“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” —Genesis 6:1-4 (ESV)
One of the greatest mysteries of the Bible is the Nephilim. If you want to get a room full of theological nerds careening into debate, mention the Nephilim. But what do we actually know about them?
The Faithlife Study Bible tells us:
The etymology of the Hebrew term nephilim—often translated “Nephilim”—is uncertain. Its association with the Hebrew verb nafal often yields the rendering “fallen ones,” that is, fallen angels. But it is not clear from the text that the Nephilim are identical with divine beings. Rather, they appear to be the offspring of the cohabitation of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”—and the offspring may have reproduced as well (Genesis 6:4). Because Numbers 13:33 implies the Nephilim were people of extraordinary physical stature, the term may be understood to mean “giants” or “heroes.” While it is not obvious from the text whether the Nephilim themselves procreated, the Genesis narrative seems to indicate they were destroyed by the flood.
“Other than Genesis 6:4, the only biblical reference to the Nephilim is Numbers 13:33,” the Faithlife Study Bible continues. “The Israelite spies return to say that the Nephilim were so tall that they felt as small as grasshoppers in comparison.”
"The term nephilim means 'giants'... But in the context of Genesis 6:1-4, they are the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men,” said the late Dr. Michael Heiser. “This is a divine transgression of the boundary between heaven and earth."
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Now, the wonderful folks at the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR) have reviewed an obscure 3,300-year-old Egyptian papyrus at the British Museum, and they believe that it may back up the biblical account of giants.
The papyrus is believed to be a letter written by an Egyptian scribe in the 13th century BC. It describes encounters with a group known as the Shosu, nomadic people who lived in parts of the Levant and the Negev. According to the text, some of these individuals measured “four cubits or five cubits, from head to foot,” a height that translates to nearly eight feet tall.
The passage states: “The narrow defile is infested with Shosu concealed beneath the bushes; some of them are of four cubits or of five cubits, from head to foot, fierce of face, their heart is not mild, and they hearken not to coaxing.”
A cubit is roughly 18 inches, so four cubits would be six feet, while five cubits would be about seven-and-a-half feet. According to ChatGPT, adult men in the Old Testament era were around 5’4”, and adult women stood around 5’1”. So someone taller than six feet would seem like a giant.
Naturally, there are those who want to womp-womp all over this news, claiming that there’s no archaeological evidence for “giants,” but the Egyptian papyrus merely describes people who are as tall as NBA players. It might not clear up all the mysteries of the Nephilim, but it’s always exciting to find other accounts that confirm or back up what the Bible says.
Author's note: The papyrus in the featured image is not the same papyrus that ABR reviewed.
The experts said giants were a myth. Ancient Egypt says otherwise.
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