Edom's Giants
(See Abraham and the Giants)
[Note:
Persians = (Persia) = (Iran)]
Eleazar the Giant
According to Josephus, a Jew named Eleazar the Giant, who stood over ten
feet high, was among the hostages that the king of Persia sent to Rome to
insure a peace. Vitellius no doubt referred to this same incident, for he
declared that when "Darius, son of Artabanes, was sent as a hostage to
Rome, he took with him, with divers presents, a man 7 cubits high, a Jew
named Eleazar, who was called a giant by reason of his greatness."71
(See Josephus on the Giants)
Elhanan
Elhanan, the son of Jair, killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath, in one of
Israel's battles with the (Philistine) = (Palestine) at Gob. (See David vs Goliath;
Ishbi-benob; Sippai; Six-fingered, Six-toed Giant)
Emim = (Emims)
The huge Emim = (Emims) ("dreadful ones") lived in that area later taken over by the
descendants of Moab, before Israel's invasion of Canaan = (Chanaan). (See Abraham and
the Giants; Sihon's and Og's Overthrow)
Execration Texts
The so-called Egyptian Execration Texts, composed between 1900 and 1700
B.C., substantiates the biblical account of a gigantic people called the
Anakim. These texts, written on Pharaoh = (Pharao)'s orders, put curses on some Anakim chieftains who lived in Canaan = (Chanaan).
[Note: The word "Anakim"
refer to the people of Anak and to "people with long neck" and giants. The
word "Anak" in Arabic means "Neck" or tall people with long neck.]
For example, one of the Execration Texts of the Twelfth Dynasty (c. 1900
B.C.), now on display at the Berlin Museum, contains "an incantation
directed towards certain enemy cities and territories among which are
Palestinian areas and which names specific rulers of an area called 'Iy-'aneq',"
which most scholars read as Anak. The texts also often refer to Ashdod as
a "city of the giants." (See Canaan's Anakim; Ras Shamra Texts)
Gabbaras, the Arabian Giant
Pliny mentions that in the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54), a
nine-foot-nine-inch giant named Gabbaras was brought to Rome from Arabia.
Claudius placed him at the head of the famed Adiutrix legions. The giant
so awed his troops that some worshipped him as a god. (See Giants Who
Became Gods; Graveyards of the Giants)
Gath's Giants
Many giants apparently made Gath = (Geth), one of the five great Philistine cities,
their home. Their prominence in the city is borne out by Joshua = (Josue)'s
statement that at the end of his campaign "there were no Anakim left in
the land of the sons of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath = (Geth), and in Ashdod some
remained." Goliath, whom young David killed in later times, lived here.
Rapha, believed by some scholars to have been Goliath's father, also lived
here, as did four other of his giant sons.72
(See Ashdod's Giants; Beth-Paleth's Giants; Gaza's Giants)
Gaza's Giants
According to Joshua = (Josue) 11:22, Gaza remained a well-known abode of the Anakim
giants after Israel overwhelmed most of Canaan = (Chanaan). As one of the five principal
Philistine cities, it occupied an important position on the trade routes
from Egypt to West Asia. Before the Anakim came, this very ancient city
was inhabited by the Avvim giants, who were driven out by the Caphtorim,
afterward called the (Philistine) = (Palestine). (See Ashdod's Giants; Beth-Paleth's
Giants; Oath's Giants)
[Note: The word "Anakim"
refer to the people of Anak and to "people with long neck" and giants. The
word "Anak" in Arabic means "Neck" or tall people with long neck.]
Giants, Valley of the
From the earliest times, a three-mile-long vale that begins at the top of
the valley of Hinnom and stretches south along the road to Bethlehem was
known as the "Valley of the Rephaim," or "Valley of the Giants." Today it
is called the Baqa’. (See Israel's Wars with the Giants)
Gibborim, House of (See Israel's Wars with the Giants)
Gibeonites
The Gibeonites, who tricked Israel into signing a treaty with them at the
time of the conquest (Joshua = (Josue) 9:3-27), are classified mainly as
Amorites = (Amorrhites)
and Hivites = (Hevites), but, according to the Septuagint, they are identified also
with the giant Horim, who had formerly lived in Edom.
(See Israel's Wars with the Giants)
Goliath
(See David vs Goliath)
Gomarian Giants
When the great rainstorms finally ceased and the heaped-up waters began to
recede, Noah's ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Strange as it
may seem, Noah's unusual three-storied vessel may still lie on this
Armenian mountaintop, preserved in ice. At least, while flying over Ararat
in 1917, a Russian aviator named Wladimir Roskovitsky spotted what looked
like the skeleton of a huge ship whose prow jutted out from the ice pack.
