.
There's a couple of Hebrew words in the Bible translated "giants". The first
appears in Gen 6:4 which says:
"There were giants in the earth in those days . . . the same became mighty
men which were of old, men of renown."
The Hebrew word translated giants in that verse is nephiyl (nef-eel') which
appears in only two verses in the entire Old Testament; here and in
Numbers 13:33.
The word is somewhat ambiguous, but it mostly pertains to "men of old,
men of renown" viz: famous alpha males; e.g. Genghis Khan of Mongolia,
and Alexander the Great of Greece; Napoleon of France, Peter Alekseyevich
Romanov of Russia, Chandragupta Maurya of India, shogun Minamoto no
Yoritomo of Japan, conquistador Hernando Cortes of Spain, Timur: founder
of the Timurid dynasty, and Zahir-ud din Muhammad Babur: founder of the
Mughal dynasty that ruled the Indian subcontinent for over three centuries;
and of course guys like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, .
In other words: nephiyl doesn't necessarily indicate a special race of people;
but mostly strong personalities whose ambition is to quite dominate
others, i.e. despots, dictators, and tyrants, etc. Those kinds of people don't
just want power: they crave total control.
The other Hebrew word for giants is rapha' (raw-faw') This word appears in
numerous places throughout the Old Testament and typically always
indicates brutish men of large physical stature, e.g. Goliath.
_
There's a couple of Hebrew words in the Bible translated "giants". The first
appears in Gen 6:4 which says:
"There were giants in the earth in those days . . . the same became mighty
men which were of old, men of renown."
The Hebrew word translated giants in that verse is nephiyl (nef-eel') which
appears in only two verses in the entire Old Testament; here and in
Numbers 13:33.
The word is somewhat ambiguous, but it mostly pertains to "men of old,
men of renown" viz: famous alpha males; e.g. Genghis Khan of Mongolia,
and Alexander the Great of Greece; Napoleon of France, Peter Alekseyevich
Romanov of Russia, Chandragupta Maurya of India, shogun Minamoto no
Yoritomo of Japan, conquistador Hernando Cortes of Spain, Timur: founder
of the Timurid dynasty, and Zahir-ud din Muhammad Babur: founder of the
Mughal dynasty that ruled the Indian subcontinent for over three centuries;
and of course guys like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, .
In other words: nephiyl doesn't necessarily indicate a special race of people;
but mostly strong personalities whose ambition is to quite dominate
others, i.e. despots, dictators, and tyrants, etc. Those kinds of people don't
just want power: they crave total control.
The other Hebrew word for giants is rapha' (raw-faw') This word appears in
numerous places throughout the Old Testament and typically always
indicates brutish men of large physical stature, e.g. Goliath.
_