The giants were on the earth in those days
Read the full text in our reader
οἱ δὲ γίγαντες ἦσαν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, καὶ μετ᾽ ἐκεῖνο ὡς ἂν εἰσεπορεύοντο οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ πρὸς τὰς θυγατέρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ἐγεννῶσαν ἑαυτοῖς· ἐκεῖνοι ἦσαν οἱ γίγαντες οἱ ἀπ᾽ αἰῶνος, οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ὀνομαστοί.
Γίγαντες — the same word Greek myth uses for the earth-born Giants who warred on the Olympian gods — renders Hebrew נְּפִלִים (Nephilim), traditionally “fallen ones”; Swete’s own gloss for these beings, οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ὀνομαστοί, “the men of name/renown”, echoes Hebrew אַנְשֵׁי הַשֵׁם. Here, unlike v.2, both witnesses (A and B) agree on οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ — the variant was specific to v.2 alone. Note the verse distinguishes two things: giants already “on the earth in those days” (v.4a), and the children later born from the union of the sons of God and human women (v.4b, also called γίγαντες, “the renowned men of old”). This single, compressed verse is the fountainhead of the whole later Watchers/Nephilim reception — 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the NT’s own glancing references at Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4.
Open The Septuagint 6.4 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the The Septuagint — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
The Septuagint 6.4 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/septuagint/6.4/