The tallest man in medical history, the guy in the record books, is Robert Wadlow, who when last measured June 27, 1940, was found to be 8’ 11.1” tall.
Goliath whom David fought and killed stood at least nine feet, nine inches tall. I say “at least” because the Hebrews used three different “cubit” units: the common, the royal, and the long, measuring (respectively) about 18, 20, and 22 inches.
By the long measure, Goliath could have been nearly 12’ tall.
If we go with the 12’ measure, Goliath was fully six feet taller than a tall man; and fully three feet taller than the tallest man on record.
There were other remarkable giants in the Old Testament. Og, the king of Bashan, is said to have slept in an iron bed measuring at least 13.5’ by 6’. Using the long cubit, Og’s bed could have been as much as sixteen-and-a-half feet long.
In the Book of Numbers we read of the Anakites:
Num 13:33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
In Deuteronomy we read of the Emites:
Deu 2:10 The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.
Deu 2:11 They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
“Rephaites” or “Rephaim” are an ancient race of biblical giants. According to Genesis 14:5, King Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked and defeated the Rephaites at Ashteroth-Karnaim.
Rephaites are also mentioned in Genesis (15:20), Deuteronomy (2:10-21, 3:11), Joshua (12:4, 13:12, 15:8, 17:15, 18:16), Second Samuel (5:18-22, 23:13), and in First Chronicles (11:15, 14:9 & 20:4).
Zamzummim is another biblical name for giants. We learn in Deuteronomy 2:20 that was the name given to them by the Ammonites who displaced them.
What we call gigantism is usually caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland of the brain. It affects only about 1% of the population. Giants typically suffer from many physical limitations and disabilities; and they don’t live that long.
Robert Wadlow moved so slowly and with such difficulty that his day-to-day activity was severely limited. As one account put it, “The human body is not well-suited to deal with the demands that such a large frame places on it, and Robert began to experience problems with his lower extremities. Leg braces helped him overcome the difficulties he had with the feeling in his legs and feet.”
Robert was only twenty-two years old when he died as a result of a septic blister on his right ankle caused by a brace, which had been poorly fitted only a week earlier.
Unlike Robert Wadlow, Bible giants were warriors, lived long lives, and demonstrated remarkable agility and strength. They didn’t require leg braces, but instead were almost superhumanly strong.
Goliath, for example, was outfitted with two hundred fifty pounds of armor for battle. He wore it nimbly. He and the other giants of the Bible seem to be very different from, say, wrestler Andre the Giant, who stood a mere 7’ 4” tall and died at age forty-six.
I mentioned Og. At his height, keeping everything in proportion, Og would weigh-in at close to two thousand pounds. Obviously his skeletal structure was much, much different from that of a normal human struck with gigantism.
The giants in the Bible were not just taller men, suffering from pituitary tumors. They were unique.
Where did these Bible giants come from? And how were they so mighty?
Gen 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Before the global flood and again after it, these giants were the product of the sons of God marrying and mating with daughters of men.
We established in our last study that “the sons of God” were fallen angels. They married and mated with human females, both before and after the flood, and the result were “giants.”
The word is Nephilim. It means fallen ones. It isn’t describing their size. By itself, Nephilim doesn’t indicate they were giants. The word is intended to tell you this is a new race of beings had come into existence.
They are then described as “the mighty men of old, men of renown.” The word here is gibborim, and it speaks of their exploits.
Arnold Fruchtenbaum says of them, “They were superhuman… They had human characteristics but were, at the same time, superhuman. They had extra capacities, both mentally and physically…”
Francis Scheaffer wrote, “More and more we are finding that mythology in general though greatly contorted very often has some historic base. And the interesting thing is that one myth which occurs over and over again in many parts of the world is that somewhere a long time ago supernatural beings had sexual intercourse with natural women and produced a special breed of people.”
It is only later in the Old Testament that we learn that the Nephilim were also of giant stature.
If you’re like me, you are willing to admit that there were Nephilim before the flood. But how can there be Nephilim post-flood?
I should mention that not everyone thinks post-flood giants are Nephilim. They think them run-of-the-mill giants, like Robert Wadlow and Andre. But the mechanics of their size, and their warrior exploits, seems to favor Nephilim.
