Biblical and Legendary Giants
of The Middle East
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There were once Giants on the Earth .
Documentation of these Giant kin of homo-sapiens is bountiful.
The Old testament as well as the Apocrypha attests to their
existence in a myriad of passages . For instance Numbers
13:33 "We saw the
Nephilim
there . We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to
them."
Scriptural & Historical Documentation Physical & Archeological Evidence
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The Nephilim
Scriptural & Historical Documentation
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Translations/etymologies Genesis 6:4 The subject of the Nephilim is one of the great controversies of the Bible. Some believe that the Nephilim were apparently a race of impressive physical stature compared to the smaller Hebrews, many Biblical passages support this belief.
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Only the King James version of the Bible translates Nephilim as "Giants" .
King James Bible errantly translates gigantes from the Greek as "Giants" . Gigantes does not translate to Giants, it means "Born of the Earth" or "Born of Gaia"
The Greek Gigantes were a primitive tribe born of Gaia (the Earth), some say when she was impregnated by the blood of the castrated Ouranos (Heaven). At the instigation of Gaia they made war on the gods but were destroyed in the ensuing battle .
Although there are variant scholarly interpretations of the word Nephilim , the general consensus is that "Nephilim" is a Hebrew word whose basic meaning is "those who have fallen." . Alternate Translations dependant upon the context in which it is used "those who fall upon," in the sense of invaders or hostile and violent men, such as in Eziekel 32:20. " They will fall among those killed by the sword. .... " In the context of which it is utilized in Genesis, it is in reference to "fallen", as in "Fallen Angels" .
The Hebrew word nephel is probably the root word from which Nephilim is derived- nephel means: "untimely birth, abortion, miscarriage". Nephilim would therefore be "Unnaturally begotten men" or bastards from "abortion" or "miscarriage" It does not necessarily convert to gigantic in stature/height. So in essence the etymology of the word Nephilim tends to reflect the saga it depicts. That of fallen Angels impregnating Human females who bore "Unnaturally begotten men" that would become known as the Nephilim.
Tribes of Nephilim in the Bible The Nephilim ,Rephaites or Rephaim Giants, Anakites, Emites, all are Biblical names for a Human racial group that may have once walked the Earth. Some legends state that they were Giants
The origination of the Nephilim in Hebrew tradition
begins with a story of the fallen angels in the The Book of Enoch
. Shemhazai, an angel of high rank, led a sect of angels in a
descent to earth to instruct humans in righteousness. The mission
lasted for a few centuries, but soon the soldiers/missionaries/angels
could no longer tolerate their celibacy and found themselves lusting
after human females. After satiating their romantic ambitions, the
fallen angels instructed the women in magic and conjuring, mated with
them, and produced offspring. These offspring would later be referred to
as the Nephilim.
Numbers 13:33 when taken in its proper context actually states that the "grasshopper" analogy was a blatant fabrication.
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Apocryphal Documentation of Nephilim
There was a Book of Giants in antiquity, fragments of which are partially preserved in Aramaic at Qumran and in later Manichean versions. The Book of Giants builds upon Genesis 6:4 " There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. " It was widely read in ancient Rome and Greece but only fragments of it, some un-translated exist today.
The following are some relevant excerpts, even with the large volume of missing sections we can still ascertain the basic relevance
[?] they knew the secrets of [?] [ ? si]n was great in the earth [ ? [?] [ . . . ] and they killed many [ ? ] [? they begat] giants [ ? ]
[ ?everything that the] earth produced [?] [ ?] the great fish [?] [ ? ] the sky with all that grew [?] [ ? fruit of] the earth and all kinds of grain and all the trees [?] 1... male and female, and among humans [?]
It is interesting to note that one the Giants referred to in this work is Gilgamesh, for any who are familiar with the Gilgamesh Epic. (i.e., 4Q531, 6Q8 Frag. 2 and 4Q530 Col. 2), "the name of one of the giants is Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero and subject of a great epic written in the third millennium B.C.E." -The Dead Sea Scrolls : A New Translation (1996) p. 247
The
The Book of Enoch
elaborates on the story found fragmentarily in the Book of Giants ..
