Giants in the Bible & Recent History

[TruthDefender]

I don't know too much about giants, but what about giantesses

They can't all have been men.

I’m sure! The birds and the bees, right? lol

What else, other than men? God was specific.

And why is it that a lot of women say they want a tall man when they are looking for a partner. Someone taller than them? For protective purposes? So they need to look up to them? IDK.

Speaking as a woman, it’s always nice to have someone taller than you are. Idk?

I do know that dinosaurs (or as I call them, dragons) were huge creatures. I think back in the day, the climate conditions and abundance of food (and room) meant creatures could grow to a large size.

Or maybe that’s just how God created them. Maybe most of them were wiped out during Noah’s flood. This will always be conjecture, right, because He doesn’t tell us?!

There are tribes in Africa who have seen something like the brontosaurus. Or how about all the ginormous sea/ lake creatures that are seen down through the centuries? There has got to be some truth to all of these accounts! No?

I have read the Book of Enoch, I actually bought a copy as was curious about it, but I didn't keep it. It's kind of like the book of Genesis before the flood, fleshed out a bit more. Because Enoch was one of the earlier sons in the lineage. He lived a long life, but everyone was living longer in those days. So maybe everyone was bigger.

Well, we know from God’s word that not everyone was a giant (as tall as the Lebanese cedar trees—-upwards to 120’). Take to heart everything God tells us!

There is Scripture that tells us a normal man was like a grasshopper in their sight. Wow!!! Imagine standing in front of a tiny grasshopper; this is how tall they were!!

I’m still amazed and blown away!!

I mean in a lot of stories that are dated back to Bible times from other cultures they always mention heroic and mighty people, like Hercules or Maui, Thor or even Jack and the Beanstalk. This lore can't have all been entirely made up, there must have been some truth in it.

Yes I believe there was definitely something to these stories. So called gods from someplace else, but for us there is only one God who created ALL things. These gods came to this planet to elevate themselves over the creator and reaped what they sowed. God destroyed them!

There is so much archaeological evidence indicating advanced architecture, and other things…..

I mean, if Roald Dahl were alive today you could ask him where he got the idea for the BFG from. It might have been a Norwegian folktale IDK.

BFG?

 

[Lanolin]

The BFG - Big Friendly Giant

Giants including dragons I don't think God was just specifying giant men. Thats how I read it anyway. Why would he make humans giant and then everything else was small. That wouldn't make sense.

After all you have Big cats as well as small cats or actually normal size cats. When you see them side by side, if you ever do, the Big Cats are more than triple the size of ordinary cats. Dogs can be big too, but not as big as Big cats, but you see great big Saint Bernards, or Great Danes, as well as tiny little pekinese pugs and shiatzus and corgis.

Mega fauna would have also required Mega flora, some islands still have giant size plants. Gunnera? Dinner plate fig? Chatham Island forget me not? Those huge tree ferns and cycads.

 

[Lanolin]

Since now people live in tiny shoebox apartments or sections with barely any breathing room between houses a lot of plant breeders breed dwarf plants so they can fit into containers or small sections of garden plots. A tree, when allowed space to grow and ample water, can be huge but people want to keep them small to be manageable.

Japanese will bonsai anything, but they like to do it with trees. Also their cars are compact compared to those huge american trucks I mean cars.

 

[Lanolin]

I'll not forget one year this retirement village had a sunflower growing contest, but it wasn't who could grow the TALLEST sunflower but who could grow the biggest sunflower in diameter.

?! My boss thought this was a good contest. So he gave the contestants dwarf sunflower seeds to grow. Dwarf sunflowers? They may as well have just grown daisies!

Am not sure what the tallest and biggest sunflower was but I have heard they can be over 3 metres.
Also...bamboo is the largest grass in the world and can grow at an amazing rate.

 

[TruthDefender]

The BFG - Big Friendly Giant

Aah! Lol

Giants including dragons I don't think God was just specifying giant men. Thats how I read it anyway. Why would he make humans giant and then everything else was small. That wouldn't make sense.

You have to read all of the biblical accounts about them. They were men. Some were what we call cyclops, but humans nonetheless.

For me Scripture tells all.

