Fr, yes — the Bible literally talks about giants, and it's not just one random mention. Scripture brings up oversized humans in multiple places across the Old Testament, and scholars have been debating exactly what to make of them for centuries. The short version: the texts treat them as real, historically significant people. The long version? It's a lot.
The Nephilim Drop {v:Genesis 6:1-4}
The first appearance hits different because it's so mysterious. Right before the flood narrative, we get this:
"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown."
So who are the Nephilim? The name likely means "fallen ones" or possibly "those who cause others to fall." Two main views among evangelical scholars:
View 1 — Fallen angel hybrids: The "sons of God" are angelic beings who left their proper domain (see Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4), and their offspring with human women produced these giant, powerful figures. This is actually the oldest interpretation — it shows up in ancient Jewish writings like 1 Enoch.
View 2 — Corrupt human rulers: The "sons of God" are powerful kings or nobles from Seth's godly line who intermarried with women outside the covenant community. The Nephilim are just the product of that moral corruption — mighty warriors, not supernatural hybrids.
Both views have serious scholars behind them. What's not debated: the text presents the Nephilim as real, physically imposing people who existed before and after the flood.
Post-Flood Giants? {v:Numbers 13:32-33}
Wait — if the flood wiped everyone out, how are there still giants? This is the first thing skeptics point out, and it's a fair question. When the Israelite spies scope out Canaan, they report back:
"All the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers."
The Anakim — descendants of Anak — are identified as Nephilim-adjacent. Some scholars think "Nephilim" became a general term for giant warrior clans, not necessarily tracing back to the Genesis 6 event. Others think some descendants of the original Nephilim survived through Noah's line somehow (though this is speculative and the text doesn't say that directly).
Also showing up: the Rephaim, another giant clan mentioned across Deuteronomy and Joshua. King Og of Bashan had a bed that was 13 feet long. That's not normal furniture, no cap.
Goliath Was Built Different {v:1 Samuel 17:4-7}
The most famous giant in Scripture is Goliath — a Philistine warrior from the Anakim lineage. The text clocks him at "six cubits and a span," which lands somewhere between 9 and 9.5 feet tall depending on the cubit measurement used. His armor alone weighed 125 pounds. His spear tip weighed 15 pounds.
And then David — a teenager, a shepherd — walks up with a sling and a smooth stone and ends the whole thing. The theological point isn't just that David was brave. It's that Nephilim-level power is still nothing in front of God. Goliath taunted Israel and by extension taunted God. That never ends well.
So Were They Literally Giant, Or...? {v:Deuteronomy 3:11}
Most evangelical scholars take the biblical giant references at face value — these were real people of extraordinary physical size. The archaeological record has turned up ancient skeletons and cultural traditions of giant warrior clans across the ancient Near East, though nothing definitively proves the biblical accounts.
The more cautious reading: some descriptions may use hyperbole for rhetorical effect (the grasshopper comparison from the spies, for example, might be fear talking). But Goliath's specific measurements, Og's documented bed, and the detailed genealogies of the Anakim all point to the authors treating these as historical figures, not myths.
Why Does Any of This Matter?
Lowkey, the giant narratives do theological heavy lifting. They establish that the world after the fall is chaotic and dangerous — corrupted not just morally but structurally. They show that human-shaped threats, no matter how massive, don't get to have the final word. And they set up a recurring theme: God consistently uses the small, the overlooked, and the outmatched to deal with the thing that looks undefeatable.
The Nephilim were men of renown. Goliath was a trained killing machine. None of it mattered once God's plan was in motion.