GIANTS. The notices in the Bible of persons of unusual size and stature respect either individuals or races. We shall take the latter first.
1. The Nephilim, In Gen. vi. 4 it is said, in reference to the times preceding the flood, And there were giants (1:6D:) in those days.' This word Nephilim the L.XX. render by rytyapres, and in this the vast majority of the versions concur. Aquila, however, gives ot brorbrrovres, ot Mawr, and Symmachus, ol &alarm, plata, as the rnean ing-; and this has found many advocates (See Suicer, 77tes. Eccles. in voc. rlyas • Poole, .5),Props. in loc., etc.) Those who adopt tills interpretation in general deny that the Nephilim were remarkable for excessive size or stature, and regard them simply as men fierce, bellicose, lawless, and oppressive. To this, however, there are two objections, which seem decisive. The one is that Moses evidently intends, by the statement in question, to set forth a pecullarity of the times of which he wntes. 'In those days were the Nephilim (t:14)il, the well-known race so called) upon the earth ;' phraseology which would not have been used had he merely meant to state that there were rude, ferocious, overbearing men on the earth, for such there have always been. The other objection is that where the word Nephi linz again occurs, Num. xiii. 32, 33, it undoubtedly designates a race of men of surpassing stature ; so that this seems to be the proper sense of the word. In adoptin,7 this, however, the other is not neces sarily exdusded ; rather, may we say, that the pro bability is, that their gigantic stature, their strength, and their pride, conspired to render them overbear ing, cruel, and lawless. Nothing decisive can be gathered as to the meaning of the word from an appeal to etymology; for if, with the majority, we trace it to 5c,, to fall, it remains uncertain with which of the meanings of this word it stands con nected ; whether that of falling upon, irruere as Aquila takes it, or that of falling away, apostate (comp. Syr. or that of causing men to fall (Ibn Ezm, Kimchi). Hfivernick (Einleit. 1. 2, p. 264, ff. ; E. Tr. p. 345, ff.) proposes to connect it with the mutually related roots, 51t, t6D, which would suggest the meaning of something extraordinary marvellous, huge ; and with this Furst substantially concurs, comparing Sansc. bald, strength; pdla, Pers. bald, Lord ; phi the elephant, Arab. jti, to be thick orfat.* As to the common notion that these Nephilim were the fruit of the intercourse between the B'ney Ha Elohim and the B'noth Ha-Adam, it may suffice to say that nothing of this is asserted by Moses ; on the contrary, from the form of his expression, when he says also after that the sons of God had come in unto the daughters of men etc ' he would • seem to intimate that the Nephilim were a tinct race from the children of such intercourse, which had existed before them, and continued tc exist after they appeared (see Calvin, in. loc.) The progeny of these marriages the sacred writer describes as Vitri. This the LXX. ren der by ol ytyapres, and this has been urged as a reason for identifying them with the Nephilim. 'But the meaning which the LXX. have in this in stance attached to the word 111.1 is not the true meaning, of that word. It occurs repeatedly in the
O. T., and invariably signifies elsewhere one en dowed with strength—a hero, a strong bold war rior—with the implication of violence or fierceness as connected with strength and power (comp. Judg. xi. ; Ps. lii. 2 ; cxx. 4, etc.) There is nothing-, therefore, in the use of this word to sustain the opinion that the giants were the fruit of intercomse between the sons of God and the daughters of men; the historian simply states that their children were the heroes of antiquity, men of violent and proud spirit. [For the meanin,g of B'ney Ha Elohim here, see GOD].
2. The Rephaim (CPNV1). These are mentionerl along with the Zuzim and the Emim as among the inhabitants of Canaan at the time of Abraham's immigration, and as having their principal site at Ashteroth-Karnaim (Gen. xiv. 5). By the time of Moses the race was hastening to decay, for Og, king of Bashan, is mentioned as among the last remnants of it (Deut. ; Josh. xii. 4; xiii. 12). In the second of these passages Edrei is mentioned as also a site of the Rephaim. This once mighty race embraced different families, each of which had its own distinctive name. Thus, though in the earliest notice the Emim are mentioned as if dis tinct from the Rephaim, we read subsequently that the Emim were accounted Rephaim, though called Emim by the Moabites (Dem. ii. 1) ; we read also of the Zamzummim (Dem. ii. 19-21), probably the same as the Zuzim of Gen. xiv. 5 in the land of the Ammonites, as Rephaim ; the Anaqim, also, belonged to this mce (Dent. r 1), and probably, also, the Avim (Deut. fi. 23 ; comp. 2 SaM. XX1. 15-22) and the Horites (Gen. xiv. 6 ; Deut. ii. 12). Or these may be only different names of the same race viewed under different aspects. As to the meaning of the word Rephaim, if, on the strength of Deut 1, we take 1:14tni as a dialectic vanety having the same signification we shall attach to it some such meaning as awful, terrible, tremendous. The word won.; occurs in the sense of terrific object (Ps. lxxxviii. 16), hence an idol as an object of dread (Jer. 1. 3S), and for the same reason At. enzbodied spirits, ghosts (Job xxvi. 5; Is. xiv. 9 ; xxvi, 14, 19 ; Prov. xxi. 16). In this case n,L.m, may be traced to a root np,."1, to terrify, and may be simply a designation, as applied to men, of such as are from any cause for:nick:61e to their fellow men. From the manner, however, in which they are referred to in Scripture, and especially from theirs being ranked along with other national or tribal appellations, there seems little reason for doubting that there wa.s a race of men bearing Rephaim as their distinctive name, and each of whom was a Rapha (11, comp. z Sam. xxi. 16, ff.) That they were men above the ordinary stature is evi dent from Deut. to, for though :I, (A. V. tall') there used may be taken as describing mental rather than physical elevation—hauteur mther than height—this is not its proper meaning ; and as the Anaqim were undoubtedly chiefly remarkable in the eyes of the Israelites from their great height (comp. Num. -xiii. 32, 33 ; Deut. 28 ; ix. 2), the probable inference is that the Rephaim were men of gigantic stature ; though it does not follow from this that the word Rephaim means giants.