In the first two cases the Revised Version (British and American) changes "giants" into the Hebrew words "Nephilim," nephilim, and "Rephaim," repha'im, respectively. The "Nephilim of Gen 6:4 are not to be confounded with the "mighty men" subsequently described as the offspring of the unlawful marriages, of "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men." It is told that they overspread the earth prior to these unhallowed unions. That the word, whatever its etymology, bears the sense of men of immense stature is evident from the later passages; Num 13:33 . The same is true of the "Rephaim," as shown by the instance of Og (Deut 3:11; Jos 12:4 ). There is no doubt about the meaning of the word in the ease of the giants mentioned in 2Sam 21 and 1Chron 20.
Anthropologists have found evidence of humanoid giants existing into the far distant past, over 1 million years ago (see Gigantopithecus). Since then it is possible that numerous civilizations, troupes and tribes of human and human-like giants lived and perished across planet earth.
Those mentioned in the Bible, Nephilim, Emim and Anakim, may have been a tiny element of a once expansive human giant civilization, especially before the Great Flood of the Bible, and other sources.
Giants (1.) Heb. nephilim, meaning "violent" or "causing to fall" (Gen 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying "wonder," and hence "monsters" or "prodigies." In Num 13:33 this name is given to a Canaanitish tribe, a race of large stature, "the sons of Anak." The Revised Version, in these passages, simply transliterates the original, and reads "Nephilim." (2.) Heb. rephaim, a race of giants (Deu 3:11) who lived on the east of Jordan, from whom was descended.
They were probably the original inhabitants of the land before the immigration of the Canaanites. They were conquered by Chedorlaomer (Gen 14:5), and their territories were promised as a possession to Abraham (Gen 15:20). The Anakim, Zuzim, and Emim were branches of this stock. In Job 26:5 (R.V., "they that are deceased;" marg., "the shades," the "Rephaim") and Isa 14:9 this Hebrew word is rendered (A.V.) "dead." It means here "the shades," the departed spirits in Sheol.
In Sam2 21:16, Sam2 21:18, Sam2 21:20, 33, "the giant" is (A.V.) the rendering of the singular form ha raphah, which may possibly be the name of the father of the four giants referred to here, or of the founder of the Rephaim. The Vulgate here reads "Arapha," whence Milton (in Samson Agonistes) has borrowed the name "Harapha." (See also Ch1 20:5, Ch1 20:6, Ch1 20:8; Deu 2:11, Deu 2:20; Deu 3:13; Jos 15:8, etc., where the word is similarly rendered "giant.") It is rendered "dead" in (A.V.) Psa 88:10; Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18; Pro 21:16: in all these places the Revised Version marg. has "the shades." (See also Isa 26:14.) (3.) Heb. 'Anakim (Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11, Deu 2:21; Jos 11:21, Jos 11:22; Jos 14:12, Jos 14:15; called "sons of Anak," Num 13:33; "children of Anak," Num 13:22; Jos 15:14), a nomad race of giants descended from Arba (Jos 14:15), the father of Anak, that dwelt in the south of Palestine near Hebron (Gen 23:2; Jos 15:13).
They were a Cushite tribe of the same race as the Philistines and the Egyptian shepherd kings. David on several occasions encountered them (Sam2 21:15). From this race sprung Goliath (Sa1 17:4). (4.) Heb. 'emin, a warlike tribe of the ancient Canaanites. They were "great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims" (Gen 14:5; Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11). (5.) Heb. Zamzummim (q.v.), Deu 2:20 so called by the Amorites. (6.) Heb. gibbor (Job 16:14), a mighty one, i.e., a champion or hero. In its plural form (gibborim) it is rendered "mighty men" (2 Sam. 23:8-39; Kg1 1:8; 1 Chr. 11:9-47; Ch1 29:24.) The band of six hundred, whom David gathered around him when he was a fugitive were so designated. They were divided into three divisions of two hundred each, and thirty divisions of twenty each. The captains of the thirty divisions were called "the thirty," the captains of the two hundred "the three," and the captain over the whole was called "chief among the captains" (Sam2 23:8). The sons born of the marriages mentioned in Gen 6:4 are also called by this Hebrew name.
