Where Did The Giants In The Bible Come From

August 7, 2022

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Who Were The Nephilim

Giants in the Bible – Og, Goliath, Anak and the Nephilim

Two parts of this verse are in dispute. First, the word Nephilites or Nephilim, which some Bible scholars translate as “giants.” Others, however, believe it is related to the Hebrew word “naphal,” meaning “to fall.”

The second term, “sons of God,” is even more controversial. One camp says it means fallen angels, or demons. Another attributes it to righteous human beings who mated with ungodly women.

How Do We Know That Moses Wrote The First Five Books Of The Bible

There are a few indications in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy that Moses wrote those books. Genesis and Exodus are given more by rabbinic attribution, and by the New Testament passages where those books are quoted. Jesus says, Have you not read in Moses?

If you want to look up those references, just do a word search for the name Moses in the New Testament. Youll find several places where Moses is attributed as being the author of the first five books of the Bible, or at least some of them.

We do know that there are certain passages that tell us how God spoke to Moses, and he wrote it down. I think thats in the book of Numbers, maybe in Leviticus as well. We do have some definite passages like that. But I think the best evidence we have are the New Testament references to those five books. The New Testament speaks of them, confirming the rabbinic opinion of its day that those were actually books written by the Prophet Moses.

Were The Nephilim In The Land Of Canaan

Although the great flood in Genesis killed the Nephilim of that time, it is theorized that the demons continued their breeding with humans sometime after the flood as well. After the Hebrews scouted the land of Canaan, they told Moses: We saw the Nephilim there . We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. This scripture quote does not mention the Nephilim were actually there, only that the scouts believed they had seen the Nephilim. It is possible that they simply observed abnormally large people in Canaan and in fear thought them to be the Nephilim. Either way, these giants were defeated by the Israelites through their conquering of Canaan .

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Arguments From Culture And Mythology

In Aramaic culture, the term niyphelah refers to the Constellation of Orion and nephilim to the offspring of Orion in mythology. However the BrownDriverBriggs lexicon notes this as a “dubious etymology” and “all very precarious.”

J. C. Greenfield mentions that “it has been proposed that the tale of the Nephilim, alluded to in Genesis 6 is based on some of the negative aspects of the Apkallu tradition.” The apkallu in Sumerian mythology were seven legendary culture heroes from before the Flood, of human descent, but possessing extraordinary wisdom from the gods, and one of the seven apkallu, Adapa, was therefore called “son of Ea” the Babylonian god, despite his human origin.

When The Angel Of The Lord Appeared Before Men In The Old Testament Did He Look Similar To The Way He Looked As A Man During His Earthly Ministry

Cross and Cutlass: Need Power over the Giants in your Life?!

What youre getting at here is the idea that, on most occasions in the Old Testament where it describes the Angel of the LORD appearing to somebody, it was an appearance of Jesus. This was before His incarnation, before He was miraculously conceived in Marys womb by a miracle of the Holy Spirit and born in the village of Bethlehem. Jesus appeared as the Angel of the LORD several times before that in the Old Testament. Theres a lot we could say about that.

Yes, I believe that He did look the same way at both times, but thats pure conjecture. Lets be very honest: the Bible doesnt tell us, does it? So, we can only guess about this. To me, it would seem fitting if Jesus had the same appearance as the Angel of the LORD in the Old Testament as He had as a man when He walked the earth during His earthly ministry. Theres no biblical reason for that supposition. Its just my opinion. But I would say yes, He did look the same.

Other Giants In The Bible

The Bible mentions four more Philistine giants, who were relatives of Goliath from the region of Gath. 2 Samuel 21:1522 provides a more detailed account of these giants than the record of 1 Chronicles 20:48, but the latter passage does provide some extra information that helps us make sense of the passage. The additional details from 1 Chronicles are provided in brackets.

Davids mighty men killed giants named Ishbi-Benob, Saph , and Lahmi, as well as an unnamed giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. Each of these men could have descended from the remnant of Anakim that survived in the region of Gath, Gaza, and Ashdod .

Who Are The Nephilim 4 Different Theories

For centuries, scholars from Judaism and Christianity have presented different views on who the Nephilim were.

1. The first view is that fallen angels had relations with the “daughters of men,” which resulted in a part human, part supernatural being the Nephilim.

