Giantology - The Study of Giants in the Bible

Giantology

John Boda

 The study of Giants in the Bible and their possible true purpose to serve Satan in a master scheme to directly attack and stop God’s master plan and purpose through Jesus Christ

Why embark upon this study? What practical application could any of this possibly have on us here and now today?!

Firstly, I want to cover this topic because it is written about in the Bible! God put it there, and every word and topic placed there is important to read and understand how it fits within the big picture of the kingdom of God. Although it is written about, most people, and sadly even most Christ followers, have little to no understanding and concept of this history and reality. (There are actually at least 75 verses on this subject in the Bible.)

Secondly, I believe that upon gaining an understanding of this truth, it can, and will, have practical application to all of our lives today!  

Understanding the subject of giants in the Bible will offer us a possible, and very likely, explanation for two of the most puzzling mysteries of the Old Testament, which are often stumbling blocks for would be believers, and are also used as ammunition to refute the Bible by unbelievers, and portray God as a tyrant rather than a loving father. (These two mysteries will be discussed upon conclusion) Once we accept the possibility of this explanation, our vision can become enlarged, our faith can grow deeper, and our love and trust in a loving Sovereign God will move to a higher level! All this will affect our daily lives here and now as we live as modern day Christ followers thousands of years after these events occurred.

“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children unto them. These were the mighty men of old, the men of renown." Gen. 6:4

Two verses before we are given insight into the possible source of these Nephilim;

“The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took women for themselves of all whom they choose.” (Genesis 6:2)

Who were the sons of God, and who were these Nephilim that they possibly produced?

The words, "Sons of God" in Genesis 6:1-4 is"Ben-Elohim" in Hebrew, all other occasions it is used refers to angels. Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7/ Dan. 3:25. Basic Bible interpretation is that if other places use the word in one way, most often, the place in question will most likely be the same. (Some people think the sons of God were offspring of Seth)

Another reason to believe these were fallen evil angels is because of Jude 6 - It speaks of the angels that sinned and left their "habitation"-Hebrew - Oiketerion - which means - house or body. They left their previous spiritual house and body to appear and become flesh and blood. This has happened before with good angels - see Gen. 18:1-22, 28:10-19/ Heb. 13:2

One of the main reasons many people don't believe these were fallen angels is because of Matthew 22:30, where it states that angels do not get married and seemingly don't have sexual relations. But those that hold this view always overlook one important fact in this verse:

Jesus stated that Angels, in heaven, do not marry! The fallen ones we are speaking of have come to earth and have taken on human form!

Also, many believe that angels are either sex-less of female, but the fact is ALL THE ANGELS IN THE BIBLE WERE ADULT MEN IN APPEARANCE. There is not one mention of a female, or child angel anywhere in the Bible! (Plus they are all male)

The Nephilim were a species of giants that lived all through Canaan, which is now modern Israel. This is a generic term, which is also translated "giants" in many Bibles. There were at least six nations of these giants:

1. Rephaim

2. Anakim

3. Zamzummim

4. Emim

5. Avim

6. Horim

It is really amazing that even within many churches, the official explanation for many of these verses and names are that they were simply tall people as we all know, giants didn’t really exist except in old fables like Jack & the Beanstalk! However we totally miss the plain truth of these scriptures if we fall for that!

All these were an evil giant species! These were not just tall people, like today's NBA players, they were the product of the breeding of......please stay with me......fallen angels and human women! This is not some new, weird teaching! This has been established with solid Bible interpretations by many scholars, and has been the most reasonable conclusion to this text, along with others, for hundreds of years. It is the most accepted view by the most respected teachers today.

(Part of the problem lies in two ways to interpret the Bible, a science called “Hermeneutics”; Those who interpret it literally, believe in the literal meaning of the words, in other words, Jonah got swallowed by a big fish, Balaam’s donkey spoke to him, and there were an evil giant species in ancient times! Those who interpret figuratively, believe that these verses, and others, are only metaphors for something else, in other words, Jonah got overwhelmed and swallowed up by fear, Balaam’s donkey was just really just a way of saying he heard a voice calling him a dumb____, and all these mentions of giants were either tall people or just a way of saying “big problems”!)

As you may suspect, although there are some scriptures which must be seen figuratively, I believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, as most students do who believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

Let me be up front about my belief right away:

Giants were the early attempt of Satan to corrupt the human family, thereby preventing the coming of Jesus, the promised seed of the woman!

