by
Damien F. Mackey
“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 6:4
As the above text
indicates, giants have existed both before and after the great Flood.
Evidence for
giants can be found throughout the world – though one always has to be on guard
against fakes:
Were There Giants? What
the Evidence Actually Shows - ScienceInsights
“By the
1800s, public fascination with giants was so intense that it became profitable
to fake them. The most famous case is the Cardiff Giant, unearthed on October
16, 1869, on a farm in Cardiff, New York. Two laborers digging a well hit stone
three feet down, cleared the soil, recognized the shape of a foot, and
eventually uncovered a ten-foot-tall stone figure of a man. Crowds paid to see
it, and many believed it was a petrified ancient giant.
The whole
thing was a setup. The farm’s owner, William Newell, had buried the statue the
year before. His cousin George Hull, an atheist and amateur science enthusiast,
had carved it to make a point about the tension between science and religious
faith. Hull wasn’t wealthy, and the scheme was also designed to make money,
which it did. The giant became so popular that P.T. Barnum offered to buy it.
When the owners refused, Barnum simply made a replica and displayed that
instead, claiming his was the real one. The owners tried to sue, but the judge
reportedly said, “Bring your giant here, and if he swears to his own
genuineness, you shall have your injunction.” By December 1869, Hull confessed,
and the hoax collapsed”.
President Abe
Lincoln, himself of unusual configuration, which some call “gigantism”, is
purported to have been interested in the discovery of giants in North America.
The ancestors
of the giants, the Anakim, about whom the Israelite spies reported (Numbers
13:33), had apparently survived from the raid of the four northern kings at the
time of Abram - about half a millennium earlier - when giant peoples such as
the Rephaïtes (Deuteronomy 3:11), the Zuzites (Deuteronomy 2:20 links them with the Zamzummim, another
clan of great stature) and the Emites, “a people great, numerous, and tall” (Deuteronomy 2:10-11), were overcome (Genesis
14:5).
Later, as the army of Israel will make its way through Transjordania (Dr.
Osgood distinguishes this region, as IV, from the Early Bronze III civilisations
in Canaan), they will encounter, and defeat, the fearsome Og, giant king of
Bashan.
(The account
of Og’s defeat is recorded in several passages, including Numbers 21:33-35, Deuteronomy 3:1-11, and Joshua 12:4-5).
“Og king of
Bashan”, we read, “was the last of the Rephaïtes. His bed was decorated with
iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still
in Rabbah of the Ammonites”. Og’s bed was about 14 feet long and 6
feet wide or about 4 meters long and 1.8 meters wide.
Now, that’s
a giant!
While some ancient
Jewish legends can be helpful to the point of being vital, I think that we can
take with a grain of salt the one that has King Og clinging to Noah’s Ark:
The Amazing Story of Og,
the Giant King of Bashan | Mayim Achronim
“Midrashic
texts famously record that Og was the only survivor of the Great Flood, aside
from Noah and his family. When the torrential rains began, Og jumped onto the
Ark and held on tightly (Zevachim 113b). He swore to Noah that he
would be his family’s eternal servant if Noah would allow him into the Ark (Yalkut
Shimoni, Noach 55). The Talmud (ibid.) states that the rain waters of
the Flood were actually boiling hot. Yet, the rain that fell upon Og while he
held unto the Ark was miraculously cool, allowing him to survive”.
Was Og the
original Procrustes?
As Einstein
would have said, it is all relative. (Or, as a football guru once
remarked: ‘You don’t have to be Norman Einstein to …’).
Therefore,
when speaking of giants, it needs to be noted that human beings were on average
somewhat smaller, or shorter, than are those of our own era.
The
Neanderthals, perhaps the long-lived antediluvians, who continued on for a time
after the Flood, were not necessarily tall, but they were apparently very
strong, with marvellous eyesight far surpassing our own, and with a much longer
life expectancy.
Again, the
walled cities in Canaan that Israel’s spies described as being “fortified and
very large” (Numbers 13:28), would be miniscule by comparison with our own
cities. But to an invading people lacking siege weaponry, even a relatively
small, walled city would loom as formidable.
