Although this post was due few years ago, it was always on the back burner because it is not among the most important topics of Torah to ponder.
There is a reason though to satisfy thirst of the curious minds for the answers seemingly hidden in the sacred text – God responds to those who seek Truth. Yet there is one more good reason: answering it would be one more example of the readiness of the sacred text to respond. This shows that, if seeker is sincere, the answer is readily available…
Giants have been mentioned multiple times in Torah all the way through the conquest of the Canaan by Israelites – where do they come from? Adam and Eve and their children were not giants… Noah was not giant either… As a results of the great flood in the days of Noah no living creature was saved except the family of Noah…
Where do giants come from?
Let’s start our detective investigation into the text…
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There are three Hebrew words which according to the description given in Torah symbolize what we call “giants”: Anakim, Rephaim and Nephilim. Sometimes a simple descriptive word גִּבֹּר is used meaning literally “mighty”.
In the book of Joshuah we read:
“ And Caleb drove out there (Hebron, ed.) the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. ” ( Joshuah 15:14)
Who are the children of Anak? Read the description from the words of the Israeli spies:
“And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who are descendants of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’ ” (Numbers 13:33)
On the word Rephaim describing the giants see the following:
“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnants of the Rephaim; behold, his bed was made of iron; is it not in the city of Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, according to the cubit of a man.” (Deuteronomy 3:11)
The size mentioned there translates to 13.5′ x 6′ which according to Rambam (Moreh Nevuhim 2:47) mean that King Og was about 9′ tall. No wonder the spies talked about viewing themselves as grasshoppers compared to the giants they saw…
Another famous example of giant given in the book Samuel I which spells out exact heigth of the this giant:
“And a fighter came out from the tents of the Philistines, named Goliath of Gath; he was more than six cubits tall.” (Samuel I, 17:4)
What is six cubit tall? It is exactly 9 feet! Same as above estimate by Rambam on the height of king Og based only on king’s bed size! Same height as Og but this time the number of the measurement is spelled out in the scripture! And this living human monstrosity had quite an obvious impression on Israelites. Remember – the only means of the war at the time was only hand-to-hand combat,
“And all the men of Israel, when they saw him, went in flight, overcome with fear.” (Samuel I, 17:24)
Before we continue into the book of Genesis, let’s clarify the territory where Torah story encounters giants so far: Hebron and Philistine are in the land of Canaan and kingdom of the king Og is in Amorite territory which is Kush.
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Now we are ready to continue our detective investigation into the book of Genesis to find out where have these Nephilim and Anakim come from…
“And Kush was father of Nimrod, who was the first גִּבֹּר mighty men on earth. He was a mighty hunter before YHVH, so that there is a saying, ‘like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before YHVH.’ “(Genesis 10:8-9)
Well, now we know that the giants are descendants of Nimrod. And we know that he is son of Kush… And who is Kush?
“And the sons of Ham: Kush, and Mitzraim, Put, and Canaan.” (Genesis 10:6)
Now we know that Nimrod and giants after him came from Ham. But there is more… Remember we found earlier the locations where giants lived? Canaan and Kush? Well we just learned that both – Kush and Canaan are sons of Ham…
You probably already know who Ham is :
“And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and of these was the whole earth overspread. ” (Genesis 9:18-19)
” Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham,and Japheth; and unto them were sons born after the flood. ” (Genesis 10:1)
Since Ham, son of Noah, is not described as a giant, then the pointer points to … right, his wife, as it takes two to have descendants… Who is she? Here is the detail answer:
“The Nephilim were on earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4)
To understand meaning of this sentence we need understanding the difference between בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים “sons of God” and בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם “daughters of men”. Wonderful explanation given to us by Dr. Gerald Schroeder in his article reprinted here with his permission : Bareishit: Did Adam Have Parents?
In short, – there were, let’s call them proto-humans, inhabiting earth before Adam was created. Paleontologists find the remains of those in their digs.
This makes Adam not simply first human, but first human of a new type having significant difference from any previous proto-humans in that God
“breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ( נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים ); and man became a living soul. ” (Genesis 1:7)
Now we know everything about the giants and their origin. Let’s recoup what we have read from above Torah quotes …
- There were proto-humans before Adam and Eve. Torah called sons of His perfect creation – Adam and Eve – sons of God – as to distinguish them from Creator’s older “model” – sons of the men.
- Among those sons of the men some were giants.
- Sons of Adam and Eve took some of the daughters of those proto-humans as wives (which is the very reason why God came up with destruction of all earthly life with flood).
- Only family of Noah and his sons were spared of the destruction. Among them Ham with his wife.
- Wife of Ham was daughter of the Nephilim – the giants.
- They gave birth to Kush and Canaan – these two their sons could be traced to be fathers of the giants: Kush to the giants among Amorites (king Og) and Canaan to the giants (Anakim) of Hebron
- Also Torah explicitly names the first “mighty” giant born after flood – Nimrod – born to his father Kush, son of Ham.
So now we can trace the giants DNA in this sequence:
- giants among proto-humans
- wife of Ham, Noah’s son, daughter of the giants saved in the Noah’s ark
- Ham’s sons Kush and Canaan
- Nimrod (the first giant born after flood), King Og, Anakim of Hevron, etc… all being children of Kush and Canaan.
And the rest is history…
P.S. If there is anything that may need clarification on the topic feel free to send us a message or place a comment. Make sure first you are familiar with the article of Dr. Schroeder mentioned above as the article you are reading continues where the other stops.
