The Book of Giants is a religious text not included in the main Bible but expands on the story of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible, much like the Book of Enoch. Along with the Book of Enoch, it explains how wickedness grew so widespread before the flood and why God decided to send the flood. This text was written before the 2nd century BC.
The Book of Giants is a story set before the flood, found mainly in Manichaean writings and discovered at Turfan. However, the oldest known version of the book comes from Aramaic copies in the Dead Sea Scrolls. References to the Giants' story appear in Genesis 6:1-4, the books of Enoch (Ethiopic, Slavonic, Hebrew, Greek), Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, 2 and 3 Baruch (Slavonic), the Damascus Document, and visions in Daniel 7:9-14.
This text describes the origins and fate of the giants and their fathers, the Watchers (called grigori in Slavonic 2 Enoch), and the sons of God or holy ones (mentioned in Daniel 4:13, 17), who broke heaven’s rules by marrying human women. Their corrupt children, the giants, were called nephilim, gibborim, or rephaim. These beings were half-human and half-spirit, and they opposed God and his followers as the world became filled with corruption and evil. Manichaean writings refer to them as demons, or bastards in Greek Enoch. Though the names for the Watchers and their children vary in different texts, they are collectively called fallen angels in both the apocryphal writings and the Bible.
Origins in ancient tradition
The Book of Giants was known as a Middle Iranian text long before the second half of the twentieth century. Some scholars believe it was originally written in Eastern Aramaic. It was shared among the Manichaeans, a religious group, and was thought to have been written by Mani, a Parthian citizen from southern Mesopotamia who lived around AD 216–274. Mani was a follower of Elkesai, a Jewish-Christian prophet who lived in the early second century. Some scholars have suggested that the Elcesaites, a religious group, had similarities in beliefs and practices to the Essenes, an earlier Jewish sect from the Second Temple period.
In the twentieth century, several discoveries provided more information about The Book of Giants. In 1943, W. B. Henning published Manichaean fragments of the text found in Turfan, Western China (now Xinjiang Province). These fragments confirmed that the Manichaeans used and shared the text. In 1971, Jósef T. Milik found additional Aramaic fragments of Enochic works among the Dead Sea Scrolls. These fragments closely resembled parts of The Book of Giants, leading Milik to conclude that The Book of Giants was originally part of 1 Enoch. These Aramaic scrolls, which likely came from the Elcesaites, were the main source Mani used to create his book. He included the story of the Watchers and the giants as a key part of his religious ideas. The Qumran fragments helped scholars confirm that The Book of Giants was an independent text from the Second Temple period.
At Qumran, ten manuscripts of The Book of Giants were identified by Loren Stuckenbruck. These fragments (1Q23, 1Q24, 2Q26, 4Q203, 4Q530, 4Q531, 4Q532, 4Q556, 4Q206, and 6Q8) were found in caves 1, 2, 4, and 6. These discoveries helped scholars better classify Enochic works. In one group, ten Aramaic manuscripts contained parts of The Book of Giants, which were previously only known through Manichaean sources.
Scholars have debated the original language of The Book of Giants. It was believed to have a Semitic origin. The discovery of the text at Qumran led scholars like C. P. van Andel and Rudolf Otto to think that while the earliest known versions were in Aramaic, the text may have earlier Hebrew roots. R. H. Charles, who translated The Book of Enoch in 1906, suggested that Enoch was based on an older Noah story than the one in Genesis. Milik proposed that parts of Enoch, such as its creation story and laws of God, predate the accounts in Genesis. He believed the confusing passage in Genesis 6:1–4 was a quote from an earlier Enoch text. More recent research by Klaus Beyer suggests that parts of The Book of Giants found in Hebrew at Qumran were originally written in Hebrew during the third century BCE. However, the names of the giants, such as Gilgamesh and Hobabish, suggest a Babylonian influence, a claim that Martínez has challenged.
