The Nephilim: some thoughts on a third alternative. Giants.

Genesis Chapter 6   American Standard Version

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them,

² that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose.

³ And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.

⁴ The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

The Nephilim.
      There are two prongs of translation that usually have exclusive weight in the defining this word.  Nephilim in Hebrew is spelled from right to left as Nun – Pe – Yod – Lamed – Yod – Mem.   But in order to understand the defition of the word in its context, we must first read the sentence as thus:

⁴ The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, ...the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

1)    The first option put forth is that Nephil (Nun – Pe – Yod – Lamed )comes from a 3 letter root of Nun – Pe –Lamed is napal, and means “to fall, lie down, or be cast down” 

2)    The second option, which appears just as likely, places Nephilim as being an expansion of (Pe  –  Lamed – Alef – Yod)   pil’i  - “(to be) wonderful / incomprehensible” and finding for its 3 letter root word:  pala  - (to be ) wonderful / marvelous  (Pe – Lamed – Alef). 

     However, I would like to present a third alternative, one by which both definitions above are actually derived from, and why both three letter options are equally applicable to the Nephilim as both the “fallen ones” and the “wonderful / incomprehensible” ones.     That is the word root of Nun – Pe – He / NaPaH.  

 In the Old Testament there is a connection that we see in and through NaPaH as a word root that can sometimes be used to describe what we might term as excessive “height”.  It is generally assumed that NOP (Nun – Vav – Pe) is the root of NaPaH, but I beg to differ on this.  

 In the word derivatives,  NaPaH is an assumed  root for TeNUPaH (Tav – Nun – Vav – Pe – He) / a “shaking or wave offering.”

In Isaiah 19:16,

16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it.

TeNUPaH is used to describe GOD “shaking” His Hand in a manner that proscribes Judgment.

 In Isaiah 30:32,

32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

we are informed of “battles of shaking” where an earthquake replaces the awesomeness of an army without number whose great weight of the horses and amount of humanity actually shakes the earth under the feet of the participants as they wage war on one another.  Read in context within the passage of Isaiah 30:27-33, an earthquake as the means by which the LORD brings about the use of the elements of Creation / Nature against his enemies, is quite clear: lightning, great winds, hailstones, deafening thunder, blasts of great heat and torrents of magma / hot lava….these all place in context that the battles of shaking are great earthquakes and great aftershocks that are used to wage war on those who infuriate the LORD.

      In fact, In Isaiah 29:3,6 we read the affirmation that against His enemies, the LORD  says:

3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.

6 Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

      This is the same as the context of Isaiah 30:27-33.   For the believer, the activity of great winds that destroy and scatter, earthquakes, or lightning, are impersonal consequences or happenings (I Kings 19:11-12), for when we look in nature, we are not to concentrate on the senses of touch – feel – sight, but on hearing GOD.  In Nahum 1:3 we read:

      3 [T]he Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

      And it goes on to say in verse 5 that: “At His presence the mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned.”

 In Scripture we find in the Biblical Original Language of Hebrew, that GOD is Holy; and that this word “holy” also implies a great weight or heaviness, as well as an all-encompassing  baptism or immersion, as if the very presence of His Spirit was like dropping the weight of the oceans upon the earth Habakkuk 2:14 and Isaiah 11:9b:

  

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

   However, in returning to NaPaH as the root word from which Nephilim is derived, the emphasis we need to look at is on height and that which causes the shaking under the feet or the shaking of fear in the beholding of the object in question.  When an object is heavy and concentrated enough, its movement can make the earth rumble or shake under one’s feet.  I believe that is what is in the word picture of Nephilim as seen from the root word of NaPaH.  It is a combination of a height and a shaking that is experienced through a specific set of human beings we must by necessity call giants, whose very movements were not only loud, but because of the concentration of their height and weight, they shook they earth beneath their feet as they moved hither and thither.  

In Numbers 13:32b - 33,

32b)  The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

in Deuteronomy 1:28 

28  Whither shall we go up?  our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

and Deuteronomy 2:9:c-11,

9c) I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.

10)  The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;

11)  Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites called them Emims.

we see that the Anaqim are not only in the land of Israel, but are the same as the Nephilim, or "fallen ones" who had just perished...i.e., the Hyksos in the Red Sea. Their cousins lived in Moab/Ammon, and were known also as the Emims, of whom we see that Og, king of Bashan, living among the Ammonites. Og's bed remained on display well after his death, as a testament in Rabah as to what his great stature was.

Deuteronomy 3:11

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

In the Bible, the largest human ever known to be in existence was Og of Bashan, whose bed was 9 twenty-one inch cubits long and 4 twenty-one inch cubits wide.   

In other words 189" long = 17' 4" and 84" wide = 7’.    If we make an allowance of at least one foot at the head and at the feet, Og was about 15 feet tall, the tallest human that we know of to have ever walked the Earth.    However, Scripture calls Og the remnant of the giants; and this means that others at least equal to, and almost undoubtedly many even taller than he, preceded him. 