Rather than type out several pages of my explanations and reasons for this, I will simply give a very brief, but detailed list of my notes with plenty of scriptures for you to look up, also, please know that I will not spend the time to get into the detailed study of why all these names mean what they do, but know that others have, others who are scholars, and the name meanings are a matter of fact. (If you do want a more in depth word study on these, I can get it to you!)

Giant Fact List

1. The most dominant race of giants in the Bible were the Rephaim. They controlled a large valley near Jerusalem. Joshua 15; 8, 18:16

"The Valley of Rephaim"(Giants) is mentioned 7 times: II Sam 5; 18, 23:13/ I Chron. 11:15, 14:9/

Isaiah 17:5/ Joshua 15:8, 18:16

"Og" was a famous Rephaim giant recorded in 22 verses! Key ones - Numbers 21:33-35/ Deut. 3:1-11

(He slept in a bed approx 13-18 feet long, later the Ammonites were so amazed at his size, and they made his bed a museum piece!

Many centuries after Og's defeat by Israel, they still sang praise to God for the victory. Ps. 135:10-11, 136:17-20

Og was the last enemy Israel had to overcome before entering the Promised Land.

"Bashan" is near Jerusalem and the place where Og lived, it was commonly part of what was called, The Land of Giants. Duet 3:13/Josh 15:8

2. Anakim - were another race of giants who lived here: Num. 13:22, 28/Duet.1:28, 2:10, 11:20-

21/Josh 11:21 Under Joshua's command these giants were almost completely wiped out except for in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. Josh.11:22/Zech 9:6

The most famous giant in the Bible, Goliath, was of the Anakim species from Gath, he was approx 10-13 feet tall. One of his brothers had 24 fingers and toes and was killed by David's nephew Jonathon. II Sam 21:15-22/I Chron. 20:4-8

3. Other giant races were:

The Zamzummin- who lived after the flood, but were supernaturally wiped out by God! Duet 2:19-20

The Emim - another giant race,

Duet. 2:10-11

Avim & Horim - yet more giant races, Duet. 2:1, 2, 22-23

4. The Nephilim - All these giant races came under the same generic name of Nephilim - which literally means to "fall" "throw down" or "attack" The root Hebrew word in "Naphal" which also means "bully" or "Tyrant"

(Rephaim was also a generic characterization name for all giants)

5. This word - "Rephaim" is often translated "dead" in many English Bibles, but there are other words used for dead and death, and the best translation is literal giants.

They will never be resurrected:

Ps.88:10/Is 26:14

Most were drowned in the flood and doomed to hell: Job 26:5

All giants were evil, immoral and wicked: Prov. 2:18, 9:18

Giants had no understanding of God and his ways! Prov. 21:16

6. There is a special place, different from hell and the lake of fire, reserved for all giants:

Tartarus - used in II Peter 2:4, the only place in the Bible this word is used, and in context, Peter is speaking of the angels that sinned. Most believe referring to these angels and their gross mixture with women. Many scholars have linked these giants as being the root historic truth beneath all the Greek Mythology stories of mighty men like Zeus, Hercules, Apollo and others! One of the reasons many make this connection is that the only other place "Tartarus" is used is in Greek Mythology when speaking of the prison for deposed gods! In Mythology, Tartarus is the subterranean prison of the giants who rebelled against Zeus. (Also see Jude 6 which is considered a parallel passage) Another reason is that one of the chief fallen destroying angels who is released from the bottomless pit during the tribulation will be “Apollyon”, which has the exact same root name as Apollo, and both mean “Destroy” and many believe are one and the same. (Revelation 9: 11)

The Flood

In order to understand more of this text, we must look at the context and will focus on Genesis 6:5-13

Wickedness, violence, evil continually, all flesh corrupt....this is the description we are given in these few verses of the world just before the flood. God is about to do an incredible and terrible act of judgment and destroy, not only nearly all people, but all land animals and birds as well! Many people, even serious Bible students, have difficulty with understanding how a loving God could send a horrific flood over the entire earth, and destroy ALL land bearing life except Noah, his family, and the animals with him! (Because of this seemingly difficult problem, and to “help God out”, some believe once again in the figurative sense that the “entire earth” didn’t really mean that, but the entire populated earth at that time, which would mean a flood only in a small portion of the world) (I have serious problems with that view!)

Once again, there is more here than meets the eye in a surface reading! As evil and wicked as people can get today, this seemed to be something far worse. It seems like every human being was actively pursing evil and violence! Today, although there are plenty of evil people, most people are decent, moral and have   consciences which steer them to a sense of right and wrong.

