The New Race of Giants Documented in the Bible
The New Race of Giants Documented in the Bible
However, the Biblical Deluge purged the world of these fallen angels and their monstrous children, and they afterward existed only in the imaginative narrative. The stories of the commingling of these heaven-born rebels with the women of the earth have a close affinity to the Greek legends about the mythological deities having offspring by mortal women ; and also to the Indian notions of the solar and lunar races of men, Suras and Asuras, who, according to Hindu traditions, sprang from the gods. The next race of giants mentioned in the Bible, and being, moreover, the first postdiluvian monsters, are the Rephaim, of whom the earliest record is made in Genesis xiv. 5, where we are told that Chedorlaomer and some allied kings defeated them at Ashteroth Karnaim. Afterward, they were, with other tribes, given to Abraham (Genesis xv. 20). In Deuteronomy ii. 10, 11, we are told, in reference to the wilderness of Moab, that " the Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites called them Emims." And in verses 20 and 21 it is said that the land of Ammon " also was accounted a land of giants : giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them ; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead."