole
country was held and occupied by the race of giants: the Rephaim to the north,
then a little further south the Zuzim, then the Emim, and right down in the
south the Horim. In time the kingdom of Bashan embraced the territories of the
Rephaim. The Ammonites took over the territory of the Zuzim, and the Moabites
took over the territory where the Emim lived, while Edom embraced the mountains
of the Horim. The Emim were related to the Anakim and were generally called by
the same name, but their conquerors the Moabites were the ones who called them
the Emim – see Gen.14:5, Deaut.2:10, 2:11.
Horim means “troglodyte”, or “cave-dweller”. These were
the original, or first inhabitants of Mt.Seir, probably related to the Emim and
Rephaim. Their excavated dwellings are still found in their hundreds in the
sandstone cliffs and mountains of Edom, but especially at Petra –
Gen.14:6, 36:20, 21, 29, Deut.2:12,22.
All the above nephilim, here listed, were well known during the times
when they lived, and the name Rephaim is often mentioned in Scripture.
Unfortunately, because the translators had a problem with “giants” they
variously translated the word as “dead”, “deceased” or, correctly as
“giants”. One needs to examine the text carefully to find the original
Hebrew, in order to gain the correct reading, sometimes.
The Rephaim have no resurrection – Is.26:5, Ps.88:10, Prov.2:18, 9:18,
21:16, Is.14:8, 26:19. The name is rendered “deceased” in Is.26:14. In other
places it is rendered “Rephaim” – gen.14:5, 15:20, Josh.12:15 (sometimes
mentioned in the margin), 2Sam.5:18,22, 1Chron.11:15, 14:9, 20:4 (sometimes in
margin), and Is.17:5.
The same word is rendered “giants” in Gen.6:4, Num.23:33 and Job
16:14, where the Hebrew word is ‘gibor’, or ‘geber’, which denotes a
specific type of man. See also Ex.10:11, 12:37 and 1Sam.16:18
Goliath
Goliath (1Sam.17:4) was undoubtedly a giant, and not simply a
larger-than-average man. His size and height have often been played down because
of a disbelief in what the Bible says. He was called a Philistine, but was
probably descended from one of the scattered nephilim who were dispersed by the
Ammonites. (Deut.2:20,21 and 2Sam21:22). By all estimates he was over nine feet
tall. There have been skeletons found in Palestine, in about the same area,
which have been at least nine feet long, and also elsewhere, of so-called
‘mystery’ skulls, which indicate bodies of immense size, if the skull is
anything to go by.
Other individual giants are mentioned too – 2Sam. 21:16-22.
“The persistence of a giant race” writes Unger, “persisted in the
ancient Near East, and goes back in the Genesis account to intercourse between
fallen angels and fallen women. Although this so-called ‘angel hypothesis’
is disclaimed by many Bible students, it is a clear implication of the
original.”
W.F. Albright wrote “Yahweh (Jehovah) was believed to have created
astral as well as terrestrial beings, and the former were popularly called
“the host of heaven”, or “the sons of God” . . . the (astral) gods had
intercourse with mortal women who gave birth to heroes (literally meteors, or in
Hebrew ‘nephilim’), an idea that may often be illustrated by Babylonian and
Greek mythology. But the Israelite who had this section recited, unquestionably
thought of intercourse between angels and women”. (‘From Stone Age to
Christianity’ published 1940, page 226)
The two irruptions.
The Bible makes it clear that there were two irruptions of angels. The
first occurred before the Great Flood and the second came after it. In both
cases it seems to have been an attempt by Satan to either destroy Mankind, or to
interbreed and thus usurp his place on Earth. If, for example, Satan had managed
to pollute the chosen line, God would have had a big problem choosing it for the
Messiah, and what a mess it would have made of the whole principle of
redemption! Satan’s ‘spanner in the works’ would have ruined everything.
The strength of the nephilim is seen today in the ruins of the cities
they built. For example the “giant cities of Bashan” which tourists still
visit and wonder at. Everywhere these giants went they left their mark, but
because people fail to accept the Bible account as it is written, they come up
with many curious explanations to account for the things they find.
Deut. 3:11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the
giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah, of the
people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length, and four cubits its width,
according to the standard cubit”.
How large was it? A cubit is about 18”, taken from the elbow to the end
of the longest finger. Nine times 18” equals 162 inches, or more than 13 feet.
There are several theories as to why angels no longer try to co-habit
with humans. One theory is that the angels who attempted it first were wiped out
by water, and the last few who tried were destroyed by Israel and other nations.
This may have served as a deterrent to any other angels who might consider it.
Or, perhaps Satan has moved on to other tactics? Perhaps the human race is now
so large he knows he could not succeed with this method – especially with
modern weapons available to Man.
A second theory suggests that instead of interbreeding, the angels sometimes try something similar – possession. Instead of producing hybrid offspring, they simply occupy a human body and manipulate it as they will.