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📜 Ancient Papyrus Edition 📜
⚠️ Specialist Manuscript Study on Rare Texts/Scrolls of the Ancient World with Multidisciplinary fields ⚠️
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🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants (Iranian Manichean Version)
-included in ANE (Ancient Near east ) Papyrology background textual analysis from Deluxe Minds that have real expertise in Ancient cultures Pre Flood & Post Flood - Caution this before you is a Advanced study / class ⚠️
🔑 - Key Introduction - (typed in Post below AFTER this quick msg)- a deep look into Nephilim, Anakim like races to the Rephaim but not before a quick intro of Gilgamesh & his real vs Pseudo beginnins ! (In Pics Below is the Text of the book of Giants itself if you dont want to read this intro but I encourage you to read it bc next Study I will be posting 1st Enoch with the entire full Giants book with every version integrated back into the ancient text in a combined read along form ! Allot more smooth than this current one i present to you now & This below will prepare you for the next studies etc to state it simple) ENJOY & GOD BLESS! TTYVSl
(See Pics for Full book below)
🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants: General Introduction
- Featuring the Literary Context / Literary Background -
🔷️ ⬛️⬜️ 🔷️Mesopotamian traditions about Gilgamesh are the earliest known influences on the Book of Giants.^ Gilgamesh was a legendary figure in Sumerian and Akkadian literature, best known from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a work whose importance in ancient Mesopotamia was comparable to that of the Homeric epics in ancient Greece. It told the story of Gil- gamesh, the ancient king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk. Gilgamesh befriended the wildman Enkidu. They had adventures, notably the defeat of the monster Humbaba of the Cedar Forest, until Enkidu's untimely death at the hands of the goddess Ishtar. Distraught by the loss of his friend, Gilgamesh set out to find the secret of eternal life. He went on a quest to consult with Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah figure and the only man to survive the great flood. The gods gave Utnapishtim and his wife eternal life. But Gilgamesh was unable to achieve immortality for himself. He had to be content with his own great reputation for his vast accomplishments.
Gilgamesh, Humbaba, and perhaps Utnapishtim appear as characters in the Book of Giants. Gilgamesh and Humbaba (Hobabish) seem to be giants in the Aramaic version, and Utnapishtim (Atanbish) may be a giant or Enoch himself in the Manichean version. The Book of Giants has no direct references to the events in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but there are hints that the author was familiar with elements of it. In both the Aramaic Book of Giants and the epic, Gilgamesh was a semidivine being associated with dreams that foretold disaster. Both present Gilgamesh and Humbaba/ Hobabish as giant warriors. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Humbaba is associated with Mount Hermon in Lebanon. The site is important also in the Enochic version of the story of the Watchers and the giants (cf. 1 En. 6:6; 13:7-9). It very likely figured in the Book of Giants as well. In Mesopota- mian tradition Gilgamesh became a judge in the underworld, and in the giants tradi- tions in the Book of Giants and the Enochic literature the giants became disembodied demonic forces after their deaths who aflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1; Jub. 10:1-14). It is possible that the author of the Book of Giants knew he Epic of Gilgamesh in a late Aramaic translation, but it is no less likely that the author was working with oral traditions about Gilgamesh.?
The most important influence on the Book of Giants was the legend of the Watchers and their ofspring preserved mainly in the Enochic literature, especially the Book of he Watchers (1 En. 1-36) and the Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37-71). There are also ref- erences to the story in the Book of Dream Visions (1 En. 83-90). Outside the Enochician literature the story is mentioned in the Book of Jubilees and occasionally in the Dead Sea Scrolls.#
The versions of the Enochic legend of the Watchers vary slightly among themselves, but the basic narrative is something like the following: The Watchers were a group of angels whose job was to worship God unsleepingly and to guard his throne (1 En. 14:23; 39:12-13; 71:7). A group of Watchers descended to earth, either with good intention to teach humankind righteously (Jub. 4:15) or because from heaven they saw mortal women and desired to mate with them (1 En. 6:1-2; 39:1; 86:1-3). The chief of the fallen Watchers was Shemihazah (1 En. 6:3; 69:2) or Azazel (1 En. 54:5; 55:4; or Asael; cf. 1 En. 9:6) and some of their other leaders are named (1 En. 6:7-8; 8:3; 69:2-13). Once on earth they taught mortals how to make weaponry, jewelry, and makeup, as well as secrets of met- allurgy, sorcery, and astrology (1 En. 7:1; 8:1-4; 9:6-8; 64:2; 65:6-7). The unions of the angels with mortal women resulted in the birth of monstrous cannibalistic giants who brought ruin to the earth (1 En. 7:2-6; 9:9; 86:4-6).
The four archangels brought the situation to the attention of God, who ordered them to intervene (1 En. 9:1-10:3). They subdued the fallen Watchers and banished them to a deep abyss where they lie chained, awaiting their fiery judgment at the eschaton (1 En. 10:4-8, 11-14; 54:1-6; 67:4-11; 69:28; 88:1-3; 90:21, 23-24). The archangels also incited the giants to take up a war against one another until all (or nearly all?) of them were dead (1 En. 10:9-10, 12, 15; 56:2-4?; 87:1, 4; 88:2). Some of them also seem to have died in the great flood (1 En. 89:6), which took place after these events. Perhaps some even survived beyond the Flood (see below). In any case the disembodied spirits of the dead giants, or some of them at any rate (Jub. 10:1-14), survived as demonic forces that afflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1). This story is assumed as the background of the narrative in the Book of Giants.
Some of the traditions in the Bible also provide background to the Book of Giants, although it is unclear whether any of these traditions actually influenced it directly. The enigmatic episode in Gen 6:1-4 almost certainly has some connection with the story of the Watchers and the giants. This passage tells us that before the Flood "the sons of God" (i.e, the angels; cf. Job 1:6; 2:1) saw the beauty of human women and took some of them as wives. This seems to have displeased YHWH, who in turn placed a time limit of one hundred twenty years on the spirit dwelling in human beings. We are alsc told that the "Nephilim" lived at the time (and also "afterward") when the sons of God were mating with the mortal women who bore children to them. And we are told that these Nephilim were famous warriors.
What does all this mean? Why did angels behave in this way, unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible? On what is the one hundred twenty years a time limit? Who are the Ne. philim? The word comes from a root meaning to fall ("fallen ones?") and in later Hebrew it means "abortions." Were the Nephilim the same creatures as the offspring of the morta women by the angels? The text may imply they were, but it does not say so explicitly
One possibility is that the writer of Genesis knew some version of the story of the Watchers and the giants, whether the one now found in the Book of the Watchers or a common tradition shared by it. The mythological notion of gods mating with human beings may not have appealed to the writer of Genesis, but the story was too wellknown to ignore. So the writer gave just a brief and allusive account before moving on to the Flood narrative. Another possibility is that Gen 6:1-4 was the inspiration for the story of the Watchers and the giants. Subsequent exegetes pondered the puzzling details of these four verses and filled in the blanks to produce something like the story we now find in 1 Enoch. Different specialists have argued for each of these possibilities and we need not try to decide between them here.9
In the Book of Giants (4Q530 2 ii 16b-20a) one of the giants has what seems to be a predictive dream in which he sees God descend from heaven to earth and occupy a throne, while other thrones are also set up. Books are opened, judgment declared, and God's judgment written down. This passage has close similarities in thought and word. ing to the throne theophany scene in Dan 7:9-10.
It also has notable similarities to the throne theophany in 1 En. 14:18-23, a passage that also shares wording and ideas with Dan 7:9-10. The relationship between the theophanies in Dan 7 and 1 En. 14 has been debated for some time. Milik concluded that the Book of Giants was dependent on Dan- iel. Some scholars have subsequently challenged his view while others have supported it. There is no consensus on which of the three came first and influenced the others or whether they all drew on an independent written or oral tradition. Again, it suffices for our purposes to note the problem without attempting to solve it.0
In addition, there are a number of stories in the Bible about giants.'1 These provide some context for our understanding of the Book of Giants. Although Genesis places the Nephilim in the time before the Flood, it hints that they had a further history. And indeed they appear again in the context of the survey of Canaan by the Israelite spies in Num 13. In 13:32-33 the spies report that the people of the land were of great size and that there the spies saw the Nephilim, whose stature made them feel like grasshoppers. This is the only indication in the Bible that the Nephilim were giants, although this point is also specified in 1 En. 7:2.2 The passage also mentions in passing that the "Anakim" were descended from the Nephilim.
This leads us to another group of biblical giants. 13 The first mention of the Anakim in the Bible is also in the story of the Israelite spies Numbers 13:22 reports that the spies also encountered the children of Anak in Hebror and it mentions three of them by name. Then, in his account of the invasion of the land by the Israelites, Moses comments in an aside that the "Emim" had once inhabited Moab and that they were as tall as the Anakim and, like the Anakim, were reckoned as "Re phaim." Likewise, he says that the land of the Ammonites was reckoned as a land of th Rephaim (whom the Ammonites called Zamzumim"), because formerly the Rephaim inhabited it (Deut 2:10-11, 19-21). Deuteronomy 9:2 also reinforces the strength and stature of the Anakim.
The name Rephaim leads us still further. It can mean something more or less equiv- alent to "ghost" (e.g., Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9), but it usually refers to a group of people who inhabited Canaan before the Israelites did. Notably, one of the few named giants in the Bible-Og King of Bashan---is called the last of the Rephaim in Deut 3:11. The description of Og's enormous bed makes it clear that he too was a giant.'
By far the most famous biblical giant is, of course, Goliath of Gath, whose downfall at the hands of David is familiar from 1 Sam 17. Goliath was a Philistine, but he too is connected with the primordial Rephaim. In 2 Sam 21:15-22 we find a collection of brief tories about four Philistine warriors who were descended of Rapha, that is, were among the Rephaim. One named Ishbi-benob carried an enormous spear and so presumably was a giant. He nearly killed David in battle, but another Israelite intervened and killed the Philistine.' Another named Saph was slain by an Israelite in a battle at Gob. Then there is an alternate account of the killing of Goliath the Gittite by one Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite.'s The fourth was an unnamed man of great stature who had six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet. He was slain by a nephew of David, Three of these four are presented as large men, confirming the identification of the Rephaim with giants.'7Finally, in 1 Chr 1:22-23, we read of an Egyptian giant who also carried a huge spear He was killed with his own weapon by one of David's chief warriors,
The Greek Bible also has a number of references to "gjiants (Greek gigas).'$ Some of the uses of the words in the Septuagint (LXX) translation are helpful for understanding how some of the passages in the Hebrew Bible discussed above were understood in the late Second Temple period.'s The term Nephilim is translated as "giants" in its occur- rences in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33 (LXX 13:34). The Hebrew word gibbor normally means "warrior," but sometimes its use in context led the translators to translate it as "giant" (Gen 6:4; 10:8-9, cf. 1 Chr 1:10 [of Nimrod]; Gen 14:5; Ps 19:5 [LXX 18:6]; 33:16 [LXX 32:16]; Isa 3:2; 13:3; 49:24-25; Ezek 32:12, 21, 27;20 39:18, 20).
The term Rephaim is frequently, although not always, translated as "giants." Og is called one of the giants in Josh 12:4 and 13:12, although Rephaim is transliterated as Raphain in Deut 3:11. Likewise, the word Rapha is transliterated into Greek letters all four times in 2 Sam 21:15-22, but 21:22 does specify that they were all giants.21 The geographical name "the valley of Rephaim is translated as "the valley of giants" in 1 Chr 1:15 and 14:9, 13. In Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9; and Job 26:5 the meaning of Rephaim in its original context in Hebrew is "ghost, but it is translated as "giants" In Deut 1:28 the term Anakim is translated as "giants." The Greek of Sir 16:7 refers to a revolt of ancient giants but the Hebrew text uses another word that does not normally mean giant. The Greek of Sir 47:4 refers to Goliath (who is named) as a giant. The Hebrew of this verse does not survive
There are a few other references to giants in books of the Greek Bible that were composed in Greek or whose Hebrew originals are entirely lost. There is mention of the doom of the ancient giants before the Flood in Wis 14:6 and 3 Mac 2:4. Baruch 3:26 echoes the language of Gen 6:4 when referring to the giants. In her hymn of victory, Judith gloats over the fact that a woman, rather than Titans or giants, vanquished her enemy (Jdt 16:5-6).2 In 1 Maccabees the poem in praise of Judah the Maccabee says that he "put on a breastplate like a giant" (1 Mac 3:3).