After all you have Big cats as well as small cats or actually normal size cats. When you see them side by side, if you ever do, the Big Cats are more than triple the size of ordinary cats. Dogs can be big too, but not as big as Big cats, but you see great big Saint Bernards, or Great Danes, as well as tiny little pekinese pugs and shiatzus and corgis.

Yes, all kinds of DOGS.

Mega fauna would have also required Mega flora, some islands still have giant size plants. Gunnera? Dinner plate fig? Chatham Island forget me not? Those huge tree ferns and cycads.

All beautifully created by our Creator. There is even evidence of very, tiny people that God created. All fascinating!!

 

[Charlesiii]

The army of Israel wouldn't say that to his face.

But David did.

I don't know too much about giants, but what about giantesses?

They can't all have been men.

Just a thought experiment, but if women are XX, and men are XY, perhaps angels are YY? Then they could only have male offspring?

 

[HealthAndHappiness]

But David did.

That's right.
My point was that Goliath was not just some small pipsqueak giant. He was likely the most fearsome warrior on the face of the earth at that time.
On the other hand, the gossip that has been spread by those who teach the book of Enoch as credible have to account for giants who's heads are in the clouds. That book is not even entertaining fiction.

 

[TruthDefender]

That's right.
My point was that Goliath was not just some small pipsqueak giant. He was likely the most fearsome warrior on the face of the earth at that time.
On the other hand, the gossip that has been spread by those who teach the book of Enoch as credible have to account for giants who's heads are in the clouds. That book is not even entertaining fiction.

As I had stated, God talks about these giants in Scripture. He, God, stated that some were as tall as cedar trees. Why do you think that the Jewish spies came back so scared out of their whits??

So yes, this would make Goliath and his brothers only bigfoot size (8-9 feet are probably the average, but they seem to become taller as you head northward), relatively smaller of the giants.

 

[Charlesiii]

That's right.
My point was that Goliath was not just some small pipsqueak giant. He was likely the most fearsome warrior on the face of the earth at that time.

I meant that David called him an "uncircumcised philistine". Probably an epithet more insulting than just "small"?

On the other hand, the gossip that has been spread by those who teach the book of Enoch as credible have to account for giants who's heads are in the clouds. That book is not even entertaining fiction.

With respect to the sizes of giants, I'm open-minded. I can't envisage how giants might have had heads that reached to the clouds, but there are some very strange landmarks around - the Utroba or womb cave in Bulgaria (and others like it), what look like enormous petrified animals and plants, plateaus resembling tree trunks.

I wouldn't place the book of Enoch at the same level as scripture, but one thing I've learned in life is that truth is often stranger than fiction.

 

[HealthAndHappiness]

I meant that David called him an "uncircumcised philistine". Probably an epithet more insulting than just "small"?

That comment was a response to Post #8. I don't think Goliath was small.
Likewise, King Of was probably no taller than 12 +/- feet tall.

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
His king size bed was approximately 14.5 ' long. Nobody chooses to sleep in a bed that's their exact height.
Compare the measurements given with the so called Book of Enoch that makes Godzilla look like a child's toy. Then the Enoch theory has human women giving birth to those giants and mating so there's a race of ridiculous giants. The same thing that theory does with them mating with animals to produce human animals. This is a pagan teaching, not a biblical one. That's the problem they have when they add unbiblical books to interpret the Word of God.

With respect to the sizes of giants, I'm open-minded. I can't envisage how giants might have had heads that reached to the clouds, but there are some very strange landmarks around - the Utroba or womb cave in Bulgaria (and others like it), what look like enormous petrified animals and plants, plateaus resembling tree trunks.

I wouldn't place the book of Enoch at the same level as scripture, but one thing I've learned in life is that truth is often stranger than fiction.

I'm with you, Truth is often stranger than fiction. Let's just make sure we stick with the truth, the known facts and judge all things by the evidence.

As a younger Christian I was led to believe speculation based upon books that begin with a big lie. The lies were the authors who claimed to be someone they were not. Until I investigated the sources myself, I believed much of what I was taught by pastors.

