Nothing like much ado about nothing written by people who literally have no idea what they’re talking about but, hey, click-bait is chum to pop-Nephilologists (who manufacture and sell un-biblical tall-tales to Christians for a living.
First up is the Daily Mail article Long-lost Egyptian scroll fuels debate over real-life biblical giants by Rob Waugh who notes:
An ancient Egyptian papyrus held by the British Museum has been cited as possible evidence supporting some of the Bible’s most controversial claims about giants.
The 3,300-year-old document, known as Anastasi I, has been in the museum’s collection since 1839 and has recently resurfaced on the Associates for Biblical Research, renewing interest in its possible links to biblical accounts.
The papyrus describes encounters with the Shosu people, said to stand ‘four cubits or five cubits’ tall, up to eight feet in height.
By the way, it’s a, “3,300-year-old document…roughly the 13th century BCE” with BCE being anti-Christian propaganda for BC.
Unsure how that people group about whom I wrote in my 2019 book What Does the Bible Say About Giants and Nephilim?: A Styled Giantology and Nephilology is news in 2026—unless I was that ahead of this issue.
Now, when it comes to, “giants” some key questions are: What’s the usage of the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage and modern English word “giants” in English Bibles? What’s any given user’s usage? Do those two usages agree?
In this case the very exciting term, giants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! means, “eight feet in height.” Well, for one we can know that there’s no agreement since the usage of the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage and modern English word giants in English Bibles is that it merely renders (doesn’t even translate) Nephilim in 2 verses or Repha/im in 98% of all others and so never even hints at anything to do with any sort of height whatsoever.
So, the exciting sounding, “the Bible’s most controversial claims about giants” means, “the Bible’s most controversial claims about up to, at the highest range, eight feet in height.
Thus, “real-life biblical giants,” as per this article, were 8ft at the very tallest.
I’m unsure what that has to do with anything, actually.
We’re told that this, “provides rare non-biblical corroboration of Old Testament accounts of giants, which appear repeatedly beyond the familiar story of David and Goliath.” That’s convenient to assert when we’re not even told how tall Goliath was.
The Masoretic text has Goliath at just shy of 10 ft. Yet, the earlier LXX and the earlier Dead Sea Scrolls and the earlier Flavius Josephus all have him at just shy of 7 ft. (compared to the average Israelite male who was 5.0-5.3 ft. in those days) so that’s the preponderance of the earliest data.
We’re told:
Several passages describe entire races or tribes of exceptionally large people, some of whom were said to have terrified the Israelites.
In Genesis chapter 6, the Bible states, ‘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.’
We’ll have to see how many entail, “Several” but did you read anything about, “exceptionally large” in that quote?—keep in mind that, “large” are just as vague, generic, subjective and multi-usage as, “giants” (as is, “exceptionally”).
Continuing:
The Hebrew word used in this passage, Nephilim, is commonly translated as either ‘giants’ or ‘fallen ones.’ According to biblical tradition, the Nephilim were wiped out in the Flood, though later texts describe their descendants appearing in future generations.
One such account appears in Numbers 13:33, which describes the Israelites encountering enormous people during their journey: ‘And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’
Technically, “giants” isn’t a translation, it’s a rendering, “fallen ones” is a translation. Thus, what’s being done here is committing a word-concept fallacy whereby, “giants” is being arbitrarily read as 8ft tops—and with the lower range being what, exactly?
Well, we’re told that, “exceptional size” refers to a range of, “at least six feet eight inches to eight feet six inches” (note that they grew six inches, tops, with a few paragraphs). And that’s subjective to the average Israelite male who was 5.0-5.3 ft. in those days.
Note a fundamental level contradiction in post-flood Nephilology, “Nephilim were wiped out in the Flood” but the implication is that God must have failed, must have missed a loophole, and the flood much have been much of a waste since, after all, “later texts describe their descendants appearing in future generations.”
Let’s get one thing out of the way, the impressive sounding plural, “Several” and now plural, “texts” amount to exactly a mere two.
For some odd reason, we weren’t told that for the latter claim, exclusive reliance is being placed on:
- One single unreliable sentence
- From strictly non-LXX versions (since that version’s version of that verse doesn’t even mention Anakim)
- Of an unreliable “evil report”
- By 10 unreliable guys
- Whom God rebuked—to death
- Who made five mere assertions unbacked by even one single other verse in the whole Bible
- Who contradicted Moses, Cable, Joshua, God, and the rest of the whole entire Bible
I could go on but see my post Chapter sample: On the Post Flood Nephilim Proposal.