Rephaim, or Giants:
(r f ´ m) (KEY), in the Bible. 1 Pre-Israelite race of giants. They were also referred to simply as “giants.”
Rephaim - from the root rapha = spirits, shades Gen. 14:5
Anakim - race of giants Num. 13:33 descendents of Nephilim Emim - the proud deserters, terrors, race of giants Gen. 14:5
Zuzim- the evil ones, roaming things Gen. 14:5 Zamzummims - the evil plotters, Deut. 2:20 Zophim - watchers, angels who descended Num. 23
Sepherim - the many.
Nephilim - According to Micah 3, God used the Nephilim Giants to punish Israel. They are hidden but will soon return during the "Tribulation" to lead the nations against Israel. This will be the taller ones.
The "Gold Museum" of Peru has displays of Giant skulls and mummies who were evidently Royalty, according to the clothing and artifacts they had with them.
Glenn photographed the mummies of two of these giant men in Lima Peru in 1969. These giants are still in the gold museum in Lima Peru today and can be seen by anyone who visits. They were mummified because their golden robes are prominently on display.
This isn’t the only time Giants were mentioned by prominent people who visited South America. Don Cieza de Leon and Agustin de Zarate published texts on South American Giants in 1553 AD and 1555 respectively. These books came just after the arrival of the conquistadores and were published within twenty years of Pizarro. They said that the native traditions told the incoming Spanish that the giants came to the Americas on raft-like boats. Some of these men were so tall that from the knee down they were as big as a man.
This race of ancient white giant men with beards was called the Viracochas. Pedro Cieza de Leon said that they came long before the Incas began to reign. The Indians also called these white men Titicaca, like Lake Titicaca today located high in the mountains between Bolivia and Peru. Glenn Lived in Juliaca Peru on the shores of Lake Titicaca, very close to the ancient city of Tiauanacu where there are huge statues to the giants with six fingers and toes to this day. On the door to the sun, the main entrance to their temple there is carved the image of Viracoca, the creator of not only their civilization, but the white bearded God who created the whole world. This temple has many similarities to the Masonic temples of our day.
At the ruins of Pachacamac where U.S. and British archeologists and the Carnegie Institution are working today, the giants are mentioned. It is said that they built large beautiful temples with iron tools around 500 BC. The tradition has it that these giant men had no women in their group and were later consumed in fire from heaven. It is interesting that the stories of these giants quasi-parallels the story of the Watchers who married the Daughters of Eve. The daughters of Eve bore the watchers giant children, but nothing is mentioned that these giants themselves had children. The stories of the Giants often end in a single generation, though the Giants lived a very long time.
These giants were granted a state of quasi-unprotected immortality by deity. They could be killed, but did live long periods of time if they weren’t deliberately killed and for the most part couldn’t bare children. According to Hesiod these “Watchers”, one of the parents of the giants, were men from the four former epochs of human existence prior to the coming of Adam and Eve.
Adam wasn’t the first man on the earth. He was the patriarch of the final epoch of time. How else could their have already been men of old and men of renown when Adam and Eve had their first children? That is exactly what it says in Genesis chapter six. The four previous epochs of time rose in culture and science, but were exterminated because they violated the laws of the earth and deity. We are headed for a similar cataclysm in our day because of our rejection of deity.
A human remnant of the four epochs survived because of their valiant nature and those people, numbering in the thousands, were called the “Watchers”. Hesiod suggests that this remnant numbered in the thousands.
These immortals who survived the cataclysms of the four previous epochs of time were also called angels because they were allowed to pass from the realm of Deity to mortality seamlessly. They were allowed to pass between the heavens and the earth because they were given the assignment by deity to watch over mortals. This is another reason they lived so long and paradoxically the reason they were commanded not to have children. Their job wasn’t to interfere with men unless directly commanded. These Watchers weren’t classic disembodied spirits, as is the case with classic angels. Most of the evidence and history of the Watchers is included in the audio class “Daniel and the Watchers”. In essence the Watchers were noble-immortal men who have yet to die; a status granted them by deity because of their righteousness.
