Have you heard of the fascinating and mysterious "Book of Giants"?
It is not part of the main Hebrew texts, but it adds a whole new layer to the story in Genesis,
much like the Book of Enoch. The two works are an attempt to explain how it was that
wickedness became so widespread and influential before the flood.
Thus is also given the reason why God was more than justified in sending this flood.
The book is an antediluvian narrative that is derived primarily from Manichean literature.
References to the mythology of the Giants can also be found in Genesis 6:1-4, the books of Enoch,
Jubilees, Baruch 2 and 3, the Damascus Document, and the visions in Daniel 7:9-14.
This book told the origin and fate of these creatures and their fathers, the
watchers - called gregors, sons of God or saints, who rebelled against heaven when - in violation
of the strict "boundaries of creation" - they mingled in their lust with "the daughters of men".
Many people find these very passages in the Book of Enoch interesting. The Book
of Giants is devoted entirely to these points of interest and largely unfolds the narrative of the
Enoch Manuscript in even greater detail. That's why this video will shock you. If
you are ready for this, let's start exploring the history of the Giants.
The giants - the offspring of the fallen angels are considered even more depraved than them.
Subsequently, they were variously called Nephilim, Rephaim, and other names. They are described as
earthly half-breeds who fought against God and His righteous followers, whose numbers dwindled
as corruption and evil engulfed the world. Manichaean fragments give these wicked men the
general name of demons. Although the terms for the watchers and their descendants are often confused
in the various translations and iterations, in apocryphal sources these rebellious races are
collectively called fallen angels, as well as in the biblical narratives that mention them.
Origins in Ancient Jewish Tradition
The Book of Giants was known as a Middle Iranian work, but researchers today believe that it was
originally written in Eastern Aramaic. Around AD 216-274 the book circulated among the Manichaeans
as a work attributed to Mani, a Parthian citizen of southern Mesopotamia who appears to have
been a follower of Elksai, a Judeo-Christian prophet and seer who lived in the early II c.
In the 20th century, several finds shed considerable light on the literary evidence
for the Book of Giants. In 1943, W. B. Henning published Manichean fragments of
the Book found in Turfan, western China, present-day Xinjiang Province.
This finding substantiates the numerous accounts of the circulation and use of the book among the
Manichaeans. Further identification of the Manichean Book of Giants was revealed in 1971
when Yosef T. Milik discovered several additional Aramaic fragments of Enochian writings among the
Dead Sea Scrolls finding that the fragments bore a strong resemblance to the Manichean
Book of Giants, he concluded that the Giants were originally an integral part of the book
of Enoch itself. These fragmentary scrolls, in Aramaic, represent the Enochian tradition,
with which Mani probably became acquainted during his stay with the Elcesaites.
This seems to have been the main source used by him in the composition of his book, in which he
makes the legend of the Watchmen and the Giants "the cornerstone of his theological reasoning."
For many scholars, the Qumran fragments confirm that the Book
of Giants was originally an independent composition from the Second Temple period.
Among the fragments found at Qumran, Loren Stuckenbrook identified ten manuscripts of
the Book of Giants. These fragments were found in Caves 1, 2, 4, and 6. The discoveries lead to the
further classification of ten Aramaic manuscripts containing parts of the Book of Giants,
which until their recognition at Qumran were known only through Manichean sources.
There is much speculation as to the original language of the Book. It is generally believed
that it was of Semitic origin. In fact, the discovery of this text at Qumran has led
scholars such as KP van Andel and Rudolf Otto to believe that while these ancient Aramaic
versions of the book are the earliest known, the work likely has even earlier Jewish antecedents.
R. H. Charles, translator, and publisher of The Book of Enoch argued in 1906 that
Enoch was "built on the debris" of an older Noah saga than that in Genesis,
which only vaguely mentions the Enoch myth. Milik himself offers his own hypothesis that
Enoch's "creation story" and account of God's law predates the accounts of Moses' Sinai in Genesis:
He sees in Genesis 6:1-4 a quotation from what he believes to have been the earlier source of Enoch.
This passage still puzzles Bible scholars to this day. New research, such as that of Klaus Bayer,
suggests that the Book of Giants was "originally composed in Hebrew in the 3rd century BCE, with
the names of the giants Gilgamesh and Howabish betraying a Babylonian origin" - the Babylonian
origin claim based of the appearance of the names, however, was quickly refuted by Martinez.
What is in the Book of Giants
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered at Qumran in 1948, contains a fragmentary text in Aramaic.