To understand what the underlying horrific evil and wickedness was here that caused God to act like he did, all you have to do is extrapolate on what has been presented so far.

1. Evil, fallen angels descend to earth in human form and begin a widespread program of rape and violence creating a new species of half human-half fallen angel giants.

2. According to the book of Enoch, these giants and the fallen angels also proceed to teach and instruct mankind in every possible way to rebel against God and commit unspeakable evil.

3. These giants keep raping and attempt to produce more and more part-human children, until eventually after hundreds of years; the entire earth was populated by this evil, gross mixture of genetic cross-breeding! This was Satan’s master plan, to so contaminate the human race with this breeding program that the seed of the woman - Jesus - could never be born into the human race and redeem mankind!

It is almost perfect logic, and it almost worked!

However God IS perfect, and cannot be out smarted and nothing can possibly alter or stop his plans! Noah and his family were somehow the only ones who were, uncontaminated, and also righteous God-seekers. (Possibly only Noah, but his family may have been saved through him)

How do I know this? Is this just a wild guess? No! Again, we must dig deeper into the text to find deeper answers.

Genesis 6:9 states that Noah was both, "just and perfect"

The original Hebrew word for perfect is Tamiyn - which means perfect, sound, free from blemishes in sacrificial victims.

Instead of saying he was perfect, it would be acceptable to also say, he was unblemished! Tamiyn is the very word used later to describe the required animal sacrifice brought unto the Lord, which had to be unblemished, and free from contamination in every way!

Noah was chosen by God because he was righteous AND because he was unblemished by this evil satanic cross-breeding program.

Also notice verse twelve, that "all flesh had corrupted their way". All flesh, except Noah and his family were the only ones saved.

The Second Time Around

Question: If this interpretation is true, and God wiped out all the corrupt flesh of sub-human giants and their children by the flood, then why do we find giants again in Canaan when Joshua enters it?! (And also even later when young David encounters Goliath?)

This is not a problem to this interpretation at all! Please carefully read Genesis 6:4 once again for a solid clue; It says that “there were Nephilim on the earth in those days”, “and also afterwards”. The most basic answer is that Satan thought that this was such a great plan, and that he came so close to success, that he tried it again! After all, he knows God’s word even much better than any of us or anyone at that time, and what did God promise to Noah right after the flood? God promised to never flood the earth again, and even sent a rainbow to seal his promise and new covenant to Noah and mankind. Satan knows that God CANNOT break his word! So there was no way the earth would be flooded again to stop this evil plan by Satan, so why not try again?!

However this second time, the plan was slightly altered and more focused on one area due to the new information that was given by God. (This proves that Satan does not know all things as God does, and he must wait for new intelligence and information to alter and adapt his strategy).

The new information was found in Genesis 12:1-3 when God called Abraham and informed him that he was the one who would head a new family and nation by which the coming Messiah would be born through. Furthermore, God revealed that a specific land was also tied into this plan, the land of Canaan.

So before, all Satan had was a general idea that the Messiah would be born through a human woman of the human race somewhere on earth at some time in the future. But now, with this new information, he had it greatly narrowed down into specifics as to which nation, and what specific area! 

Does this all sound like a little too far fetched? Was there really any giants found later in Canaan?

“All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of giants.” (Deuteronomy 3:13) This verse is speaking of the land of Canaan just before Joshua was commanded to go in and wipe them out!  It was so full of giants; they called it “The Land of Giants”!

Even more specifically close to Jerusalem, there was a valley which was controlled by giants called “The Valley of Rephaim” or “The Valley of Giants”. (Joshua 15:8, 18:16)

What seems clear by these verses is that after the flood, Satan sent the Elohim again to cross breed with human women producing the evil Nephilim giants, but concentrated all his efforts in one area – Canaan – because this is the specific area which God sent Abraham to begin a new family and nation.

But God was clearly protecting Abraham and blessed him in every way! However, the plan continued until the entire area was infested with giants waiting for the conquest of Israel later with Joshua. Once again, it almost worked! Moses first sent out spies into the land to gather information before they entered to battle, and the spies came back in great fear, why?

“We came to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large, and we saw the descendants of Anak there.” (Giants)

“…all the people we saw in it are men of great stature.”

“…there we saw the giants and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Numbers 13: 27, 28, 32, 33

There were twelve spies sent out, and ten came back with this bad report of great fear, only two, Joshua and Caleb were full of faith and hope and believed that God would be true to his word and give them the land.

