The words “giant” and “giants” appear twenty-one times in the Bible and are used in three specific connotations. The first is rare and appears in Job 13:14: gibbor, or “a mighty warrior, a champion; chief, mighty man, strong man, giant”. The meaning is also extended to include “tyrant”. Its adjectival form is hubbub“brave”.
The next word is the most used. raph. It gives the idea of an invigorated physical force. The primary root of raph figuratively it denotes “to cure, (cause) to heal, mend, or mend completely”. It is familiar to us when it is taken in the name Raphael, which is literal for “God has healed.” The term RephaimPrayed refaites, is a frequent sight in the Old Testament. This noun highlights a race of giant people who lived in the Promised Land before the Chosen Race took over. With the King James Version, there is a translational interaction with Rephaim as a general term for the giant race during the time of Moses.
The third and final word appears twice: once before Moses, the other after his death. is the noun nephilimof the verb naphal that means “fall” and “fall”. However, the richness of meaning includes the following: “overthrow, overwhelm, perish; be lost, rot; kill, wound, or cast down.” It also suggests “a fugitive”. The meanings present a rather violent picture of these creatures, but the Genesis 6:4 passage highlights them as “the heroes of old, men of renown” (New International Version).
A good number of ancient cultures around the world spoke of a race of giants who once walked the earth: the Vikings believed in such, magical, instrumental in the creation of the earth and the founding of the human race; the Celtic druids called them “fomors”, the enemies of the high gods of the heavens; England’s mythical history begins with a giant named Albion. The ancient Greeks spoke of a race of immortal giants called Titans who interbred with humans. The classicist Edith Hamilton described them as a “splendid race of divine heroes”.
(Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Mentor Books: New York, 1969; p. 69).
Myth is what we call the examples above, and therefore we are tempted to drag the biblical account into the realm of the unreal along with them. Furthermore, history documents some
deliberate exaggerations of the vanquished to capitalize on the victor. The giants throughout history were the most convenient myth that the conqueror used to illustrate the antagonists that populated his exploits. The ones he surpassed became the testament to his supremacy. His people rising to formidable by taking the enemy’s niche. However, those who defeated him would generate a terrifying report to mitigate his failure. The Giants report also had degrees of success in intimidating and dissuading invasion plans or their immediate and auspicious realization.
However, the Giants of Genesis 6:4 remained undefeated until their destruction in the Great Flood. The writer seemed to have inserted this brief information about the Giants into his
fascination, which also marked the beginning and the pinnacle of its existence. The reason for their disappearance is found in the verse before 6:4 and somewhere after:
“And the LORD said, ‘My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for indeed he is flesh; but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years’ (6:3). Then the LORD saw
the wickedness of men was great on earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the LORD repented that he had made man on earth,
and he grieved in his heart. Then the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from off the face of the earth…'” (vv. 5-7, The New King James Version).
Evil is destructive for those who exercise it. He who takes a bad path, takes a path to his own destruction, and this is a wide path. According to Christ: “broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it” (Matthew 7:13, New International Version).
And the “many” who “enter by” the broad way do not do so by predestination. The Book of Proverbs cites the scenario that was common in antediluvian society: “because their feet are quick in sin, they are quick to shed blood (1:16). These men lie in wait for their own blood; they only assail themselves!” (v.18) “The reason the Bible teaches against it is because right and wrong are a matter of choice. The antediluvian race did their thing.
So the Giants and their contemporaries were killed by an evil God, because Genesis 5:7 documented His very words: “I will destroy man…”? With this it seems an irreconcilable impasse of interpretation. Fortunately, the Bible interprets itself and is independent of our ideas. How does God “destroy”? Teaching his disciples the digested version of the Jewish prayer, Christ mentioned: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
(Matthew 6:13, King James Version). Two things in this verse mean the same thing: “guide” and “deliver”; and wrong a place or condition. For too long our image of the Living God has been
tainted with the Classical and Renaissance one who wields spears of lightning and thunder. The living God is not the author of death or destruction; much less is he bad.
According to various interpreters of the Bible, the mood used in “I will destroy man” was permissive in the sense that it basically meant “I will allow man to be destroyed.” Saint Paul
the Apostle, writing to believers in Rome, wrote a long account of man’s descent into destruction in Romans 1:18-32, using the phrase “God gave them up” twice, and “God gave them up” once.
