Ambrose of Milan : But there were giants in the earth in those days. The author of divine Scripture does not want those giants to be regarded as the children of the earth in the manner of poets, but asserts that they were generated from angels and women, whom he calls with this name, desiring to express their bodily magnitude. And let us consider, lest perhaps the giants are like humans who devote themselves to the worship of their flesh, but have no care for their souls: just like those who, according to poetic fable, are said to have had contempt for the gods because of the size of their bodies. Those who despise being valued differently, since they consist of both soul and body, and reject the strength of the mind which the soul holds as more precious, and present themselves as imitators of this flesh as heirs of maternal stupidity? Therefore, they labour in vain, arrogantly claiming heaven through their proud desires, and devoting themselves to earthly works, who, by choosing the lower and despising the higher communion, are condemned by a more severe punishment, as if they willingly subject themselves to more serious sins. — On Noah and the Ark, Chapter IV Ambrose of Milan : The author of divine Scripture does not wish these giants to be understood, according to the custom of poets, as children of the earth, but rather it asserts that they were begotten of angels and women, and calls them by this name to express the size of their bodies. — Noah and the Ark 4.8 (Treatises on Noah and David, page 34) Augustine of Hippo : All that we indubitably know, from the authentic Scripture in the Hebrew and Christian traditions, is the fact that in the period before the flood there were many giants, all of whom belonged to the earthly city in human society, and that there were sons of God descended from Seth who abandoned their holiness and sank down into this city of men. There is nothing surprising in the fact that giants could be born from men like that. In any case, they were not all giants, even though there were more giants before the flood than in all subsequent ages. They served a divine purpose in that they reveal to anyone who is wise that mere bodily magnitude and might have no more value than bodily beauty. — City of God 15.23 Basil of Caesarea : Strength of arm, swiftness of foot and comeliness of body—the spoils of sickness and the plunder of time—also awaken pride in man, unaware as he is that "All flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the field. The grass is withered and the flower is fallen." Such was the arrogance of the giants because of their strength. Such also was the God-defying pride of the witless Goliath. — HOMILY 20, Of Humility Bede : There were giants on the earth in those days. Giants are called men with immense bodies and excessive power, of which there were also many after the flood, that is, in the times of Moses or David, who have the name in Greek because, according to the poets' fables, the earth bore them. They seem, however, to have been begotten when the descendants of Seth chose wives from the lineage of Cain because of their beauty against the law of their dignity. For it follows: — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Bede : After the sons of God entered the daughters of men, and they bore children, these were the mighty men of old, men of renown. It should be noted that in this place, for giants, the Hebrew reads 'fallen ones', that is, 'annasilim'; and the sense is easy and clear because they were 'fallen' men on the earth in those days, that is, adhering to earthly desires, having lost the state of uprightness devoted to God. The giants, however, are properly named 'Rafaim' in their language. But sometimes a giant is taken in a good sense, as it is said of the Lord: 'He rejoiced as a giant to run his course' (Psalms 19:5); but this is for the unique power by which He transcends the rest of humanity, and accomplished the mystery of the Incarnation with wondrous power, just as a lion sometimes signifies the Lord, sometimes the devil; but the devil for pride and ferocity, the Lord for power: although in the Hebrew truth, the aforementioned verse of the psalm is written thus: 'He rejoiced as a strong man to run his course.' — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Ephrem the Syrian : The house of Cain, because the earth had been cursed so as not to give them its strength, produced small harvests, deprived of its strength, just as it is today that some seeds, fruits and grasses give strength and some do not. Because at that time they were cursed and sons of the cursed and were dwelling in the land of curses, they would gather and eat produce that lacked nutrition, and those who ate these were without strength just like the food that they ate. As for the Sethites, on the other hand, because they were the descendants of the blessed [Seth] and were dwelling in the land along the boundary of the fence of paradise, their produce was abundant and full of strength. So too were the bodies of those who ate that produce strong and powerful. — COMMENTARY ON Genesis 6.5.1 Jerome : (Version 4.) Now there were giants upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown. For falling ones, or giants, Symmachus interpreted them as violent ones. And it is fitting for the name of falling ones to apply to angels and the children of the saints. — Hebrew Questions on Genesis Philo of Alexandria : XIII. (58) "And there were giants on the earth in those Days." [Genesis 6:4] Perhaps some one may here think, that the lawgiver is speaking enigmatically and alluding to the fables handed down by the poets about giants, though he is a man as far removed as possible from any invention of fables, and one who thinks fit only to walk in the paths of truth itself; (59) in consequence of which principle, he has banished from the constitution, which he has established, those celebrated and beautiful arts of statuary and painting, because they, falsely imitating the nature of the truth, contrive deceits and snares, in order, through the medium of the eyes, to beguile the souls which are liable to be easily won over. (60) Therefore he utters no fable whatever respecting the giants; but he wishes to set this fact before your eyes, that some men are born of the earth, and some are born of heaven, and some are born of God: those are born of the earth, who are hunters after the pleasures of the body, devoting themselves to the enjoyment and fruition of them, and being eager to provide themselves with all things that tend to each