Thus we see that there was a rich mythology of giants in the Hebrew Bible and it continued to develop in the Second Temple period. Space does not permit further discussion of traditions about giants in the Classical world or the ancient Near East, but a few more references to giants in Second Temple Jewish literature should be roted. Sibylline oracles were originally pithy oracles attributed to the Sibyl, a pagan prophetess. Some collections of her oracles were known in ancient Rome. They are now almost entirely lost. But Jews and Christians composed many books in the name of the Sibyl in antiquity. The first three books of Sibylline Oracles, of Jewish origin but with some Christian editing and interpolation, provide some passages of interest. Sibylline Oracle 1:87-103 retells the story of the Watchers briefly, but treats them as its third generation of human beings. It mentions giants in 1:123, but it is unclear that they are the giants of the Watchers myth. The seventh generation is identified as Titans, but these are also the human beings who built the Tower of Babel (Sib. Or. 1:307-23). The latter story is much expanded in Sib. Or. 3:97-161. This passage tells a version of the traditional story of the conflict between the Titans anc Cronus that led to the birth of Zeus.?3
The first-century BCE chronographer Alexander Polyhistor refers twice to earlier traditions about Abraham that mention giants. The work of Alexander is lost, but the fourth-century CE historian Eusebius of Caesarea quotes the relevant passages in his Praep. ev. 9.17.2-9 and 9.18.2.2 Alexander attributes the first passage to the Jewish writer Eupolemos, although some think that he was mistaken and that it was written by some- one else, possibly a Samaritan. In any case, the passage creatively retells the story of Abraham, prefacing it with an account of the founding of the city Babylon and the build- ing of the Tower of Babel by giants after the Flood. These giants spread over the earth after God destroyed the tower. It also identifies Enoch with Atlas, a Titan. In the second passage Alexander relates that certain anonymous works say that Abraham claimed to be descended from the giants.
The first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote an entire treatise on Gen 6:1-4 called On the Giants.2s As is his usual practice, he allegorizes the story, making it about the temptation of the soul by worldly pleasures. He cautions his read- ers that the story is not a myth, hinting that he perhaps knew and disapproved of the story of the Watchers and the giants. But he does not directly refer or allude to that story. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions giants a number of times in his works, mostly following the Greek narrative of the Septuagint. In his treatment of Gen 6:1-4 in A. J. 1.72-73 he interprets the passage to say that angels mated with mortal women and that the unions produced offspring. He does not call the latter giants directly, but he hints that he knows of a tradition in which they committed outrages similar to those committed by the giants of Greek mythology. Otherwise, he does not refer directly to the story of the Watchers and the giants, although he does say that the bones of some of the giants mentioned in Num 13:33 were on display in his day (Ant. 5.125).
⚠️ REMEMBER BELOW IN PICS IN THE NEXT REPLIES IS THE BOOK OF GIANTS ITS SELF ⚠️
⚫️ NOTES FOR ABOVE INTRODUCTION OF THE GIANTS BOOK(S) ⚫️ (some numbers to the Notes got lost but the notes are in full & aren't missing any data or sources ) make what you can of it !
⚫️ 4. For discussions of the manuscripts, date, provenance, genre, and structure of the Aramaic and Manichean versions of the B ook of Giants, see the introductions to the chapters by Loren Stuckenbruck, Prods Oktor Skjæervo, and Peter Zieme, which folOw. , 5. For an English translation, see Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (London: Penguin, 1999).
6. See the discussion of Turkic fragment A by Zieme below in his translation.
⚫️ 7. Matthew Goff, "Gilgamesh the Giant: The Qumran Book of Ciants Appropriation of Gilgamesh Motifs," DSD 16 (2009): 221-53, doi:10.1163/156851709X395740
⚫️ 8. The best English translation of1 Enoch is George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012). For a con- enient translation of Jubilees, see O. S. Wintermute, "Jubilees," OTP 2:35-142. For the relevant passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see the chapter on the Aramaic Book of Giants by Stuckenbruck in this volume
⚫️ 9 For the ancient Near Eastern and related background to Gen 6:1-4, see Ronald Hendel, "The Ne bhilim Were on the Earth: Genesis 6:1-4, and Its Ancient Near Eastern Context," in The Fall of the Angels ed. Christoph Auffarth and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, TBN 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 11-34. For a discussion of Gen 6:1-4 and its relation to the Watchers tradition, see Chris Seeman, ""The Watchers Traditions and Gen 6:1-4 (MT and LXX)," in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Angela Kim Harkins, Kel- ey Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endress (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 25-38, doi:10.2307/j.ctt22nmb25.6
⚫️ 10. For a discussion with bibliography, see Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe, "Throne Theophanies, Dream Visions, and Righteous(?) Seers: Daniel, the Book of Giants, and 1 Enoch Reconsidered," in Goff, Stuck- enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 81-96.
⚫️ 11 The biblical references to giants are covered in detail in Brian R. Doak, The Last of the Rephaim Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel, Ilex Foundation Series 7 (Boston: Ilex Foundation; Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2012). For a summary see Doak, "The Giants n a "Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond" in Goff, Stuck enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 13-32
⚫️12. In Ezek 32:27 there is a reference to "fallen warriors of old in the underworld (Sheol). The phrase ould also be read as *warrior Nephilim of old" and this may have been its original meaning. The dua ense of Nephilim as ancient warriors and as ghosts coheres well with the biblical sense of Rephaim with whom they are associated (see below).
⚫️ 13. Deuteronomy 1:28 also refers to the report by the spies that the people of the land were powerful and tall and that they saw the children of the Anakim there. It does not, however, mention the Nephilim.
⚫️ 14. It was argued by Wolfgang Rölling that an ancient Phoenician grave inscription from Byblos (Byblos 13) also mentions Og. Rölling, "Eine neue phoenizische Inscrift aus Byblos"' Neue Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik 2 (1974): ⚫️15 and pl. 1. The inscription dates to about 500 BCE and invokes a curse on anyone who disturbs the bones of the occupant of the grave. The suggestion is interesting, but it involves a number of philological difficulties. Subsequent analysis of the inscription, including by Röllig, has not found this interpretation to be credible. For a review of the scholarship see Laura Quick, "Laying Og to Rest: Deuteronomy 3 and the Making of a Myth," Bib 98 (2017): 161-72, esp. 170-71. The legend of Og the giant continued to develop in the postbiblical period through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even into the modern period. For a survey of the Og legend see Admiel Kosman, "The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition," HUCA 73 (2002): 157-90. 15. This episode is omitted in the parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8, but cf. n. 21 below,
⚫️ 16. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 says that Elhanan slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath. The dif ference between the Hebrew texts of the two passages is slight and it is difficult to tell which is original. The passage in 1 Samuel may have accidently been miscopied so that it refers to Goliath rather than his brother. Or the Chronicler may have accidentally or deliberately miscopied the text so that it now refers to Goliath's brother, not Goliath himself, thus resolving the contradiction with 1 Sam 17. In any case, both versions imply Goliath's descent from the Rephaim.
⚫️17. The alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ugarit, a city in Syria in the late second millennium BCE, provide some background information on the Rephaim. The Ugaritic language is closely related to He- brew and the Ugaritic texts refer from time to time to the rāpi'uma. These appear to be the deceased spirits of ancestral kings. This meaning has similarities to the biblical usage of Rephaim, which can mean specified as kings. For a detailed review of the Ugaritic evidence and its implications for the biblical word, .e Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin, "Rephaim," DDD, 692-700.
⚫️ 18. For a more detailed discussion of giants traditions in Jewish Greek literature see Michael Tuval, 2ovywyn ylyávrov (Prov 21:26): The Giants in the Jewish Literature in Greek, in Goff, Stuckenbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 41-57.
⚫️19. For an English translation of the Septuagint, see Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
⚫️ 20. The Hebrew word gibbor, "warrior," in Ezek 32:21, 27 refers to the dead in the underworld (f. n. 12 above).
⚫�� 21. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8 translates Rapha as "giants" twice and transliterates it once n 20:8 it too specifies that all"four" were giants, even though only three are mentioned (cf. n. 15 above) The reference to "Dan son of Ioa, from the descendants of the giants [= Rephaim?]" in the Greek text of 2 Sam 21:11is missing in the Hebrew.
⚫️ 22. For the Titans see Samantha Newington, "Greek Titans and Biblical Giants" in Goff, Stuckenbruck and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 33-40,
![TeXasMadde's tweet photo. #BibleStudy #105
#Pseudepigrapha Ed. #8
#SupernaturalCosmography #6
#HighStrangeEvents #6
#AncientTabletsStudy #7
📜 Ancient Papyrus Edition 📜
⚠️ Specialist Manuscript Study on Rare Texts/Scrolls of the Ancient World with Multidisciplinary fields ⚠️
FEATURING ....
🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants (Iranian Manichean Version)
-included in ANE (Ancient Near east ) Papyrology background textual analysis from Deluxe Minds that have real expertise in Ancient cultures Pre Flood & Post Flood - Caution this before you is a Advanced study / class ⚠️
🔑 - Key Introduction - (typed in Post below AFTER this quick msg)- a deep look into Nephilim, Anakim like races to the Rephaim but not before a quick intro of Gilgamesh & his real vs Pseudo beginnins ! (In Pics Below is the Text of the book of Giants itself if you dont want to read this intro but I encourage you to read it bc next Study I will be posting 1st Enoch with the entire full Giants book with every version integrated back into the ancient text in a combined read along form ! Allot more smooth than this current one i present to you now & This below will prepare you for the next studies etc to state it simple) ENJOY & GOD BLESS! TTYVSl
(See Pics for Full book below)
🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants: General Introduction
- Featuring the Literary Context / Literary Background -
🔷️ ⬛️⬜️ 🔷️Mesopotamian traditions about Gilgamesh are the earliest known influences on the Book of Giants.^ Gilgamesh was a legendary figure in Sumerian and Akkadian literature, best known from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a work whose importance in ancient Mesopotamia was comparable to that of the Homeric epics in ancient Greece. It told the story of Gil- gamesh, the ancient king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk. Gilgamesh befriended the wildman Enkidu. They had adventures, notably the defeat of the monster Humbaba of the Cedar Forest, until Enkidu's untimely death at the hands of the goddess Ishtar. Distraught by the loss of his friend, Gilgamesh set out to find the secret of eternal life. He went on a quest to consult with Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah figure and the only man to survive the great flood. The gods gave Utnapishtim and his wife eternal life. But Gilgamesh was unable to achieve immortality for himself. He had to be content with his own great reputation for his vast accomplishments.
Gilgamesh, Humbaba, and perhaps Utnapishtim appear as characters in the Book of Giants. Gilgamesh and Humbaba (Hobabish) seem to be giants in the Aramaic version, and Utnapishtim (Atanbish) may be a giant or Enoch himself in the Manichean version. The Book of Giants has no direct references to the events in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but there are hints that the author was familiar with elements of it. In both the Aramaic Book of Giants and the epic, Gilgamesh was a semidivine being associated with dreams that foretold disaster. Both present Gilgamesh and Humbaba/ Hobabish as giant warriors. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Humbaba is associated with Mount Hermon in Lebanon. The site is important also in the Enochic version of the story of the Watchers and the giants (cf. 1 En. 6:6; 13:7-9). It very likely figured in the Book of Giants as well. In Mesopota- mian tradition Gilgamesh became a judge in the underworld, and in the giants tradi- tions in the Book of Giants and the Enochic literature the giants became disembodied demonic forces after their deaths who aflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1; Jub. 10:1-14). It is possible that the author of the Book of Giants knew he Epic of Gilgamesh in a late Aramaic translation, but it is no less likely that the author was working with oral traditions about Gilgamesh.?
The most important influence on the Book of Giants was the legend of the Watchers and their ofspring preserved mainly in the Enochic literature, especially the Book of he Watchers (1 En. 1-36) and the Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37-71). There are also ref- erences to the story in the Book of Dream Visions (1 En. 83-90). Outside the Enochician literature the story is mentioned in the Book of Jubilees and occasionally in the Dead Sea Scrolls.#
The versions of the Enochic legend of the Watchers vary slightly among themselves, but the basic narrative is something like the following: The Watchers were a group of angels whose job was to worship God unsleepingly and to guard his throne (1 En. 14:23; 39:12-13; 71:7). A group of Watchers descended to earth, either with good intention to teach humankind righteously (Jub. 4:15) or because from heaven they saw mortal women and desired to mate with them (1 En. 6:1-2; 39:1; 86:1-3). The chief of the fallen Watchers was Shemihazah (1 En. 6:3; 69:2) or Azazel (1 En. 54:5; 55:4; or Asael; cf. 1 En. 9:6) and some of their other leaders are named (1 En. 6:7-8; 8:3; 69:2-13). Once on earth they taught mortals how to make weaponry, jewelry, and makeup, as well as secrets of met- allurgy, sorcery, and astrology (1 En. 7:1; 8:1-4; 9:6-8; 64:2; 65:6-7). The unions of the angels with mortal women resulted in the birth of monstrous cannibalistic giants who brought ruin to the earth (1 En. 7:2-6; 9:9; 86:4-6).
The four archangels brought the situation to the attention of God, who ordered them to intervene (1 En. 9:1-10:3). They subdued the fallen Watchers and banished them to a deep abyss where they lie chained, awaiting their fiery judgment at the eschaton (1 En. 10:4-8, 11-14; 54:1-6; 67:4-11; 69:28; 88:1-3; 90:21, 23-24). The archangels also incited the giants to take up a war against one another until all (or nearly all?) of them were dead (1 En. 10:9-10, 12, 15; 56:2-4?; 87:1, 4; 88:2). Some of them also seem to have died in the great flood (1 En. 89:6), which took place after these events. Perhaps some even survived beyond the Flood (see below). In any case the disembodied spirits of the dead giants, or some of them at any rate (Jub. 10:1-14), survived as demonic forces that afflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1). This story is assumed as the background of the narrative in the Book of Giants.
