“There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, 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.” Genesis 6:4
Giants. How big does a man have to be before he is classed as a giant? Very few men are found above seven feet in height, so that if one should meet someone in excess of eight feet, he might be considered phenomenal, but hardly as a “giant”. I can remember when my wife and I were walking down Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi, in 1969, surrounded by many African people, but suddenly everyone stopped to see a Zulu couple walk by, fine upright figures they were, the man being a little shy of seven feet, and his wife not much shorter. But we could never have said they were gigantic.
Perhaps ten feet tall would qualify for being a giant. And anything above that. Before the Flood there were many such people about, and they were the offspring of the union of fallen angels and earth women. We are told that they were “the mighty men of old, men of renown”. Many believe these became the gods and demigods of the Greek and Roman Pantheons, who figured in the Mythologies of those nations. In fact there are certain facets of knowledge contained in the Mythologies that seem to bear some resemblance to Scripture, so this belief could have some validity. More about that in the next part.
And also afterwards. In other words, after the Flood. In the centuries following the Flood, whilst men were scattering across the face of the renewed earth, giants were certainly in evidence. Every schoolboy knows about the story of David and Goliath, but few have investigated further, for example, to read about Og, King of Bashan, and the giant cities of Bashan,
“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.” Deut.3:11. Nine cubits would have been about 13 feet, so he was certainly a “giant”.
When the twelve spies returned from spying out the land, they said, “There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numb.13:33. Typical hyperbolic speech, but the spies must have experienced fear by the way they reported their findings.
Then what about the following?
“Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.” Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant. Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants”. 2Sa 21:16-22
And so the Bible gives us evidence of giants right up to the time of the Kings, in other words about 1,300 years after the Flood. All this is evidence of interference by fallen angels.
Some Biblical Archaeologists have suggested that giants might have been used in the construction of such edifices as the Pyramids of Egypt and Central America, the standing figures of Easter Island, and Stonehenge. It’s a possibility.
And so, before the Flood there must have been many such gigantic men and women, the offspring of a corrupt union, and they were causing terror to human beings. More in the next part.