Contents
In 1948, pieces of a text were found at Qumran. These pieces were written in Aramaic. Because the text was broken into many parts, it was hard for scholars to figure out the correct order of the content in different versions of the text. The Book of Giants is closely connected to a similar story in 1 Enoch, which also describes giants but in more detail. The Qumran version of The Book of Giants is also similar to a later version called the Manichaean edition. Scholars still do not know why the Qumran community kept many copies of Enochic texts, even though other texts found there were less common.
The Book of Giants tells a story from Genesis 6:1-4 about the birth of giants. According to the story, giants were born when "Watchers" (called "sons of God") had children with human women. These Watchers were originally sent to Earth by God to teach humans how to live righteously. However, the Watchers and the giants they created did harmful and immoral things, such as sharing secrets from heaven with humans.
When Enoch learned about these actions, he became worried and asked God for help. God told Enoch to warn the Watchers and giants to stop their evil behavior to avoid punishment. God also sent dreams to some of the giants, including two brothers named Ohyah and Hahyah, who shared the dreams with other Watchers and giants. These dreams confused the Watchers and giants, so they sent a giant named Mahway to ask Enoch for answers. Enoch not only explained the dreams but also gave them two tablets that revealed the full meaning of the dreams and God’s judgment.
After hearing God’s message, many Watchers and giants refused to change their ways. Instead, they acted against God. The Qumran fragments do not include the complete ending of this story.
The Qumran version of The Book of Giants, like the Manichaean version, connects the names of the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh and the monster Humbaba to the Watchers and giants. The Manichaean version is similar to the Qumran text but includes changes to fit Mani’s ideas about the cosmos. In this version, the Watchers are described as demons who escaped from their cages in the sky. These demons caused a short rebellion, and two hundred of them escaped to Earth. Most names are written in the Iranian language, but Ohyah and Hahyah are renamed Sam and Nariman. This version also includes a complete ending, explaining how the forces of Light, led by four angels named Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Istrael, defeated the demons and their children in battle.
The story in The Book of Giants is similar to a part of 1 Enoch 7:3-6, which describes how giants were born from the Watchers and human women. These giants, being half-human and half-giant, harmed humans by eating their work, using them as slaves, and committing violent acts. They also had children with animals, raped each other, killed many people, and killed their own babies.
Interpretive issues between Qumran and Turfan
The authorship of the Qumranic version of The Book of Giants remains a topic of discussion among scholars. Some early scholars thought that the manuscript, even though many copies of the larger Enochic work were found at Qumran, was not widely used by the group living in the desert. However, more recent research states that "the Qumran Essenes copied, studied, and valued the writings and teachings connected to Enoch." Discoveries at Qumran clearly show that the Manicheans did not write The Book of Giants, as their work came later.
When J.T. Milik first suggested that the Book of Parables in 1 Enoch was written later than other sections, he proposed that the Book of Giants was the part that was replaced. One of the recovered fragments of The Book of Giants from Qumran was written by the same scribe who copied part of The Book of Enoch. These fragments may belong to the same manuscript (4QEnGiants ar and 4QEn ar). While this is not certain, it could mean that The Book of Giants was the missing section of Qumran’s Enochic collection, later replaced by the Book of Parables in the version of 1 Enoch translated into Ge’ez.
When comparing The Book of Giants with other religious texts, similarities exist between Daniel and 1 Enoch, especially in their descriptions of visions. Stuckenbruck notes that "these similarities… suggest that the author of Daniel 7 may have known early Enochic traditions and used them to create his own vision of a throne-theophany."
These Enochic writings were important from the start of the first century. The early Christian church valued Enoch, and some early Church Fathers quoted from it, considering it divinely inspired or authoritative, even though it was never included in the official church canon. However, the influence of Alexandrian philosophers, who disliked the book and thought its ideas strange, led to its rejection by many Jewish and Christian scholars. These scholars saw the work as a controversial product of the Essenes of Qumran. Milik suggested that Christian authors may have censored the book because it was widely used by the Manicheans. By the fourth century, Christian leaders such as Hilary, Jerome, and Augustine banned the book, and it gradually disappeared from common use in Western Christendom, leaving only scattered fragments behind.