2. The second position held by some is that demons or fallen angels possessed men, then had relations with the “daughters of men,” resulting in the Nephilim.

3. A third position, called the Sethite View, is held by some scholars. The Sethite View defines the “sons of God” as the righteous line of Seth.

4. Lastly, a view held by the minority is the “sons of God” were simply fallen men.

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Two Competing Explanations Of The Origins Of Sin

In Genesis, chapter three, Adam and Eve are blamed for introducing sin into the world when they eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Later in Genesis, God decides to destroy his creation with the flood because of the “wickedness of man” and repents that he ever made man at all. Noah is the only righteous man on Earth, so God spares him and his family.

But the Book of Enoch paints a very different origin story for sin. Here, it isn’t mankind that screws everything up, but the Watchers and their heinous offspring. Sullivan says that this version of the creation story dates to the Second Temple Period of Judaism, when there was a prevailing belief in a cosmic struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, represented here by the Watchers.

“There’s this huge amount of literature during the Second Temple Period that provided a pretty significant competing narrative to Genesis,” says Sullivan. “It says that God created humans in His image and they were good, but it was the angels that messed it all up. The reason there’s evil in the world is because of these divine beings.”

When we get into the first centuries C.E., though, Judeo-Christian thinkers like Paul help to develop a Christian theology that centers on Adam and Eve’s transgression as the “original sin” for which all of mankind needs to be saved. In the emerging Christian orthodoxy, humans are the sinners and only Jesus Christ can make them whole through his saving grace.

If God Is Sovereign And Knows Everything Why Do We Need To Pray

Giants in the Bible: Where Did They Come From?

For some wonderful reason, God has chosen to intertwine His sovereign will with the real choices of men and women, including their choices to pray, or not to pray.

There are some passages of Scripture where God says, Im going to wipe out the people of Israel, Moses, and Moses prays, and God relents. I think what God wants us to believe from that interaction is that the prayer of Moses mattered. Moses made a real choice to pray. How that decision intertwined with the eternal and sovereign will of God is beyond our comprehension. But I defy anybody to read that passage in the book of Exodus and to say that the prayer of Moses didnt matter, or that God was going to relent all along, whether Moses prayed or not. I dont think thats how it works.

We can say a similar thing about many places in Scripture. There are places in the Scriptures where God certainly gives us the impression that life and death, Heaven and Hell, victory or defeat, all rest upon the prayers of Gods people. Now, it doesnt rest directly upon the people, of course, but it does rest on Gods response to their prayer. So, I think this is a very important point to bring up. Our prayers matter, although we cant say how they intertwine with the sovereign will of God. But God has revealed to us in the Scriptures that our prayers matter, one way or another.

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Misconceptions About The Nephilim

Misconception: The Nephilim are still alive on earth today.

Fact: Jehovah caused a global flood to destroy that violent ancient world. The Nephilim were wiped out along with all wicked people. In contrast, Noah and his family found favor with Jehovah and were the only ones preserved alive at that time.Genesis 6:9 7:12, 13, 23 2 Peter 2:5.

Misconception: The Nephilim were fathered by humans.

Fact: Their fathers are called sons of the true God. The Bible uses this same expression to describe angels. Angels had the power to materialize in human form. The apostle Peter spoke of the spirits in prison, who had formerly been disobedient when God was patiently waiting in Noahs day. Referring to the same circumstances, the Bible writer Jude explains that some angels did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place.Jude 6.

Misconception: The Nephilim were fallen angels.

Fact: The context of Genesis 6:4 indicates that the Nephilim were, not angels, but hybrid offspring born from sexual relations between materialized angels and women. After the angels began taking as wives all whom they chose, Jehovah said that in 120 years he would take action against the ungodly world of that time. The account adds that in those days, the materialized angels continued to have relations with the daughters of men and that they produced the mighty ones of old times, the Nephilim.Genesis 6:4.

How Tall Were The Giants

Let me give you a definite answer on that: we dont know. Now, we are given the height of one giant recorded in the Scriptures. Goliaths height was recorded as being something like eight or nine feet tall he was a huge man. But we dont know if he was unusually large for a giant. Maybe he was a small giant maybe it was a medium sized giant. We dont know where Goliath was on the giant scale, so to speak. When giants are mentioned in the books of Genesis, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it gives us no information about their size. The only mention of a specific size is given in reference to one specific giant, the man Goliath.