This story is often preached and even told in Sunday school, and I remember it often when I was a little kid, but not once do I remember being told the specific reason WHY the ten spies came back with such a bad report of great fear! (The most common answer is they were afraid of the strong armies there, because giants are only fables and must be a metaphor for giant armies)

But I cannot accept that view in light of all the verses stating that giants infested this land!

If you keep reading this text in Numbers, because of the fear of giants these ten brought back, the whole congregation of people complained and God tells Moses that they have “Rejected Me” – and God comes very close to wiping them all out right there! In other words, Satan’s plan almost worked again! (God didn’t destroy them because of Moses’ interceding for the people, but destroyed only the ten fearful spies instead – Numbers 14: 11- 38.)

But even Joshua’s conquest didn’t seem to wipe them all out because much later, we still find at least one family of giants still there, taunting Israel and God! It took the young David’s divinely empowered sling shot to kill their champion – Goliath! (As stated before, it seems that this time, God finally put an end to this plot himself and supernaturally destroyed the remaining evil races of giants. (Duet. 2:19-20) and seems to have helped and assisted any nation who went against the giants, no matter how evil the nation was themselves.

Book of Enoch

Once again, I stress that although the evidence is extensive in scripture, I still would not be dogmatic on this issue 100%. However, it is the very best explanation and most solid interpretation of these verses, and should be considered as a possible and even most likely interpretation.

So far, we have stayed with the Biblical record, as the Bible is the Word of God and completely true and factual. But there also exists much extra-biblical support through other accounts, which, although we cannot completely trust them, yet, many are historical and can shed light and support to the Bible. (However, if we find contradictions and opposing facts, we must always disregard the extra-biblical first)

You should recall the amazing character named Enoch, who was the seventh from Adam, and one of only two people who never died, but were taken alive up to God’s presence. (Elijah was the other one) There is a very old book supposedly written by him that contains specific details of the Elohim, Nephilim, and even lists names of the fallen Angels!

(I say supposedly written by Enoch because no one knows for sure, and there were many others who wrote books and used ancient Biblical names to gain support.)

However, two things about this book cause us to give it serious attention;

1.       Fragments of it were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls dating back to 300 BC. – meaning that the scribes who copied it considered it very special, and included it among their copies of Old Testament books.

2.       Many early church leaders greatly respected it, read it, and believed it! One in particular was Jude – who most believe was actually Jesus’ half brother. He quotes from the book of Enoch in Jude 14-15. Every time you read this Biblical passage, you are actually reading a direct quote from the book of Enoch! (So we know at least two verses of this mysterious book are the divine Word of God)

I don’t encourage everyone to purchase this book, (I have a copy), as you can get easily sidetracked and go off the deep end! But within context of this thesis, it does fill in much of the missing pieces of the puzzle, and gives validation to this possible interpretation. (The book of Enoch, in addition to giving great detail to the evil actions of the fallen angels and the Nephilim, also links them to Mythology.)

Two Difficult Passages Solved

As I stated earlier, if you can accept this interpretation of fallen angels cross breeding with human women and producing an evil half-breed mix of giants (Nephilim), then it greatly sheds light into solving two difficult Bible passages, and furthermore, re-enforces our understanding of God’s holy and loving character.

If this interpretation is true, (I believe it is), then it reveals a very serious deeply planned attempt by Satan to overthrow God’s revealed plan to bring Christ to the earth by being born of a human woman.

As we have seen, both times the enemy tried this tactic; it came very close to succeeding! Satan is extremely brilliant and far from the bumbling Devil with a pitchfork that we usually see in pictures.

Here are the two difficult Bible passages which many people, believers and un-believers, struggle with;

1. The world-wide flood that wiped out all land based life on earth as an incredible act of judgment by God. Even though the Bible states that there was intense evil at that time, it still seems very harsh and extreme that God would send a flood to destroy “all flesh”, including millions of animal species, and every man, woman and child expect for Noah and his family on the ark! Of course, this could have simply happened because of basic evil, but we also have increased evil around the world, and there have been occasions in history when it seemed it was even more intense. The serious Bible student suspects that there is more here than meets the eye! If this interpretation of Genesis six is correct, then the missing pieces of the puzzle are filled in! In essence; God sent the terrible judgment of a world-wide flood to wipe out Satan’s brilliant plan of cross breeding and infecting the human race with a gross hybrid mix of fallen angels, which would have corrupted the human race completely, and prevent Christ from being born of a woman’s seed, which God promised would happen!  (The support for this has already been stated earlier, of how Noah was the only one left “uncontaminated” and “un-infected”) This also answers why God had to destroy “all flesh on the earth”, as it appears that possibly these fallen angels and giant offspring were also corrupting the animal world also! (It states in Genesis 6:7 specifically that God pronounced judgment against “the beasts, the creeping things and the fowls of the air.”) While the Bible doesn’t reveal it, the book of Enoch states that these fallen angels “began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh and drink the blood.” (Book of Enoch VII 1-6)

