The Book of Giants (The giant bible) is an apocryphal Jewish book which expands a narrative in the Hebrew Bible. Its discovery at Qumran dates the text's creation to before the 2nd century BCE.
The Book of Giants is an antediluvian (pre-flood) narrative that was received primarily in Manichaean literature and known at Turpan. However, the earliest known traditions for the book originate in Aramaic copies of a Book of Giants in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Furthermore, references are found in: Genesis 6:1-4, 1 Enoch, and visions in Daniel 7:9-14. This book tells of the background and fate of these Nephilim in the flood.
The Book of Giants has long been known as a work which circulated among the Manichaeans as a composition attributed to Mani. During the twentieth century a number of finds shed considerable light on the literary evidence for the Book of Giants. The discoveries and publications of Manichaean fragments from the Book of Giants discovered at Turfan have substantiated the many references to its circulation among, and use by the Manichaens.
It is fair to say that the patriarch Enoch was as well known to the ancients as he is obscure to modern Bible readers. Besides giving his age (365 years), the book of Genesis says of him only that he "walked with God," and afterward "he was not, because God had taken him" (Gen. 5:24).
Enoch lived before the Flood, during a time when the world, in ancient imagination, was very different. Human beings lived much longer, for one thing; Enoch's son Methuselah, for instance, attained the age of 969 years. Another difference was that angels and humans interacted freely -- so freely, in fact, that some of the angels begot children with human females. This fact is neutrally reported in Genesis (6:1-4), but other stories view this episode as the source of the corruption that made the punishing flood necessary. According to The Book of Enoch, the mingling of angel and human was actually the idea of Shernihaza, the leader of the evil angels, who lured 200 others to cohabit with women. The offspring of these unnatural unions were giants 450 feet high. The wicked angels and the giants began to oppress the human population and to teach them to do evil. For this reason God determined to imprison the angels until the final judgment and to destroy the earth with a flood. Enoch's efforts to intercede with heaven for the fallen angels were unsuccessful (1 Enoch 6-16).
The Book of Giants retells part of this story and elaborates on the exploits of the giants, especially the two children of Shemihaza, Ohya and Hahya. Since no complete manuscript exists of Giants, its exact contents and their order remain a matter of guesswork. Most of the content of the present fragments concerns the giants' ominous dreams and Enoch's efforts to interpret them and to intercede with God on the giants' behalf. Unfortunately, little remains of the independent adventures of the giants, but it is likely that these tales were at least partially derived from ancient Near Eastern mythology. Thus the name of one of the giants is Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero and subject of a great epic written in the third millennium B.C.E.
The Egregoroi and their giant progeny are fought and vanquished by four archangels: Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Istrael (Enoch, 10, 1 ; or: Uriel, or: Fanuel). In the Book of the Giants they are called "the four angels". They are frequently invoked by name in Manichaaan prayers
Interestingly, there is an American organization called "The Sons of Jared."
Their publication is called, "The Jaredite Advocate." The aim of this group, as far as one is able to understand is to declare war on all the descendants of the Watchers.
Regarding this association with Jared, the Book of Jubilees tells us:
"And in the second week of the tenth jubilee of Mahalelel took unto him a wife Dinah, the daughter of Barakel, the daughter of his brother's brother and she bore him a son in the sixth year and he called his name Jared for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those so named the Watchers."
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Enoch and the Book of Giants
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four archangelsIstraelFanuelbook of giantsShemihazaOhyaHahyaanthologyShernihazaturfanapocryphalHebrew BibleQumranantediluvianpre-floodturpanaramaicdead sea scrollsnephilimmaniMethuselahangels and humansEastern mythologyEgregoroiwicked angelsfallen angelsGilgameshBabylonian herobarakelJaredite AdvocateSons of Jaredangels of the lordmahaleleljubileejaredevil angelsmodern biblefour angelsgiant biblegiant