The origination of the Nephilim begins with a story of the fallen
angels. Originating in the Book of Enoch {Apocrypha}. Shemhazai,
an angel of high rank, led a sect of angels in a descent to earth to
instruct humans in righteousness. The mission lasted for a few centuries, but soon the
soldiers/missionaries/angels became corrupted in their lusting after human females. After lusting, the fallen angels
instructed the women in magic and conjuring, mated with them, and
produced offspring, who would later be referred to as the Nephilim.
Ancient Non Hebrew documentation
The Ras Shamra Tablets, found by archaeologists excavating at Ras Shamra on the coast of Syria in 1929 refer to a mysterious people called the "rpum." These tablets have been labeled the Rephaim Texts because of the close analogy with the Hebrew term "rpm" or Rephaim. The tablets contain an invitation to attend a banquet being given at an unspecified place to honor the Chief/Lord God "El" . The Rephaim Tablet describes how they prepare their horses and chariots, and arrive the next day at the site of the feast. In these tablets, the "rpum" are referred to as the "Rephaim of Baal," but they themselves are also considered to be deities since they are occasionally called "ilnym" or gods. Apparently these were not ordinary men. -- They Wrote on Clay: The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today
Egyptian Execration Texts believed to have been composed between 1900 and 1700 B.C., substantiates the biblical accounts of giants called the Anakim. Some of these texts, put hexes on some Anakim leaders from Canaan.
The Execration texts listed places, groups of people or individuals
that were considered hostile, dangerous, or evil. They were written on
statues of prisoners or on jars, that were broken and then buried, as
part of the ritual destruction of the enemies listed in the texts.
One of the Execration Texts from the 12th Dynasty (circa 1900 B.C.),
presently on display at the Berlin Museum, contains "an incantation
directed towards certain enemy cities and territories and which name
specific rulers of an area called 'Iy-'aneq'," which most scholars read
as Anak. The texts also frequently refer to Ashdod as a "city of the
giants."
Greco-Roman accounts of the Ancient Giants
Flavius Josephus, the noted Roman/Jewish historian of the first century A.D., described the giants "....For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men. ." Antiquities of the Jews 5.125 (5.2.3) Now, this much cited passage from Josephus by itself is nothing incredible in that he is only recounting Jewish Legend, which we already have available to us from Biblical sources. He adds however that , the bones of the giants were still on display in his time. [Some scholars have argued that the bones displayed by ancient Greeks and Romans were nothing more than dinosaur bones.]
Ancient Greek poet Homer -circa 400 B.C. "On the earth there once were giants."
The Nephilim
Physical & Archeological Evidence
Unlike the Giants of the Ancient Americas, no physical/anthropological/archeological proof of the Middle Eastern / Mediterranean Giants has been unearthed in Modern times. Most references to these Giants are second hand, many that are allegedly not second hand have been committed to writing years , if not generations later and are based upon legendary accounts. Legendary accounts, are, without exception exaggerations, and misinterpretations. The fact remains however that many ancient trans-cultural middle Eastern texts , both Biblical and otherwise speak of these people who were men, but not ordinary men. They were "the heroes of old, men of renown" as per Genesis 6:4.
Every time a tale is retold it changes just a bit. Legends have a strong tendency to distort relevant facts, but in most cases the underlying foundation of the story has some basis in reality. The human tendency is to remember and retell things that make a strong impression and to forget things that don't impress us much at all. There is also a tendency to exaggerate , glorify , idealize or vilify. As well as a natural tendency to simplify or edit. After generations of stories being retold of these huge men with extraordinary strength, the men eventually become giants
Although no verifiable physical proof of these Legendary Giants is
known, there is extensive proof of a racial grouping of men, who were
not ordinary men, men who could very well be the "heroes of old, men of
renown" of which Genesis speaks. [Continued
on next page]