Giant

GIANT. In Greek, Gigas, in Hebrew, Nophel, or Nephilim¹, which may signify a monster, or a terrible man, who beats and Gen. vi. 4.bears down other men. The Scripture speaks of Giants who lived before the Flood; it calls them Nephilim, mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Aquila instead of Gigantes, translates this word Aqu. Ἐμπίπτοντες. Irruentes.Nephilim, men who attack, who fall with impetuosity upon their enemies; a translation which renders very well the whole force of the Hebrew term. Symmachus Sym. Βίαιοι.translates it violent men, cruel, whose only rule of their actions, is violence and force of arms.

The Scripture calls them sometimes² Rephaims; for example, Chedorlaomer and his allies beat the Rephaims, or Giants, at Ashteroth-Karnaim. The Emims, ancient inhabitants of the land of Moab, were of a gigantick stature, they were of the number of the Rephaims. The Rephaims and the Perizzites are joined together as old inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Job says, that the ancient Rephaims groan under the Prov. ii. 18. ix. 18.waters; and Solomon in the Proverbs, that the ways of a debauched woman lead to the Rephaims, that is to say, to Hell, where the Giants are; and that he who deviates Ib. xxi. 16.from the ways of wisdom, shall go and dwell in the assembly of the Giants, in Hell, &c.

The Anakims, or the sons of Anak, were the most famous Giants of Palestine. They dwelt at Hebron, and thereabouts. Their stature was so much above what was common, that the Israelites, who were sent to view the Promised Land, told the people at their return, that they had seen Giants of the race of Anak in this country, who were Numb. xiii. 33.of so monstrous a size, that the Israelites, in comparison, were but grashoppers to them.

Lastly, the Septuagint sometimes translate the Hebrew word Gibbor, Gigas³, tho’ literally it signifies no more than a strong man, a man of valour and bravery, a warrior. For example, they say that Nimrod was a Giant before the Lord; that the Sun rises like a Giant to run its course; that the Lord will destroy the Giant, and the warlike man; that he will call his Giants in his wrath, to take vengeance of his enemies; that he will destroy the power of Egypt by the sword of his Giants, that is to say, of his warriors.

It is very probable, that the first men were all of a strength and stature much superior to those of mankind at present, since they lived a much longer time; long life being commonly the effect of a strong and vigorous constitution. The Scripture says, that there were many of these mighty tall men upon the earth, when Noah appeared; but that there were some before, and particularly after that the Sons of God had an intercourse with the Daughters of Men. The Text in Moses runs thus: 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. Several of the ancient Fathers, led⁴ into the mistake by the apocryphal book of Enoch, have asserted, that Giants were the productions of a marriage between Angels and the daughters of men. This opinion they founded likewise upon the text of the Septuagint, which in some copies stands thus;⁵The Angels of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. But Moses in this place means nothing else, but that the men of Seth’s family, which was the family of the righteous, and the Sons of God, were corrupted by their affection to the women of Cain’s race, who are here described under the name of the daughters of men. Thus St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Austin, and many more have explained it.

As to the existence of Giants, several writers, both ancient and modern⁶, have imagined, that the Giants spoken of in Scripture, were indeed men of an extraordinary stature, but not so much above what was common, as they have fancied, who describe Giants as three or four times larger than men are at present. They were, say they, men famous for the violences which they committed, and for their crimes, rather than for their strength, or the greatness of their stature.

But it cannot be denied, that formerly there were men of a stature much above that of common men, at least not without contradicting Holy Scripture, the most cer tain histories, and the tradition of all people. The Israelites who traversed the Holy Land, told their brethren, that they had seen Giants in this country of Anak’s race, Numb. xiii. 33,34.who were so unmeasurably large, that other men were but Grashoppers in comparison to them. Moses speaks of Og the King of Basan’s bed, which was nine cubits long, and four wide; that is to say, fifteen feet four inches and a half long. Goliath was six 4.cubits and a span in height, that is to say, ten feet seven inches. These sorts of Giants were still common in Joshua’s and David’s times, when the life of men was already so much shortned, and, as may be presumed, the size and strength of human bodies was very much diminished.