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Dead Sea Scrolls Version

The text unearthed at Qumran in 1948 was composed of fragments in Aramaic. Because of the book’s fragmentation, it was difficult for the documents’ linguistic researchers and specialists to know, in its subsequently varied permutations, the exact order of the content. The Giants work is closely related to the 1 Enoch analogue, which also tells a story of the giants, but one which is far more elaborate. The Qumran Book of Giants also bears resemblance to the Manichaean Book of Giants that came after it. Scholars, beyond their many questions of the Enochic tradition’s oral or written transmission, still don’t know why the Qumran community considered the Enochic texts so important that they possessed and retained so many copies in comparison to other textual traditions found there.

The Book of Giants is an expansive narrative of the biblical story of the birth of “giants” in Genesis 6.1-4. In this story, the giants came into being when the Watcher “sons of God” were seduced by and had sexual intercourse with human women, who then birthed a hybrid race of giants. These Watchers and giants engaged in destructive and grossly immoral actions which devastated humanity, including the revealing of heaven’s holy “secrets” or “mysteries to their wives and children” and to mankind generally.

The Qumran Book of Giants, like its Manichaean counterpart, affiliates the names of the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh and the monster Humbaba with the Watchers and giants.

Old Testament Giants And How They Originated

Many nations of giants are recorded in Scripture as existing in Old Testament times, both before and after Noah’s flood. In fact, it was the giants of Noah’s day that precipitated the flood . In those days refers to Old Testament times leading up to Noah’s flood. And also after that to the times succeeding the flood. We will come back to the origins of the giants and the cause of the flood shortly, but first we will look at some of the nations in Scripture in which giants were predominant, as well as a couple of the giants themselves .

In Abraham’s day giants occupied Canaan – present-day Palestine – the Promised Land which God gave to Abraham and his descendants – the present-day Jews- for a possession forever. But before the land could be possessed, the giants had to be conquered and killed . The Canaanites, Perizzites, Zazummims, or Zuzims as they were also called, Emims, Horites, Amelakites, Admonites, Kennites, Kennizites, Kadmonites, Hivites, Hittites, Gergashites and Jebusites, as well as Anakims, the sons of Anak which the twelve spies encountered when they went in to explore the land in Moses’ day, were all nations of giants inhabiting the Promised Land. The spies saw themselves as grasshoppers compared to the size of the giants . There are many other nations of giants also named in Scripture, and we will look at a couple more shortly, but now, let us look a bit more closely at the two most notable giants of Scripture.

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Some Have Taught That A Set Of Scriptures In Genesis 6 Refers To Fallen Angels Interbreeding With Human Women To Produce Half

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Genesis 6 tells us this of the days before Noahs Flood: Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose . . . There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown .

Some have taught that this refers to fallen angels interbreeding with human women to produce half-demon giants. But theres a more rational explanation.

Halleys Bible Handbook, a popular study resource, states that the sons of God are thought to have been either fallen angels . . . or leaders in Sethite families who intermarried with godless descendants of Cain .

American King James Version×). It starts with Gods creation of Adam and how Adams line continued through Seth. As with the angels, Adam was a son of God by creation though even more so since Adam was made in Gods image . Of this family line through Seth it is stated, Then men began to call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26Genesis 4:26And to Seth, to him also there was born a son and he called his name Enos: then began men to call on the name of the LORD.

Did Jesus Clear The Temple Courts Before Or After His Triumphal Entry

There were two separate clearings of the Temple: one at the beginning of Jesus ministry, described in John 2:13-22, and another towards the end of Jesus ministry, after the Triumphal Entry, recorded in Matthew 21:12-16.

Now, there are some people, who are recognized by some as Bible scholars, who dont seem to take the Bible as seriously as I think it should be taken. They would say that there was only one cleansing of the Temple, and that John either got it wrong or hes just making it up and placing it wherever he wants to in his narrative. It doesnt seem strange or unusual to me at all to have two clearings of the Temple, separated by some three or four years, depending on whether there were three or four Passovers during the ministry of Jesus.

I have no problem saying that there were two cleansing of the Temple. The first was at the beginning of Jesus ministry, as recorded in the Gospel of John. The second was following the Triumphal Entry, which was one of the first things Jesus did as He came as a King into Jerusalem, as described in the Synoptic Gospels.

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