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It is written:
Amos 2:9-Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, Whose height was like the height of the cedars, And he was as strong as the oaks; Yet I destroyed his fruit above And his roots beneath.
The Bible teaches that there was a time when some of the sons of God (another term for “angels” according to Job 1:6; 2:1-2; 38:4-7 and confirmed in the New Testament in such passages as 2 Peter 2:4-5 and Jude 6-7) had children with humans (Genesis 6:1-4). This offspring of angels and humans is identified as “Nephilim” or “giants” (cf. Numbers 13:33). While the giants alive and living on the surface of the Earth were destroyed in Noah’s time (Genesis 7-9), we are also assured that there were giants on the Earth “after” the time of Noah (Genesis 6:4). There are theories as to how these giants came back (cf. https://marktabata.com/2021/11/08/how-the-post-flood-giants-returned-2/). Perhaps there were simply other times when fallen angels rebelled in this way with humanity.
Genesis 6:4-There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Notice that word translated “when.” There is a strong case that it may be translated as “whenever.”
“Whenever brings the whole verse into focus, whereas when blurs the details, but is whenever the proper translation of asher? After all, out of more than a dozen popular English Bibles I checked, only the New Living Translation (NLT) renders asher in Genesis 6: 4 as whenever. The Septuagint uses two words (hōs an) to translate the word, and together these words mean “whenever.” From a simple survey of English translations, there does not seem to be a strong case for whenever. However, the second English edition of Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar is a standard reference work on Hebrew grammar. Notice that this is not a lexicon, since the purpose of the book is not necessarily to provide the various definitions of words. Instead, this book explains how the Hebrew language works by examining how verbs, nouns, pronouns, etc., are used in sentences. According to Gesenius, asher, as it appears here in association with an imperfect verb, is used “to express actions, etc., which were repeated in the past, either at fixed intervals or occasionally (the modus rei repetitae).” 137 Multiple verses are provided as examples, including Genesis 6: 4. Since asher, when used as it is in this verse, refers to events that were repeated in the past, then when is an inappropriate translation as it seems to imply a single occurrence. On the other hand, whenever perfectly fits this idea, because it explains that certain events occurred in the past, not just once, but they were repeatedly performed either “at fixed intervals or occasionally.” Other Hebrew grammars agree with Gesenius. Davidson stated that the Hebrew wording “is very common in graphic descriptions of past events that were customary or habitual, and in giving the details of a scene.” 138 Waltke and O’Connor state that the phrasing in Genesis 6: 4 should be understood as “after this, then, afterward.” 139 In other words, the Nephilim were on the earth after the sons of God married the daughters of men [“ after this”] and then again at a later time [“ afterward”]. So these leading Hebrew grammars are stating precisely what the NLT states: the Nephilim were on the earth “whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women” (emphasis added).” (Tim Chaffey, Fallen: The Sons of God and the Nephilim, 243-244 (Kindle Edition): Richmond, KY: Risen Books)
Regardless of how the giants returned, we know that they were in the world after the Flood also. This raises the interesting question of “giant skeletons” that have been found around the world, and especially in the United States. Many claim that all of these skeletons are frauds (and no doubt some are). But how many of these skeletons are we talking about, and do any of them stand up to scrutiny?
Let’s ask some people who throughly investigated the subject.