of them. Those again are born of heaven who are men of skill and science and devoted to learning; for the heavenly portion of us is our mind, and the mind of every one of those persons who are born of heaven studies the encyclical branches of education and every other art of every description, sharpening, and exercising, and practising itself, and rendering itself acute in all those matters which are the objects of intellect. (61) Lastly, those who are born of God are priests and prophets, who have not thought fit to mix themselves up in the constitutions of this world, and to become cosmopolites, but who having raised themselves above all the objects of the mere outward senses, have departed and fixed their views on that world which is perceptible only by the intellect, and have settled there, being inscribed in the state of incorruptible incorporeal ideas. XIV. (62) Accordingly, Abraham, as long as he was abiding in the land of the Chaldaeans, that is to say, in opinion, before he received his new name, and while he was still called Abram, was a man born of heaven, investigating the sublime nature of things on high, and all that took place in these regions, and the causes of them, and studying everything of that kind in the true spirit of philosophy; on which account he received an appellation corresponding to the pursuits to which he devoted himself: for the name Abram, being interpreted, signifies the sublime father, and is a name very fitting for the paternal mind, which in every direction contemplates sublime and heavenly things: for the mind is the father of our composite being, reaching as high as the sky and even farther. (63) But when he became improved, and was about to have his name changed, he then became a man born of God, according to the oracle which was delivered to him, "I am thy God, take care that thou art approved before me, and be thou Blameless." [Genesis 17:1] (64) But if the God of the world, being the only God, is also by especial favour the peculiar God of this individual man, then of necessity the man must also be a man of God; for the name Abraham, being interpreted, signifies, "the elect father of sound," the reason of the good man: for he is chosen out of all, and purified, and the father of the voice by which we speak; and being such a character as this, he is assigned to the one only God, whose minister he becomes, and so makes the path of his whole life straight, using in real truth the royal road, the road of the only king who governs all things, turning aside and deviating neither to the left hand nor to the right. XV. (65) But the sons of earth removing their minds from contemplation, and becoming deserters so as to fly to the lifeless and immovable nature of the flesh, "for they two became one Flesh," [Genesis 2:24] as the lawgiver says, adulterated the excellent coinage, and abandoned the better rank which had been allotted to them as their own, and deserted to the worse rank, which was contrary to their original nature, Nimrod being the first to set the example of this desertion; (66) for the lawgiver says, "that this man began to be a giant upon the Earth:" [Genesis 10:29] is the passage supposed to be alluded to; but as translated in the Bible it only says "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.") and the name Nimrod, being interpreted, means, desertion; for it was not enough for the thoroughly miserable soul to stand on neither side, but having gone over to its enemies, it took up arms against its friends, and resisted them, and made open war upon them; in reference to which fact it is that, Moses calls the seat of Nimrod's kingdom Babylon, and the interpretation of the word Babylon is "change;" a thing nearly akin to desertion, the name, too, being akin to the name, and the one action to the other; for the first step of every deserter is a change and alteration of mind, (67) and it would be consistent in the truth to say that, according to the most holy Moses, the bad man, as being one destitute of a home and of a city, without any settled habitation, and a fugitive, is naturally a deserter also; but the good man is the firmest of allies. Having said thus much at present, and dwelt sufficiently on the subject of the giants, we will now proceed to what comes next in our subject, which is this. — ON THE GIANTS Philo of Alexandria : (91) Why it is said that the days of man shall be a hundred and twenty years? (#Genesis 6:4). God appears here to fix the limit of human life by this number, indicating by it the manifold prerogative of honour; for in the first place this number proceeds from the units, according to combination, from the number fifteen; but the principle of the number fifteen is that of a more transparent appearance, since it is on the fifteenth day that the moon is rendered full of light, borrowing its light of the sun at the approach of evening, and restoring it to him again in the morning; so that during the night of the full moon the darkness is scarcely visible, but it is all light. In the second place, the number a hundred and twenty is a triangular number, and is the fifteenth number consisting of triangles. Thirdly, it is so because it consists of a combination of odd and even numbers, being contained by the power of the faculty of the concurring numbers, sixty-four and fifty-six; for the equal number of sixty-four is compounded of the uniting of these eight odd numbers, one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen; the reduction of which, by their parts into squares, makes a sum total of sixty-four, and that is a cube, and at the same time a square number. But again from the seven double units there arises the unequal number of fifty-six, being compounded of seven double pairs, which generate other productions of them, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen; the sum total of which is fifty-six. In the fourth place, it is compounded of four numbers, of one triangle, namely fifteen; and of another square, namely twenty-five; and of a third quinquangular figure, thirty-five; and of a fourth a sexangular figure forty-five, by the same analogy: for the fifth is always received according to each appearance; for from the unity of the triangles the fifth number becomes fifteen; again the fifth of the quadrangular number from the unit makes twenty-five; and the fifth of the quinquangular number from the unit makes thirty-five; and the fifth of the sexangular number from the unit makes forty-five. But every one of these numbers is a divine and sacred number, consisting of fifteens as has been already shown; and the number twenty-five belongs to the tribe of Levi.