Homer speaks of the Giants Otus and Ephialtes, who at the age of nine years, Odyss. XI. Vs. 306.were nine cubits about, and six and thirty in height. He likewise describes the bigness of the Cyclops Polyphemus, whose strength was such, that he could easily and without the least straining, move a great stone, so large, that two and twenty chariots with four wheels could scarce raise it from the ground. I do not deliver this for certain Odyss. IX. vs. 240.history, but for a proof of that ancient tradition, received by the several people of the world, who always believed, that men of old were much larger and stronger than they have been since for many Ages: an opinion which is spread here and there in all the ancient poets and in other writers⁷.

St. Austin assures us, that in the port of Utica, he saw a Giant’s tooth so large, that it equalled an hundred of our largest teeth⁸. Torniel⁹ says, that in the Church at Verceil belonging to his order, there is a tooth, which is believed to have been St. Christopher’s, and is as large almost as that we have been speaking of. Pliny¹⁰ tells us, that a mountain in the Isle of Crete, having been opened by an Earthquake, a man was found in it standing upright, who was six and forty cubits high, and was by some taken for the body of Orion, by others for that of Otus. The body of Orestes being dug up by order of the Oracle, was found to be seven cubits, or ten feet and an half. Nævius Pollio was a foot taller than the largest men¹¹. There was one Gabbarus at Rome in the Reign of the Emperor Claudius, who was nine feet, nine inches high¹². Delrio affirms, that in 1572, he saw at Rohan a native of Piemont above nine foot high.

Plutarch. in Sertorio.Plutarch relates, that the body of the giant Antes was found in the city of Tingis in Mauritania, and that Sertorius having seen it, and observed it to be sixty cubits in length, offered sacrifices to it, and ordered it to be covered again with earth.

Albericus trium Fontium, a Cistercian Monk, after Elinandus, relates the discovery which was made of the body of Pallas, the son of Evander, who was killed by Turnus. This discovery was made, they say, in 1041, but Alberic reports it in 1054. Elinandus ex dictis Guillelmi. Eo tempore corpus Pallantis filii Evandri Romæ integrum repertum est, cum hoc epitaphio;

Quos versus non tunc factos crediderim, quamvis Carmentis litteras invenisse dicatur; sed vel ab Ennio, vel alio antiquo Poeta. Ea quidem est natura conditorum balsamo corporum, quod carne tabescente cutis exterior nervos, nervi vero ossa continent.

Hiatus vulneris quod in medio corpore fecerat, quatuor pedibus & semis mensuratus est. Ardens lucerna ad caput inventa est, quam cum nullâ liquoris aspergine, aut flatûs violentiâ extinguere valerent, quidam solertioris ingenii stilo subtus flammam foramen fecit, & mox introducto aëre ignis evanuit.

Corpus muro applicatum vastitate sua magnitudinem mœnium vicit; sed procedentibus diebus stillicidiis rorulentis infusum, communem mortalium corruptionem agnovit, cute solutâ, nervisque fluentibus.

Here are many particulars which seem to come from Authors who were contemporary and well informed. Notwithstanding, I can hardly persuade my self that the matter is not a little exaggerated.

The Chronicle of Colmar under the year 1267, says, that in a village called Hertin near the city of Basil, the bones of Giants were found, who seemed to exceed by thirty feet the stature of an ordinary man. Magnitudinem & longitudinem nostram xxx pedum excedentia.

In January 1701, at a village called Coloubella, six leagues from Thessalonica in Macedonia, the body of a Giant was discovered, which had been buried near the Sea in an old wall of some length and thickness. The Sea in a course of many ages having gradually undermined it, a great shower at last quite overturned it, and exposed the body of the Giant we are speaking of. He was ninety six royal feet in length; his skull contained full fifteen bushels of corn, Paris measure; one of his teeth weighed fifteen pound, and was seven inches and two Royal lines in height. Another tooth without the root of it weighed two pound and an half French; another two pound eleven ounces and six drams; a fourth tooth weighed two pound thirteen ounces.

