Old Document Review The Book of Giants

From the Dead Sea Scrolls

This scroll is very hard to read as there are words missing and it is broken into many sections with many parts missing. The document is mean as a record to tell the story of where giants came from and also to tell the story of the battle between the angels and demons.

The scroll tells a couple of stories, the first is of how two hundred demons came down to earth and fought battles, taking women as their trophies, enslaving them and subjecting them to torture, then once it was realised, angels came down and done battle with them and destroyed most of them. Part of this story includes one section mentioning how the demons revealed mysteries and arts to men which brought rebellion and ruin. It says that the demons were eventually sealed up on a prison deep in the earth, beneath the mountains.

A strange character mentioned in several parts of the text is someone called Enoch (an apostle) who is compared to Christ and other religious figures. It is clear that wherever this character goes that he is feared and also obeyed. At one point the addresses a gathering of demons and criminals, at another he commands an angel from a distance to change direction and give instruction. Enoch is also mentioned in the story of the demons being imprisoned. Enoch is also mentioned in the bible in the list of descendants of Adam and also in the book of Hebrews where it is said Enoch did not die but was taken up to heaven because he had pleased God.

The giants themselves are said to be the offspring from demons and women, they are said to be war-like, they fight with each other and for other people, but also that the life expectancy of the giants is a long time of around a thousand years, so long that they are considered to be immortal. The giants lived in 36 different towns that were specifically designed to support their needs. It is because of their origin, and their nature that they were damned or cursed and their children.

There are a couple of very strange issues I came across, the first is the mentioning that earth is a sphere (knowledge of the universe), the second ‘three worlds’ are mentioned, possibly meaning heaven hell and the earth but this is perhaps something that fuels belief in aliens! Lastly I came across the mentioning of ‘five elements’. The five elements form the basic understandings behind Buddhism, and Buddha is mentioned elsewhere in the documents, here it is noted that the five elements are being consumed in great quantities by the Giants (earth, water, air, fire, the fifth of things that are beyond the material world).