Rock Giants in Noah
Can the Book of Enoch shed light on Noah the movie?
Ronald S. Hendel
Who—or what—are the rock giants in Noah the movie?
Genesis 6 makes no mention of rock giants—or fallen angels—helping Noah build the ark. Where then did the rock giants in Noah the movie come from? Are they merely an invention by Hollywood scriptwriters?
The Hollywood blockbuster Noah has generated its fair share of controversy, with some saying the movie took too many liberties with the Biblical text. Certainly it is not a straightforward retelling of the flood story in Genesis 6, but as Ronald S. Hendel points out in his Biblical Views column “Noah, Enoch, and the Flood: The Bible Meets Hollywood,” which appears in the July/August 2014 issue of BAR, the flood story has been reimagined in Christian and Jewish texts, such as the apocryphal Book of Enoch, for millennia.
While rock giants are absent from the Book of Genesis, the Book of Enoch might shed light on their identity.
FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible’s Ancient Traditions in Context Mesopotamian creation myths, Joseph’s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.
The Book of Enoch is a collection of texts, the earliest dating to the third century B.C.E., supposedly authored by the famous Enoch of the Bible, who lived “in the seventh generation from Adam” (Jude 14) and was taken by God: “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him” (Genesis 5:24). This apocryphal book reimagines the account of Genesis 5–6, adding details to the flood narrative and elaborating on what was revealed to Enoch in heaven.
Who are the rock giants in Noah the movie? Are they to be identified with the Watchers, fallen angels in the Book of Enoch?
In its expansion of the flood account we are introduced to the Watchers, fallen angels who mated with human women and produced offspring—the Nephilim, the “heroes that were of old, warriors of renown” of Genesis 6:4—or giants. The Book of Enoch states that the Watchers shared secret knowledge with their sons that led to the corruption of the world. The giants ravaged the earth, filling it with destruction and evil; they depleted the world of food and terrified humankind. These actions trigger the flood.
For more on Hollywood movies, read:
- Excruciating Exodus Movie Exudes Errors
- The ‘Gods of Egypt’ Movie: A Mess of Anachronisms and Exoticization
- Blending into One: The ‘Left Behind’ Movie, the Book of Revelation and the Rapture
Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014).
When Enoch confronts the Watchers about their impending doom, they implore him to intercede on their behalf. He agrees—but to no avail. The Watchers’ petition is not granted; they and their sons are not able to escape their punishment—the flood.
Returning to our earlier question: Who are the rock giants in Noah the movie? They’re called fallen angels and are based loosely on the Watchers we see in the Book of Enoch.
To find out more about the Genesis Flood and the Book of Enoch, read the full column “Noah, Enoch, and the Flood: The Bible Meets Hollywood” by Ronald S. Hendel in the July/August 2014 issue of BAR.
BAS Library Members: Read the full Biblical Views column “Noah, Enoch, and the Flood: The Bible Meets Hollywood” by Ronald S. Hendel in the July/August 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on July 14, 2014.
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Haven’t seen the movie yet, but it seems to me that the stone giants are the prehistoric Stonehenge-like monuments like the site of Gobekli Tepe near modern Urfa in southeast Turkey (ancient “Ur of Kasdim,” Genesis 11:31). Believed to be the first temple yet discovered, the site was probably in use as a cult center before the temple’s construction:
“Rising 50 feet above the surrounding plai, it certainly qualifies as a ‘high place,’ which the Hebrew Bible so often associates with religious rituals and early encounters with God” (“Religion at the Dawn of Civilization” by Ben Witherington III, BAR, Jan./Feb 2013, p.58).
There is a problem with the chronology of period when this temple was in use (9500-8000 B.C.E.) because this occurs prior to the advent of farming and animal husbandry which were already established by Cain and Abel. In the Sumerian myth “Cattle and Grain,” the first generation of the gods known as Anunnaki (sky gods), “knew not the eating of bread, knew not the dressing of garments, ate plants with their mouth like sheep, drank water from the ditch.”