“Have you ever heard occasional stories or reports about giant skeletons found in America? Indeed, the internet is full of them, usually with photoshopped giant pictures taking their viral circuits before they get debunked. Even the History Channel has joined with shows about giants in North America. There are videos about giants on YouTube that go viral with millions of views. Which of these accounts are credible? To help pin down the truth, we invested months compiling giant skeleton findings from newspapers, archeological reports, and Smithsonian records. From 1831 to today, we recovered 885 reports of skeletons that were classified by their discoverers as “giants.” Many of these 885 reports describe finding more than one giant skeleton, representing at least 3,000 giant finds in America, with 1,196 people involved in submitting these reports over a 200 + year span. Several of the sources that reported these findings believed at that time—just like we’re saying now—that these giant skeletons could have biblical explanations. Many of the reports in our database of 885 giant skeleton records attribute these extra-large skeletons to the Genesis 6 explanation. While these giant skeletons are found in every state in America, the majority of the findings are out of Ohio, California, Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida, with most by far coming from Ohio where we found 85 giant records. Researcher Chris Lesley has a book documenting giant skeleton discoveries in 88 counties in Ohio titled, Ohio, 88 Counties of Giants: The Ancestors That Preceded Us (2021). While those who made these discoveries ranged from farmers to treasure hunters to archeologists, a significant proportion were very well-documented by medical and archeological professionals. We graded these 885 discoveries in terms of their credibility and classified 660 them as “grade A” findings, with the rest being graded as “B” or “C” class findings because they have limited information or come from less reliable sources. About 400 of the Grade A and B findings were measured in the field and produced an average height of about 8 feet with a standard deviation of 17 inches. This means that about 25% of the skeletons were nine feet or taller, putting them about as tall as Goliath. This overlays in strong agreement with the 17 giant skeletons that the Smithsonian agrees to discovering or receiving during this same time period, which ranged between 7 feet and 7 feet 8 inches. Dr. Gregory Little conducted an analysis about these 17 skeletons and summarized the results in Alternative Press Magazine: I performed two statistical analyses on the “giant” skeletons found in West Virginia to determine the probability that the large skeletons excavated there could simply be due to chance. The first analysis assumed that the skeletons were measured correctly and it showed that the statistical probability of finding so many tall skeletons in the West Virginia mounds was well beyond chance: the actual results were as close to zero as it gets statistically. In essence, for the Smithsonian to have found 17 skeletons that were 7 feet tall by chance alone, they would have had to excavate 2.5 million skeletons. (That statistic utilizes modern height statistics, not the smaller heights known to have existed in ancient Native American populations.) In sum, there is a genuine mystery here. The height of many of the individuals entombed in ancient American mounds was far taller than the general populace—far beyond what could be explained by simple chance.[ 28] These findings are even more stunning when one considers that the average height of Native Americans at the time even smaller than the modern population database Dr. Little used. Considering the above, it becomes quite obvious that people leaving behind such tall skeletons were not the more recent Native Americans. We agree with Abraham Lincoln here when he wrote “The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the Mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara as ours do now” in 1848 while gazing at Niagara Falls.[ 29] There was indeed a race of giants that had gone extinct. This is good evidence that what the Smithsonian admits to receiving is very similar to what hundreds of other reports establish—the fact that there were “giants” in the land. Of the 885 records we evaluated, we identified 24 accounts with teeth or jaw abnormalities (with most of these being double rows of teeth). Also, 132 records described copper artifacts with the burials. These ranged from weapons and armor to ceremonial pieces. Think about this for a minute—we found 885 accounts. Not 100, or 200, or even 500—we found 885 reports, and some researchers have found even more. If there were just a few random findings of giant skeletons, they could be readily dismissed as just anomalies. But we found 885 of these records representing over 3,000 skeletons reported by at least 1,196 individuals. That’s a lot. Is it reasonable to presume that 1,196 people reporting these findings—who represent dozens of our leading institutions of the day—were somehow tied together in a massive “giant” conspiracy that spanned over 200 years? If so, for what motive? The people reporting these findings were farmers, explorers, archaeologists and government officials. Thus, no single industry stood to gain from conspiring. People separated by tens or even hundreds of years with various backgrounds in multiple states reported finding the same types of massive skeletons.” (Daniel Biddle, The Nephilim: Was There a Giant Problem in the Americas? 35-39 (Kindle Edition): Genesis Apologetics, Inc.)
The accounts of the Bible are real, and continually verified by archaeology.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.