If this is true, then it gives us more insight into why God had to send a devastating flood to wipe them all out! (After the flood when God promised Noah to never flood the earth like that again, I believe it was because God knew that he would never allow Satan to get that far in that scheme again, although he would try) This possible explanation is important and offers us more insight into God’s character, because it shows him to be extremely diligent to accomplish his word and promise, and also shows him to be loving and merciful to Noah and his family who somehow resisted infection. God’s judgment and destruction of the animals and all other people at that time could have been based more on the motivation of saving the world than destroying it!

2. Joshua’s conquest to wipe out all the people of Canaan with God’s protection and blessing! When you read through Joshua, it becomes clear that Joshua was in clear obedience and blessing of God when he killed man, woman, child and animals in every town they conquered. In fact, they got in trouble from God whenever they didn’t, by overlooking some, or becoming tricked by some cities! This seems more than harsh, and many Bible students, even scholars have great difficulty with this passage, so much so, that many people have explained this by believing that the God of the Old Testament was more severe and harsh, while in the New Testament he sees us through his son Christ, so he displays grace, almost as if we have two different Gods! But we know that this cannot be, as Jesus said that he and the father God were one, and if you see Jesus, you were looking at God. Once again, if this interpretation is true concerning fallen angels infecting the human race, then this difficult passage is also seen in a new light. Remember that it says that “there were giants in the land in those days, and afterwards.” (Genesis 6:4) We also know that the land of Canaan was called “The land of giants”. In essence;, it seems that Satan possibly focused his new plan of corruption in this area to welcome Joshua and Israel’s attempted conquest, and hoped to destroy all of Israel, in doing so, would prevent Christ from coming because God had already said that he would bring Christ into the world through Abraham and his seed. Once again, this sheds new light on this difficult passage and ultimately on God’s character! If this is true, God was completely justified in blessing Joshua and causing him and Israel to kill ALL the people of those lands, as they must have been infected and a gross mixture of hybrid fallen angels and human/animals! Also, once again, it seems that this conquest and bloodbath of Canaan was more about God saving the world than destroying it!

Conclusion

I realize that this possible interpretation may seem far fetched, and a stretch, but I remind you that it is the interpretation believed by many respected Bible scholars, not all, but I would have to say probably most. Of course this doesn’t make it right, they could all be wrong! But I believe that we have let the Bible lead the way into this thesis without trying to make it say something it doesn’t. In other words, if I believed this idea, but in my study discovered some verses which seem to contradict this and say otherwise, I would have to discard my ideas and let the Bible lead the way into that new direction.

This is really the most basic way in which science works also! Scientists cling to the best theory they have which best describes things the way things are, that is until some new discovery is made which contradicts it, and then they must follow that pathway. (This is exactly what Einstein did to come up with his new theories, in spite of 200 + years of rigid old school thinking which greatly resisted his findings at first)

I am not dogmatic and 100% convinced of this yet, but the Biblical evidence, and extra-biblical evidence is very solid in favor of this view, and if pressed, I would have to say I’m about 99% convinced at this time!

But what I am 100% convinced of is that God is faithful, God is true to his word and promises, and that God is completely void of any evil! God is love, God is merciful, God is holy, God is wrathful and punishes sin and evil. These things are not at odds with each other, and God is not part holy, part love ….he is completely loving and completely holy, merciful and wrathful. We cannot have a God of love and somehow separate his holiness and justice and wrath, they all make up his character.

This interpretation of these difficult passages best explains some of his actions that can be hard to grasp.

The final summary could also be this; God is bigger than any of us can possibly imagine! We need to grow in trust and faith in him, and if there are Bible passages we don’t understand, that’s ok for now. In the mean time, we must trust him and grow in that direction, and as we grow and learn, some of those passages may be made clear to us. It is the principle of “As you go” as discussed before in our series, as we put one foot forward in faith and walk on this journey, God enlarges our light just a bit, that is, until our next step, let’s keep walking!