So when we read Genesis 6, we are to understand that by GIANTS, we are talking generally about statures of 15 feet or more in height.  And when it comes to mighty men after them, we are clearly talking of men whose heights exceeded normal human growth, which varied from just over 8 feet to over 11 feet tall. The number of those who achieved such tallness, which the Apocryphal books of Enoch and Jubilee attributes to as being from a co-habitation with angelic beings, is listed as 200 angels.  I would say that the number should not be 200 angels that fell, but 200 Human Giants who were Judges / Mighty Men / Messengers (if you will) that existed prior to the Flood.  However, more plausible to me would be that the number of 200 giants (instead of angels) that perished (instead of being sent to the Abyss) according to the apocrypha

(while the Bible only lists 4 Angels as being punished  for having left their station as watchers - e.g. Daniel 4:13,23 and Revelation 9:13-14).  However, 200 giants dying in the Noachian Flood and 200 giants perishing at the Red Sea can be an either / or both category, and the number being apocryphal really isn't important...just believing and knowing GOD's Word is true and faithful is. 

It is of our own best interest in the Biblical Study of this topic, at least it seems so to me,  to distinguish that the Nephillim were giants, because the Giants of Crete, cousins to the Giants of Gaza where Goliath the Philistine lived, were so named Titans after Titan (aka. Helios, the sun deity).  Since Anti-Christ who is coming may be designated as Teitan (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.30.3) as a type of being (i.e., a giant or a singular description to the same effect) used as if a name equaling 666, we may be looking for someone who shall be well over 8 feet tall of the Tribe of Dan and of Greece or Italy for their parentage.

I will not, however, make any boast over this [coincidence]. Teitan too, (ΤΕΙΤΑΝ, the first syllable being written with the two Greek vowels ε and ι, among all the names which are found among us, is rather worthy of credit. For it has in itself the predicted number, and is composed of six letters, each syllable containing three letters; and [the word itself] is ancient, and removed from ordinary use; for among our kings we find none bearing this name Titan, nor have any of the idols which are worshiped in public among the Greeks and barbarians this appellation. Among many persons, too, this name is accounted divine, so that even the sun is termed “Titan” by those who do now possess [the rule]. This word, too, contains a certain outward appearance of vengeance, and of one inflicting merited punishment because he (Antichrist) pretends that he vindicates the oppressed. And besides this, it is an ancient name, one worthy of credit, of royal dignity, and still further, a name belonging to a tyrant. Inasmuch, then, as this name “Titan” has so much to recommend it, there is a strong degree of probability, that from among the many [names suggested], we infer, that perchance he who is to come shall be called “Titan.”  -- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.30.3

I am not inclined to believe anti-Christ will be anywhere near as tall as Og, as in our recent history, we have yet to see anyone attain over 9 feet, let alone 15. But as we familiarize ourselves with New Testament History, we find that those in the future will have some similarities to contend with that were already gone through by the Church in the ancient past.  And after a sort, we too, in our day, see this same preparation of dopifying the masses on a constant basis among those who hate Christianity.

The Church at Pergamos in Asia during the First Century A.D. (specifically in September 53 A.D.) also had to contend with a worship of the Nephillim as Giants, but this was also tied in addition to the worship of their deceased Emperor Augustus, healing or white magics, and the cult of the snake (which last cult many of the Sanhedrin had secretly joined and were exposed by John the Baptist and then Jesus for their coven / clandestine memberships in Scripture -- Matthew 3:7; 12:24-25,34,38; 23:29-33). 

Revelation 2:12-13

(12) “And to the messenger in Pergamos’ called-out ones, write:

Such are the words layed on you by He possessing the sword, the two-edged, the sharp.  (AWPR)

(13) I have seen and I know your works, and of where you dwell in fixed and permanent structures and housing.  In which place where the throne of the Adversary/Satan is; and you take hold on and grasp the Name of Me with strength, and certainly did not deny the trusting (of your) faith into Me, even in the days in which Antipas, the faithful trusting witness of Me, who was condemned and outrightly slain -- being put to death -- in the immediate proximity of you, where Satan dwells in a fixed and permanent structure.”   (AWPR)

In the mountain of Pergamos, you have the Trinity of the Anti-Christ.

1)        The political figure worship: this entails the deification of Augustus, who was revered as a deity.   The Temple or Shrine of Augustus in Pergamos was the central focal point for prayers and worship on behalf of the Emperors of Rome, who was thought upon as the “Savior of the Empire”.

2)      The State sanctioned myth worship: this was manifest in the acceptance of the myths of the order of the Greek gods, Jupiter - Apollo - etc., as though they were living beings ruling the world of men.  It was a secondary form of taxation: a tax to enter its gates, a tax to stand on holy ground, a tax to have a prayer made for you, a tax to watch even the simplest ritual, or a greater tax to watch the more secretive, etc.  Unless the temples of the state sanctioned made money, they would not be afforded Roman protection or support.  The Temple or Shrine of Zeus in Pergamos, where the empty throne of “Zeus” or “Satan” was, had in its overhead, “Zeus the Savior”, who was fallaciously thought to save from wars or invasions by enemy armies.  This was the faction of those worshiping “the gods”.

