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The Damascus Document from the Dead Sea Scrolls and 2 Enoch follow a version of the Watchers and giants narrative that emphasizes the giants’ impossible size, describing them as tall as cedar trees with bodies like mountains.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
CD 2:17
Damascus Document
Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts
14 And now, sons, listen to me, and I will uncover your eyes to see and to understand the works of 15 God, and to choose what pleases him and to reject what he hates, to walk perfectly 16 in all his ways and not to stray after the thoughts of a guilty inclination and eyes of fornication. For many 17 have gone astray through them, and mighty warriors have stumbled through them, from of old until now. Because they walked in the stubbornness of 18 their heart, the Watchers of heaven fell; they were caught by it, because they did not keep the commandments of God. 19 And their sons, whose height was like the height of cedars and whose bodies were like mountains, fell. 20 All flesh that was on dry land perished, and they were as though they had not been, because they did 21 their own will and did not keep the commandments of their maker, until his anger burned against them.
2 Enoch 1:4
Secrets of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
4 And there appeared to me two men, exceeding big, so that I never saw such on earth; 5 their faces were shining like the sun, their eyes too were like a burning light, and from their lips was fire coming forth with clothing and singing of various kinds in appearance purple, their wings were brighter than gold, their hands whiter than snow. They were standing at the head of my couch and began to call me by my name.
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Notes and References
"... The reference to the giants' great size will serve as a transition to the subject of their voracious appetite, described in verses 3-5. It specifies their height as 3,000 and 300 cubits, respectively, but this reading is probably a secondary gloss. According to the Damascus Document 2:19, the watchers' sons were as tall as cedar trees with bodies like mountains. This excessive height, vastly out of line with the height attributed to Og (9 cubits, Deuteronomy 3:11) and Goliath (6 cubits, 1 Samuel 17:4), may well be related to the tradition that ascribed immense height to angels (Testament of Reuben 5:7; 2 Enoch 1:4; Gospel of Peter 40) ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108
(pp. 185-186) Fortress Press, 2001
* 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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