For instance, there were people who wrote books who claimed to be the apostles. Should we consider their writings facts?
I disregard their veracity in every point as Paul warned the churches. We know that the Book of Enoch could not have been written by him. The same with the book of the Giants found recently in a cave.

These were some points that I made the other day to Truth Defender of why I consider the giants of that time to be based upon the actual empirical measurements provided rather than the scared men who were scared to death and didn't want to go to fight them.

The Bible accounts are reasonable. The first book of Enoch was a work of fiction.
Noah's grandfather was not the author, but the actual author wanted his readers to think so.
Chapter 7

1. "And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3. Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, 4. the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. "

• Measurement: The text states their height was 3,000 ells (or cubits).
• Conversion: Using the standard ancient ell of approximately 18 inches (45 cm), this equates to roughly 4,500 feet (1,370 meters) or nearly 0.85 miles tall.

A. They brought an evil report.
This indicates a lie to cover their fear.
Caleb spake the truth.
We are to take Caleb's word, not be like the wandering adults who all died in the wilderness for listening to the faithless cowards on the recon team.
Their comment about grasshoppers sounds like an exaggeration or a figure of speech. When men go on a mission like that, there needs to be numbers, a layout of the land, logistical information, not hyperbole. They were commanded to carry out a recon mission and return before they entered the promised land. They were not in a position to tell God or Moses what they should do.

B. It seems reasonable that the wall was higher than the people and there were even houses on it. Speculation here, but if we take the book of Enoch specific measurement of the people, why would they need a wall? How high was that wall, a Mile high?

Numbers 13
32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33And 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.

I've taken wildlife reports all my life. One thing that's consistent is that even when people try to sincerely tell me the truth about something they are frightened of, they provide much larger estimates. For instance, snakes are larger and 9 out of 10 snakes someone kills is a poisonous snake....until I ask to see the dead snake. Then I can actually measure it and ID. The ones who get it right are experienced and not frightened. Most of the time they killed a nonvenomous snake that actually eats other species of snakes that are venomous.

 

[TruthDefender]

That comment was a response to Post #8. I don't think Goliath was small.
Likewise, King Of was probably no taller than 12 +/- feet tall.

My comment was meant as sarcasm, but at the same time to represent the actual height in relation to the sons of Anak, which were upward as tall as cedar trees.

As for king Og of Bashan; his bed was about 13.5 ft (definitely smaller than the sons of Anak).

““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.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I used, 1 cubit= 18”

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
His king size bed was approximately 14.5 ' long. Nobody chooses to sleep in a bed that's their exact height.

You’re making an assumption here!

Compare the measurements given with the so called Book of Enoch that makes Godzilla look like a child's toy. Then the Enoch theory has human women giving birth to those giants and mating so there's a race of ridiculous giants. The same thing that theory does with them mating with animals to produce human animals. This is a pagan teaching, not a biblical one. That's the problem they have when they add unbiblical books to interpret the Word of God.

What unbiblical book, other than this one book that you keep harping on, which isn’t Scripture.

My information is from Scripture (the Bible).

“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 ‭NKJV‬‬

“And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.””
‭‭Numbers‬ ‭13‬:‭32‬-‭33‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I'm with you, Truth is often stranger than fiction. Let's just make sure we stick with the truth, the known facts and judge all things by the evidence.

Good idea!! If only people can see what the Lord says, is Truth, and not call it fiction!

As a younger Christian I was led to believe speculation based upon books that begin with a big lie. The lies were the authors who claimed to be someone they were not. Until I investigated the sources myself, I believed much of what I was taught by pastors.

For instance, there were people who wrote books who claimed to be the apostles. Should we consider their writings facts?
I disregard their veracity in every point as Paul warned the churches. We know that the Book of Enoch could not have been written by him. The same with the book of the Giants found recently in a cave.

These were some points that I made the other day to Truth Defender of why I consider the giants of that time to be based upon the actual empirical measurements provided rather than the scared men who were scared to death and didn't want to go to fight them.

To me, your statement is like doubting Thomas; he disbelieved the accounts of everyone else. The Bible is from God, written by God through chosen men.

Believe what you read, even if it’s fantastical by today’s standards!!