Thus, the reliably biblical view is, “Nephilim were wiped out in the Flood” period, end of story, full stop well, except that centuries post-flood some unreliable guys whom God rebuked made up a scare-tactic, fear-mongering, “Don’t go in the woods!!!” type of tall-tale and it’s been retold ever since.
I can only imagine that if ignorant people didn’t incoherently tie this into Nephilim then the news would have been oh so boring: HOT OFF THE PRESS, PEOPLE AROUND THE SIZE OF PRO BASKETBALL PLAYERS EXISTED AND STUFF!!!
Furthermore:
The Egyptian Execration Texts, which list enemies on clay vessels, reference ‘ly anaq,’ or ‘people of Anak,’ a name linked to giants mentioned in the Bible.
I noted, “incoherently tie this into Nephilim” since the dirty little secret is that since we’ve no reliable physical description of Nephilim then their height is a non-issue and that alone debunks 99% of un-biblical Nephilology—the modern branch of which is just un-biblical neo-theo sci-fi tall-tales.
FYI: I’ve written some dozen research-based Nephilology books.
As for Anakim, who were like a clan of the Rephaim tribe, we’re told that all Rephaim were, on average, “tall” (Deut 2)—which is just as vague, generic, subjective and multi-usage as, “large” and, “giants”—thus, taller than 5.0-5.3ft by some unknown margin.
We’re also told:
Another biblical figure often cited is Og, king of Bashan, described in Deuteronomy 3…
The Bible states:’ 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.’
That’s right, people who suffer from that which I term Gigorexia Nervosa (an obsession for seeing giants and just making them up where they’re nowhere to be seen) actually appeal to someone for whom we’ve no physical description as evidence of a giant.
And asserting we can know his height based on his “bed” is a non sequitur based on various mere assumptions. All indications are that it was a ritual object, not something on which he slept—see my book, The King, Og of Bashan, is Dead: The Man, the Myth, the Legend—of a Nephilim Giant?
We’re told, “Skeptics, including Dr Heiser, remain unconvinced. They note there is no archaeological evidence of giants, such as skeletal remains or oversized dwellings” even though he passed away in 2023.
Actually, what he did note some years ago is, “I don’t think the biblical giants were taller than unusually tall people of modern times (between 7-9 feet).”
Dr. Heiser was credentialed and experienced but not infallible, his Nephilology wasn’t altogether biblical, and he tended to create more problems than he solved—search online for these articles for examples:
Review of Amy Richter and Michael Heiser on four Enochian Watcher related women in Jesus’ genealogy
Rebuttal to Dr. Michael Heiser’s “All I Want for Christmas is Another Flawed Nephilim Rebuttal”
I also included him in my book, The Scholarly Academic Nephilim and Giants: What do Scholarly Academics Say About Nephilim Giants?
LAD Bible published an article by Anish Vij titled Ancient scroll could prove the existence of ‘biblical giants’, experts believe.
Key points:
…eight feet in height.
…Some experts think the text makes a reference to Og, known as the last survivor of the giant Rephaites [aka Rephaim] mentioned in Hebrew texts…
The ancient scroll could suggest that the Nephilim were real…
Researchers at the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology have also suggested that the text could be about the Shosu people and their size…
…at least six feet eight inches to eight feet six inches,” they explained.
Critics, instead, think the scroll could be accounting for military conflict rather than literal supernatural giants.
As for those who correlate Nephilim with Rephaim (and Anakim by extension) that would be a category error as well as being illogical, ill-bio-logical, and ill-theo-logical: Nephilim were strictly pre-flood hybrids, Rephaim were strictly post-flood humans, and there’s zero correlation between them.
AOL posted the article Resurfaced 3,300-year-old Egyptian document hints at biblical giants being real by Fabiana Buontempo, key points:
…Genesis chapter 6 of the Bible is about God’s response to the widespread human “wickedness” and corruptness, which was supposedly caused by Nephilim, powerful beings that were the sons of “fallen angels” and human women…
It was these sons who were described as giant [note being told they’re described as giants without defining that term] beings and referred to as “men of reknown” that caused widespread chaos which prompted God to cleanse the earth by “destroying all creatures under the sky” with “flood waters”…
…what is said in the Bible that giants existed, Numbers 13:33, a verse from the Old Testament, also hints at Israelites coming across these large figures [no hints and not generically “Israelites” by the mere 10 unreliable guys and as per non-LXX versions], “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight”…
…close to 8 feet tall.
…supersized humans…
Thus, it’s the same ol’ tactic: water down undefined terminology, correlate unrelated things, and, by golly, you got yourself a headline—now, CLICK, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and, of course, there’s hundreds of such articles out there about this right now, and counting.
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