Greg Garrison, who, “covers religion nationally,” wrote an article titled Nephilim Giants in the Bible: Archaeological evidence sparks new discussion for the Alabama Media Group.
Biblically contextually, “Nephilim Giants” means, “Nephilim Nephilim” and that the article begins with an image of, “Goliath faces David” begs these key questions: what’s the usage of the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage and modern English word “giants” in English Bibles? What’s Garrison’s usage? Do those two usages agree?
The premise is, “An article about biblical archaeology” which is that about which I wrote in my article Nephilim Giants Revealed in Ancient Egyptian Scroll—get excited and stuff!!!
He notes that the (old) news, “rekindled talk about the giants mentioned the in Bible” about which I say old since I wrote about the people group featured in the scroll and new articles, the Shasu, in my 2019 book What Does the Bible Say About Giants and Nephilim? A Styled Giantology and Nephilology. Thus, this isn’t in the least bit new: it’s just that a document was uncovered that mentions something that’s already well known to us who cover such issues form a research-based background.
He refers to, “most famous giant is Goliath…But Goliath wasn’t the only biblical reference to giants.”
Moreover:
“The Bible mentions the existence of giants in a number of key places,” according to Associates for Biblical Research. “The story of David’s confrontation with Goliath (I Samuel 17: 4) is but one example. Deuteronomy 3:11 tells us of Og, the King of Bashan. He was said to be the last of the Rephaim—a race of giants. Ishbi-Benob of II Samuel 21: 16 is another example. Giants and races of giants appear in numerous places throughout the Scriptures.”
Sadly, the ABR also employed that modern English term without defining it. So, we might as well get right to it since, let’s face it, this is about something vaguely generic about subjectively unusual height of some unknown level above the parochial average (and yes, that is how useless the common parlance usage of that modern English word is).
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.
Thus, Garrison’s and the ABR’s usage doesn’t agree.
When modern English readers read of Goliath as a giant they’re really just reading of him being identified by his tribal affiliation: he was a Repha and so was Og and Ishbi-Benob.
Biblically contextually, “Rephaim—a race of giants” means, “Rephaim—a race of Rephaim” and, “Giants and races of giants” means, “Rephaim and races of Rephaim.”
These are linguistics issues but are fundamental to an understanding since most people read the modern English word giants, merely subjectively imagine the usage, and apply it subjectively to whatever they’re trying to sound exciting.
See my linguistics book Bible Encyclopedias and Dictionaries on Angels, Demons, Nephilim, and Giants: From 1851 to 2010.
In this case, “Shasu warriors, whose height from nose to foot varied from…a height of at least 6 feet, 8 inches tall, up to 8 feet, 6 inches tall” so basically, pro basketball player heights.
Greg Garrison noted:
The Book of Genesis, chapter 6:1-4, describes the Nephilim: “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,” the King James Version says.
The Living Bible translation renders it as: “In those days, and even afterwards, when the evil beings from the spirit world were sexually involved with human women, their children became giants, of whom so many legends are told.”
The Hebrew word Nephilim is usually translated as giants or fallen ones, as in Numbers 13:33, which describes the Israelites encountering very large people:
“And there we saw the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight,” the King James Version says.
“We saw there the Nephilim, the descendants of Anak, who are of the giants,” the Modern Language translation says. “Even to ourselves we looked like grasshoppers, and so we looked to them.”
This ranged from much ado about nothing to a misrepresentation.
With a mindset of giants as referring to something vaguely generic about subjectively unusual height of some unknown level above the parochial average, Gen 6 is irrelevant since it doesn’t physically describe Nephilim and reading something vaguely generic about subjectively unusual height of some unknown level above the parochial average into the modern English word giants is just a word-concept fallacy.
Linguistically technically, it’s not, “usually translated as giants” since that’s a mere rendering, not a translation, “fallen ones” is more of a translation.
It’s aggrandizing to generically write, “in Numbers 13:33, which describes the Israelites encountering very large people” since that was only 10 guys.
When appealing to that, he really needed to mention that he’s relying 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.
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.
Thus, much ado about nothing has produced much ado about much abo about nothing but such occurrences are always a good opportunity to clear up some myth-understandings.
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