 

[Lanolin]

When scripture says 'there were giants in the earth those days, and also afterward'

What does it mean 'those days" and 'afterward'

After what? What days? Was it meaning about the flood. I think it was before the flood. I'm a bit confused

Interesting thought about Angels being YY
Has there been a case of any known YY people? Now that the human genome or DNA has all been mapped.

Wasn't genetic engineering a big deal (still is) and is there any gene for being giant, like it turns on the growth hormone and can't switch it off? At what point or age did Wadlow stop growing?

I know people can breed dwarf plants, and animals (especially dogs) but I hardly see anyone breeding giant plants and animals that I know of. If people want bigger, plumper chickens for example, they just feed them a lot of hormones. Or like humans, they get obese and heavy rather than tall. If people are on steroids it doesn't make them any taller, and it is said in Scripture that nobody can make themselves taller --or add to their height naturally.

The naturally taller population tend to live in mountainous areas or high altitudes where height is probably an advantage. Smaller people, pygmies etc are more concentrated in tropical areas, closer to sea level. So maybe it's something to do with gravity?

 

[Lanolin]

Whales can float in the ocean and its size is an advantage but a beached whale is useless.

I just wondered what kind of whale Jonah ended up in...and where was he, Are there any whales in the Mediterranean/Red Sea?
I have been Whale watching, in Kaikoura is one of the places in NZ that is easy to do that because the harbour there is deep. Even so, I was not close enough to judge the size relative to our boat, because the whales were a bit far away and we could only see the tales as they turned to dive.

The sea was teaming with dolphins though on the day I went out. I think maybe I'd do it again if had the chance, its a very touristy thing to do though. If you already had a boat and lived there, you could whale watch everyday if you wanted to, and not have to pay a tourist boat to go watch them.

 

[Larry112]

The most infamous giant, Goliath!
I Samuel 17

1. Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
2. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
3. 3 And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
4. 4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5. 5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
6. 6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
7. 7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
8. 8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
9. 9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
10. 10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.

You forget about the Nephilim, the giants that lusted after women. They appear in Genesis and in Numbers.

 

[Lanolin]

I recently did a road trip to Rotorua and they have a Redwood forest there that you can walk around in. My sis took a pic of me as I leaned against one of the trees, next to it I am a dwarf.

 

[dkontner]

In the old testament, the only people ever referred to as 'sons of God' are Adam and host of heaven, angels. In the new covenant, the Lord Jesus makes one a son of God.

Job 1
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

Job 2
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

Job 38
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Genesis 6​

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 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.
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

2 Peter 2​

4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Jude 6​

6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

 

[Lanolin]

My mum banned me from planting any trees in the garden. She said they would get too big, and if they got taller than the house, they could fall and crush it.

Trees are the tallest living things God has made. A giraffe can be dwarfed by a tree, I believe that is the tallest animal we have today. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I do wonder, if Noah is ordinary size, how did he build the ark, and what kind of trees gopher wood is from. Gopher trees? maybe not exisiting anymore? They would have been tall to make the ark out of.

 

[Lanolin]

In practically every depiction of Noahs ark in any childrens Bible, it will always show a pair of giraffes

 

[TruthDefender]

When scripture says 'there were giants in the earth [in] those days, and also afterward'

What does it mean 'those days" and 'afterward'

After what? What days? Was it meaning about the flood. I think it was before the flood. I'm a bit confused

I found many verses in Scripture about giants. I’m not sure about dates though.
Here is one that states God destroyed them:

-""Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks; Yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you 40 years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite."
Amos 2:9-10 NKJV
[FYI: Lebanese cedars = 130’]

I know people can breed dwarf plants, and animals (especially dogs) but I hardly see anyone breeding giant plants and animals that I know of. If people want bigger, plumper chickens for example, they just feed them a lot of hormones. Or like humans, they get obese and heavy rather than tall. If people are on steroids it doesn't make them any taller, and it is said in Scripture that nobody can make themselves taller --or add to their height naturally.

In Hawaii, plants seem to grow big, but it could be many factors (rich volcanic soil for one thing).

 

[TruthDefender]

In practically every depiction of Noahs ark in any childrens Bible, it will always show a pair of giraffes

Maybe favorites? I wonder if Sasquatch was on it?