Some of the traditions in the Bible also provide background to the Book of Giants, although it is unclear whether any of these traditions actually influenced it directly. The enigmatic episode in Gen 6:1-4 almost certainly has some connection with the story of the Watchers and the giants. This passage tells us that before the Flood "the sons of God" (i.e, the angels; cf. Job 1:6; 2:1) saw the beauty of human women and took some of them as wives. This seems to have displeased YHWH, who in turn placed a time limit of one hundred twenty years on the spirit dwelling in human beings. We are alsc told that the "Nephilim" lived at the time (and also "afterward") when the sons of God were mating with the mortal women who bore children to them. And we are told that these Nephilim were famous warriors.
What does all this mean? Why did angels behave in this way, unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible? On what is the one hundred twenty years a time limit? Who are the Ne. philim? The word comes from a root meaning to fall ("fallen ones?") and in later Hebrew it means "abortions." Were the Nephilim the same creatures as the offspring of the morta women by the angels? The text may imply they were, but it does not say so explicitly
One possibility is that the writer of Genesis knew some version of the story of the Watchers and the giants, whether the one now found in the Book of the Watchers or a common tradition shared by it. The mythological notion of gods mating with human beings may not have appealed to the writer of Genesis, but the story was too wellknown to ignore. So the writer gave just a brief and allusive account before moving on to the Flood narrative. Another possibility is that Gen 6:1-4 was the inspiration for the story of the Watchers and the giants. Subsequent exegetes pondered the puzzling details of these four verses and filled in the blanks to produce something like the story we now find in 1 Enoch. Different specialists have argued for each of these possibilities and we need not try to decide between them here.9
In the Book of Giants (4Q530 2 ii 16b-20a) one of the giants has what seems to be a predictive dream in which he sees God descend from heaven to earth and occupy a throne, while other thrones are also set up. Books are opened, judgment declared, and God's judgment written down. This passage has close similarities in thought and word. ing to the throne theophany scene in Dan 7:9-10.
It also has notable similarities to the throne theophany in 1 En. 14:18-23, a passage that also shares wording and ideas with Dan 7:9-10. The relationship between the theophanies in Dan 7 and 1 En. 14 has been debated for some time. Milik concluded that the Book of Giants was dependent on Dan- iel. Some scholars have subsequently challenged his view while others have supported it. There is no consensus on which of the three came first and influenced the others or whether they all drew on an independent written or oral tradition. Again, it suffices for our purposes to note the problem without attempting to solve it.0
In addition, there are a number of stories in the Bible about giants.'1 These provide some context for our understanding of the Book of Giants. Although Genesis places the Nephilim in the time before the Flood, it hints that they had a further history. And indeed they appear again in the context of the survey of Canaan by the Israelite spies in Num 13. In 13:32-33 the spies report that the people of the land were of great size and that there the spies saw the Nephilim, whose stature made them feel like grasshoppers. This is the only indication in the Bible that the Nephilim were giants, although this point is also specified in 1 En. 7:2.2 The passage also mentions in passing that the "Anakim" were descended from the Nephilim.
This leads us to another group of biblical giants. 13 The first mention of the Anakim in the Bible is also in the story of the Israelite spies Numbers 13:22 reports that the spies also encountered the children of Anak in Hebror and it mentions three of them by name. Then, in his account of the invasion of the land by the Israelites, Moses comments in an aside that the "Emim" had once inhabited Moab and that they were as tall as the Anakim and, like the Anakim, were reckoned as "Re phaim." Likewise, he says that the land of the Ammonites was reckoned as a land of th Rephaim (whom the Ammonites called Zamzumim"), because formerly the Rephaim inhabited it (Deut 2:10-11, 19-21). Deuteronomy 9:2 also reinforces the strength and stature of the Anakim.
The name Rephaim leads us still further. It can mean something more or less equiv- alent to "ghost" (e.g., Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9), but it usually refers to a group of people who inhabited Canaan before the Israelites did. Notably, one of the few named giants in the Bible-Og King of Bashan---is called the last of the Rephaim in Deut 3:11. The description of Og's enormous bed makes it clear that he too was a giant.'
By far the most famous biblical giant is, of course, Goliath of Gath, whose downfall at the hands of David is familiar from 1 Sam 17. Goliath was a Philistine, but he too is connected with the primordial Rephaim. In 2 Sam 21:15-22 we find a collection of brief tories about four Philistine warriors who were descended of Rapha, that is, were among the Rephaim. One named Ishbi-benob carried an enormous spear and so presumably was a giant. He nearly killed David in battle, but another Israelite intervened and killed the Philistine.' Another named Saph was slain by an Israelite in a battle at Gob. Then there is an alternate account of the killing of Goliath the Gittite by one Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite.'s The fourth was an unnamed man of great stature who had six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet. He was slain by a nephew of David, Three of these four are presented as large men, confirming the identification of the Rephaim with giants.'7Finally, in 1 Chr 1:22-23, we read of an Egyptian giant who also carried a huge spear He was killed with his own weapon by one of David's chief warriors,
The Greek Bible also has a number of references to "gjiants (Greek gigas).'$ Some of the uses of the words in the Septuagint (LXX) translation are helpful for understanding how some of the passages in the Hebrew Bible discussed above were understood in the late Second Temple period.'s The term Nephilim is translated as "giants" in its occur- rences in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33 (LXX 13:34). The Hebrew word gibbor normally means "warrior," but sometimes its use in context led the translators to translate it as "giant" (Gen 6:4; 10:8-9, cf. 1 Chr 1:10 [of Nimrod]; Gen 14:5; Ps 19:5 [LXX 18:6]; 33:16 [LXX 32:16]; Isa 3:2; 13:3; 49:24-25; Ezek 32:12, 21, 27;20 39:18, 20).
The term Rephaim is frequently, although not always, translated as "giants." Og is called one of the giants in Josh 12:4 and 13:12, although Rephaim is transliterated as Raphain in Deut 3:11. Likewise, the word Rapha is transliterated into Greek letters all four times in 2 Sam 21:15-22, but 21:22 does specify that they were all giants.21 The geographical name "the valley of Rephaim is translated as "the valley of giants" in 1 Chr 1:15 and 14:9, 13. In Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9; and Job 26:5 the meaning of Rephaim in its original context in Hebrew is "ghost, but it is translated as "giants" In Deut 1:28 the term Anakim is translated as "giants." The Greek of Sir 16:7 refers to a revolt of ancient giants but the Hebrew text uses another word that does not normally mean giant. The Greek of Sir 47:4 refers to Goliath (who is named) as a giant. The Hebrew of this verse does not survive
There are a few other references to giants in books of the Greek Bible that were composed in Greek or whose Hebrew originals are entirely lost. There is mention of the doom of the ancient giants before the Flood in Wis 14:6 and 3 Mac 2:4. Baruch 3:26 echoes the language of Gen 6:4 when referring to the giants. In her hymn of victory, Judith gloats over the fact that a woman, rather than Titans or giants, vanquished her enemy (Jdt 16:5-6).2 In 1 Maccabees the poem in praise of Judah the Maccabee says that he "put on a breastplate like a giant" (1 Mac 3:3).
Thus we see that there was a rich mythology of giants in the Hebrew Bible and it continued to develop in the Second Temple period. Space does not permit further discussion of traditions about giants in the Classical world or the ancient Near East, but a few more references to giants in Second Temple Jewish literature should be roted. Sibylline oracles were originally pithy oracles attributed to the Sibyl, a pagan prophetess. Some collections of her oracles were known in ancient Rome. They are now almost entirely lost. But Jews and Christians composed many books in the name of the Sibyl in antiquity. The first three books of Sibylline Oracles, of Jewish origin but with some Christian editing and interpolation, provide some passages of interest. Sibylline Oracle 1:87-103 retells the story of the Watchers briefly, but treats them as its third generation of human beings. It mentions giants in 1:123, but it is unclear that they are the giants of the Watchers myth. The seventh generation is identified as Titans, but these are also the human beings who built the Tower of Babel (Sib. Or. 1:307-23). The latter story is much expanded in Sib. Or. 3:97-161. This passage tells a version of the traditional story of the conflict between the Titans anc Cronus that led to the birth of Zeus.?3
The first-century BCE chronographer Alexander Polyhistor refers twice to earlier traditions about Abraham that mention giants. The work of Alexander is lost, but the fourth-century CE historian Eusebius of Caesarea quotes the relevant passages in his Praep. ev. 9.17.2-9 and 9.18.2.2 Alexander attributes the first passage to the Jewish writer Eupolemos, although some think that he was mistaken and that it was written by some- one else, possibly a Samaritan. In any case, the passage creatively retells the story of Abraham, prefacing it with an account of the founding of the city Babylon and the build- ing of the Tower of Babel by giants after the Flood. These giants spread over the earth after God destroyed the tower. It also identifies Enoch with Atlas, a Titan. In the second passage Alexander relates that certain anonymous works say that Abraham claimed to be descended from the giants.
The first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote an entire treatise on Gen 6:1-4 called On the Giants.2s As is his usual practice, he allegorizes the story, making it about the temptation of the soul by worldly pleasures. He cautions his read- ers that the story is not a myth, hinting that he perhaps knew and disapproved of the story of the Watchers and the giants. But he does not directly refer or allude to that story. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions giants a number of times in his works, mostly following the Greek narrative of the Septuagint. In his treatment of Gen 6:1-4 in A. J. 1.72-73 he interprets the passage to say that angels mated with mortal women and that the unions produced offspring. He does not call the latter giants directly, but he hints that he knows of a tradition in which they committed outrages similar to those committed by the giants of Greek mythology. Otherwise, he does not refer directly to the story of the Watchers and the giants, although he does say that the bones of some of the giants mentioned in Num 13:33 were on display in his day (Ant. 5.125).
⚠️ REMEMBER BELOW IN PICS IN THE NEXT REPLIES IS THE BOOK OF GIANTS ITS SELF ⚠️
⚫️ NOTES FOR ABOVE INTRODUCTION OF THE GIANTS BOOK(S) ⚫️ (some numbers to the Notes got lost but the notes are in full & aren't missing any data or sources ) make what you can of it !
⚫️ 4. For discussions of the manuscripts, date, provenance, genre, and structure of the Aramaic and Manichean versions of the B ook of Giants, see the introductions to the chapters by Loren Stuckenbruck, Prods Oktor Skjæervo, and Peter Zieme, which folOw. , 5. For an English translation, see Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (London: Penguin, 1999).
6. See the discussion of Turkic fragment A by Zieme below in his translation.
⚫️ 7. Matthew Goff, "Gilgamesh the Giant: The Qumran Book of Ciants Appropriation of Gilgamesh Motifs," DSD 16 (2009): 221-53, doi:10.1163/156851709X395740
⚫️ 8. The best English translation of1 Enoch is George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012). For a con- enient translation of Jubilees, see O. S. Wintermute, "Jubilees," OTP 2:35-142. For the relevant passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see the chapter on the Aramaic Book of Giants by Stuckenbruck in this volume
⚫️ 9 For the ancient Near Eastern and related background to Gen 6:1-4, see Ronald Hendel, "The Ne bhilim Were on the Earth: Genesis 6:1-4, and Its Ancient Near Eastern Context," in The Fall of the Angels ed. Christoph Auffarth and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, TBN 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 11-34. For a discussion of Gen 6:1-4 and its relation to the Watchers tradition, see Chris Seeman, ""The Watchers Traditions and Gen 6:1-4 (MT and LXX)," in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Angela Kim Harkins, Kel- ey Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endress (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 25-38, doi:10.2307/j.ctt22nmb25.6
⚫️ 10. For a discussion with bibliography, see Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe, "Throne Theophanies, Dream Visions, and Righteous(?) Seers: Daniel, the Book of Giants, and 1 Enoch Reconsidered," in Goff, Stuck- enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 81-96.
⚫️ 11 The biblical references to giants are covered in detail in Brian R. Doak, The Last of the Rephaim Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel, Ilex Foundation Series 7 (Boston: Ilex Foundation; Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2012). For a summary see Doak, "The Giants n a "Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond" in Goff, Stuck enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 13-32
⚫️12. In Ezek 32:27 there is a reference to "fallen warriors of old in the underworld (Sheol). The phrase ould also be read as *warrior Nephilim of old" and this may have been its original meaning. The dua ense of Nephilim as ancient warriors and as ghosts coheres well with the biblical sense of Rephaim with whom they are associated (see below).
⚫️ 13. Deuteronomy 1:28 also refers to the report by the spies that the people of the land were powerful and tall and that they saw the children of the Anakim there. It does not, however, mention the Nephilim.
