HistoricalChristian.Faith

Basil of Caesarea on the Nephilim

Dates: c. 379 Summary: Basil of Caesarea (d. 379) does not adjudicate the origin or identity of the giants of Genesis 6. Instead he addresses their nature, invoking them morally as types of prideful strength — coupling "the arrogance of the giants" with the God-defying boast of Goliath — to warn that bodily vigor breeds pride and is fleeting.

Claims & evidence

The giants are a type of the pride that comes from bodily strength

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.

— On Humility (Homily 20), trans. M. M. Wagner, Saint Basil: Ascetical Works (Fathers of the Church 9, 1950), full text. Basil uses the giants and Goliath together as examples of the arrogance bred by physical strength, in a homily on humility, not in any discussion of who the giants were.

Notes

• Basil sits to the side of the angelic-vs-Sethite debate: he comments on the giants' moral significance (pride, transient strength) and never names their parentage.
• His silence on origin makes him useful for showing that not every patristic mention of the Genesis 6 giants engages the identity question at all.