If we were to read into the text of Genesis 6:1 as if it applied to the period at the end of the Paleolithithic (known as the Epipaleolithic), it would start; “And it came to pass…” (the last ice age came to an end), “…when men began to increase on the ground…” (the retreating ice sheet allows fauna to flourish that supported animal life that provided hunting ground for men), “…and daughters were born to them…” (the division of labor between sexes with woman gathering wild plants).
Somebody went to the trouble of reading into the book of Genesis to describe Gobekli Tepe:
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli_Tepe_interview.htm
The standing stone inscribed with a human with wings may represent one of the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2, or “Anunnaki.” The Nephilim (fallen ones) in Genesis 6:4, otherwise known as the giants, might actually be represented by a 17.5 foot tall standing stone carved in a stylized manner with the ceremonial attire worn by priests at that time. Perhaps this powerful priest was regarded as “infallible” since his stature was as tall as the temple itself.
What I meant to say in my previous comment is that it is the flora of post-glacier Europe that supports the fauna that the sons of Adam hunt. It was in present-day northern Sudan and southern Egypt that the first attempts at plant domestication supported large communities that endured uninterrupted for a long period of time:
“As the prehistorian Chester Chard has pointed out, since the Middle Paleolithic, many groups were already concentrating on certain types of animals (and probably plants), so all that was needed to develope effective domestication was lots of time for trial and error experimentation and a little luck. Apparently,the late Paleolithic Egyptians posessed neither, although our evidence shows that they made an extraordinarily early attempt at domestication, and that its failure was accompanied by some rather traumatic side effects. Shortly after 13,00 B.C. grinding stones and sickle blades with glossy sheen on their bits (the result of silica from cut grass stems adhering to a sickle’s cutting edge) appear in late Paleolithic tool kits” (“Egypt Before the Pharaohs” by Michael A. Hoffman, p..88).
It is beleived that the next attempt at plant domestication occured in the region of Gobleki Tepe, so perhaps this is the land of Nod (wandering) that Cain settled in, east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). In “Food of the Gods,” (p.74) Terrence McKenna raises the possibility that Eden was in the African Sahara as evidenced by the rock art at the Tassili Plateau in southern Algeria:
” The Tassili-n-Ajjer of 12,000 B.C. may well have been the partnership paradise whose loss has created one of the most persistant and poignant of our mythicalogical motifs – the nostalgia for paradise, the idea of a lost golden age of plenty, partnership, and social balance. the contention here is that the rise of language, partnership society, and complex religious ideas may have occured not far from the area where humans emerged – the game-filled, mushroom-dotted grasslands and savannahs of tropical and subtropical Africa. There the partnership society arose and flourished, there hunter-gatherer culture slowly gave way to domestication of animals and plants. In this milieu the psilocybin-containg mushrooms were encountered, consumed, and deified. Language, poetry, ritual, and thuoght emerged from the darkness of the hominid mind. Eden was not a myth – for the prehistoric peoples of the high plateau of the Tassli-n-Ajjer, Eden was home.”
OR, the Bible, the book of Enoch, etc., are full of metaphor, simile, and figure of speech. Many of these things were not meant to be taken at full literal face value. The ancients loved to use symbolism to represent stories, people and events. Egyptian hieroglyphs are a great example of figurative picture language or iconography. That’s not to say that these stories are not historical accounts or that literal events and people were not involved. For example, if we review the Hebrew word for “angel”, malak, we find it doesn’t mean a supernatural being at all, but “messenger”, AND ALSO, king, priest, judge, lord, shepherd, ambassador, deputy, etc. Angels in the Bible are actually referring to “humans”. The sons of God were humans. Usually when referring to the descendants of Adam through Seth—those who walked with God.
The constellations are also used throughout the Bible to depict a story or certain event. Ezekiel, chapter 1 is a great example of that. Also in the book of Job.