⚫️ 14. It was argued by Wolfgang Rölling that an ancient Phoenician grave inscription from Byblos (Byblos 13) also mentions Og. Rölling, "Eine neue phoenizische Inscrift aus Byblos"' Neue Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik 2 (1974): ⚫️15 and pl. 1. The inscription dates to about 500 BCE and invokes a curse on anyone who disturbs the bones of the occupant of the grave. The suggestion is interesting, but it involves a number of philological difficulties. Subsequent analysis of the inscription, including by Röllig, has not found this interpretation to be credible. For a review of the scholarship see Laura Quick, "Laying Og to Rest: Deuteronomy 3 and the Making of a Myth," Bib 98 (2017): 161-72, esp. 170-71. The legend of Og the giant continued to develop in the postbiblical period through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even into the modern period. For a survey of the Og legend see Admiel Kosman, "The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition," HUCA 73 (2002): 157-90. 15. This episode is omitted in the parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8, but cf. n. 21 below,
⚫️ 16. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 says that Elhanan slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath. The dif ference between the Hebrew texts of the two passages is slight and it is difficult to tell which is original. The passage in 1 Samuel may have accidently been miscopied so that it refers to Goliath rather than his brother. Or the Chronicler may have accidentally or deliberately miscopied the text so that it now refers to Goliath's brother, not Goliath himself, thus resolving the contradiction with 1 Sam 17. In any case, both versions imply Goliath's descent from the Rephaim.
⚫️17. The alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ugarit, a city in Syria in the late second millennium BCE, provide some background information on the Rephaim. The Ugaritic language is closely related to He- brew and the Ugaritic texts refer from time to time to the rāpi'uma. These appear to be the deceased spirits of ancestral kings. This meaning has similarities to the biblical usage of Rephaim, which can mean specified as kings. For a detailed review of the Ugaritic evidence and its implications for the biblical word, .e Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin, "Rephaim," DDD, 692-700.
⚫️ 18. For a more detailed discussion of giants traditions in Jewish Greek literature see Michael Tuval, 2ovywyn ylyávrov (Prov 21:26): The Giants in the Jewish Literature in Greek, in Goff, Stuckenbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 41-57.
⚫️19. For an English translation of the Septuagint, see Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
⚫️ 20. The Hebrew word gibbor, "warrior," in Ezek 32:21, 27 refers to the dead in the underworld (f. n. 12 above).
⚫�� 21. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8 translates Rapha as "giants" twice and transliterates it once n 20:8 it too specifies that all"four" were giants, even though only three are mentioned (cf. n. 15 above) The reference to "Dan son of Ioa, from the descendants of the giants [= Rephaim?]" in the Greek text of 2 Sam 21:11is missing in the Hebrew.
⚫️ 22. For the Titans see Samantha Newington, "Greek Titans and Biblical Giants" in Goff, Stuckenbruck and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 33-40,](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0yH9AlXIAAjPE5.jpg)
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🔑 - Key Introduction - (typed in Post below AFTER this quick msg)- a deep look into Nephilim, Anakim like races to the Rephaim but not before a quick intro of Gilgamesh & his real vs Pseudo beginnins ! (In Pics Below is the Text of the book of Giants itself if you dont want to read this intro but I encourage you to read it bc next Study I will be posting 1st Enoch with the entire full Giants book with every version integrated back into the ancient text in a combined read along form ! Allot more smooth than this current one i present to you now & This below will prepare you for the next studies etc to state it simple) ENJOY & GOD BLESS! TTYVSl
(See Pics for Full book below)
🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants: General Introduction
- Featuring the Literary Context / Literary Background -
🔷️ ⬛️⬜️ 🔷️Mesopotamian traditions about Gilgamesh are the earliest known influences on the Book of Giants.^ Gilgamesh was a legendary figure in Sumerian and Akkadian literature, best known from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a work whose importance in ancient Mesopotamia was comparable to that of the Homeric epics in ancient Greece. It told the story of Gil- gamesh, the ancient king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk. Gilgamesh befriended the wildman Enkidu. They had adventures, notably the defeat of the monster Humbaba of the Cedar Forest, until Enkidu's untimely death at the hands of the goddess Ishtar. Distraught by the loss of his friend, Gilgamesh set out to find the secret of eternal life. He went on a quest to consult with Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah figure and the only man to survive the great flood. The gods gave Utnapishtim and his wife eternal life. But Gilgamesh was unable to achieve immortality for himself. He had to be content with his own great reputation for his vast accomplishments.
Gilgamesh, Humbaba, and perhaps Utnapishtim appear as characters in the Book of Giants. Gilgamesh and Humbaba (Hobabish) seem to be giants in the Aramaic version, and Utnapishtim (Atanbish) may be a giant or Enoch himself in the Manichean version. The Book of Giants has no direct references to the events in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but there are hints that the author was familiar with elements of it. In both the Aramaic Book of Giants and the epic, Gilgamesh was a semidivine being associated with dreams that foretold disaster. Both present Gilgamesh and Humbaba/ Hobabish as giant warriors. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Humbaba is associated with Mount Hermon in Lebanon. The site is important also in the Enochic version of the story of the Watchers and the giants (cf. 1 En. 6:6; 13:7-9). It very likely figured in the Book of Giants as well. In Mesopota- mian tradition Gilgamesh became a judge in the underworld, and in the giants tradi- tions in the Book of Giants and the Enochic literature the giants became disembodied demonic forces after their deaths who aflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1; Jub. 10:1-14). It is possible that the author of the Book of Giants knew he Epic of Gilgamesh in a late Aramaic translation, but it is no less likely that the author was working with oral traditions about Gilgamesh.?
The most important influence on the Book of Giants was the legend of the Watchers and their ofspring preserved mainly in the Enochic literature, especially the Book of he Watchers (1 En. 1-36) and the Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37-71). There are also ref- erences to the story in the Book of Dream Visions (1 En. 83-90). Outside the Enochician literature the story is mentioned in the Book of Jubilees and occasionally in the Dead Sea Scrolls.#
The versions of the Enochic legend of the Watchers vary slightly among themselves, but the basic narrative is something like the following: The Watchers were a group of angels whose job was to worship God unsleepingly and to guard his throne (1 En. 14:23; 39:12-13; 71:7). A group of Watchers descended to earth, either with good intention to teach humankind righteously (Jub. 4:15) or because from heaven they saw mortal women and desired to mate with them (1 En. 6:1-2; 39:1; 86:1-3). The chief of the fallen Watchers was Shemihazah (1 En. 6:3; 69:2) or Azazel (1 En. 54:5; 55:4; or Asael; cf. 1 En. 9:6) and some of their other leaders are named (1 En. 6:7-8; 8:3; 69:2-13). Once on earth they taught mortals how to make weaponry, jewelry, and makeup, as well as secrets of met- allurgy, sorcery, and astrology (1 En. 7:1; 8:1-4; 9:6-8; 64:2; 65:6-7). The unions of the angels with mortal women resulted in the birth of monstrous cannibalistic giants who brought ruin to the earth (1 En. 7:2-6; 9:9; 86:4-6).
The four archangels brought the situation to the attention of God, who ordered them to intervene (1 En. 9:1-10:3). They subdued the fallen Watchers and banished them to a deep abyss where they lie chained, awaiting their fiery judgment at the eschaton (1 En. 10:4-8, 11-14; 54:1-6; 67:4-11; 69:28; 88:1-3; 90:21, 23-24). The archangels also incited the giants to take up a war against one another until all (or nearly all?) of them were dead (1 En. 10:9-10, 12, 15; 56:2-4?; 87:1, 4; 88:2). Some of them also seem to have died in the great flood (1 En. 89:6), which took place after these events. Perhaps some even survived beyond the Flood (see below). In any case the disembodied spirits of the dead giants, or some of them at any rate (Jub. 10:1-14), survived as demonic forces that afflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1). This story is assumed as the background of the narrative in the Book of Giants.
Some of the traditions in the Bible also provide background to the Book of Giants, although it is unclear whether any of these traditions actually influenced it directly. The enigmatic episode in Gen 6:1-4 almost certainly has some connection with the story of the Watchers and the giants. This passage tells us that before the Flood "the sons of God" (i.e, the angels; cf. Job 1:6; 2:1) saw the beauty of human women and took some of them as wives. This seems to have displeased YHWH, who in turn placed a time limit of one hundred twenty years on the spirit dwelling in human beings. We are alsc told that the "Nephilim" lived at the time (and also "afterward") when the sons of God were mating with the mortal women who bore children to them. And we are told that these Nephilim were famous warriors.
What does all this mean? Why did angels behave in this way, unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible? On what is the one hundred twenty years a time limit? Who are the Ne. philim? The word comes from a root meaning to fall ("fallen ones?") and in later Hebrew it means "abortions." Were the Nephilim the same creatures as the offspring of the morta women by the angels? The text may imply they were, but it does not say so explicitly
One possibility is that the writer of Genesis knew some version of the story of the Watchers and the giants, whether the one now found in the Book of the Watchers or a common tradition shared by it. The mythological notion of gods mating with human beings may not have appealed to the writer of Genesis, but the story was too wellknown to ignore. So the writer gave just a brief and allusive account before moving on to the Flood narrative. Another possibility is that Gen 6:1-4 was the inspiration for the story of the Watchers and the giants. Subsequent exegetes pondered the puzzling details of these four verses and filled in the blanks to produce something like the story we now find in 1 Enoch. Different specialists have argued for each of these possibilities and we need not try to decide between them here.9
In the Book of Giants (4Q530 2 ii 16b-20a) one of the giants has what seems to be a predictive dream in which he sees God descend from heaven to earth and occupy a throne, while other thrones are also set up. Books are opened, judgment declared, and God's judgment written down. This passage has close similarities in thought and word. ing to the throne theophany scene in Dan 7:9-10.
It also has notable similarities to the throne theophany in 1 En. 14:18-23, a passage that also shares wording and ideas with Dan 7:9-10. The relationship between the theophanies in Dan 7 and 1 En. 14 has been debated for some time. Milik concluded that the Book of Giants was dependent on Dan- iel. Some scholars have subsequently challenged his view while others have supported it. There is no consensus on which of the three came first and influenced the others or whether they all drew on an independent written or oral tradition. Again, it suffices for our purposes to note the problem without attempting to solve it.0
In addition, there are a number of stories in the Bible about giants.'1 These provide some context for our understanding of the Book of Giants. Although Genesis places the Nephilim in the time before the Flood, it hints that they had a further history. And indeed they appear again in the context of the survey of Canaan by the Israelite spies in Num 13. In 13:32-33 the spies report that the people of the land were of great size and that there the spies saw the Nephilim, whose stature made them feel like grasshoppers. This is the only indication in the Bible that the Nephilim were giants, although this point is also specified in 1 En. 7:2.2 The passage also mentions in passing that the "Anakim" were descended from the Nephilim.
This leads us to another group of biblical giants. 13 The first mention of the Anakim in the Bible is also in the story of the Israelite spies Numbers 13:22 reports that the spies also encountered the children of Anak in Hebror and it mentions three of them by name. Then, in his account of the invasion of the land by the Israelites, Moses comments in an aside that the "Emim" had once inhabited Moab and that they were as tall as the Anakim and, like the Anakim, were reckoned as "Re phaim." Likewise, he says that the land of the Ammonites was reckoned as a land of th Rephaim (whom the Ammonites called Zamzumim"), because formerly the Rephaim inhabited it (Deut 2:10-11, 19-21). Deuteronomy 9:2 also reinforces the strength and stature of the Anakim.
The name Rephaim leads us still further. It can mean something more or less equiv- alent to "ghost" (e.g., Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9), but it usually refers to a group of people who inhabited Canaan before the Israelites did. Notably, one of the few named giants in the Bible-Og King of Bashan---is called the last of the Rephaim in Deut 3:11. The description of Og's enormous bed makes it clear that he too was a giant.'
By far the most famous biblical giant is, of course, Goliath of Gath, whose downfall at the hands of David is familiar from 1 Sam 17. Goliath was a Philistine, but he too is connected with the primordial Rephaim. In 2 Sam 21:15-22 we find a collection of brief tories about four Philistine warriors who were descended of Rapha, that is, were among the Rephaim. One named Ishbi-benob carried an enormous spear and so presumably was a giant. He nearly killed David in battle, but another Israelite intervened and killed the Philistine.' Another named Saph was slain by an Israelite in a battle at Gob. Then there is an alternate account of the killing of Goliath the Gittite by one Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite.'s The fourth was an unnamed man of great stature who had six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet. He was slain by a nephew of David, Three of these four are presented as large men, confirming the identification of the Rephaim with giants.'7Finally, in 1 Chr 1:22-23, we read of an Egyptian giant who also carried a huge spear He was killed with his own weapon by one of David's chief warriors,
The Greek Bible also has a number of references to "gjiants (Greek gigas).'$ Some of the uses of the words in the Septuagint (LXX) translation are helpful for understanding how some of the passages in the Hebrew Bible discussed above were understood in the late Second Temple period.'s The term Nephilim is translated as "giants" in its occur- rences in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33 (LXX 13:34). The Hebrew word gibbor normally means "warrior," but sometimes its use in context led the translators to translate it as "giant" (Gen 6:4; 10:8-9, cf. 1 Chr 1:10 [of Nimrod]; Gen 14:5; Ps 19:5 [LXX 18:6]; 33:16 [LXX 32:16]; Isa 3:2; 13:3; 49:24-25; Ezek 32:12, 21, 27;20 39:18, 20).