Due to the fragmentary nature of the book, it has been difficult for researchers and linguists
to know the exact order of the contents. The work "Giants" is closely related to its counterpart the
1-st Enoch, which also tells a story about giants. Researchers are faced with numerous questions,
one of which is related to the oral or written transmission of the Enochian tradition. They
still do not have a definitive answer as to why the Qumran community considered the Enochian texts
so important to own and preserve so many copies compared to other textual traditions found there.
In the book of Giants, we find an expanded account of the biblical story of the birth of the "giants"
in Genesis 6.1-4. In this account, they appeared when the "sons of God" of the Watch who, according
to the history-confirming account of the Jubilees, were originally sent by God to the earth to
instruct and educate mankind, "in right ritual and ethical conduct," "to do that which is fair and
just on earth". However, they were seduced by the human women and had sexual intercourse with them,
from which a hybrid race of giants was then born. These watchers and giants or Nephilim performed
destructive and grossly immoral acts that ravaged humanity, including revealing the sacred heavenly
"secrets" or "mysteries" to their wives and children" as well as to humanity in general.
When Enoch heard of this, he became alarmed and appealed to God, Who in His long-suffering and
by divine revelation and counsel called Enoch to preach repentance to them,
so that the earthly races might escape God's wrath and destruction. In his mercy,
God decided to give the fallen watchmen an extra chance to repent by giving dreams to
several of their giant sons, including two brothers named Ohiah and Hachiah, who gave
the dreams to a gathering of their Gregorian and Nephilim companions. This gathering of watchmen
and giants was perplexed by the dreams, so they sent a giant named Mahvey to the abode of Enoch
and to the places where he preached. Mahway was instructed to first "hear" what the prophet was
saying before turning to him for an "oracle." In his attempt to intercede for them, Enoch
provided himself not only as the oracle that the watchers and giants requested, but also gave them
double "tablets" that revealed the full meaning of their dreams and God's future judgment upon them.
When the watchmen and giants finally heard heaven's answer, many of them
in their transcendent pride and arrogance chose instead to turn from their evil ways,
to act in defiance of God. The Qumran fragments are incomplete at this point.
The version, like its Manichean counterpart, associates the names of the Sumerian king
Gilgamesh and the monster Humbaba with the watchers and giants.
Manichean version
The Manichaean version is similar to that found at Qumran but adapted to Mani's story of the cosmos.
The fallen angels here are archon demons who have escaped from their prisons in the heavens where
they were placed at the construction of the world. They staged a brief uprising and in the process,
two hundred of them escaped to Earth. While most given names are simply transliterated into the
Iranian language, Ohiya and Hahiya are renamed Sam and Nariman. This version also contains a
full finale, telling how the forces of Light, led by four angels identified with Michael,
Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, subdue the demons and their offspring in battle.
Other texts
Much of the content of the Book is similar and most closely related as already mentioned to 1
Enoch 7:3-6 - a passage that sheds light on the characteristic features of the giants. It reveals
that the giants are born of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men". The giants increasingly
broke away from the values of their fellow humans and began to absorb the deeds of what
they perceived as an inferior race - the human race. They started killing people and cruelly
exploiting them in slavery and sexual debauchery. They also indulged in sodomy and hedonism.
They have also been known to engage in other morally dubious acts,
often driven by their immense physical strength and disregard for societal norms.
The authorship of the Qumran Book of Giants is still a matter of debate among scholars.
Despite so many surviving copies from Qumran of the complete work of Enoch,
they originally believed that the manuscript was little used among the desert sectarians.
More recent research states: "The discoveries at Qumran strongly rule out the possibility
that the Manichaeans were the compilers of the Book of Giants since their work followed later.
As for the comparisons that could be made with the canonical texts,
the books of Daniel and 1 Enoch have similarities; such as in their visionary elements. Stuckenbrook
suggests that "these similarities allow for the possibility that the author of Daniel knew the
early Enochian traditions well enough to use them and then adapt them for his own purposes.
We can see this most clearly in the throne theophany itself."
All of these Enochian writings were of great importance by the beginning of the first
century. The early Christian church valued Enoch and considered him canonical. However,
due in no small part to the influence of the Alexandrian philosophers who disliked
it - its content was considered by many in the Hellenistic era to be silly or strange. The entire
work of Enoch quickly clashed with the ideas of Christian and Jewish doctors, who considered it
a tainted product of the Qumran Essays. Milik suggests that the reason the book was censored
by Christian authors was its popular use by Manichaeans. Subsequently, the book was also
banned by such orthodox authorities as Hilary, Jerome, and Augustine in the 4th century and
gradually went out of circulation, finally being lost to the knowledge of Western Christianity.
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