Don’t get me wrong, I study the ancient history of all cultures, and I too, am fascinated by the ancient stone monuments, cities, and monoliths. There was obviously a very advanced culture that disappeared some 5 to 7000 years ago.
I saw the movie. Such a disappointment. But I’d like to talk about Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
1st: of all if you read it again, the giants were here before the ‘sons of God’ arrived. 2nd Every other reference in the OT to ‘sons of God’ clearly refer to NOT fallen angels. So why do people think this one could mean fallen angel? And since when does God bless the evil acts of satan with ‘men of renown’? Why didn’t God call those offspring giants? Or cursed? Or something other than a man to be looked up to and admired?
I’m not sure where this leads, but one thing I don’t believe is that the ‘union’ was not with fallen angels, but perhaps instead with God’s elite beloved angels.
…the Watcher’s were not ‘fallen’ until they made a conscious consensus decision to enter into the human evolutionary journey,… as a delegation of Angel’s assigned to Earth as ‘Watcher’s’, …they ‘forsook their First Estate’, and entered permanently into the ‘stream of the human story’, (genomic); by relinquishing their immortality, and status in Heaven (which they discovered was a consequence of their concensus disobedient action, so then they petitioned Enoch for intervention, mediation with God) …the Watcher’s decision, was lead by ‘Azazel’, who was a doubter of God’s sovereingty over the Earth’s evolution, and who became attracted to the desired human experience … the ‘will’ (of disobedience), towards satiating a physical desire for this activity created the distortion of the outcome…as apposed to an immaculate desire that also produced it’s own results; (also genomic); much later in the human story…
With the premiere of the Hollywood movie, “Noah” sailing into movie theaters all across the country, crowds are packing the theaters to enjoy this action packed summer blockbuster. It’s certainly a fun ride, but how does the movie compare to the actual story of “Noah” in the Bible?
Well, to tell the truth, it just doesn’t hold up very well at all. From the giant “Rock Giants” who help Noah build the Ark and the murderous killing spree Noah embarks on to purge mankind of evil, to the not-so-subliminal messages against the wanton destruction of flora and fauna, the movie takes many liberties to tell a good story, but the plot-line fails to meet the biblical text.
So, what’s wrong with just sitting back and enjoying an action-packed, roller-coaster ride with “Noah”? Absolutely nothing—as long as you understand that “Noah” is a fictional account of a biblical epic—just as “Miriamne the Magdala—The First Chapter in the Yeshua and Miri Novels” is a fictional account of the Jesus’ personal relationship to Mary Magdalene during the so-called “missing years”. Both works are an artistic interpretation of the original story, retold in order to appeal to a modern audience.
My advice … ENJOY!
JB Richards
Author of “Miriamne the Magdala-The First Chapter in the Yeshua and Miri Novel Series” and Content Creator for The Miriamne Page
For more information on this novel series, and The Miriamne Page, just click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miriamne-the-Magdala-First-in-the-Series-of-the-Yeshua-Miri-Novels/206903979347028
Sadly, regardless of theology or how it plays with source materials, either Biblical or extra-Biblical, turns out that it’s just a bad movie. I attempted to watch it this past weekend and had to turn it off after an hour an a half.
I have to agree with Kurt. While the movie had my interest initially for its flood special effects and the like, the final 3rd of the movie completely ruined any entertainment value this fiction weakly based on reality may have had. Epic fail. They picture would have had some merit if the credits would have started rolling once they got on the ark. Oh well. Let’s hope Ridley Scott can keep from killing his Exodus movie.
I saw the movie, and then came home and reread the biblical account. I wonder if the “Nephillim” might be a memory of Neanderthals? They definitely mated with “daughters of men” according to the DNA record.
By the way, Aronofsky’s “Noah” is not based on Genesis or on 1 Enoch. Check this out if you really want to know where he got his ideas:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2014/04/noah-the-kabbalah-and-gnosticism/