The term Rephaim is frequently, although not always, translated as "giants." Og is called one of the giants in Josh 12:4 and 13:12, although Rephaim is transliterated as Raphain in Deut 3:11. Likewise, the word Rapha is transliterated into Greek letters all four times in 2 Sam 21:15-22, but 21:22 does specify that they were all giants.21 The geographical name "the valley of Rephaim is translated as "the valley of giants" in 1 Chr 1:15 and 14:9, 13. In Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9; and Job 26:5 the meaning of Rephaim in its original context in Hebrew is "ghost, but it is translated as "giants" In Deut 1:28 the term Anakim is translated as "giants." The Greek of Sir 16:7 refers to a revolt of ancient giants but the Hebrew text uses another word that does not normally mean giant. The Greek of Sir 47:4 refers to Goliath (who is named) as a giant. The Hebrew of this verse does not survive
There are a few other references to giants in books of the Greek Bible that were composed in Greek or whose Hebrew originals are entirely lost. There is mention of the doom of the ancient giants before the Flood in Wis 14:6 and 3 Mac 2:4. Baruch 3:26 echoes the language of Gen 6:4 when referring to the giants. In her hymn of victory, Judith gloats over the fact that a woman, rather than Titans or giants, vanquished her enemy (Jdt 16:5-6).2 In 1 Maccabees the poem in praise of Judah the Maccabee says that he "put on a breastplate like a giant" (1 Mac 3:3).
Thus we see that there was a rich mythology of giants in the Hebrew Bible and it continued to develop in the Second Temple period. Space does not permit further discussion of traditions about giants in the Classical world or the ancient Near East, but a few more references to giants in Second Temple Jewish literature should be roted. Sibylline oracles were originally pithy oracles attributed to the Sibyl, a pagan prophetess. Some collections of her oracles were known in ancient Rome. They are now almost entirely lost. But Jews and Christians composed many books in the name of the Sibyl in antiquity. The first three books of Sibylline Oracles, of Jewish origin but with some Christian editing and interpolation, provide some passages of interest. Sibylline Oracle 1:87-103 retells the story of the Watchers briefly, but treats them as its third generation of human beings. It mentions giants in 1:123, but it is unclear that they are the giants of the Watchers myth. The seventh generation is identified as Titans, but these are also the human beings who built the Tower of Babel (Sib. Or. 1:307-23). The latter story is much expanded in Sib. Or. 3:97-161. This passage tells a version of the traditional story of the conflict between the Titans anc Cronus that led to the birth of Zeus.?3
The first-century BCE chronographer Alexander Polyhistor refers twice to earlier traditions about Abraham that mention giants. The work of Alexander is lost, but the fourth-century CE historian Eusebius of Caesarea quotes the relevant passages in his Praep. ev. 9.17.2-9 and 9.18.2.2 Alexander attributes the first passage to the Jewish writer Eupolemos, although some think that he was mistaken and that it was written by some- one else, possibly a Samaritan. In any case, the passage creatively retells the story of Abraham, prefacing it with an account of the founding of the city Babylon and the build- ing of the Tower of Babel by giants after the Flood. These giants spread over the earth after God destroyed the tower. It also identifies Enoch with Atlas, a Titan. In the second passage Alexander relates that certain anonymous works say that Abraham claimed to be descended from the giants.
The first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote an entire treatise on Gen 6:1-4 called On the Giants.2s As is his usual practice, he allegorizes the story, making it about the temptation of the soul by worldly pleasures. He cautions his read- ers that the story is not a myth, hinting that he perhaps knew and disapproved of the story of the Watchers and the giants. But he does not directly refer or allude to that story. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions giants a number of times in his works, mostly following the Greek narrative of the Septuagint. In his treatment of Gen 6:1-4 in A. J. 1.72-73 he interprets the passage to say that angels mated with mortal women and that the unions produced offspring. He does not call the latter giants directly, but he hints that he knows of a tradition in which they committed outrages similar to those committed by the giants of Greek mythology. Otherwise, he does not refer directly to the story of the Watchers and the giants, although he does say that the bones of some of the giants mentioned in Num 13:33 were on display in his day (Ant. 5.125).
⚠️ REMEMBER BELOW IN PICS IN THE NEXT REPLIES IS THE BOOK OF GIANTS ITS SELF ⚠️
⚫️ NOTES FOR ABOVE INTRODUCTION OF THE GIANTS BOOK(S) ⚫️ (some numbers to the Notes got lost but the notes are in full & aren't missing any data or sources ) make what you can of it !
⚫️ 4. For discussions of the manuscripts, date, provenance, genre, and structure of the Aramaic and Manichean versions of the B ook of Giants, see the introductions to the chapters by Loren Stuckenbruck, Prods Oktor Skjæervo, and Peter Zieme, which folOw. , 5. For an English translation, see Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (London: Penguin, 1999).
6. See the discussion of Turkic fragment A by Zieme below in his translation.
⚫️ 7. Matthew Goff, "Gilgamesh the Giant: The Qumran Book of Ciants Appropriation of Gilgamesh Motifs," DSD 16 (2009): 221-53, doi:10.1163/156851709X395740
⚫️ 8. The best English translation of1 Enoch is George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012). For a con- enient translation of Jubilees, see O. S. Wintermute, "Jubilees," OTP 2:35-142. For the relevant passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see the chapter on the Aramaic Book of Giants by Stuckenbruck in this volume
⚫️ 9 For the ancient Near Eastern and related background to Gen 6:1-4, see Ronald Hendel, "The Ne bhilim Were on the Earth: Genesis 6:1-4, and Its Ancient Near Eastern Context," in The Fall of the Angels ed. Christoph Auffarth and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, TBN 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 11-34. For a discussion of Gen 6:1-4 and its relation to the Watchers tradition, see Chris Seeman, ""The Watchers Traditions and Gen 6:1-4 (MT and LXX)," in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Angela Kim Harkins, Kel- ey Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endress (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 25-38, doi:10.2307/j.ctt22nmb25.6
⚫️ 10. For a discussion with bibliography, see Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe, "Throne Theophanies, Dream Visions, and Righteous(?) Seers: Daniel, the Book of Giants, and 1 Enoch Reconsidered," in Goff, Stuck- enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 81-96.
⚫️ 11 The biblical references to giants are covered in detail in Brian R. Doak, The Last of the Rephaim Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel, Ilex Foundation Series 7 (Boston: Ilex Foundation; Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2012). For a summary see Doak, "The Giants n a "Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond" in Goff, Stuck enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 13-32
⚫️12. In Ezek 32:27 there is a reference to "fallen warriors of old in the underworld (Sheol). The phrase ould also be read as *warrior Nephilim of old" and this may have been its original meaning. The dua ense of Nephilim as ancient warriors and as ghosts coheres well with the biblical sense of Rephaim with whom they are associated (see below).
⚫️ 13. Deuteronomy 1:28 also refers to the report by the spies that the people of the land were powerful and tall and that they saw the children of the Anakim there. It does not, however, mention the Nephilim.
⚫️ 14. It was argued by Wolfgang Rölling that an ancient Phoenician grave inscription from Byblos (Byblos 13) also mentions Og. Rölling, "Eine neue phoenizische Inscrift aus Byblos"' Neue Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik 2 (1974): ⚫️15 and pl. 1. The inscription dates to about 500 BCE and invokes a curse on anyone who disturbs the bones of the occupant of the grave. The suggestion is interesting, but it involves a number of philological difficulties. Subsequent analysis of the inscription, including by Röllig, has not found this interpretation to be credible. For a review of the scholarship see Laura Quick, "Laying Og to Rest: Deuteronomy 3 and the Making of a Myth," Bib 98 (2017): 161-72, esp. 170-71. The legend of Og the giant continued to develop in the postbiblical period through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even into the modern period. For a survey of the Og legend see Admiel Kosman, "The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition," HUCA 73 (2002): 157-90. 15. This episode is omitted in the parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8, but cf. n. 21 below,
⚫️ 16. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 says that Elhanan slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath. The dif ference between the Hebrew texts of the two passages is slight and it is difficult to tell which is original. The passage in 1 Samuel may have accidently been miscopied so that it refers to Goliath rather than his brother. Or the Chronicler may have accidentally or deliberately miscopied the text so that it now refers to Goliath's brother, not Goliath himself, thus resolving the contradiction with 1 Sam 17. In any case, both versions imply Goliath's descent from the Rephaim.
⚫️17. The alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ugarit, a city in Syria in the late second millennium BCE, provide some background information on the Rephaim. The Ugaritic language is closely related to He- brew and the Ugaritic texts refer from time to time to the rāpi'uma. These appear to be the deceased spirits of ancestral kings. This meaning has similarities to the biblical usage of Rephaim, which can mean specified as kings. For a detailed review of the Ugaritic evidence and its implications for the biblical word, .e Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin, "Rephaim," DDD, 692-700.
⚫️ 18. For a more detailed discussion of giants traditions in Jewish Greek literature see Michael Tuval, 2ovywyn ylyávrov (Prov 21:26): The Giants in the Jewish Literature in Greek, in Goff, Stuckenbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 41-57.
⚫️19. For an English translation of the Septuagint, see Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
⚫️ 20. The Hebrew word gibbor, "warrior," in Ezek 32:21, 27 refers to the dead in the underworld (f. n. 12 above).
⚫�� 21. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8 translates Rapha as "giants" twice and transliterates it once n 20:8 it too specifies that all"four" were giants, even though only three are mentioned (cf. n. 15 above) The reference to "Dan son of Ioa, from the descendants of the giants [= Rephaim?]" in the Greek text of 2 Sam 21:11is missing in the Hebrew.
⚫️ 22. For the Titans see Samantha Newington, "Greek Titans and Biblical Giants" in Goff, Stuckenbruck and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 33-40,](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0yBSBqX0AA9GUx.jpg)
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🔑 - Key Introduction - (typed in Post below AFTER this quick msg)- a deep look into Nephilim, Anakim like races to the Rephaim but not before a quick intro of Gilgamesh & his real vs Pseudo beginnins ! (In Pics Below is the Text of the book of Giants itself if you dont want to read this intro but I encourage you to read it bc next Study I will be posting 1st Enoch with the entire full Giants book with every version integrated back into the ancient text in a combined read along form ! Allot more smooth than this current one i present to you now & This below will prepare you for the next studies etc to state it simple) ENJOY & GOD BLESS! TTYVSl
(See Pics for Full book below)
🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants: General Introduction
- Featuring the Literary Context / Literary Background -
🔷️ ⬛️⬜️ 🔷️Mesopotamian traditions about Gilgamesh are the earliest known influences on the Book of Giants.^ Gilgamesh was a legendary figure in Sumerian and Akkadian literature, best known from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a work whose importance in ancient Mesopotamia was comparable to that of the Homeric epics in ancient Greece. It told the story of Gil- gamesh, the ancient king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk. Gilgamesh befriended the wildman Enkidu. They had adventures, notably the defeat of the monster Humbaba of the Cedar Forest, until Enkidu's untimely death at the hands of the goddess Ishtar. Distraught by the loss of his friend, Gilgamesh set out to find the secret of eternal life. He went on a quest to consult with Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah figure and the only man to survive the great flood. The gods gave Utnapishtim and his wife eternal life. But Gilgamesh was unable to achieve immortality for himself. He had to be content with his own great reputation for his vast accomplishments.
Gilgamesh, Humbaba, and perhaps Utnapishtim appear as characters in the Book of Giants. Gilgamesh and Humbaba (Hobabish) seem to be giants in the Aramaic version, and Utnapishtim (Atanbish) may be a giant or Enoch himself in the Manichean version. The Book of Giants has no direct references to the events in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but there are hints that the author was familiar with elements of it. In both the Aramaic Book of Giants and the epic, Gilgamesh was a semidivine being associated with dreams that foretold disaster. Both present Gilgamesh and Humbaba/ Hobabish as giant warriors. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Humbaba is associated with Mount Hermon in Lebanon. The site is important also in the Enochic version of the story of the Watchers and the giants (cf. 1 En. 6:6; 13:7-9). It very likely figured in the Book of Giants as well. In Mesopota- mian tradition Gilgamesh became a judge in the underworld, and in the giants tradi- tions in the Book of Giants and the Enochic literature the giants became disembodied demonic forces after their deaths who aflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1; Jub. 10:1-14). It is possible that the author of the Book of Giants knew he Epic of Gilgamesh in a late Aramaic translation, but it is no less likely that the author was working with oral traditions about Gilgamesh.?