The smallest bone of his little toe was seven inches and two lines royal measure in length: of the bones in the arm one was two feet four inches and two lines in circumference; a man might put his fist into one of them. Every one falling upon the body, in order to get some pieces of it, the principal were carried to the Bashaw, and the Grand Signior. As to the others which remained, the Sieur Quainet, French Consul at Thessalonica, entered an account of them attested by Father Jerom de Rhetel, a Capuchin, and Missionary to the Levant, who saw them. The same Father Jerom sent a relation of this matter to the Reverend Father Jerom de Mousicaux, a Capuchin at Paris in the suburb St. Honoré, and his letter was subscribed by the Consul above-mentioned, by Peter Rosti, Constantine Peronne, Loicheta, Flot a surgeon, and John Attuchi; who having all seen the said bones, signed as witnesses.

In the year 1719, near Salisbury in EnglandThe Gazette of October 1719. 21 Sept. Art. from London., a human skeleton was found which was nine feet four inches long. This discovery was made six miles from Salisbury, in a place called Stonehenge, or Hanging-stones, which the Ancients called The dance of Giants. There is farther to be seen there an inclosure of rough stones, some whereof are fourscore feet high and seven wide, which support others that are placed a-cross. No one has been able hitherto to discover what this ancient monument can be; which seems to be so much the more surprizing, in that throughout all the neighbouring plain there is no stone fit for building to be met with.

The People of Peru affirm, that there came Giants formerly into their country, who from the knees downward equalled the stature of ordinary men. They have the same tradition at Brazil and Mexico, and they shew bones belonging to them of an unmeasurable size. Some also are shewn in the castle of Moulins in the Bourbonnois. Credible witnesses assure us, that in South America there are Giants called Caurahues, who are between nine and ten feet high.

Diction. dela Bible, t.1. p.523, 524.M. Simon, author of the Dictionary of the Bible, printed at Lyons in two Volumes, folio, in 1703, attests, That while he was Curate of the Parish of St. Uzé in Dauphiné, he saw, and since that time received an attestation made in the year 1699, signed by three persons, viz. two Governours, and a Priest, who was Chaplain of the Castle of Molard, in the Diocese of Vienne, in Dauphiné, who all affirm, that they too had seen teeth belonging to a human body found in a meadow in 1667, which weighed each ten pounds; and there was one with part of the lower jaw wherein it was still fixed, that together weighed seventeen pounds. In the same meadow there were several bones found, for the most part rotten and in pieces; but one among the rest was pretty intire, which was seven feet three inches long, and two feet in circumference. After these examples, and many others which we might produce, I think no one ought to dispute the existence of Giants. See our Dissertation upon Giants.

The Arabians and Persians have the same persuasion as other people, with relation to the existence of Giants. Mahomet affirms, that Ad and Schedad, Kings of Syria and Arabia, were of such a prodigious size, that they were forced to use the largest forest-trees in setting up their tents. The Mahometans maintain, that the Amalekites, who, according to them, were the old inhabitants of Palestine, were commonly nine cubits, or eighteen feet high; that the Giant Og, who is mentioned by Moses, surpassed them all in stature, and lived to be three thousand years old. They hold, that all the ancient Giants descended from Ad the son of Amalek, and grandson of Ham; or, according to others, Amalek was the son of Uz, and grandson to Aram, of the race of Shem.

Alcoran, chap. de l’Aurore.They farther acknowledge other Giants, called Dives or Ginns, in Latin, Divi or Genii; who are neither Men nor Angels, but creatures of another species created before Adam, and appointed for the government of the world. They governed it peaceably during the space of seven thousand years. After them came the Peris, who had the administration of it for two thousand years. But both the Divis and Peris rebelling, God set Eblis to be Lord over them; a creature of a superior order, and formed out of the element of fire. Eblis made war with them: some took a good resolution, and submitted to him, the others were extirpated. But at last Eblis himself fell into apostacy; and this is he who is known to us by the name of Satan or Lucifer.

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