Extra-Biblical Books? Part 4B: the “Book of the Giants”

Extra-Biblical Books? Part 4B: the “Book of the Giants”
Monday, July 6, 2026 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Scripture discussion / Spiritual warfare / The church / Thought for Today

The “Book of the Giants.” The “Book of the Giants” is marketed as an important historical book that fills in missing information regarding the Watchers and the great flood. In that sense, it is related to 1 Enoch, which we will look at in detail a bit later in the series.

Fragments of the “Book of the Giants” are found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was probably written in the third century BC. Fragments of a later version have been found within Manichaeism, within the writings of Mani, dated sometime in the third century, probably between 240–274 AD.

Manichaeism was a gnostic religion founded by Mani (216–274 AD). Mani taught that God and Satan were opposites. He considered God and Satan to be equal with each other. Both were eternal. God was light and spirit, ruling that world, while Satan was the master over the physical world, matter, and the body. For the Gnostics, all matter was considered evil, whereas light and spirit were regarded as good.

Each person was in essence a light-spark trapped within the body. Life’s goal was to free that light-spark from the body and return to the world of purity and light. The version of “Giants” found within Manichaeism was probably written in the third century AD.

The two versions differ somewhat. Within the Dead Sea Scrolls, the angelic Watchers were supposed to teach men, but instead impregnated women. In Mani’s version, demons came, inhabited the earth, and impregnated women.

Before taking that wicked step, the watchers/domons had initially been seduced by women who were part of the line of Cain. The giants that resulted, the Nephilim, bring and practice great evil on the earth. They eventually dream of their own destruction. That destruction by the flood is confirmed to them by Enoch.

All cultures have myths about giants; claims have been made about finding unusual remains and bones. Interestingly, there are also over 50 named giants in Greek mythology.

So what is the problem with “Giants”? Only fragments of the book survive. Those fragments are random enough that much of the narrative has been heavily reconstructed.

Scripture tells us very little about the Nephilim. What is certain is that human sin, human choices, human practice, that everyone giving themselves continually over to evil brought about the Flood. The sin issue was with us as humans, not the half-breed creatures of the Nephilim.

As for the “Book of the Giants,” the reality is far less than the hype. It has very little substance and majors instead on conjecture. The reconstructed fragments take up only a few pages. The interest in it traces more to the way it parallels first Enoch than for what it may directly say.

In the next post, we will look at the “Book of Jubilees.”

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