The most important influence on the Book of Giants was the legend of the Watchers and their ofspring preserved mainly in the Enochic literature, especially the Book of he Watchers (1 En. 1-36) and the Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37-71). There are also ref- erences to the story in the Book of Dream Visions (1 En. 83-90). Outside the Enochician literature the story is mentioned in the Book of Jubilees and occasionally in the Dead Sea Scrolls.#
The versions of the Enochic legend of the Watchers vary slightly among themselves, but the basic narrative is something like the following: The Watchers were a group of angels whose job was to worship God unsleepingly and to guard his throne (1 En. 14:23; 39:12-13; 71:7). A group of Watchers descended to earth, either with good intention to teach humankind righteously (Jub. 4:15) or because from heaven they saw mortal women and desired to mate with them (1 En. 6:1-2; 39:1; 86:1-3). The chief of the fallen Watchers was Shemihazah (1 En. 6:3; 69:2) or Azazel (1 En. 54:5; 55:4; or Asael; cf. 1 En. 9:6) and some of their other leaders are named (1 En. 6:7-8; 8:3; 69:2-13). Once on earth they taught mortals how to make weaponry, jewelry, and makeup, as well as secrets of met- allurgy, sorcery, and astrology (1 En. 7:1; 8:1-4; 9:6-8; 64:2; 65:6-7). The unions of the angels with mortal women resulted in the birth of monstrous cannibalistic giants who brought ruin to the earth (1 En. 7:2-6; 9:9; 86:4-6).
The four archangels brought the situation to the attention of God, who ordered them to intervene (1 En. 9:1-10:3). They subdued the fallen Watchers and banished them to a deep abyss where they lie chained, awaiting their fiery judgment at the eschaton (1 En. 10:4-8, 11-14; 54:1-6; 67:4-11; 69:28; 88:1-3; 90:21, 23-24). The archangels also incited the giants to take up a war against one another until all (or nearly all?) of them were dead (1 En. 10:9-10, 12, 15; 56:2-4?; 87:1, 4; 88:2). Some of them also seem to have died in the great flood (1 En. 89:6), which took place after these events. Perhaps some even survived beyond the Flood (see below). In any case the disembodied spirits of the dead giants, or some of them at any rate (Jub. 10:1-14), survived as demonic forces that afflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1). This story is assumed as the background of the narrative in the Book of Giants.
Some of the traditions in the Bible also provide background to the Book of Giants, although it is unclear whether any of these traditions actually influenced it directly. The enigmatic episode in Gen 6:1-4 almost certainly has some connection with the story of the Watchers and the giants. This passage tells us that before the Flood "the sons of God" (i.e, the angels; cf. Job 1:6; 2:1) saw the beauty of human women and took some of them as wives. This seems to have displeased YHWH, who in turn placed a time limit of one hundred twenty years on the spirit dwelling in human beings. We are alsc told that the "Nephilim" lived at the time (and also "afterward") when the sons of God were mating with the mortal women who bore children to them. And we are told that these Nephilim were famous warriors.
What does all this mean? Why did angels behave in this way, unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible? On what is the one hundred twenty years a time limit? Who are the Ne. philim? The word comes from a root meaning to fall ("fallen ones?") and in later Hebrew it means "abortions." Were the Nephilim the same creatures as the offspring of the morta women by the angels? The text may imply they were, but it does not say so explicitly
One possibility is that the writer of Genesis knew some version of the story of the Watchers and the giants, whether the one now found in the Book of the Watchers or a common tradition shared by it. The mythological notion of gods mating with human beings may not have appealed to the writer of Genesis, but the story was too wellknown to ignore. So the writer gave just a brief and allusive account before moving on to the Flood narrative. Another possibility is that Gen 6:1-4 was the inspiration for the story of the Watchers and the giants. Subsequent exegetes pondered the puzzling details of these four verses and filled in the blanks to produce something like the story we now find in 1 Enoch. Different specialists have argued for each of these possibilities and we need not try to decide between them here.9
In the Book of Giants (4Q530 2 ii 16b-20a) one of the giants has what seems to be a predictive dream in which he sees God descend from heaven to earth and occupy a throne, while other thrones are also set up. Books are opened, judgment declared, and God's judgment written down. This passage has close similarities in thought and word. ing to the throne theophany scene in Dan 7:9-10.
It also has notable similarities to the throne theophany in 1 En. 14:18-23, a passage that also shares wording and ideas with Dan 7:9-10. The relationship between the theophanies in Dan 7 and 1 En. 14 has been debated for some time. Milik concluded that the Book of Giants was dependent on Dan- iel. Some scholars have subsequently challenged his view while others have supported it. There is no consensus on which of the three came first and influenced the others or whether they all drew on an independent written or oral tradition. Again, it suffices for our purposes to note the problem without attempting to solve it.0
In addition, there are a number of stories in the Bible about giants.'1 These provide some context for our understanding of the Book of Giants. Although Genesis places the Nephilim in the time before the Flood, it hints that they had a further history. And indeed they appear again in the context of the survey of Canaan by the Israelite spies in Num 13. In 13:32-33 the spies report that the people of the land were of great size and that there the spies saw the Nephilim, whose stature made them feel like grasshoppers. This is the only indication in the Bible that the Nephilim were giants, although this point is also specified in 1 En. 7:2.2 The passage also mentions in passing that the "Anakim" were descended from the Nephilim.
This leads us to another group of biblical giants. 13 The first mention of the Anakim in the Bible is also in the story of the Israelite spies Numbers 13:22 reports that the spies also encountered the children of Anak in Hebror and it mentions three of them by name. Then, in his account of the invasion of the land by the Israelites, Moses comments in an aside that the "Emim" had once inhabited Moab and that they were as tall as the Anakim and, like the Anakim, were reckoned as "Re phaim." Likewise, he says that the land of the Ammonites was reckoned as a land of th Rephaim (whom the Ammonites called Zamzumim"), because formerly the Rephaim inhabited it (Deut 2:10-11, 19-21). Deuteronomy 9:2 also reinforces the strength and stature of the Anakim.
The name Rephaim leads us still further. It can mean something more or less equiv- alent to "ghost" (e.g., Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9), but it usually refers to a group of people who inhabited Canaan before the Israelites did. Notably, one of the few named giants in the Bible-Og King of Bashan---is called the last of the Rephaim in Deut 3:11. The description of Og's enormous bed makes it clear that he too was a giant.'
By far the most famous biblical giant is, of course, Goliath of Gath, whose downfall at the hands of David is familiar from 1 Sam 17. Goliath was a Philistine, but he too is connected with the primordial Rephaim. In 2 Sam 21:15-22 we find a collection of brief tories about four Philistine warriors who were descended of Rapha, that is, were among the Rephaim. One named Ishbi-benob carried an enormous spear and so presumably was a giant. He nearly killed David in battle, but another Israelite intervened and killed the Philistine.' Another named Saph was slain by an Israelite in a battle at Gob. Then there is an alternate account of the killing of Goliath the Gittite by one Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite.'s The fourth was an unnamed man of great stature who had six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet. He was slain by a nephew of David, Three of these four are presented as large men, confirming the identification of the Rephaim with giants.'7Finally, in 1 Chr 1:22-23, we read of an Egyptian giant who also carried a huge spear He was killed with his own weapon by one of David's chief warriors,
The Greek Bible also has a number of references to "gjiants (Greek gigas).'$ Some of the uses of the words in the Septuagint (LXX) translation are helpful for understanding how some of the passages in the Hebrew Bible discussed above were understood in the late Second Temple period.'s The term Nephilim is translated as "giants" in its occur- rences in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33 (LXX 13:34). The Hebrew word gibbor normally means "warrior," but sometimes its use in context led the translators to translate it as "giant" (Gen 6:4; 10:8-9, cf. 1 Chr 1:10 [of Nimrod]; Gen 14:5; Ps 19:5 [LXX 18:6]; 33:16 [LXX 32:16]; Isa 3:2; 13:3; 49:24-25; Ezek 32:12, 21, 27;20 39:18, 20).
The term Rephaim is frequently, although not always, translated as "giants." Og is called one of the giants in Josh 12:4 and 13:12, although Rephaim is transliterated as Raphain in Deut 3:11. Likewise, the word Rapha is transliterated into Greek letters all four times in 2 Sam 21:15-22, but 21:22 does specify that they were all giants.21 The geographical name "the valley of Rephaim is translated as "the valley of giants" in 1 Chr 1:15 and 14:9, 13. In Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9; and Job 26:5 the meaning of Rephaim in its original context in Hebrew is "ghost, but it is translated as "giants" In Deut 1:28 the term Anakim is translated as "giants." The Greek of Sir 16:7 refers to a revolt of ancient giants but the Hebrew text uses another word that does not normally mean giant. The Greek of Sir 47:4 refers to Goliath (who is named) as a giant. The Hebrew of this verse does not survive
There are a few other references to giants in books of the Greek Bible that were composed in Greek or whose Hebrew originals are entirely lost. There is mention of the doom of the ancient giants before the Flood in Wis 14:6 and 3 Mac 2:4. Baruch 3:26 echoes the language of Gen 6:4 when referring to the giants. In her hymn of victory, Judith gloats over the fact that a woman, rather than Titans or giants, vanquished her enemy (Jdt 16:5-6).2 In 1 Maccabees the poem in praise of Judah the Maccabee says that he "put on a breastplate like a giant" (1 Mac 3:3).
Thus we see that there was a rich mythology of giants in the Hebrew Bible and it continued to develop in the Second Temple period. Space does not permit further discussion of traditions about giants in the Classical world or the ancient Near East, but a few more references to giants in Second Temple Jewish literature should be roted. Sibylline oracles were originally pithy oracles attributed to the Sibyl, a pagan prophetess. Some collections of her oracles were known in ancient Rome. They are now almost entirely lost. But Jews and Christians composed many books in the name of the Sibyl in antiquity. The first three books of Sibylline Oracles, of Jewish origin but with some Christian editing and interpolation, provide some passages of interest. Sibylline Oracle 1:87-103 retells the story of the Watchers briefly, but treats them as its third generation of human beings. It mentions giants in 1:123, but it is unclear that they are the giants of the Watchers myth. The seventh generation is identified as Titans, but these are also the human beings who built the Tower of Babel (Sib. Or. 1:307-23). The latter story is much expanded in Sib. Or. 3:97-161. This passage tells a version of the traditional story of the conflict between the Titans anc Cronus that led to the birth of Zeus.?3
The first-century BCE chronographer Alexander Polyhistor refers twice to earlier traditions about Abraham that mention giants. The work of Alexander is lost, but the fourth-century CE historian Eusebius of Caesarea quotes the relevant passages in his Praep. ev. 9.17.2-9 and 9.18.2.2 Alexander attributes the first passage to the Jewish writer Eupolemos, although some think that he was mistaken and that it was written by some- one else, possibly a Samaritan. In any case, the passage creatively retells the story of Abraham, prefacing it with an account of the founding of the city Babylon and the build- ing of the Tower of Babel by giants after the Flood. These giants spread over the earth after God destroyed the tower. It also identifies Enoch with Atlas, a Titan. In the second passage Alexander relates that certain anonymous works say that Abraham claimed to be descended from the giants.
The first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote an entire treatise on Gen 6:1-4 called On the Giants.2s As is his usual practice, he allegorizes the story, making it about the temptation of the soul by worldly pleasures. He cautions his read- ers that the story is not a myth, hinting that he perhaps knew and disapproved of the story of the Watchers and the giants. But he does not directly refer or allude to that story. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions giants a number of times in his works, mostly following the Greek narrative of the Septuagint. In his treatment of Gen 6:1-4 in A. J. 1.72-73 he interprets the passage to say that angels mated with mortal women and that the unions produced offspring. He does not call the latter giants directly, but he hints that he knows of a tradition in which they committed outrages similar to those committed by the giants of Greek mythology. Otherwise, he does not refer directly to the story of the Watchers and the giants, although he does say that the bones of some of the giants mentioned in Num 13:33 were on display in his day (Ant. 5.125).
⚠️ REMEMBER BELOW IN PICS IN THE NEXT REPLIES IS THE BOOK OF GIANTS ITS SELF ⚠️
⚫️ NOTES FOR ABOVE INTRODUCTION OF THE GIANTS BOOK(S) ⚫️ (some numbers to the Notes got lost but the notes are in full & aren't missing any data or sources ) make what you can of it !
⚫️ 4. For discussions of the manuscripts, date, provenance, genre, and structure of the Aramaic and Manichean versions of the B ook of Giants, see the introductions to the chapters by Loren Stuckenbruck, Prods Oktor Skjæervo, and Peter Zieme, which folOw. , 5. For an English translation, see Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (London: Penguin, 1999).
6. See the discussion of Turkic fragment A by Zieme below in his translation.
⚫️ 7. Matthew Goff, "Gilgamesh the Giant: The Qumran Book of Ciants Appropriation of Gilgamesh Motifs," DSD 16 (2009): 221-53, doi:10.1163/156851709X395740
⚫️ 8. The best English translation of1 Enoch is George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012). For a con- enient translation of Jubilees, see O. S. Wintermute, "Jubilees," OTP 2:35-142. For the relevant passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see the chapter on the Aramaic Book of Giants by Stuckenbruck in this volume
⚫️ 9 For the ancient Near Eastern and related background to Gen 6:1-4, see Ronald Hendel, "The Ne bhilim Were on the Earth: Genesis 6:1-4, and Its Ancient Near Eastern Context," in The Fall of the Angels ed. Christoph Auffarth and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, TBN 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 11-34. For a discussion of Gen 6:1-4 and its relation to the Watchers tradition, see Chris Seeman, ""The Watchers Traditions and Gen 6:1-4 (MT and LXX)," in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Angela Kim Harkins, Kel- ey Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endress (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 25-38, doi:10.2307/j.ctt22nmb25.6
⚫️ 10. For a discussion with bibliography, see Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe, "Throne Theophanies, Dream Visions, and Righteous(?) Seers: Daniel, the Book of Giants, and 1 Enoch Reconsidered," in Goff, Stuck- enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 81-96.
