Was Goliath Really a Giant?

[Originally published as Goliath: A Giant of a Man]

These are questions that I hear a lot, and from two very different groups of people.

Minimalists, people trying to minimize the historical accuracy of Scripture, ask these questions. They don’t believe in giants and they don’t believe in miracles, either. They seek to sow distrust toward the word of God.

But I also hear these questions from a very different group of people. These are serious biblical scholars who embrace the veracity of God’s word. They believe it to be inspired and historically accurate. And yet, they question Goliath’s status as a giant.

What is a Giant?

To determine whether Goliath was a giant, we must first define the word giant. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word giant can refer to either “a legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength” or a “living being of great size.”

The English word giant comes from the Greek word gigantas. In ancient Greek poems, giants were half god and half earth. They were powerful, fearsome mythical creatures. Some were exceptionally tall, others were not.¹

In the third and second centuries BC, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek in a text known as the Septuagint. Two Hebrew words were translated as gigantas in the Septuagint. These are Nephilim and Rephaim. Many English Bibles translate both these words as giant. Using one English word to describe two different Hebrew terms can be confusing. There is also another Hebrew term related to the study of giants, and that is Anakim. Let’s look at each term to learn the differences between the Nephilim, the Rephaim, and the Anakim.

Who Were the Nephilim?

According to Genesis 6:4, there were Nephilim on the earth before the Flood. This passage seems to indicate that the Nephilim were the mixed offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men, although there is some ambiguity in the text.

Some biblical scholars believe that the sons of God refer to the descendants of Seth who married into the family line of Cain.² Other biblical scholars believe that the sons of God were fallen angels who mated with human women.³ The Book of Enoch, Jewish literature written in the third century BC, supports the view that the Nephilim were the offspring of fallen angels and human women. The meaning of the Hebrew word Nephilim is uncertain, but it seems to have a connotation of falling, perhaps meaning “the fallen ones.”

During Noah’s Flood, the Nephilim were presumably wiped out. However, there is one post-Flood reference to the Nephilim. In Numbers 13:33, ten spies reported back to Moses that they had seen the Nephilim.

The question is, did they really see the Nephilim? Or were they giving a false report?

According to Numbers 13:22 and Numbers 13:28, the spies saw the Anakim, and in Numbers 13:33, they equated the Anakim with the descendants of the Nephilim. So, it seems that the spies saw Anakim and reported seeing Nephilim.

Based on the biblical description of the Nephilim, it is unlikely that they were particularly tall. Genesis 6:4 simply describes them as being mighty men and men of renown.

Who Were the Rephaim?

The Rephaim appear in both biblical texts and other texts from the Ancient Near East. Extrabiblical texts describe the Rephaim as heroes of old who had died and gone to the underworld.⁴ Biblically, the Rephaim were originally a people group living in the trans-Jordan region (Genesis 14:5; 15:20; Deuteronomy 2:20). By the time of the Conquest, there were very few Rephaim left alive. Og, king of Bashan, was one of the few remaining Rephaim (Deuteronomy 3:11; Joshua 12:4; 13:12).

Yet, some descendants of the Rephaim survived all the way until the time of David, when David’s mighty men killed four descendants of the Rephaim: Ishbi-Benob, Saph, Lahmi, and an unnamed man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (2 Samuel 21:16–22; 1 Chronicles 20:4–8). Lahmi is described as the brother of Goliath, which suggests that Goliath was also a descendant of the Rephaim.

The biblical text indicates that the Rephaim were unusually tall. Moses reported in Deuteronomy 3:11 that King Og had an iron bed that was 9 cubits (approx. 13 feet) long. However, it is unclear whether that means that Og was unnaturally tall, or if it simply means that he was wealthy enough to have an extravagant bed.5 The extravagance of his bed is apparent in the fact that it was made of iron. Iron had just been invented and was a rare metal at that time in history. So, its large size might be another indicator of its extravagance, or it might relate to Og’s height.

Scripture contains other hints, though, of the size and nature of the Rephaim. The Rephaim that David’s mighty men killed carried unusually large weapons (2 Samuel 21:16, 19; 1 Chronicles 20:5). One of them was a man of great stature who had extra fingers and toes (1 Chronicles 20:6). Additionally, there is a connection between the Rephaim and the Anakim (see below), who were also tall people (Deuteronomy 2:11).

Who Were the Anakim?

Although Bible translators did not translate the word Anakim as giant, the Anakim are also of interest in a study of biblical giants. Numbers 13:33 describes the Anakim as being descendants of the Nephilim, but it is unclear whether they truly were descended from the Nephilim or whether this was a falsehood reported by the spies.