And in 1955, the French explorer Fernand Navarra reported finding near the
summit of this mountain the remains of what he believed was Noah's ark. He
returned with a five-foot piece of the ancient timber impregnated with
bituminous pitch.73
The Institute Forestal at Madrid, Spain, the Centre Technique de Bois at
Paris, France, and the Institut de Prehistoire de l'Université at
Bordeaux, France, after testing a sample by the "degree of lignite
formation, gain in density, cell modification, and the degree of
fossilization," described the timber as of "great antiquity."74
These two news stories created much excitement--and some controversy. But
the sightings of a ship high up on Ararat amounted to nothing new. Such a
vessel has been seen on this mountain since ancient times. The historian
Berosus, for example, recorded that in his day, circa 475 B.C., the people
still climbed Mount Ararat to see the ark and to scrape off bits of
bitumen for talismans or souvenirs. The Jewish historian Josephus also
writes that the Armenians of his time (A.D. 37-95) showed tourists the ark
at its final resting place
[on Ararat]. Even that famous traveler Marco Polo, who
lived thirteen centuries later, mentioned the ark while describing Mount
Ararat. Navarra's discovery has led to some lively arguments among the
experts as to what his find really represents. Some claim the ice-encased
structure is Noah's ark. Others say not. Whatever the truth of this
debate, there remains one indisputable fact: at the foot of Mount Ararat
sits the ancient city of Naxuana, or Nakhichevan. It claims the tomb of
Noah = (Noe). And its name, translated, means: "Here Noah = (Noe) settled."75
[Shem = (Sem)]
So, after the great flood, Noah = (Noe) and his three sons, Shem, Ham = (Cham), and
Japheth, apparently settled in this area. No longer having the
antediluvian giants to worry about, they began making for them-selves a
new life and repeopling the earth. Eventually their families grew into
three separate and distinct races. Noah = (Noe) himself predicted this would
happen. One day, in a prophetic mood, he said to the three: "Blessed be
the Lord, the God of Shem = (Sem)! May God extend the territory of Japheth; may
Japheth live in the tents of Shem = (Sem), and may Canaan = (Chanaan) be his slave."76
All these things came true. From the loins of Shem = (Sem) came the Hebrews,
through whom the promised Messiah would one day be born. Shem's male issue
included Elam, Asshur
= (Assur), Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. As for Japheth, he greatly
enlarged himself. His descendants soon possessed half of Asia, practically
all of Europe, a portion of Africa, and in more modern times most of
America. Born to Japheth were Gomer, the eldest, who fathered the Gomarian
giants, then Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal
= (Kabul), Meshech = (Mosoch), and
Tiras = (Thiras). And just as
Noah = (Noe) said, the descendants of Canaan = (Chanaan), Ham's youngest son, eventually
became servants to those of his brothers. The other sons of Ham = (Cham) included
Cush = (Chus), Mizraim = (Mesram), and Put.
[Note: Tubal = (Thubal) = (Kabul) is modern
Afghanistan]
For perhaps a century after the cleansing flood, Noah's fast-growing
family remained free of the Nephilim's destructive influences and the
giants' tyranny. Humans, nevertheless, were again enticed into ways that
were not good. For instance, they got deeply involved in astrology. They
also began worshipping idols. Needing a place to gather for these
degenerate activities, the people decided to build in Babel a tall tower,
called a ziggurat. This stepped temple contained two sanctuaries--one at
ground level and one at the summit, where worshippers believed their pagan
god sometimes appeared. Moses relates, however, that one night God
overthrew this tower, confused the people's language, and scattered them
abroad.77
Remarkably, an ancient tablet recovered in recent years from the ruins of
a tower located in the center of old Babylon seems to con-firm the
biblical account. Found by G. Smith, it contained this fateful report:
"The building of this illustrious tower offended the gods. In a night they
threw down what they had built. They scattered them abroad, and made
strange their speech."78
Commenting on this find, Henry H. Halley writes: "This seems like a
tradition of Babel." The site, he adds, "is now an immense hole 330 feet
square, which has been used as a quarry from which to take bricks. When
standing it consisted of a number of successive platforms one on the top
of another, each smaller than the one below, a sanctuary to Marduk on the
top." Halley also explains the Bible's description of a tower with its top
in heaven as "an expression of the vast pride of the first builders of
'ziggurats,' the artificial temple hills of Sumeria and Babylonia . . .
Ziggurats still exist in ruin at Ur and Erech (modern Warka) and their
construction illustrates Genesis 11:3, 4. Their whole purpose whenever
found was idolatrous worship and herein lay the sin of the Babel
builders."79
Following the tower's overthrow, the people of Babel found themselves no
longer able to understand one another, so they began scattering toward all
points on the compass. But still blessed with robust health and long life,
these clans flourished. When their numbers became too great, many pushed
out into other lands. Unfortunately, during these migrations, they once
more encountered the evolved Nephilim people. And when these fallen,
earthbound sons of God saw that the daughters of Noah = (Noe) were more beautiful
than their own, they took them for wives. So the Gibborim, the huge,
hellish children born of such marriages, once more appeared on earth.
Though these movements occurred in dim antiquity, the ancient historians
have been able to track many of them. Gomer's clans, for instance, settled
in "Higher Asia," in lands not too distant from one another. Here they
came in contact with some Nephilim flood survivors and apparently entered
a close association with them, for, after being defiled by genes from this
"strange flesh," they eventually evolved into a race of giants. From them,
affirms the Celtic scholar Paul Pezron, sprang the enormous blond Sacae
that overran parts of Asia and Asia Minor and some Fertile Crescent
countries, possibly including Canaan = (Chanaan). In later times, having changed their
derisive name Sacae to Celtae, they overwhelmed most of Europe. |