Giant These beings of unusual height are found in the early history of all nations, sometimes of a purely human origin, but more frequently supposed to have partaken also, in some way, of the supernatural and the divine. The scriptural history is not without its giants, and the numerous theories and disputes which have arisen in consequence render it necessary to give a brief view of some of the main opinions and curious inferences to which the mention of them leads. The English word has several representatives in the original Hebrew.
1. In Genesis 6:4, we have the first mention of giants (נפַולַים, nephilim’, according to some from the Arabic, but better from נָכִּל, to fall, q.d. causing to fall, i.e., violent; Sept. γίγαντες,Vulg. gigantes; but more discriminatingly Aquil. ἐπιπίπτοντες,Synlm. βιαῖοι) — “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.” A somewhat similar intercourse is made mention of in the second verse of the same chapter, “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose” (see Jour. Sac. Lit. October 1867). Wellbeloved (ad loc.) and others translate and interpret the passage so as to make it speak merely of “men of violence; men who beat down, oppressed, and plundered the weak and defenceless.” Doubtless this is an agreement with the meaning of the original word (which occurs also in Numbers 13:33, in connection with the Anakim). But these giants, as in other cases, would naturally be designated by a descriptive name, and great strength is generally accompanied by violence and oppression. In our judgment, the bearing of the passage obviously favors the common notion of giants, and that the rather because their origin is traced to some unexplained connection with “the sons of God,” that is, with beings of high endowments, if not of a superior nature. We have here given, in all probability, the true basis of all those mythological heroes with which the history of ancient nations is found to begin, such as Hercules and others of a like stamp. It is also especially worthy of note that these are ascribed to a similar parentage, half human, half celestial. Their famous deeds have been immortalized by their deification in every profane system of religion. This appears to us a more substantial interpretation of the Greek and Roman, and even of the Indian and Scandinavian systems of mythology, than the subtle resolution of these semi-fabulous characters into symbols of the various powers of nature, after the mythical theory of the German writers. It is simply the traditions of these cases of antediluvian prowess and fame that the early poets of each nation have wrought up into the divine personages of their heroic age. We merely add that, by the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” in the above passage, we are doubtless to understand the descendants of Seth and Cain respectively (see Gesenius, Heb. Thesaur. page 96); yet Kitto inclines to regard to former as angelic beings (Daily Illust. ad loc.). SEE NEPHILIM.
2. In Genesis 14:5, we meet with a race terned Rephaim (רפִאִים), as settled on the other side of the Jordan, in Aslhteroth-Karnaim, whom Chedorlaomer defeated. Of this race was Og, king of Bashan, who alone remained, in the days of Moses (Deuteronomy 3:10), of the remnant of the Rephaim. A passage, which is obviously from a later hand, goes on to say, “Behold, his bedstead ( דֶשׁ, canopy; others cofin; see Michaelis, Dathe, Rosemüller) was a coffin of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits is its length and four cubits its breadth, according to the cubit of a man,” or the natural length of the cubit. SEE CUBIT. It does not appear to us to be enough to say that Og was “no doubt a man of unusual stature, but we cannot decide with accuracy what this stature was from the length of the iron couch of state or coffin in which he was placed” (Wellbeloved, ad loc.). Whatever theoray of explanation may be adopted, the writer of the passage clearly intended to speak of Og as a giant, and one of a race of giants (compare Joshua 12:4; 13:12). See OG. This race gave their name to a valley near Jerusalem, termed by the Sept. ἡ κοιλὰς τῶν τιτάνων. SEE REPRIAIM.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Giant
Bible reference(s): 1 Chronicles 20:5, 1 Kings 20:8, 1 Maccabees 3:3, 1 Samuel 17:4, 2 Samuel 20:22, 2 Samuel 21:16, Deuteronomy 2:10, Deuteronomy 21:2, Deuteronomy 3:10, Deuteronomy 9:2, Genesis 14:5, Genesis 6:4, Job 16:14, Job 26:5, Joshua 11:22, Joshua 12:4, Joshua 13:12, Joshua 14:12, Judges 1:20, Judith 16:6, Numbers 13:33, Proverbs 2:8, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 16:7
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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