Giants in the Bible
Ugh. Someone put me on a “Creationism” group, so I started getting all this nonsensical dreck in my feed, like FAKE images of “giants” that “prove” the Bible to be true. First of all, any “giants” in antiquity would be little different than the tallest tribes or individuals of today. So, the Watusi tribe of Africa would be considered “giants,” and, yes, they do exist. The world’s tallest man was Robert Wadlow, who attained the height of 8’11” – that’s almost NINE FEET. So, yes, he did exist, and he was assuredly a GIANT. His skeleton, if buried, lost and then uncovered, would give the impression of a giant, possibly one of many. That being said, the images of enormous skeletons being passed around are BOGUS.
Secondly, although some of the taller tribes in the Levant have been lighted upon in order to bring realism to the text, the biblical “giants” or nephilim tale represents not “history” but an astral or astrotheological motif. In Aramaic, the word “nephila” refers to the constellation of Orion, the giant hunter in the sky who plays an important role in Egyptian religion, among many others. Gesenius’s Lexicon cites the “Chaldean” (Akkadian) of this term as נפלא nephla, meaning “the giant in the sky, i.e. the constellation Orion, plur. the greater constellations.” In this same regard, in the Bible (Psalm 19:5), the sun is called “giant,” using another Semitic term employed also for Orion, גבור gibbowr (H1368). Orion is called “the giant” also in Arabic, as “al-jabbar.”
Robert Wadlow at 8’11” – definitely a real giant. Nothing mysterious or magical about him. He was not the product of gods or aliens mating with humans. That’s his dear old dad next to him – doesn’t look like God the Father or Lucifer to me.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5c/Robert_Wadlow.jpg/350px-Robert_Wadlow.jpg