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Author | Topic: Giant People in the bible? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
I take that all back.
I must be a sucker if I believe in that. The shadows are inconsistent with eachother. Plus, what makes it obviously a hoax is the fact that the website the article is from is a parody website. I did some google searches, and apperantly there is no "Dr Richard Paley" and neither is there a "Fellowship University" of which he claims to be a teacher. It's all one big elaborate hoax. Quite funny too, considering the fact that I actually was defending the giant skeleton photo for a while.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
Well. Let's get down to the truth of the matter.
There most likely never were people 15-20 feet tall within the evolution of the human kind. The tallest authenticated humans have been proven by attested measurement at the 7-9 foot limit. It would not be inconceivible for a human with extreme growth desturbance to reach beyond 9 feet or possibly even 10 feet under optimal conditions. A hypothetical human being of 9 or 10 feet tall would have an extreme disposition to diabetes, ulcers, hernias, heart failure, joint problems, clotting, and a susceptibility to broken bones and knee joints in a fall. Scientifically speaking, this person would be a very poor physical example of man. Fatigue and weakness would be an everyday obstacle. It would be mandatory for he or she to get physical fitness for these very reasons. Such a person in modern times could possibly live a normal life if treated before the symptoms caused an immenent death. But thousands of years ago, these sorts of people would be lucky if they lived past 20-30 yrs old. Giantism is not always a spontanius overproductive pituitary dissorder or tumor in the gland. There have been estremely tallpeople whose heredity dictates how tall they became. Tall parents usually lead to tall children. Yao Ming is a great example of hereditary giantism. He is 7ft6, 320 lbs; both his mom and dad were 6ft4, and 6ft10 respectively. NBA Scouts have been driven to parts of northen China because of the apperant large population of 7-footers. These are the types of people I believe who inspired the biblical legends, of the Anakim, Rephaim, Nephilim contemerary with King Og of Bashan, and Goliath of Gath. Skeletons of the 7feet+ size have turned up in Jordan and Lebanon.http://www.eye2eyemedia.nl/engels/prod_goliath.htm To resort to outlandish beliefs that 12 and 15 foot giants' graves have been hidden by officials world wide is ludicrous when no honest evidence can support it. If we have to believe this sort of nonesense to defend the bible, I laugh. The bible simply gives us some examples of very big men who were revered and feared by their enemies. Guys like Ron Wyatt and Steve Quayle are clearly trying to make an extra buck on their cheesy fantastical claims. www.stevequayle.com For example, Steve Quayle writes a book entitled "Genesis 6 Giants". Yet there really is no reason to buy the book because the entire content of his research (don't get me wrong, he has some good research)is published on his website. I have his book, and it was a waste of money. it Cost something like $35 (I can't remember the exact price). Steve published the book to rip folks off by advertising it on Coast to Coast radio. Bottom line, lets shed the hokum and be realistic about the facts.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
To interperate ancient Hebrew Mythology which most likely sprang from earlier Canaanite traditions as relating to the formation of the Mormon faith is funny.
Of course, Eddy really isn't that much different from many fundamental Christians (George Bush included) who believe Israel should have special rights over the middle-east, because of Genesis 12:3 about the "bless thee that bless thee and curse thee that curse thee" thing. Anyways, the mighty men of renown mentioned in Genesis 6. If we really look at who they were in relevance to the traditions of those ancient times, we usually would come to the conclusion they are similar to the heroes of legend like Hercules etc. The Nephilim were the people who are supposed to have been born from the gods and men. Similar to many traditions world-wide. I guess you could intereperate the 120 years of Genesis as the time from Joseph Smith to the Israel Statehood. But it doesn't fit in with the rest of Genesis very well. Now I suppose the great flood is a prophecy of The Holocost?lol
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
I tend to agree with Arachnophilia on this one.
The book of Enoch is a much later text than the genesis story. It has a different cultural mythology than the genesis traditions.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
8-36 ft tall giants?
