A Giant's Tale

There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, 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 

Having long been the stuff of myths & legends, the creatures often called 'Nephilim' by bible students have been generating more interest than they had for some time. The book series 'Chronicles of the Nephilim', by Brian Godowa, is one of the more recent products of this almost morbid interest! Based on the unscriptural notion that these ' sons of God' were pure spirit-beings who had sexual relations with the ( human ) 'daughters of men' the whole ideology spirals out of control, introducing characters like 'Satan' ( who supposedly animated the serpent of Genesis 3 ) & the 'Watchers'. Is it possible that heavenly ( spirit ) beings could come to earth, have sexual relations with human females & impregnate them? Sure, Scripture gives us a clear example of that in Matthew 1:18-25!

The Internet is full of information about giants, Nephilim & Watchers; in fact, there have been TV series & movies based on these ideas for decades! Recently though, with a renewed focus on ancient archeological finds, they have come back to haunt us with slightly disturbing images of enlarged skulls, skeletons & literature of the period ( almost leading to our present day ) that hints at the existence of these gargantuan humanoids. Scripture even seems to pint to the veracity of these tales, with King Og of Bashan in numerous references from Numbers to Nehemiah! This 'Og' that we read about in Joshua 12:4, for instance, was 'of the remnant of the giants'. In Deuteronomy 3:11, we read of this giant king, '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.' We also read of men like Goliath & his brothers, whom David & other mighty men of renown slew! No doubt these giants existed, but were they hybrids of male spirit-beings ( ?? ) & female human beings, as many would have us believe, or were they simply inheritors of a certain gene that caused unusual growth?

There is a phrase used of such famous men as Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison & Howard Hughes that they were 'giants among men'! This is not a claim that they had a gargantuan stature ( Einstein was relatively short, I believe ), but that their spirit, their creative nature, was far above that of most men. We use the same ideology to describe certain ideas, plans & even structures. Although some of these structures are built to 'giant' ( x-large ) proportions, this is not always the case & in the case of a giant plan or idea, it is not so much the quantity of what the thought produces, but the infinite quality!

Neil Armstrong's famous 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' is yet another example! The giant leap for mankind that Armstrong was no doubt thinking about was that, if man could walk on the surface of the moon, many millions of miles from earth, what else might be possible; the possibilities that this momentous occasion generated were indeed gargantuan!

One could find all sorts of useless ( but interesting, nonetheless ) information on the Internet about the giants, Nephilim & Watchers. One movie that has recently made their presence known is 'Noah'.
This movie portrayed them as earthy creatures, creatures of rock & stone, something very different from the Scriptural images we are presented with & certainly not the 'giants' of the most recent century ( some are still among us )! Today's 'giants are simply those who have an extra growth hormone ( usually not very healthy ) or simply those who have grandiose abilities or dreams!

The whole idea that these Nephilim existed at one point, or even that they still exist is very attractive, though morbidly so! Like the whole notion of 'Satan' as a fallen spirit-being ( according to the book of Job, one of 'the sons of God'), it gives us a sort of morbid relief; there is someone ( or something ) else to blame all OUR problems on! When we do wrong, 'the devil made me do it', when we  see something unusual, like a very large person, or hear about 'The Abominable Snowman' or 'Sasquatch', it helps us to believe the myths that we have been brought up with!

The is no doubt that these gargantuan humans existed & still exist; there is manifold evidence for that! Archeological 'finds' may not always be all they're cracked up to be, but it's pretty hard to argue with all the evidence; for whatever reason, these human beings grew to gargantuan proportions! Some are still among us ( all over the world ) & all the 'giants among men' of the past, or most of them anyway, are still impacting our everyday lives with their colossal ideas! The notion that the giants, or Nephilim were the products of a union between fallen spirit-beings & female human beings is almost absurd! Goliath was simply a very large man & as David found out, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'! King Og of Bashan is never described, per se', in Scripture; it is simply stated that his bed was extra large ( it DOES say that he was 'of the remnant of the giants'-Deuteronomy 12:4 ).

Charles Haddon Shank