The Bible doesn’t say how there were post-flood Nephilim, so we can’t be certain. The one way we know that Nephilim are produced is by fallen angels marrying and mating with women. Most likely more fallen angels again married and mated with human females post-flood.
The post-flood giants seem to be concentrated in and around the Promised Land. Perhaps it was a more localized strategy of Satan’s to discourage Israel from conquering the land. It was no longer a plan to corrupt the gene pool so much as it was to produce a race of super-soldiers to turn back the Israelite conquest of the land.
It seemed to work. One of the major reasons the ten spies had for saying “No!” to going in to the land was that there were giants.
Num 13:31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
Num 13:32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
Num 13:33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Their evil report kept Israel out of their land for forty years.
When Joshua led them in, they encountered giants over-and-over again.
Jos 11:21 And at that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains: from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities.
Jos 11:22 None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod.
God is criticized for ordering Israel to destroy all the inhabitants of the Promised Land. It seems cruel. But what if we factor-in the presence of Nephilim, dug-in to the Promised Land?
Extermination makes more sense if there were Nephilim.
There were giants well after the conquest of the Promised Land. It is thought that David and his mighty men finished the work of exterminating the Nephilim. For example, we read of this encounter:
2Sa 21:15 When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint.
2Sa 21:16 Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David.
2Sa 21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”
2Sa 21:18 Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant.
2Sa 21:19 Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
2Sa 21:20 Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant.
2Sa 21:21 So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.
2Sa 21:22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
When you start to pay attention, you see that giants are a ‘big’ part (pun intended) of the Old Testament history.
Why don’t they find giant skeletons? One writer said, “Search the Smithsonian galleries, for example, and you will see not a single giant bone or footprint cast on display. The clear impression given is that evidence of giants has never been found, and, intentionally or not, this tends to cast the Biblical record in an unfavorable light.”
Scores of giant skeletons have been allegedly unearthed in the past couple of centuries. There is some evidence that these were ignored, destroyed, or hidden by places like the Smithsonian, because it defies the current theories of anthropology. It’s not beyond the scientists to overlook or hide evidence contrary to their theories.
Truth is, the bones of giants have been reported. Here is one:
Eureka, NV, 1877: “…the prospector was surprised to find a human leg bone and knee cap sticking out of solid rock… When the surrounding stone was carefully chipped away, the specimen was found to be composed of a leg bone broken off four inches above the knee, the knee cap and joint, the lower leg bones, and the complete bones of the foot. Several medical doctors examined the remains, and were convinced that anatomically they had indeed once belonged to a human being, and a very modern-looking one. But an intriguing aspect of the bones was their size: from knee to heel they measured 39 inches. Their owner in life had thus stood over 12 feet tall.
In Egypt, archaeologists have found writings that mention the Anakim inhabiting the Promised Land. They are described as being very tall – upwards of 8’ 7”.
According to the folks at Answers in Genesis, most cultures around the world have stories of giants. “Greek and Roman mythology mentions the Titans, Kyklopes (Cyclops), and several other giants. Norse mythology contains stories of the Frost giants of Jötunheim. African and Asian peoples also have legends of giants, as do Native Americans.”
In his autobiography, “Buffalo” Bill Cody wrote the following words about a legend recounted to him by members of the Sioux tribe:
It was taught by the wise men of this tribe that the earth was originally peopled by giants, who were fully three times the size of modern men.
They were so swift and powerful that they could run alongside a buffalo, take the animal under one arm, and tear off a leg, and eat it as they ran.
As we close, let’s go back to the reason we are interested in getting this right, and are spending time on it. It’s because we believe we are living in the end times, and thus take to heart Jesus’ words,
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Mat 24:38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Mat 24:39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
The kind of “marrying” Jesus had in mind was the marriages and mating of fallen angels with human females that produced the Nephilim in an attempt to edit human DNA to prevent the Messiah from being born.
We don’t expect a new wave of fallen angels mating with women. But we do see the editing of human DNA, and recent bold claims by geneticists that we now control the destiny of what it means to be human.
DNA editing was happening before the flood; it is happening again today. It is, therefore, “as the days of Noah,” at least in that very important respect.