Yes, the Bible really does mention giants — multiple times, in multiple contexts, across both Testaments. These accounts aren't footnotes or literary flourishes; they appear in historical narratives, military records, and theological context. Whether every detail is meant literally is a matter of genuine scholarly debate, but the texts treat these figures as real people who posed real threats.
The Nephilim: The First Mention {v:Genesis 6:1-4}
The earliest reference appears just before the flood account:
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.
The word Nephilim is difficult to translate — it may derive from a Hebrew root meaning "to fall" and could indicate fallen ones, those who cause others to fall, or simply powerful warriors. The passage links them to unions between "sons of God" and human women, which has generated centuries of debate. Some interpreters (following early Jewish traditions and the book of Enoch) read "sons of God" as angelic beings, making the Nephilim a hybrid race. Others read them as ruling-class men from godly lineages who intermarried with women outside those lines. Either way, Noah's generation frames them as a marker of the world's moral unraveling.
The Anakim of Canaan {v:Numbers 13:32-33}
After the exodus, when Israelite spies scouted Canaan, they returned with a report that included this:
There we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.
The Anakim were a specific group associated with extraordinary size and feared throughout the region. The comparison — "we seemed like grasshoppers" — is partly rhetorical, but the underlying reality of intimidating physical stature is consistent with what Joshua later records when he systematically defeats and displaces them during the conquest. The Anakim are presented not as mythological monsters but as a military obstacle that required divine help to overcome.
Rephaim and the Pattern Across Canaan {v:Deuteronomy 3:11}
The Rephaim were another group associated with unusual size. Og, king of Bashan, is described as having an iron bed measuring roughly thirteen feet long — either evidence of his own extraordinary height or a ceremonial artifact. Deuteronomy notes he was the last survivor of the Rephaim. These groups — Anakim, Rephaim, Emim, Zamzummim — appear across different texts as distinct peoples of notable physical stature occupying the land before Israel arrived.
Goliath: The Most Famous Case {v:1 Samuel 17:4-7}
Goliath is the most detailed account. The text gives his height as "six cubits and a span" — approximately nine feet, nine inches by standard ancient cubit measurements, though some manuscripts give a shorter figure closer to six feet, nine inches. His armor weighed around 125 pounds; the iron tip of his spear alone weighed 15 pounds. Whatever the precise measurement, the narrative is clear: he was a professional warrior of exceptional size and intimidating capability, and the fact that no Israelite would face him until David stepped forward is entirely believable.
How Should We Read These Accounts?
Evangelical scholars hold a range of views. Some take the accounts at full face value — there were genuinely large-statured peoples in the ancient Near East, the descriptions are accurate, and the Nephilim were a distinct lineage that persisted after the flood. Others read some of the numbers as rhetorical or as following ancient literary conventions for describing fearsome warriors. What nearly all agree on is this: these are not fairy tales. The giant traditions across the Old Testament are historically grounded, geographically specific, and theologically purposeful — they frame the land of Canaan as a place that required extraordinary faith and divine power to enter.
What These Stories Are Really About
The giants in Scripture function as a consistent theological motif: the obstacle that looks insurmountable until God acts. The spies who saw the Anakim and despaired represent unbelief. David running toward Goliath represents the opposite. The question the text presses on every reader isn't really about height — it's about whether the God who promises to go before you is actually bigger than whatever you're facing.
That's the point the texts are making, and it lands whether Goliath was nine feet tall or seven.