(10)(see #Numbers 8:24.) And the number thirty-five comes from the double diagram of arithmetic, geometry, and harmony; but sixteen, and eighteen, and nineteen, and twenty-one, the combination of which numbers amounts to seventy-four, is that according to which seven months' children are born. And forty-five consists of a triple diagram; but to this number, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-two, and twenty-eight, belong: the combination of which makes eighty-five, according to which nine months' children are produced. Fifthly, this diagram has fifteen parts, and a twofold composition, peculiarly belonging to itself; forsooth when divided by two it gives sixty, the measure of the age of all mankind; when divided by three it gives forty, the idea of prophecy; when divided by four it gives thirty, a nation; when divided by five, it makes twenty-four, the measure of day and night; when divided by six, it gives twenty, a beginning; when divided by eight, we have fifteen, the moon in the fulness of brilliancy; when divided by ten, it makes twelve, the zodiac embellished with living animals; when divided by twelve, it makes ten, holy; when divided by fifteen, it gives eight, the first ark; when divided by twenty, it leaves six, the number of creation; when divided by twenty-four, it makes five, the emblem of the outward sense; when divided by thirty it makes four, the beginning of solid measure; when divided by forty, it gives three, the symbol of fulness, the beginning, the middle, and the end; when divided by sixty, it makes two, which is woman; and when divided by the whole number of a hundred and twenty, the product is one, or man. And every one of all these numbers is more natural, as is proved in each of them, but the composition of them is twofold, for the product is two hundred and forty, which is a sign that it is worthy of a twofold life; for as the number of years is doubled, so also we may imagine that the life is doubled too; one being in connection with the body, the other being detached from the body, according to which every holy and perfect man may receive the gift of prophecy. Sixthly, because the fifth and sixth figures arise, the three numbers being multiplied together, three times four times five, since three times four times five make sixty; so in like manner the next following numbers four times five times six make a hundred and twenty, for four times five times six make a hundred and twenty. Seventhly, when the number twenty has been taken in, which is the beginning of the reduction of mankind, I mean twenty, and being added to itself two or three times, so as to make twenty, forty, and sixty, these added together make a hundred and twenty. But perhaps the number a hundred and twenty is not the general term of human life, but only of the life of those men who existed at that time, and who were to perish by the deluge after an interval of so many years, which their kind Benefactor prolonged, giving them space for repentance; when, after the aforesaid term, they lived a longer time in the subsequent ages. — QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, I Philo of Alexandria : (92) On what principle it was that giants were born of angels and women? (#Genesis 6:4). The poets call those men who were born out of the earth giants, that is to say, sons of the Earth.(11)(the Greek name Gigas is said to be derived from geµ and gennaoµ, "to bring forth.") But Moses here uses this appellation improperly, and he uses it too very often merely to denote the vast personal size of the principal men, equal to that of Hajk(12)(hajk is an addition of the Armenian translator; it is the name of a fabulous patriarch of the Armenian nation.) or Hercules. But he relates that these giants were sprung from a combined procreation of two natures, namely, from angels and mortal women; for the substance of angels is spiritual; but it occurs every now and then that on emergencies occurring they have imitated the appearance of men, and transformed themselves so as to assume the human shape; as they did on this occasion, when forming connexions with women for the production of giants. But if the children turn out imitators of the wickedness of their mothers, departing from the virtue of their fathers, let them depart, according to the determination of the will of a depraved race, and because of their proud contempt for the supreme Deity, and so be condemned as guilty of voluntary and deliberate wickedness. But sometimes Moses styles the angels the sons of God, inasmuch as they were not produced by any mortal, but are incorporeal, as being spirits destitute of any body; or rather that exhorter and teacher of virtue, namely Moses, calls those men who are very excellent and endowed with great virtue the sons of God; and the wicked and depraved men he calls bodies, or flesh. — QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, I Augustine of Hippo : THE SONS OF GOD WENT IN TO THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN, AND THEY BROUGHT FORTH CHILDREN. — They also often ask how angels could have sex with the daughters of men, of whom the giants are said to have been born, although some manuscripts, not only Latin but also Greek, read not of the angels, but of the sons of God. To solve this question some have claimed that they were just men, and so it could also be said of them that they were angels. Scripture, for example, says about John, who was a man: Behold, I send my angel before you to prepare your way. (Mt. 11:10; Mk. 3:1) But the problem is knowing how giants were born through sex of men, or how they could be joined with women, if they were not men, but angels. With regard to the giants, that is to say, very large and very strong men, I think that there is nothing strange in that they could have been born of men, because even after the flood they existed; as a matter of fact, in our own day there have also been some individual humans incredibly large, not only men but also women. It is therefore more credible that righteous men, called angels, or sons of God, (Cf. Gen. 6:2) moved by lust, sinned with women, instead of angels, who could not commit that sin because they lack bodies; although certain demons have been evil with women, so many things are said and by so many people, that it is not easy to decide on an opinion on this question. [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 2 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)