Some two hundred some odd of these watchers, because they were still in the flesh, found the daughters of Eve attractive and violated their agreements with deity not to intervene in the lives of men. That is why they are often called “Fallen Angels”. They bore children to mortal women; this was against their agreement with God. They were angels because of the status deity gave them and fallen because they violated the agreement. However, not all the watchers violated the agreement with deity and remain men of old and men of renown who come and go at the behest of deity. These are the ones who still appear today during a moment in crisis, effect rescues and give important messages and then are gone. Most of us have either had a first hand encounter with one of them at a moment in crisis, or have heard of the stories from our friends.
Daniel met some of them. Moses is said to have translated the book of Jubilees as dictated by one of them. Even Mohammed is said to have been dictated the Quran by one of them. Millions of people have reported a stranger appearing at the moment of crisis and then vanishing without a trace. Others have reported these Watchers coming to them during moments of crisis and giving them critical pieces of advice about subjects they could not have otherwise known. After they left their message they were nowhere to be found. Truly these beings watch over the affairs of men and perform rescues of many kinds, as if they were sent from deity.
The important thing about the giants is that they are children of a small segment of the Watchers and the daughters of Eve. Since one of the parents of the Giants was immortal, these giants often lived a very long time.
The North American Indians believed that the first race of human beings were giants. In the autobiography of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Cody writes that while camping on the South Platte, a Pawnee Indian came into the camp with what the army surgeon pronounced to be a giant thigh bone of a human being. When Cody asked about where such a bone might have come from, the Indian replied that long ago a race of giants had lived in the area. This race of men had been three times larger than normal men and able to out-run a buffalo and even carry it in one hand. Cody wrote:
“These giants denied the existence of a Great Spirit, so he caused a great rain storm to come, and the water kept rising higher and higher so that it drove these proud, and conceited giants from the low ground to the hills, and thence to the mountains, but at last even the mountain tops were submerged and then those mammoth men were all drowned. After the flood had subsided, the Great Spirit came to the conclusion that he had made man too large and powerful, and that he would therefore, correct the mistake by creating a race of men of smaller size and less strength. This is the reason, say the Indians, that modern man is small and not like the giants of old, and they claim that this story is a matter of Indian history, which has been handed down among them from time immemorial.”
The bones that were in the possession of Buffalo Bill were given to the museum that promptly hid them. They continue to be lost to us today, though many saw them at the time.
MAGELLAN
Antonio Francesco Pigafetta, chronicler of Magellan's circumnavigation of the world: “We had been two whole months in this harbor without sighting anyone when one day (quite without warning) we saw on the shore a huge giant, who was naked, and who danced, leaped and sang, all the while throwing sand and dust on his head. Our Captain ordered one of the crew to walk towards him, telling this man also to dance, leap and sing as a sign of friendship. This he did, and led the giant to a place by the shore where the Captain was waiting. And when the giant saw us, he marveled and was afraid, and pointed to the sky, believing we came from heaven. He was so tall that even the largest of us came only to midway between his waist and his shoulder; 621 yet with all he was well proportioned. He had a large face, painted round with red; his eyes were ringed with yellow and in the middle of his cheeks were painted two hearts. He had hardly any hair on his head, what little he had being painted white....”
There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days; And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, hat the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
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.
-- Genesis 6: 1-4 (KJV)
The phrase 'and also afterwards' is a later addition in an attempt to harmonize the Genesis account with the book of Numbers and Samuel, for reasons which will become obvious. These giants appear to be an ancient Hebrew equivalent to the Greek myth of Hercules or Cyclops. Shortly thereafter everyone on earth, including all the giants, called Nephilim, perish in the flood, with the exception of Noah and his family.
"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark." (Genesis Chapter 7 verse 21)
Since Noah was of a stock of smaller people, most of his descendants were of his stature. However, some of the genes to produce giants survived through the wife of Ham, one of Noah's sons. Therefore, a number of the sons of Canaan (one of Ham's sons) were giants (Numbers 13:1-2, 32-33). In Deuteronomy 2:19-21, Moses records that God destroyed the giants who dwelt in Ammon so that the children of Lot could possess the land. Those giants—who apparently descended from Canaan through a man named Anak—eventually became extinct. King Og of Bashan was the last of them to inhabit Palestine east of Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:11).
Subdued by Chedorlaomer