Anak appears to have been a person who lived around the time of the Conquest. Anak’s father’s (or perhaps ancestor’s) name was Arba, and Anak had at least three sons (or perhaps descendants) named Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. Joshua and Caleb, with God’s help, drove the Anakim out of the central hill country, leaving them only in Philistine cities (Joshua 11:21–22; 15:14; Judges 1:20).

Multiple Bible passages describe the Anakim as being tall people (Deuteronomy 2:10, 21; 9:2). However, their exact height is unknown.

Egyptian texts may also reference the Anakim. An Egyptian execration text (a curse against an enemy), now in the Berlin Museum, references a people group known as the ly Anaq, very likely the Anakim. Another text, the Papyrus Anastasi I dates to around 1300 BC. It describes the Egyptian army encountering nomadic people in Canaan who were very large: four to five cubits (6’ 8” to 8’ 6”) tall.

An Egyptian stone carving from the time of Ramses II shows captured slaves who are larger than their captors. This is unusual, since Egyptian art typically portrays captives as smaller than Egyptians, indicating the superiority of the Egyptians over their enemies.⁶ Thus, it seems likely that the Egyptians encountered very tall people, likely the Anakim, in Canaan, corroborating the biblical assertion that the Anakim were unusually tall people.

What About Goliath?

Having examined the biblical references to three different people groups who might be described as giants, we return to the question of Goliath. Biblical texts do not directly associate Goliath with any of the three groups discussed above. However, they do provide an indirect link with the Rephaim, since Goliath’s brother, Lahmi, was a descendant of the Rephaim (1 Chronicles 20:5–8). Thus, Goliath was likely descended from the Rephaim.

Goliath may have also been one of the Anakim, since according to Deuteronomy 2:11, the Anakim were counted as Rephaim. Also, Joshua 11:22 notes the presence of Anakim in Gath, which is Goliath’s hometown. However, this connection is tentative at best since Goliath may have belonged to a different group of Rephaim from the Anakim. The presence of Anakim in Gath centuries before the time of Goliath may be coincidental.

How Tall Was Goliath?

Biblical texts vary regarding the height of Goliath. The Masoretic text is the Hebrew version of the Old Testament that was carefully copied by scribes. The oldest known copy of the Masoretic text dates to the 10th century AD, but it reflects a much older text. The Masoretic text describes Goliath as being six cubits and a span (9’ 9”) tall.

The oldest known surviving copies of the Greek Septuagint version date to the second century BC. In most points, the Septuagint agrees with the Masoretic text, but there are some differences. One of these is the height of Goliath. According to the Septuagint, Goliath was four cubits and a span (6’ 6”) tall.

Typically, scholars consider the Masoretic text to be more reliable than the Septuagint. However, in this case, there is another text to consider. The Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish manuscripts including biblical books. They date from the second century BC through the first century AD. The vast majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scrolls agree with the Septuagint regarding Goliath’s height.

Thus, the weight of textual evidence seems to point to Goliath being four cubits and a span tall. This matches well with the Papyrus Anastasi I, in which the Egyptians encountered people in Canaan ranging in height from four to five cubits tall.

Was Goliath a Giant?

Remember, the dictionary definition of giant is: “a legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength” or a “living being of great size.” Goliath does not fit the first definition because he was a real historical person, not a “legendary humanlike being.”

However, Goliath does fit the second definition of “a living being of great size.” This is true whether he was 6’ 6” or 9’ 6”. Considering that the average height of a full-grown man in the Ancient Near East was around 5’ 6”,⁷ Goliath would have been abnormally tall even at 6’ 6”.

Goliath might not have been as large as we might have imagined when, as children, we went “round and round and round and round and round and round and round,” and finally came tumbling down. Yet, he was a giant of a man, and God, working through David, brought about a great victory. The Philistines trusted in their champion, Goliath, while David, representing the Israelites, trusted in God. The moral of the story is that God is greater than any human champion, no matter how tall.

By Abigail L.

Footnotes

1. See Hesiod’s Theogony; The Gigantomachy.
2. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Genesis 6; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown commentary on Genesis 6.
3. Chuck Smith Verse by Verse Study on Genesis 6–7.
4. Yogev, Jonathan. 2023. “The Riddle of the Rephaim.” Bible History Daily, March 8, 2023.
5. Millard, Alan R. 1990. “King Og’s Iron Bed.” Bible Review 6:2.
6. Sullivan, Rob. 2015. “Egyptian War Correspondents and the Biblical Giants.” Associates for Biblical Research, February 27, 2015.
7. Zakrzewski, Sonia R. 2003. “Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121: 219–229.