3)      The Popular cultic science/drug worship: this was manifest in the third Temple or Shrine at Pergamos, the temple of Asclepius, who was egregiously called “the healing savior”.  This was the “dwelling place” of Satan, where Antipas was tried, condemned, and slain.

      They practiced the arts of drug making and surgery.  This was the faction of those worshiping the “Titans”, the earthly champions called “giants”, the opponents of “the gods”.  This faction was a favorite among the soldiers of Rome, because it was tied to the cult of Mithras.  Mithras was the snake or sun deity, and the sun itself is called “Titan” by the Romans (Irenaeus 5.30.3).  Its high feast day was December 25, and Asclepius was the Egyptian deity who was depicted as a man holding two staves, one of them for healing, the other resting upon the head of a serpent.  The one staff was for healing, the other rested upon the head or wisdom of the serpent, who in coins, is a coiling snake upon a bending sapling.  The Romans flocked to its familiar, (the Persian/Assyrian/Hyksos false deity) Mithras, whose rituals were held in caves: in the smell of burning pine cones, the pledge must pass rituals of great endurance, manhood, and eat into a live chicken or a live goose.

In effect, the world systems and world religions of Satan are revealed in this, that they are all looking for a counterfeit “sun deity” for the True Son, Jesus Christ: be that false deity a Pharaoh or an Emperor called “the great shining one”, or be that deity called Apollo - a Greek “sun” deity, or even Mithras - a Hyksos “sun” titan or “giant”.

In effect, they of the World who are without Christ, they are all being primed to follow and obey the one false counterfeit who shall unite them all, and to also habitually curse GOD in Heaven (and those who dwell in Heaven) with violent words. 

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The next tallest that we know of in specificity after Og of Bashan, is Goliath, which 1 Samuel 17:4 lists as a height of 6  twenty-one inch cubits and 1 Zereth (a large span, equal to 1/2 a cubit).  That comes to 126" plus 10.5" for a total of 136.5" or a height of 11' 6 1/2".

In modern times, Robert Pershing Wadlow in 1940, shortly before his death at the young age of 22, reached a height

 http://www.maniacworld.com/robert-wadlow-picture-2.htm

http://www.maniacworld.com/robert-wadlow-picture-7.htm

equal to that ascribed to Moses: that of  8'9".

 Affirmation to the height of Moses:

 In Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews,  2.9.6 

we read that 

 "GOD did give him that tallness. [beginning] when he was but 3 years old, as was wonderful."

Moses was born in 1631 B.C., and he was 3 years old in 1628 B.C.  From that age he grew into (what for us in our days is) an awesome tallness not attributed to any other Hebrew up to that time, and taller than even King Saul more than 600 years later.  It was because Moses reached such a great height and stature that he was able to be reckoned as one of the Assyrian Hyksos or Shepherd Kings that ruled Egypt in what is generally reckoned as the 16th dynasty of Egypt. The conquests of Moses  -- as Prince of Egypt and general of its armies before the age of 40 -- conquests with which he conquered the armies of Ethiopia and married and immediately dismissed his Ethiopian bride (apparently without conjugal relations)  gave the Hyksos governing powers that ruled well through the 17th Dynasty...but that is another topic for another day.

 

In Berachot 54b

 http://halakhah.com/berakoth/berakoth_54.html

 the rabbis hold the tradition that Moses the Law-giver stood at a height of 10 Cubits, but in fact, what was likely meant was a height of 10 zereths @ 105" or 8' 9". 

To say that a height of 17' 6" was the intent of Berachot 54b seems very unlikely to have been the intent kept by Talmud, when 10 half cubits using 10 as a perfect measure of the Law (i.e., enveloped within the 10 Commandments) was meant.  Clearly, in Scripture, Og was listed as the last of the remnants of the what appears to separate the true giants from the giants (since Moses is the one who is writing this passage of Deuteronomy 3:11),  and Og's height had to therefore be so impressive, that no other could stand anywhere near as tall against him.   Had this not been so, Og would simply have been either have been compared to being but the same or about the same height as Moses, or his height of no mention at all.  Instead, Og himself was so awesome in height, he even made other giants among men -- even those like Moses at 8' 9" and near our day, Robert Pershing Wadlow in 1940 A.D. -- look small. 

In Conclusion

  It seems to me that a new look at Nephillim as being Giants is warranted, although its general usage is intended to refer to some of those who were drowned in the Red Sea. To me, a number of 200 Giants drowned in the Red Sea with a sure knowledge of that number seems more plausible than 200 giants by tradition being drowned in Noah's flood, but both are possible.  Since we don't surely know, that will have to be a question left for the world to come when we ask Jesus our questions and are taught by Him then.

 

Deuteronomy 33:2-3

King James Version (KJV)

²The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

³ Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.

Isaiah 54:13

King James Version (KJV)

¹³ And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.

Amen.