⚫️ 11 The biblical references to giants are covered in detail in Brian R. Doak, The Last of the Rephaim Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel, Ilex Foundation Series 7 (Boston: Ilex Foundation; Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2012). For a summary see Doak, "The Giants n a "Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond" in Goff, Stuck enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 13-32
⚫️12. In Ezek 32:27 there is a reference to "fallen warriors of old in the underworld (Sheol). The phrase ould also be read as *warrior Nephilim of old" and this may have been its original meaning. The dua ense of Nephilim as ancient warriors and as ghosts coheres well with the biblical sense of Rephaim with whom they are associated (see below).
⚫️ 13. Deuteronomy 1:28 also refers to the report by the spies that the people of the land were powerful and tall and that they saw the children of the Anakim there. It does not, however, mention the Nephilim.
⚫️ 14. It was argued by Wolfgang Rölling that an ancient Phoenician grave inscription from Byblos (Byblos 13) also mentions Og. Rölling, "Eine neue phoenizische Inscrift aus Byblos"' Neue Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik 2 (1974): ⚫️15 and pl. 1. The inscription dates to about 500 BCE and invokes a curse on anyone who disturbs the bones of the occupant of the grave. The suggestion is interesting, but it involves a number of philological difficulties. Subsequent analysis of the inscription, including by Röllig, has not found this interpretation to be credible. For a review of the scholarship see Laura Quick, "Laying Og to Rest: Deuteronomy 3 and the Making of a Myth," Bib 98 (2017): 161-72, esp. 170-71. The legend of Og the giant continued to develop in the postbiblical period through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even into the modern period. For a survey of the Og legend see Admiel Kosman, "The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition," HUCA 73 (2002): 157-90. 15. This episode is omitted in the parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8, but cf. n. 21 below,
⚫️ 16. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 says that Elhanan slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath. The dif ference between the Hebrew texts of the two passages is slight and it is difficult to tell which is original. The passage in 1 Samuel may have accidently been miscopied so that it refers to Goliath rather than his brother. Or the Chronicler may have accidentally or deliberately miscopied the text so that it now refers to Goliath's brother, not Goliath himself, thus resolving the contradiction with 1 Sam 17. In any case, both versions imply Goliath's descent from the Rephaim.
⚫️17. The alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ugarit, a city in Syria in the late second millennium BCE, provide some background information on the Rephaim. The Ugaritic language is closely related to He- brew and the Ugaritic texts refer from time to time to the rāpi'uma. These appear to be the deceased spirits of ancestral kings. This meaning has similarities to the biblical usage of Rephaim, which can mean specified as kings. For a detailed review of the Ugaritic evidence and its implications for the biblical word, .e Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin, "Rephaim," DDD, 692-700.
⚫️ 18. For a more detailed discussion of giants traditions in Jewish Greek literature see Michael Tuval, 2ovywyn ylyávrov (Prov 21:26): The Giants in the Jewish Literature in Greek, in Goff, Stuckenbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 41-57.
⚫️19. For an English translation of the Septuagint, see Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
⚫️ 20. The Hebrew word gibbor, "warrior," in Ezek 32:21, 27 refers to the dead in the underworld (f. n. 12 above).
⚫�� 21. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8 translates Rapha as "giants" twice and transliterates it once n 20:8 it too specifies that all"four" were giants, even though only three are mentioned (cf. n. 15 above) The reference to "Dan son of Ioa, from the descendants of the giants [= Rephaim?]" in the Greek text of 2 Sam 21:11is missing in the Hebrew.
⚫️ 22. For the Titans see Samantha Newington, "Greek Titans and Biblical Giants" in Goff, Stuckenbruck and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 33-40,](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0yBSBpW0AALcrY.jpg)
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🔑 - Key Introduction - (typed in Post below AFTER this quick msg)- a deep look into Nephilim, Anakim like races to the Rephaim but not before a quick intro of Gilgamesh & his real vs Pseudo beginnins ! (In Pics Below is the Text of the book of Giants itself if you dont want to read this intro but I encourage you to read it bc next Study I will be posting 1st Enoch with the entire full Giants book with every version integrated back into the ancient text in a combined read along form ! Allot more smooth than this current one i present to you now & This below will prepare you for the next studies etc to state it simple) ENJOY & GOD BLESS! TTYVSl
(See Pics for Full book below)
🔷️ 📜 🔷️The Book of Giants: General Introduction
- Featuring the Literary Context / Literary Background -
🔷️ ⬛️⬜️ 🔷️Mesopotamian traditions about Gilgamesh are the earliest known influences on the Book of Giants.^ Gilgamesh was a legendary figure in Sumerian and Akkadian literature, best known from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a work whose importance in ancient Mesopotamia was comparable to that of the Homeric epics in ancient Greece. It told the story of Gil- gamesh, the ancient king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk. Gilgamesh befriended the wildman Enkidu. They had adventures, notably the defeat of the monster Humbaba of the Cedar Forest, until Enkidu's untimely death at the hands of the goddess Ishtar. Distraught by the loss of his friend, Gilgamesh set out to find the secret of eternal life. He went on a quest to consult with Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah figure and the only man to survive the great flood. The gods gave Utnapishtim and his wife eternal life. But Gilgamesh was unable to achieve immortality for himself. He had to be content with his own great reputation for his vast accomplishments.
Gilgamesh, Humbaba, and perhaps Utnapishtim appear as characters in the Book of Giants. Gilgamesh and Humbaba (Hobabish) seem to be giants in the Aramaic version, and Utnapishtim (Atanbish) may be a giant or Enoch himself in the Manichean version. The Book of Giants has no direct references to the events in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but there are hints that the author was familiar with elements of it. In both the Aramaic Book of Giants and the epic, Gilgamesh was a semidivine being associated with dreams that foretold disaster. Both present Gilgamesh and Humbaba/ Hobabish as giant warriors. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Humbaba is associated with Mount Hermon in Lebanon. The site is important also in the Enochic version of the story of the Watchers and the giants (cf. 1 En. 6:6; 13:7-9). It very likely figured in the Book of Giants as well. In Mesopota- mian tradition Gilgamesh became a judge in the underworld, and in the giants tradi- tions in the Book of Giants and the Enochic literature the giants became disembodied demonic forces after their deaths who aflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1; Jub. 10:1-14). It is possible that the author of the Book of Giants knew he Epic of Gilgamesh in a late Aramaic translation, but it is no less likely that the author was working with oral traditions about Gilgamesh.?
The most important influence on the Book of Giants was the legend of the Watchers and their ofspring preserved mainly in the Enochic literature, especially the Book of he Watchers (1 En. 1-36) and the Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37-71). There are also ref- erences to the story in the Book of Dream Visions (1 En. 83-90). Outside the Enochician literature the story is mentioned in the Book of Jubilees and occasionally in the Dead Sea Scrolls.#
The versions of the Enochic legend of the Watchers vary slightly among themselves, but the basic narrative is something like the following: The Watchers were a group of angels whose job was to worship God unsleepingly and to guard his throne (1 En. 14:23; 39:12-13; 71:7). A group of Watchers descended to earth, either with good intention to teach humankind righteously (Jub. 4:15) or because from heaven they saw mortal women and desired to mate with them (1 En. 6:1-2; 39:1; 86:1-3). The chief of the fallen Watchers was Shemihazah (1 En. 6:3; 69:2) or Azazel (1 En. 54:5; 55:4; or Asael; cf. 1 En. 9:6) and some of their other leaders are named (1 En. 6:7-8; 8:3; 69:2-13). Once on earth they taught mortals how to make weaponry, jewelry, and makeup, as well as secrets of met- allurgy, sorcery, and astrology (1 En. 7:1; 8:1-4; 9:6-8; 64:2; 65:6-7). The unions of the angels with mortal women resulted in the birth of monstrous cannibalistic giants who brought ruin to the earth (1 En. 7:2-6; 9:9; 86:4-6).
The four archangels brought the situation to the attention of God, who ordered them to intervene (1 En. 9:1-10:3). They subdued the fallen Watchers and banished them to a deep abyss where they lie chained, awaiting their fiery judgment at the eschaton (1 En. 10:4-8, 11-14; 54:1-6; 67:4-11; 69:28; 88:1-3; 90:21, 23-24). The archangels also incited the giants to take up a war against one another until all (or nearly all?) of them were dead (1 En. 10:9-10, 12, 15; 56:2-4?; 87:1, 4; 88:2). Some of them also seem to have died in the great flood (1 En. 89:6), which took place after these events. Perhaps some even survived beyond the Flood (see below). In any case the disembodied spirits of the dead giants, or some of them at any rate (Jub. 10:1-14), survived as demonic forces that afflict human beings with illness and suffering (1 En. 15:8-16:1). This story is assumed as the background of the narrative in the Book of Giants.
Some of the traditions in the Bible also provide background to the Book of Giants, although it is unclear whether any of these traditions actually influenced it directly. The enigmatic episode in Gen 6:1-4 almost certainly has some connection with the story of the Watchers and the giants. This passage tells us that before the Flood "the sons of God" (i.e, the angels; cf. Job 1:6; 2:1) saw the beauty of human women and took some of them as wives. This seems to have displeased YHWH, who in turn placed a time limit of one hundred twenty years on the spirit dwelling in human beings. We are alsc told that the "Nephilim" lived at the time (and also "afterward") when the sons of God were mating with the mortal women who bore children to them. And we are told that these Nephilim were famous warriors.
What does all this mean? Why did angels behave in this way, unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible? On what is the one hundred twenty years a time limit? Who are the Ne. philim? The word comes from a root meaning to fall ("fallen ones?") and in later Hebrew it means "abortions." Were the Nephilim the same creatures as the offspring of the morta women by the angels? The text may imply they were, but it does not say so explicitly
One possibility is that the writer of Genesis knew some version of the story of the Watchers and the giants, whether the one now found in the Book of the Watchers or a common tradition shared by it. The mythological notion of gods mating with human beings may not have appealed to the writer of Genesis, but the story was too wellknown to ignore. So the writer gave just a brief and allusive account before moving on to the Flood narrative. Another possibility is that Gen 6:1-4 was the inspiration for the story of the Watchers and the giants. Subsequent exegetes pondered the puzzling details of these four verses and filled in the blanks to produce something like the story we now find in 1 Enoch. Different specialists have argued for each of these possibilities and we need not try to decide between them here.9
In the Book of Giants (4Q530 2 ii 16b-20a) one of the giants has what seems to be a predictive dream in which he sees God descend from heaven to earth and occupy a throne, while other thrones are also set up. Books are opened, judgment declared, and God's judgment written down. This passage has close similarities in thought and word. ing to the throne theophany scene in Dan 7:9-10.
It also has notable similarities to the throne theophany in 1 En. 14:18-23, a passage that also shares wording and ideas with Dan 7:9-10. The relationship between the theophanies in Dan 7 and 1 En. 14 has been debated for some time. Milik concluded that the Book of Giants was dependent on Dan- iel. Some scholars have subsequently challenged his view while others have supported it. There is no consensus on which of the three came first and influenced the others or whether they all drew on an independent written or oral tradition. Again, it suffices for our purposes to note the problem without attempting to solve it.0
In addition, there are a number of stories in the Bible about giants.'1 These provide some context for our understanding of the Book of Giants. Although Genesis places the Nephilim in the time before the Flood, it hints that they had a further history. And indeed they appear again in the context of the survey of Canaan by the Israelite spies in Num 13. In 13:32-33 the spies report that the people of the land were of great size and that there the spies saw the Nephilim, whose stature made them feel like grasshoppers. This is the only indication in the Bible that the Nephilim were giants, although this point is also specified in 1 En. 7:2.2 The passage also mentions in passing that the "Anakim" were descended from the Nephilim.
This leads us to another group of biblical giants. 13 The first mention of the Anakim in the Bible is also in the story of the Israelite spies Numbers 13:22 reports that the spies also encountered the children of Anak in Hebror and it mentions three of them by name. Then, in his account of the invasion of the land by the Israelites, Moses comments in an aside that the "Emim" had once inhabited Moab and that they were as tall as the Anakim and, like the Anakim, were reckoned as "Re phaim." Likewise, he says that the land of the Ammonites was reckoned as a land of th Rephaim (whom the Ammonites called Zamzumim"), because formerly the Rephaim inhabited it (Deut 2:10-11, 19-21). Deuteronomy 9:2 also reinforces the strength and stature of the Anakim.