One does not
need to be a giant to be very strong.
There is no
indication, for instance, that the immensely powerful Samson was an actual
giant – except in his faith (cf. Hebrews 11:32).
And this man in the 1930’s, who pulled a full bus with his teeth, was certainly
no giant.
The
Philistines, not included in the report of the spies - but figuring at the time
of Abram, and then, again, at the time of kings Saul and David - appear to have
been a tall race, including various giants, such as Goliath.
Also needing
to be taken into account is the fact that the reluctant spies exaggerated
the truth, so that, now: “All the people we saw there are of great
size” (Numbers 13:32).
And, again
(13:33): “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of
Anak come from the Nephilim)”.
Any mention
of the Nephilim, either then, or today, is bound to attract interest.
What is the significance
of the fact there were giants in those days (Genesis 6:4)? | GotQuestions.org
Genesis
6 records
the expansion of the human race and its descent into further corruption. The
writer records that there were “giants on the earth in those days” (Genesis 6:4, NKJV) and offers a brief
explanation of how that came to be.
As humanity
multiplied and began to be numerous on the earth (Genesis 6:1), the “sons of God” took
wives (Genesis
6:2), and
they began to increase. In light of the rapid multiplication of humanity and
its evil, God limited the human lifespan to one-hundred, twenty years (Genesis 6:3). Prior to that time,
people lived a very long time—even up to around nine
hundred years (see Genesis 5). Though lifespans were
decreasing on their own, God intervened to limit them greatly. Despite this
significant limitation, there were giants (Hebrew, Nephilim) in
those days—in the days of Noah. These were mighty men of renown and were
apparently the products of relationships between the “sons of God” and the “daughters of
men” (Genesis
6:4).
The giants
in those days were extraordinary, leading some to suppose that the “sons of
God” in Genesis 6:2 and Genesis 6:4 are fallen angels
and not merely regular people. In that theory, these fallen angels took on
physical form and procreated with women. The demon-human hybrid DNA resulted in
giant size and, apparently, enhanced physical abilities.
There are
three objections to this theory: First, there is nothing in the text that
suggests the “sons of God” are angels. While the phrase can be
used of angels (as it is apparently in Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7), it is also regularly
used of people (e.g., Matthew 5:9 and Luke 20:36). Second, there is no
indication that angels are physiologically compatible with women and can
procreate with them (unless this is the only instance).
Third, the
theological implications are significant enough that one might expect some
further explanation. Instead, we only see the offspring referred to as “giants”
(Nephilim) and mighty, but nothing
beyond that.
Others have
suggested that the sons of God might be people possessed by demonic beings. As
in the other view, the phrase sons of God would still refer to
fallen angels. While this view would resolve the physiological implications,
there is nothing in the text that would suggest this possibility.
A third view
is that there were giants in those days simply because humanity hadn’t been
fully genetically corrupted—everyone was big and tall and
mighty—and God intervenes to shorten human lifespans. This theory takes the
biblical account at face value, that these sons of God were simply men. In any
case, there were giants in the land at this time before the flood and “afterward”
(Genesis
6:4).
There were still giants during the time of Israel’s conquest of Canaan (Numbers 13:33) and David’s time (1 Samuel 17:4–7). If these Nephilim were
superhumans resulting from demonic and human cohabitation, it seems they would
have died in the flood (Genesis 7:21–23). The fact that they were
still around after the flood is either evidence that the fallen angels
performed the same act again at some point after the flood, or it is another
indicator in support of the third view that these giants on the earth from time
to time were exceptional, but not superhuman. ….
[End
of quote]
The view
that (fallen) angels are able to have offspring with human beings seems
metaphysically ridiculous. However, it is apparent from the story of Sarah in
the Book of Tobit, that these malevolent entities are not beyond lusting after
human persons. Asmodeus, described as “the worst of demons”, and jealous of the
beautiful Sarah, will bump off seven consecutive of her husbands, until young
Tobias, guided by the healing archangel Raphael, will come and save the day.
The girl had
been driven to the verge of suicide (Tobit 3:10).