Scholars and scientists even before the 19th century often treated such statures with scepticism and doubt, though some like Buffon reached loose conclusions that men as tall as 15ft may have existed, he was the minority. The current and long held scholarly and scientific opinion is that there is no credible evidence that any person has surpassed 10 ft in stature, and only a handful of modern medical records reveal evidence that humans may reach a legit 9ft in rare cases. Overwhelmingly, the many reports of 8,9,10, even 12 ft tall people in ancient eras have almost certainly been due to exaggerations of as much as 1 to 3 ft/cubits in excess of their actual ht. (Similar to world wrestling entertainment which bills it's giants like Andre or Gonzales up to 6-8 inches in excess of their true height). Ancient peoples in general were often averaging around 5 1/2 ft for males, and they were 2-4 inches shorter than most modern industrialized societies. A 7ft 5, 300+ lb NBA Center such as Pavel Podkolzine, would probably have seemed like a giant 'six cubits tall'(8-9ft), compared to the avg. 5'5 Minoan men from Crete. As for governments finding existence of giants all around the world and hiding the evidence, I'd really like some proof of this. I've researched a number of old 'giant' stories, and it seems that skeletons allegedly 8 or 9 ft tall found in Ohio/Penn burial mounds, though generally not complete fabrications, often were exaggerated after retellings of the story, and while it's true that there were some 6 1/2 to 7ft Adena and Susquehanna skeletons found in the 1800's, and maybe even a few guys approaching 8ft, there was never a race of giants that the government is trying to hide. At most, some extreme ancient tribal variants in stature, but not a complete world wide race.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
The Greek legends of Cyclopes may partially have originated from ancient fossil discoveries of prehistoric dwarf elephant remains which to an untrained eye can resemble giant human skulls with one eye socket.
Author Adrianne Mayor has written some great books about Ancient Fossil discoveries in the Old and New world and how these may have been a component to ancient myths.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
Well, I must admit I am skeptical regarding these human paluxy prints. But you're right, there was a skeleton of a very tall woman found near panther Creek.
As for rough estimates of human height correlation to the footprints you mentioned, one could estimate the following: 10" male fooprint = c.5'6" stature11" = 5'10-6ft 12" = 6'2"-6'6" 13" = 6'8"-7ft 23" = 11'6" to 12'6" These are based on the length of human feet, which constitute 15 to 17% of human stature.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
Oh, you might also be able to estimate the weight of the entity who made the track by measuring how deep the track was into the ground.
My guess is that a hypothetical 11-12 ft tall non-obese man could weigh something in the neighborhood of 600 to 800 lbs, and this is on the lean side.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
The 23" long track was only an inch in depth? Wouldn't a 12ft 800 lb guy leave deeper tracks than that?
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
The primary characteristic of "tyrant" seems to fit very neatly with the arrogant nature of the Nephilim. These were evidently proud men claiming descent from the gods-- or later deified to godlike status. That they were physical giants in stature can now be understood as a secondary attribution, and not primary.
Hero and ancestor worship is nothing new. Josephus equated the Nephilim to the Grecian Gigantes -- a proud race cast down. The Book of Deut. chapter 2 (written 600's BCE) clearly makes the "Rephaim" synonymous to all the aboriginal giants which supposedly existed in Trans-Jordan, and southern Palestine and variously called Anaqim, Emim and Zamzummim by different peoples. Further study of who the "Rephaim" were can help solve the issue of who the Nephilim were. The texts found at Ugarit which date roughly to 1200 BCE, indicate that the Rephaim were essentially viewed as "the honored dead", or more precisely the spirits of dead kings of ancient time venerated as heroes or minor gods. These spirits were occasionally summoned for good luck and fertility, but had permanent abode in the underworld-- The book of Isaiah mentions the Rephaim as shades which reside in Sheol evermore, never to rise again. (Similar to the Gigantes and Titans) The Rephaim texts from Ugarit place strong emphasis in the Bashan and Transjordan region as a primary cultic center, or as Deut. chapter 3 calls it, "a land of the Rephaim" (A land of the dead). The god Rapah, known as Milik (The king) was venerated at Atarat and Edrei. This is precisely where the Bible locates the legendary Og, king of Bashan. Bashan, the Golan, and all of Transjordan is considered a megalithic graveyard of dolmens and burials dating from the 5th - 3rd millenniums BCE. Few places in the middle-east match the number and size of these megaliths. Thousands have been found. Ironically, these dolmens and burials are sometimes called "giants beds"-- And they look like stone beds too. Is it any wonder that the size of the "bed" of king Og ( 13 feet X 6 feet) roughly approximates the dimensions of many dolmens? Megalithic burials may have inspired the belief in a race of giants as it had in Britain and Europe (Stonehenge). However, real champions like Goliath and the mighty warriors of Gath seem to hearken to some historical context involving champions or mercenary soldiers of prodigious size. The oldest texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, and the Greek Septuagint all attribute Goliath a height of 4 cubits and 1 span -- About 7 feet tall. Later traditions exaggerate this claim to 6 cubits and a span by the time of the Masoretes. The book of II Samuel connects Goliath and the warriors of Gath to the mythological ancestry of the Rapha (Rephaim and Anakim -- the exonerated dead giants of old). Papyrus Anastasi mentions Shasu warriors in Canaan about 1200 BC, said to be 4-5 cubits tall (7-8 feet).Alcaeus of Lesbos c. 600 BC mentions a giant warrior who lacked 1 span from 5 cubits in height (7 feet), but was killed by his brother Antimenidas who served under Nebuchadnezzar in his campaign in Palestine, probably the siege of Ashqelon. Nicephorus tells of Antonius of Syria, in the reign of Theodosius, who stood 7 feet 7 inches tall. Pliny mentions an Arabian named Gabara who stood 9 feet 9 inches, and Josephus mentions a Jew named Eleazar who was 7 cubits tall (10 feet), though I take any claim over 9 feet to be exaggerated. The human skeleton seems to be limited to giants of 7 to 9 feet, and such giants are rare in anycase. The same laws of nature would have applied to Goliath, king Og, and all the giants of ancient time, regardless if their stature was genetic or a result of gigantism.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
I suppose it is my theory or hypothesis that some of the jumbled rulers of ancient times were later viewed as giants of supernatural prodigy. This is certainly true for the Rephaim who were once real historical rulers of Ugarit and Canaan, but through their death became shades of former glory venerated as minor deities by the Canaanites.
