Texts in Conversation
Genesis describes how God wiped out the giants of the ancient world by sending a flood. Simon’s prayer in 3 Maccabees recalls that judgment as the first proof that God brings down the proud and the violent.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Genesis 6:4
Septuagint
3 And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall certainly not remain among these men for ever, because they are flesh, but their days shall be one hundred and twenty years. 4 Now the giants were upon the earth in those days; and after that when the sons of God used to go in to the daughters of men, they bore children to them, those were the giants of old, the men of renown. 5 And the Lord God, having seen that the wicked actions of men were multiplied upon the earth, and that every one in his heart was intently brooding over evil continually,
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
3 Maccabees 2:4
Deuterocanon
3 It is you, the Creator of all, the Lord of the universe, who are a righteous Governor, and judge all who act with pride and insolence. 4 It was you who destroyed the former workers of unrighteousness, among whom were the giants, who trusted in their strength and daring, by covering them with a measureless flood. 5 It was you who made the Sodomites, those workers of exceeding iniquity, men notorious for their vices, an example to later generations, when you covered them with fire and brimstone.
Date: 100 BCE – 70 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... The first incident cited is the well-known flood of Genesis 6-8. Less well-known is the connection between the flood and giants. The mysterious characters whom the Masoretic Text calls 'Nephilim' and 'heroes' in Genesis 6:4, the Septuagint calls γίγαντες in both cases. These are superhuman beings, akin to the Titans and heroes of Greek mythology, the offspring of angels or quasi-divine beings and human women. They are alluded to in apocryphal writings (Sirach 16:7; Baruch 3:26; Jubilees 7:21-23), and Wisdom of Solomon 14:6 specifically connects them with the Genesis flood. The fullest statement about the antediluvian giants is to be found in 1 Enoch 7:1-6, which describes their rapaciousness and greed. For the author of 3 Maccabees the giants serve as representatives of their whole generation, and their deeds bear enough semblance to those of Philopator that they function as examples of arrogant and haughty beings who received divine punishment. ...
N. Clayton Croy, 3 Maccabees (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 51.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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