other · mythology

The Book of Giants

c. 250–150 BCE · Second Temple Period · Judea; Central Asia (Manichaean copies)

Prologue — The Watchers and Their Sons

1In the days when the sons of men had multiplied,

2In those days beautiful and comely daughters were born unto them.

3And the Watchers, the sons of heaven, saw them,

4And they lusted after them, and said to one another:

5Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men

6And beget us children.

7And Shemihazah, their leader, said to them:

8I fear you will not agree to do this deed,

9And I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.

10And they all answered him and said:

11Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations

12Not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.

13Then they all swore together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

14And they were in all two hundred.

15They came down in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon.

16And they taught them charms and enchantments,

17And the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.

18And they became pregnant, and bare great giants,

19Whose height was three thousand ells.

20Who consumed all the acquisitions of men.

21And when men could no longer sustain them,

22The giants turned against them and devoured mankind.

The Dreams of Ohyah and Hahyah

23Ohyah said to Hahyah his brother:

24I have seen something wonderful in my dream this night.

25A great tree I saw, and behold, it was felled,

26And its branches were stripped, and its fruit was shaken,

27And its roots were pulled up.

28He showed his dream to Mahaway, and Mahaway went to Enoch.

29And Enoch was dwelling in Parwaim,

30The paradise in which a great hall had been built for him of cedar and crystal.

31Mahaway flew like a bird on the winds,

32And he crossed Solitude and the great desert,

33And came to Enoch in Parwaim.

34He said to him: Enoch, messenger of God, be not angry with me,

35And hear my words and interpret my dream.

36Two hundred trees were planted, and tall ones arose.

37And they were watered from the fountains of the deep,

38And their branches reached to the clouds of heaven.

Enoch's Vision and Proclamation

39And Enoch went up and saw the vision of punishment of the Watchers,

40And the fire burning in all its greatness.

41And the tablets were brought to him, the tablets of heaven.

42And he read in them, and he found the deeds of the Giants written.

43And Enoch returned with a message for the Giants,

44And the message was not peace but destruction.

45He said to them: The Holy One has decreed destruction for you.

46You shall not find peace in heaven above.

47Your petition has not been heard, but the word has gone out against you.

48You shall be bound in the depths of the earth,

49In the dark places, for the duration of all the ages.

50Understand, you sons of the Watchers!

51Because your fathers are the Watchers — great and holy ones —

52But you are bastard sons born of angels and flesh.

53On account of your works you are called evil spirits upon the earth,

54And on the earth shall be your dwelling.

55Evil spirits you shall be called throughout all the ages,

56And your destruction shall come quickly.

The Battle of the Giants

57Gilgamesh said: I am a mighty man and have been made strong

58By the great glory of my strength,

59So that I could reach to heaven by the force of my strength.

60But who is this whose strength is greater than mine?

61And Hobabish spoke to him and said: Gilgamesh!

62Have you not seen what happened in the land of Egypt?

63The sons of Ham made war, all of them together,

64But the flood came and destroyed them.

65And the Giants gathered their forces together

66To do battle with the army of heaven.

67And Mahaway said: I shall go up and fight against the Sons of Light.

68But his brothers did not allow him to go,

69For they feared the outcome.

70And Enoch saw and wrote:

71A flood of fire came from the east.

72And the powers of heaven descended upon earth.

73They were thrown down before the flood.

74And the Giants cried out to the Watchers their fathers.

75But there was no answer from heaven.

The Judgment

76And the Holy Watchers were bound in the valleys of the earth,

77Where they remain until the day of judgment.

78And their sons, the Giants, were bound beneath the rocks of the desert,

79And they shall be held until the great judgment.

80But their spirits — the spirits of the Giants who were born from the Watchers —

81These shall afflict, oppress, attack, do battle,

82And cause destruction upon the earth.

83They shall rise up against the children of men and against the women,

84For they have proceeded from them.

85These are the evil spirits.

86The spirits of the Giants shall be evil spirits upon the earth,

87And evil spirits they shall be called.

88Their dwelling shall be upon the earth, and their abode among the evil spirits.

89As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven is their dwelling;

90But the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth,

91On the earth is their dwelling.

92From the day of the slaughter and destruction and death of the Giants —

93From the souls of whose flesh the spirits went forth —

94They shall be evil spirits on the earth,

95And spirits of the wicked they shall be called.

96The habitation of the spirits of heaven is heaven, but the habitation of the spirits of the earth,

97Which were born upon the earth, is on the earth.

notes

The Book of Giants is a Jewish text, originally composed in Aramaic, that elaborates on the enigmatic reference in Genesis 6:1–4 to the Nephilim — the offspring of "the sons of God" (understood as fallen angels, or Watchers) and human women. The text greatly expands the account found in 1 Enoch, chapters 6–16. Fragments of the Aramaic original were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran Cave 4), dating to approximately the 2nd–1st century BCE. Remarkable Middle Iranian (Sogdian, Middle Persian) translations or adaptations of the text were later discovered in the Turfan oasis in Central Asia, having been preserved by the Manichaean religious community. Mani himself (216–276 CE) included the Book of Giants in his canonical scripture. The text's most surprising feature is the appearance of Gilgamesh — here called Gilgamesh or Giwgamesh — as one of the Giants, alongside his companion Hobabish (possibly Enkidu). This is remarkable evidence of the spread of Mesopotamian literary tradition into Jewish apocalyptic literature: the great hero of Akkadian epic has been recast as a rebellious antediluvian giant. The structure involves a dream-vision motif: two of the Giants (Ohyah and Hahyah) have terrifying dreams they cannot interpret; the angel Mahaway flies to Enoch (who has been taken to heaven) for interpretation; Enoch reveals that the dreams foretell the destruction of the Giants in the coming flood. Translation reconstructed from the Aramaic Qumran fragments and Middle Iranian Turfan fragments, after W.B. Henning (1943) and J.T. Milik (1976). Public domain.

currently held: Shrine of the Book, Jerusalem; various

Dead Sea ScrollsPrimordial HistoryApocalypticFlood Narrative

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