If the Rephaim were originally deified kings, and later understood to be supernatural giants by the time of the Hebrew writings (800-500 BC) and these same Hebrews considered the Rephaim equivalent to the sons of Anaq, who were themselves considered descendants of the Nephilim -- then I see the original kernel behind the Nephilim as nothing less than the same as the Rephaim -- That is to say, deified earthly rulers and heroes of ancient time, who later became wicked giants in the eyes of newly established Hebrews, the enemies of the Canaanite city-states. Someone like Gilgamesh who claimed a divine ancestry, being two-thirds god and one-third man, could certainly be considered a tyrant Nephilim ruler in ancient biblical terms. Of course, the tales which portray Gilgamesh in a positive light describe him as a giant slayer and not as a giant himself. Labeling the indigenous population of Canaan as a proud and wicked race of monstrous giants who were exterminated by the valiant Israelites in their holy conquest of the land seems to recall the legends of Brutus from Troy conquering Albion and slaying the giants of Britain. The tale of David vs. Goliath is no less mythic in flavor, although the historical context is somewhat more viable.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
Not to rehash this old thread... but
With closer examination of scripture, the Bible actually never made claims of giants taller than 7 - 10 feet (2 to 3 meters). If Goliath was somewhere between 4 and 6 cubits and a span, then he was 7 - 9 feet. The oldest sources point towards 7 feet. An Egyptian of 5 cubits tall is mentioned. This is between 7 and 8 feet. King Og of Bashan had a bed or sarcophagus 9 cubits long -- 13 feet. "Assuming" he occupied 80% of the inner space, he was just over 10 feet tall. (Robert Wadlow, the tallest modern man at 9 feet tall, was buried in a coffin 11 feet long.) So they weren't 30 foot fairy tale giants.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
Yeah, I think the book of Enoch was talking about the pre-flood Nephilim. The uber giants, hundreds of feet tall. There must have been a very ancient Jewish tradition of giants this size who pre-dated the merely very tall "sons of Anak" encountered in Canaan.
Maybe the Book of Enoch wasn't included in the Canon because these absurd giants were taller than Redwood trees, yet the text implies they fornicated with "birds" -- (I don't even think Argentavis Magnificens would have qualified...!). But the stories of tall groups in Canaan seem to be noted by the Egyptians who mention the travelers tale of giants 4 and 5 cubits high (7 to 9 feet) in 1200 bce.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
No bones exist for giants 400 feet tall, that's for sure. That can be considered "myth" because that's just idiotic to believe.
Scattered reports of large skeletons seven to twelve feet tall, are mostly unconfirmed. Perhaps the tallest person estimated from bones and published in Scientific journal would be the giant of Castelnau, found by G. de Lapouge in 1890 Herault, France. He estimated the man at over 11 feet. He also found the skull of a youth in the same Bronze age cemetery, he estimated stood 7 feet or more. But no 400 foot giants.
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John Williams Member (Idle past 5029 days) Posts: 157 From: Oregon, US Joined: |
It is hard to believe.
try a google search for: La Nature: revue des sciences et de leurs applications aux arts , Volume 18, 1890 pg. 12 or search: giants of castelnau There may have been post cranial remains which led to the seven foot estimate.
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