Who were the “giants” mentioned in the Bible?

Question

I've come across several verses in the Bible that speak of "giants". For example:

Gen 6:4 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.

Num 13:33 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.

Deu 2:10 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
Deu 2:11 Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.

However, I haven't been able to understand who exactly the giants were. Does this just refer to a race of men who were unusually large? Or were they not men but actually a separate species, and if so do we know anything of their origins?

Answer 1

Over the years, there have been many theories to explain these Nephilim. I'm not fond of list answers, but unfortunately, there's no better way to represent all of these wildly varying theories.

Possible theories:

1. Giants (giantism)

   Historically, there have been people who have been over eight feet tall. Archaeologists have uncovered tombs of these people who were probably in that height range source.

   Even a glance at Wikipedia, shows people solidly over eight feet tall.

   This theory holds that these people were simply giants--either particularly tall or had giantism.

2. Offspring of women and fallen angels

   Genesis 6:1-2 says the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose (NIV). If we look at Gen 6:1-4, we see that Nephilim were the children of these "sons of God".

   Job 2:1 shows that these sons of God were definitely of the spiritual realm. In fact, other translations interpret sons of God as angels.

   Final support of this (as others have mentioned) is that the Hebrew word that "Nephilim" is based off the Hebrew word "fall" (as in "to fall" or "fallen").

   These concepts put together give strong support that Nephilim were children of fallen angels that had sex with human women.

3. Nephilim were descendants of Cain/Seth (source)

   The idea behind this is that godly men--ie "sons of God"--(probably descending from Seth) married descendants of Cain (more specifically, of Enoch).

   Enoch was a paganistic society and so the idea that the children of the offspring were "fallen" kind of fits with this as well (per the Hebrew argument above).

   Other support for this is based on Matthew 5:9 where Jesus says Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. This, the theory goes, shows that "sons of God" is a good thing and therefore, the children of Seth were righteous men.

   In this theory, however, the Nephilim would have been simply "heroes", not necessarily "giants".

4. They're completely fictional

   If you take the Pentateuch as a history of legends, then clearly the Nephilim are just another part of the legend.

Other theories that are too far-fetched

1. Nephilim were descendants of Kings (source)

   Since "sons of God" can equally be translated as "sons of kings", this theory holds that kings were philandering with common women, creating "heroes of old, men of renown" (Gen 6:4)

2. Nephilim were extra-terrestrials

   Yes, some people believe this. Yet there is absolutely no biblical or archeological basis for this.

3. Nephilim were Neanderthals (source)

   The idea here is that the Neanderthals were stronger than humans and therefore "giants". This is a clearly unbiblical theory (we seemed like grasshoppers in their eyes).

Primary Source

Those are some of the theories that have been used throughout time to explain these Nephilim. The most popular is probably that the "sons of God" were fallen angels, although there are some problems with this theory. (Job seems to indicate that "sons of God" are good, not fallen; Mark and Matthew state that angels don't marry, etc. source.)

Ultimately, this is something we'll probably not know for sure until the end of the world.

Answer 2

The Hebrew term Nephilium does mean "fallen ones", but I see no particular reason why this indicates that they are/were angels rather than fallen men. Rendering them fallen angels seems inconsistent with everything else we know about the nature of angels vs men.

Scholarship is widely divided on this issue reading many different things into the very few verses we have that refer to them directly. When in doubt, I believe we need to use our understanding from other parts of scripture and even of the world in general to make sense out of it.

We generally know that even among the created order here on earth things don't just change species. Species can't inter-breed. In the heavenly realms we have spirit beings that do not have associated matter in the created universe. They are allowed to manifest themselves in a way that interacts with men, but we also know that such things fall generally under the sovereignty of God. Even Satan is not allowed to take specific action on earth without God's express permission.

Taking these into consideration I find it inconsistent with what we know of God to have given fallen angels such permissions. If such a thing really were to have happened it would seem likely that we would have more references to it than two verse with an obscure word that can be translated "giants" just easily as "angels".

There are several other propositions about how these could be a race of men with an exceptional strand of gene (very much inside the realm of what we know of creation) that gave them exceptional size and stature. There are also explanations for where they lived (I've heard explanations about a mountain region) that can explain the language about them having 'come down'.*

Taken as a whole I think it is a better hermeneutic to not assume something that goes against our established understandings of both our world and the rest of Scripture without a much more explicit text that says they must be spirit beings.

I find the references cited by Jonathan unconvincing. That we will be LIKE the angels in specific attributes does not mean that we will actually be angels. Humans, even as souls in heaven, have specifically different properties than angels. Lifespan issues extend well beyond the scope of just the Nephilim and are explained other ways. God didn't just change the lifespan of said Nephilim, we know that he did that for humans. The connections to God's spirit I find be speculative at best. They COULD fit, but add nothing to drive the argument that they MUST be angels because it would fit just as well if the scope was only humans.

* _{I plan on finding these but it's too late tonight, saving for an edit.}

Answer 3

Another theory that I've heard is that "sons of God" refers to those who were members of the primordial religion, and that "sons/daughters of man" refers to those who had apostatized and turned to a false religion. This would yield the interpretation of men were marrying those not of their faith.

_{I apologize for a lack of citation, but I thought it was an interesting idea that hadn't been put forward yet. I'll try to find a reference and will update my answer if I do}

Answer 4

The Nephilim are fallen Angels, or descendants of such.

First we need to understand that the "sons of God" mentioned in Genesis are angels, and here's how we do that. The Hebrew words used here are Ben 'elohiym.

Ben Literally means a 'descendant of'. So sons, grandsons, translated to son.

'elohiym can be translated into a few different words. rulers, judges, divine ones, angels, gods.

You can see that the scholars behind the NKJV have translated these words to say "sons of God", while the new international version scholars have translated the meaning to say "the angels."

Satan presents himself with the other angels

We know that Satan is an angel and we see him presenting himself with the other angels before God, in the book of Job.

Job 2:1 NKJV

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 2:1 NIV

On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him.

We shall be called sons of God, equal to Angels

We can also expand on this understanding with the following verses, in order to know for sure that these sons of God are spiritual beings filled with the holy spirit.

Luke 20:36 NKJV

nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

Romans 8:14 KJV

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

These particular angels in Genesis are fallen Angels

Genesis 6:4 NIV

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The Hebrew word for Nephilim is N@phiyl which originates from the word Naphal which means "to fall, fallen."

We can see further connection and description of these fallen angels in Numbers

Numbers 13:33

We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

These three men seemed to have lived for a long time, as we see their lives spanning past the exodus, when they were finally driven out of their land and we don't hear about them anymore.

Judges 1:20

And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. Then he expelled from there the three sons of Anak.

This gives us a lot of insight into Genesis 6:3, when God says that His spirit shall not strive with man forever. He will shorten the life of mortal men to 120 years.

Genesis 6:3 (NKJV)

3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

It seems clear to me that God is talking about these fallen angels when He says "My Spirit."

Answer 5

As a Hebrew speaker, I may have a chance to contribute here.

The Hebrew word used to describe the giants is Nephilim, spelled נפילים, which comes from the verb נפל - which means "to fall".

The most common explanation in the Jewish tradition is that those are either fallen angels, or the sons of such angels, born to human wives. In both cases they are referred to as evil, and unlike in many other ancient mythologies (e.g. the Greek Mythology), those fallen angels do not have any supernatural powers except their size. It is mentioned that they lived for 120 years - maybe in order to show that they are not immortal.