With this principle of exposition, or “recoil,” the apostle Paul sets forth the modern Church’s policy toward a stubborn member destined to destroy himself and others in the process: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are Gathered together…in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (I Corinthians 5:4-5).
Thus, the mythologist Edith Hamilton was right when she wrote of the rise and fall of a “Bronze Race,” Titans who “were terrible men, immensely strong, and lovers of war and
violence that were completely destroyed by their own hands” (Hamilton, p. 69).
So why do we have ambivalence about a heroic but evil race of giants? The answer goes back to Genesis 4:2 when “man began to call on [publish] the name of the Lord.” The Earth in
this period polarized into two opposing forces: the House of Adam and that of Cain, the first murderer of the Bible. After Abel’s death, God’s judgment pronounced on Cain to live a life
of a restless wanderer (Genesis 4:12, 13). His ability to domesticate crops and grains, since he was a farmer (4:2), was rejected by the earth by God’s edict. He went to a place east of Eden
called to Nod where he began to raise a family for himself. With this family, in this land of Nod, Cain built the first city mentioned in the Bible. Cain’s banishment from the presence of God (Genesis 4:14) made it clear that his house must never be in league with Adam’s.
But it seems that in Genesis 4:17-18 the house of Cain continued to invoke God’s authority in the names Mehujael (“smitten of God”) and Metusael (“man of God”). There are many
interpretations to this. Some teach that despite their original defect in the sight of God, there were individuals who joined the House of Adam (or “the Sons of God”) and were thus blessed with the blessing of the righteous. Others argue that putting the suffix of God’s name, “El”, on his name was nothing more than an affront to holiness. the most sensitive
Theories of this, however, state that the Cainite house was copying Adamite practices in an attempt to ally with the Adamites and invite others into their fold.
The world at this time was ruled by the Adamites, and such authority was with Adam. Adam was the father of the human race, the first man to walk the earth; and he was called
“the son of God” (Luke 3:37). He was the authority that showed the way to the heart of the Creator. He established the tradition of sainthood and his family carried it on. Tea
The credibility of the Adamite house was a strength. Cain, on the other hand, had nothing but a small group huddled to the east of God’s presence. His family was withering and fighting a great threat to survival, and he knew nothing to live up to his father’s ways, now rendered irrelevant after Abel’s murder. The first thing Cain did: propose an alliance with the Adamites. After all, two generations had passed since that incident with Abel (Genesis 4:25-26), Cain thought maybe it was time to forgive. But the matter of the curse that he received from God (Genesis 4:12)
It was irreversible as the first bloodshed of an innocent had begun to corrupt the land. Furthermore, by expelling Cain from the Adamite house, God was establishing the principle of
purging for which He has been known to demand of His people, from storing and eating leaven during the Passover (Exodus 11:15; Deuteronomy 16:4), to rebellion against parents.
authority (Deuteronomy 21:21), to kidnapping (24:7), to illegal sexual acts (Leviticus 20), to blasphemy (24:16), to murder (v.17).
But Cain’s plan was two-pronged. Knowing that his proposal to unite his family with the great Adamites was problematic, he began to “call on the name of the Lord.” “Call” is correctly translated “proclaim,” meaning that Cain and his family began to preach what the Adamites had been preaching. By this act, the people were deceived into believing that an alliance already existed between Adam and Cain. A false anointing of credibility suddenly drew people to him and his power increased. Thousands of years later, this trick would appear when Saint Paul encountered a fortune teller who was following him shouting promotions about his message (Acts 16:16 to 17). Paul, knowing that she was possessed by an evil spirit, spoke up and ordered her to leave her. Why did he do this despite the promotion? Because as soon as Paul would leave the place (Philippi), she—or the spirit—would take over the preaching. What was frustrated here was consumed by Cain.
In a brief span of four generations, the Cainites had gained numerous survival-level advantages. The reward of proper pampering brought health and beauty to shape the prosperity and credibility they have acquired. Then Genesis 6:2 intervenes. The restless young Adamites, or “sons of God”, as deluded as the rest of the world into believing that these beautiful “daughters of men” were one with them, fell in love and chose them in marriage. The reincorporation of Cain into the Adamite house was carried out. From the mixed marriage the Giants were born. They were a product forged by time and deception, Cain’s victory. Upon his death, the Giants proceeded to dominate, and their legends took over the world.
It was a long time ago, when the heavens were wrapped in water, and the Earth was kinder than today. It was the Antediluvian Era, the time before the Great Flood.