Were the Nephilim Actually Giant-Sized?

There is considerable debate among Bible scholars and people interested in the Nephilim as to whether they were unusually large, even giants. The confusion arises because the principle reference to the Nephilim is in the Hebrew Bible, which is written, of course, in Hebrew. The Hebrew Bible has been translated into other languages many times, but there is debate over which translation properly captures the meaning.

There are two translations of the Hebrew Bible which support the theory that the Nephilim were giants so, Nephilim were also known as Nephilim giants. One is the Septuagint, which is a translation into Koine Greek that was made between the 3rd and 1st centuries B.C., and the other is a translation into Latin which was made in the 5th century A.D. Both these translations understand 'nephilim' to have been a generic Hebrew word for 'giants'. However, there are other translations that don't agree with this.

The other facet to this debate is the character of Goliath, who, in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament, is a Philistine warrior slain in battle by David. Modern-day Christians will be familiar with the story and will recall that Goliath was a giant, larger than a normal man could be. Scholars who follow the translation that 'nephilim = giant' are then inclined to believe that Goliath was a Nephilim, even though there is no explicit reference in the Bible indicating that he was.

In fact, the different versions of the part of the Bible that this story appears in (1 Samuel 17), differ on how tall Goliath actually was. The earlier translations, including the Septuagint, indicate that Goliath was about six feet seven inches: tall, but certainly no giant. Later translations have his height at nine feet six inches: giant-sized for sure. Many people have doubt about the existence of Nephilim angels as there is no physical proof that the Nephilim angels really existed.

As anyone who speaks two or more languages knows, the fact is that translation is an inexact science, and the difficulty is multiplied when the languages and cultures involved have now passed into antiquity. Anyone with an interest in this topic really needs to look at the evidence and decide for themselves whether they are satisfied by it.

Zander Smith

Site Representative

OriginalSexBook

Member of Nephilim giants group