(Jewish) Book of Giants

[GSF]

I've gotten pretty interested in this. To bring you up to speed. Around 1947 a Bedouin(sp?) boy made a historic archaeological discovery - the dead sea scrolls. We all know about them, what many don't know is the other books found along beside the scrolls. Many biblical scholars have dismissed the other books saying they weren't scripture. One of these books found is the book of Giants. If you've read your bible you know that giants existed during the wanderings of the children of Israel. The most well know; Goliath who stood 9"6". Anyway, what I'm thinking is that this book, if not scripture may have been historical fact. What say you;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEW1k0qU8Sg

[Michael Bush]

Goliath was not during the wanderings.  It was during the reign of King Saul, long after the trip across the desert.  But there are other references to Giants.  The first:
"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."--Genesis 6:4

This is pre-flood and pre-Abraham.

When they were in the wanderings and about to go into Canaan we have this:
"And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."--Numbers 13:33

There are 9 other references to giants, often talking about whole peoples of giants.    Here's one with measurements:
"For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man."--Deuteronomy 3:11

9 cubits is over 13 feet.  4 cubits is just short of six feet.  Keep in mind this is his bed, not the person...

And of course the classic Goliath with measurements:
"And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span."--1 Samuel 17:4

6 cubits is almost 9 feet.  A span is 9" which makes him about 9' 9".  Robert Pershing Wadlow (22 Feb 198-27 Jun 1940) was 8' 11.1"  Less than an inch away from 9 feet.

[BeeMaster2]

Pretty interesting.

[GSF]

Thanks for correcting me on the "wandering" error. What interest me is that who ever hid the dead sea scrolls thought that the other books found with them was important enough to preserve as well. Some of what he said on that video is a little hard to swallow, however, it would explain dinosaurs.

[Michael Bush]

>Some of what he said on that video is a little hard to swallow, however, it would explain dinosaurs.

...and minotaurs, and fuans, and hippogryphs, and centaurs...

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Goliath was 4 cubics and a span, that is 6 ft 6 inches,, cubic equals 18 inches a span is the length between thumb and little tip of little finger.  The average man at that time was 5 feet to 5 feet 3 inches tall.
I?m impress by your Biblical knowledge Mr. Bush, very impressed.  To know the Bible is a good thing.
Blessings

[little john]

To know the Bible is a good thing.

To know the events which came a few centuries later, and which forged the book you refer to - Constantine - the Battle of Milvian Bridge - the Council of Nicea etc - is even better (imo).  For they explain much about the military origins of Pauline Christianity and how it was catapulted from being the belief system of a relatively minor (but very troublesome, from the Roman's point-of-view) messianic cult into a dominant world religion.
LJ

[Groundhawg]

Goliath's stature as described in various ancient manuscripts varies: the oldest manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel, the 1st-century historian Josephus, and the 4th-century Septuagint manuscripts, all give his height as "four cubits and a span" (6 feet 9 inches or 2.06 metres), whereas the Masoretic Text gives this as "six cubits and a span" (9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 metres).[8][9] Large numbers of scholars believe that the "taller" reading is based on an exaggeration, and that the "shorter" reading is original, although some disagree.[

[Ben Framed]

Wow!  ''(9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 metres).''  Would certainly qualify for a giant in that time or this, would it not?