1 – Introduction

Our reference is from Genesis 6:1-8 where we read the following:

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

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.

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. 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.  

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 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.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD”.

The text of Gen 6:1-8 has puzzled Jewish and Christian Bible interpreters for centuries. Its verses contain a number of notions, raising many questions, such as on the identity of the

“sons of God” and the “daughters of men”.

A specific question is related to the appearance of the giants, the focus of this part of the blog.

The fact that these giants existed becomes clear when we note how often the bible refers to them. A few references, out of the many more that exist, are as follows:

Numbers 13:33…”and we even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that is how we must have looked to them.”

Deuteronomy 3:11… “King Og was the last of the Rephaim. His coffin, made of stone, was six feet wide and almost fourteen feet long, according to standard measurements. It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)

Og’s bed (engraving circa 1770 by Johann Balthasar Probst)

Joshua 14:15… “Before this, Hebron was called the city of Arba. (Arba had been the greatest of the Anakim.)

Deuteronomy 2:10…”A mighty race of giants called the Emim used to live in Ar. They were as tall as the Anakim, another race of giants”.

1 Chronicles 20:8….”These three, who were killed by David and his men, were descendants of the giants at Gath”.

2 Samuel 21:18…”After this there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, during which Sibbecai from Hushah killed a giant named Saph.”.

¿Who is this group of individuals, called giants, and what do they represent?

We will first identify a number of theories that try to explain the identity of the various individuals identified in Genesis 6 verses 1-8, and then go into more detail about the generally accepted theory for the appearance of the “giants”.