The name Rephaim leads us still further. It can mean something more or less equiv- alent to "ghost" (e.g., Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9), but it usually refers to a group of people who inhabited Canaan before the Israelites did. Notably, one of the few named giants in the Bible-Og King of Bashan---is called the last of the Rephaim in Deut 3:11. The description of Og's enormous bed makes it clear that he too was a giant.'
By far the most famous biblical giant is, of course, Goliath of Gath, whose downfall at the hands of David is familiar from 1 Sam 17. Goliath was a Philistine, but he too is connected with the primordial Rephaim. In 2 Sam 21:15-22 we find a collection of brief tories about four Philistine warriors who were descended of Rapha, that is, were among the Rephaim. One named Ishbi-benob carried an enormous spear and so presumably was a giant. He nearly killed David in battle, but another Israelite intervened and killed the Philistine.' Another named Saph was slain by an Israelite in a battle at Gob. Then there is an alternate account of the killing of Goliath the Gittite by one Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite.'s The fourth was an unnamed man of great stature who had six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet. He was slain by a nephew of David, Three of these four are presented as large men, confirming the identification of the Rephaim with giants.'7Finally, in 1 Chr 1:22-23, we read of an Egyptian giant who also carried a huge spear He was killed with his own weapon by one of David's chief warriors,
The Greek Bible also has a number of references to "gjiants (Greek gigas).'$ Some of the uses of the words in the Septuagint (LXX) translation are helpful for understanding how some of the passages in the Hebrew Bible discussed above were understood in the late Second Temple period.'s The term Nephilim is translated as "giants" in its occur- rences in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33 (LXX 13:34). The Hebrew word gibbor normally means "warrior," but sometimes its use in context led the translators to translate it as "giant" (Gen 6:4; 10:8-9, cf. 1 Chr 1:10 [of Nimrod]; Gen 14:5; Ps 19:5 [LXX 18:6]; 33:16 [LXX 32:16]; Isa 3:2; 13:3; 49:24-25; Ezek 32:12, 21, 27;20 39:18, 20).
The term Rephaim is frequently, although not always, translated as "giants." Og is called one of the giants in Josh 12:4 and 13:12, although Rephaim is transliterated as Raphain in Deut 3:11. Likewise, the word Rapha is transliterated into Greek letters all four times in 2 Sam 21:15-22, but 21:22 does specify that they were all giants.21 The geographical name "the valley of Rephaim is translated as "the valley of giants" in 1 Chr 1:15 and 14:9, 13. In Prov 21:16; Isa 14:9; and Job 26:5 the meaning of Rephaim in its original context in Hebrew is "ghost, but it is translated as "giants" In Deut 1:28 the term Anakim is translated as "giants." The Greek of Sir 16:7 refers to a revolt of ancient giants but the Hebrew text uses another word that does not normally mean giant. The Greek of Sir 47:4 refers to Goliath (who is named) as a giant. The Hebrew of this verse does not survive
There are a few other references to giants in books of the Greek Bible that were composed in Greek or whose Hebrew originals are entirely lost. There is mention of the doom of the ancient giants before the Flood in Wis 14:6 and 3 Mac 2:4. Baruch 3:26 echoes the language of Gen 6:4 when referring to the giants. In her hymn of victory, Judith gloats over the fact that a woman, rather than Titans or giants, vanquished her enemy (Jdt 16:5-6).2 In 1 Maccabees the poem in praise of Judah the Maccabee says that he "put on a breastplate like a giant" (1 Mac 3:3).
Thus we see that there was a rich mythology of giants in the Hebrew Bible and it continued to develop in the Second Temple period. Space does not permit further discussion of traditions about giants in the Classical world or the ancient Near East, but a few more references to giants in Second Temple Jewish literature should be roted. Sibylline oracles were originally pithy oracles attributed to the Sibyl, a pagan prophetess. Some collections of her oracles were known in ancient Rome. They are now almost entirely lost. But Jews and Christians composed many books in the name of the Sibyl in antiquity. The first three books of Sibylline Oracles, of Jewish origin but with some Christian editing and interpolation, provide some passages of interest. Sibylline Oracle 1:87-103 retells the story of the Watchers briefly, but treats them as its third generation of human beings. It mentions giants in 1:123, but it is unclear that they are the giants of the Watchers myth. The seventh generation is identified as Titans, but these are also the human beings who built the Tower of Babel (Sib. Or. 1:307-23). The latter story is much expanded in Sib. Or. 3:97-161. This passage tells a version of the traditional story of the conflict between the Titans anc Cronus that led to the birth of Zeus.?3
The first-century BCE chronographer Alexander Polyhistor refers twice to earlier traditions about Abraham that mention giants. The work of Alexander is lost, but the fourth-century CE historian Eusebius of Caesarea quotes the relevant passages in his Praep. ev. 9.17.2-9 and 9.18.2.2 Alexander attributes the first passage to the Jewish writer Eupolemos, although some think that he was mistaken and that it was written by some- one else, possibly a Samaritan. In any case, the passage creatively retells the story of Abraham, prefacing it with an account of the founding of the city Babylon and the build- ing of the Tower of Babel by giants after the Flood. These giants spread over the earth after God destroyed the tower. It also identifies Enoch with Atlas, a Titan. In the second passage Alexander relates that certain anonymous works say that Abraham claimed to be descended from the giants.
The first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote an entire treatise on Gen 6:1-4 called On the Giants.2s As is his usual practice, he allegorizes the story, making it about the temptation of the soul by worldly pleasures. He cautions his read- ers that the story is not a myth, hinting that he perhaps knew and disapproved of the story of the Watchers and the giants. But he does not directly refer or allude to that story. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions giants a number of times in his works, mostly following the Greek narrative of the Septuagint. In his treatment of Gen 6:1-4 in A. J. 1.72-73 he interprets the passage to say that angels mated with mortal women and that the unions produced offspring. He does not call the latter giants directly, but he hints that he knows of a tradition in which they committed outrages similar to those committed by the giants of Greek mythology. Otherwise, he does not refer directly to the story of the Watchers and the giants, although he does say that the bones of some of the giants mentioned in Num 13:33 were on display in his day (Ant. 5.125).
⚠️ REMEMBER BELOW IN PICS IN THE NEXT REPLIES IS THE BOOK OF GIANTS ITS SELF ⚠️
⚫️ NOTES FOR ABOVE INTRODUCTION OF THE GIANTS BOOK(S) ⚫️ (some numbers to the Notes got lost but the notes are in full & aren't missing any data or sources ) make what you can of it !
⚫️ 4. For discussions of the manuscripts, date, provenance, genre, and structure of the Aramaic and Manichean versions of the B ook of Giants, see the introductions to the chapters by Loren Stuckenbruck, Prods Oktor Skjæervo, and Peter Zieme, which folOw. , 5. For an English translation, see Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (London: Penguin, 1999).
6. See the discussion of Turkic fragment A by Zieme below in his translation.
⚫️ 7. Matthew Goff, "Gilgamesh the Giant: The Qumran Book of Ciants Appropriation of Gilgamesh Motifs," DSD 16 (2009): 221-53, doi:10.1163/156851709X395740
⚫️ 8. The best English translation of1 Enoch is George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012). For a con- enient translation of Jubilees, see O. S. Wintermute, "Jubilees," OTP 2:35-142. For the relevant passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see the chapter on the Aramaic Book of Giants by Stuckenbruck in this volume
⚫️ 9 For the ancient Near Eastern and related background to Gen 6:1-4, see Ronald Hendel, "The Ne bhilim Were on the Earth: Genesis 6:1-4, and Its Ancient Near Eastern Context," in The Fall of the Angels ed. Christoph Auffarth and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, TBN 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 11-34. For a discussion of Gen 6:1-4 and its relation to the Watchers tradition, see Chris Seeman, ""The Watchers Traditions and Gen 6:1-4 (MT and LXX)," in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Angela Kim Harkins, Kel- ey Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endress (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 25-38, doi:10.2307/j.ctt22nmb25.6
⚫️ 10. For a discussion with bibliography, see Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe, "Throne Theophanies, Dream Visions, and Righteous(?) Seers: Daniel, the Book of Giants, and 1 Enoch Reconsidered," in Goff, Stuck- enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 81-96.
⚫️ 11 The biblical references to giants are covered in detail in Brian R. Doak, The Last of the Rephaim Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel, Ilex Foundation Series 7 (Boston: Ilex Foundation; Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2012). For a summary see Doak, "The Giants n a "Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond" in Goff, Stuck enbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 13-32
⚫️12. In Ezek 32:27 there is a reference to "fallen warriors of old in the underworld (Sheol). The phrase ould also be read as *warrior Nephilim of old" and this may have been its original meaning. The dua ense of Nephilim as ancient warriors and as ghosts coheres well with the biblical sense of Rephaim with whom they are associated (see below).
⚫️ 13. Deuteronomy 1:28 also refers to the report by the spies that the people of the land were powerful and tall and that they saw the children of the Anakim there. It does not, however, mention the Nephilim.
⚫️ 14. It was argued by Wolfgang Rölling that an ancient Phoenician grave inscription from Byblos (Byblos 13) also mentions Og. Rölling, "Eine neue phoenizische Inscrift aus Byblos"' Neue Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik 2 (1974): ⚫️15 and pl. 1. The inscription dates to about 500 BCE and invokes a curse on anyone who disturbs the bones of the occupant of the grave. The suggestion is interesting, but it involves a number of philological difficulties. Subsequent analysis of the inscription, including by Röllig, has not found this interpretation to be credible. For a review of the scholarship see Laura Quick, "Laying Og to Rest: Deuteronomy 3 and the Making of a Myth," Bib 98 (2017): 161-72, esp. 170-71. The legend of Og the giant continued to develop in the postbiblical period through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even into the modern period. For a survey of the Og legend see Admiel Kosman, "The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition," HUCA 73 (2002): 157-90. 15. This episode is omitted in the parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8, but cf. n. 21 below,
⚫️ 16. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 says that Elhanan slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath. The dif ference between the Hebrew texts of the two passages is slight and it is difficult to tell which is original. The passage in 1 Samuel may have accidently been miscopied so that it refers to Goliath rather than his brother. Or the Chronicler may have accidentally or deliberately miscopied the text so that it now refers to Goliath's brother, not Goliath himself, thus resolving the contradiction with 1 Sam 17. In any case, both versions imply Goliath's descent from the Rephaim.
⚫️17. The alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ugarit, a city in Syria in the late second millennium BCE, provide some background information on the Rephaim. The Ugaritic language is closely related to He- brew and the Ugaritic texts refer from time to time to the rāpi'uma. These appear to be the deceased spirits of ancestral kings. This meaning has similarities to the biblical usage of Rephaim, which can mean specified as kings. For a detailed review of the Ugaritic evidence and its implications for the biblical word, .e Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin, "Rephaim," DDD, 692-700.
⚫️ 18. For a more detailed discussion of giants traditions in Jewish Greek literature see Michael Tuval, 2ovywyn ylyávrov (Prov 21:26): The Giants in the Jewish Literature in Greek, in Goff, Stuckenbruck, and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 41-57.
⚫️19. For an English translation of the Septuagint, see Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
⚫️ 20. The Hebrew word gibbor, "warrior," in Ezek 32:21, 27 refers to the dead in the underworld (f. n. 12 above).
⚫�� 21. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:4-8 translates Rapha as "giants" twice and transliterates it once n 20:8 it too specifies that all"four" were giants, even though only three are mentioned (cf. n. 15 above) The reference to "Dan son of Ioa, from the descendants of the giants [= Rephaim?]" in the Greek text of 2 Sam 21:11is missing in the Hebrew.
⚫️ 22. For the Titans see Samantha Newington, "Greek Titans and Biblical Giants" in Goff, Stuckenbruck and Morano, Ancient Tales of Giants, 33-40,](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0yBSBnXIAAZTFg.jpg)
New Study coming sooner ! I have been spreading all the #OldTestamentStudy #ApocalypticBookStudy
#BibleStudy
#Pseudepigrapha Ed.
#AncientTabletsStudy (behind) (i have all the studies ready its a timing issue coming soon)
Sharing is caring! I will still love yall either way ! Share OP - have a Blessed week! I will be over at Academia from now till I get the next Long awaited #AncientTabletsStudy #6 or #7 & #OldTestamentStudy #20 which will be the final 26 chapters of Isaiah 40-41 -66 full book!
#AncientTabletsStudy #2
📜🗝 Atrahasis Tablets
🗺🌍 Where - Mesopotamia & Syra
♦️🗝 Language - Akkadian
♦️🗝 Found in 1889 - 1967 AD.
♦️🗝 When made -1635 BCE
♦️🗝 Parallels to Genesis
♦️Some very striking similarities to the book of Genesis & Other Old Testament Passages!
#AncientTabletsStudy #1
📜This will cover the whole Arcana / Cuneiform Inscriptions of the Ancient World from Sumeria to Egypt & the Greco Roman World compared to Biblical txts
📜The Ebla Tablets - 17,000 Total
👨🔬Discoverer -Paolo Matthiae
🌍 Location -Tell Mardikh (Syria)
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