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[adamlwalton]

This is something that I've found interesting for some time now. The Bible mentions Giants around 10 times. . . Where do these giants come from? They are things of folklore as we grow up. While doing research, not only does the Bible mention them, but even places around the globe have stories about them. Take, for instance, the island of Malta. This island in the Mediterranean Sea is home to around twenty Neolithic stone temples, dating from 4000 to 2500 BC, were built without the apparent use of any metal tools, yet they were working with blocks of stone weighing as much as fifty tons. When the exploration of these sites began many centuries ago, the excavators lived under the impression that they were erected by an extinct race of giants.

I have heard that giants are a branch from the fallen angels, I have also heard that they were a evolutionary branch from the human race. There are many theories. What's your take?

[jimwalton]

Good question. Genesis 6 is the first place to mention "giants." Gn. 6.4 says "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days." Ah, the good old days when the Nephilim were around. The Hebrew root of the word is npl, which possibly means giants, but more likely something like tyrants, or invaders. The translation "giants" is in the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, but "mighty men" or invaders goes along better with Number 13.33, where "Nephilim" is used again. There the word shows up in connection with Anak, who were all basketball players, er, seemed to have been a people group "specializing" in height. That doesn't mean they were giants, per se, but possibly taller than other people groups around them.

Now, let's go to another people group. Gn. 14.5 mentions a group called the Rephaim, which also could be translated as giants, but again it's most likely a proper noun. The Rephaim, however, are also to be identified with Anak (Dt. 2.10-11). The Anakim lived west of the Jordan River, and when the Israelite spies saw them, they reported they saw giants in the land (Num. 13.32-33).

Now, to add a little interest, in about 1200 BC the Philistines conquered the Anakim in Gath. Gath, of Goliath fame. Yes, the Anakim merged with the Philistines and in time came to be considered Philistines (1 Chr. 20.6-8).

Now, lest we start imagining Jack and the Beanstalk here, let's talk cubits. The average person in about 1000 BC was about 5' tall or a little taller. Assuming David was about 5' tall, and his hand span was about 7.5", that would put the giant Goliath at about 5'8"—way taller than David and the rest of the people. (It seems short to us nowadays, but we have to put ourselves in their culture.) If, on the other hand, we use a standard Mesopotamian cubit of about 17.5", Goliath would have been about 6'6", a monstrous size for their culture. A "standard" 18" cubit would put Goliath at about 6'9". Gigantic, right? Absolutely. (The 9'9" reading of Goliath's height in the Bible is from a particular reading of the Masoretic text and is likely not accurate.)

"Giant" is obviously relative. Some tall friends of ours (she is about 5'11", and he's about 6'2") recently spent 3 years in Hong Kong and felt like absolute titans. On a recent trip to Guatemala, we took a 6'6" teenager with us who absolutely dwarfed the Guatemalan citizens. Well, he dwarfed most of us Americans, too.

The magnificent architecture of Malta is probably no different than wonders such as Stonehenge, the pyramids, and even some structures in Jerusalem that used stones of that kind of tonnage that fit so well you can't even slide a piece of paper in the seam. The ancient peoples were no slackers when it came to using machines, leverage, fulcrums, wheels, and slave labor to accomplish spectacular things, but there's no reason to believe that giants accomplished the task.

I find no reason to believe there have ever been people of monstrous size. No such skeletons or any kind of archaeological, anthropological, or any-other-ological has ever been found to confirm people of such abnormal size.