What Scripture says
Genesis 6:4 mentions the Nephilim, “the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown” (ESV). Later, Israelite spies report seeing “the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:33). Goliath was “six cubits and a span”, about 2.9 metres in the Hebrew text, or about 2 metres in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint, which read “four cubits and a span” (1 Samuel 17:4). Og, king of Bashan, had an iron bed nine cubits long (Deuteronomy 3:11). (See 3.7 for who the Nephilim were.)
What the evidence says
Archaeology
The viral photos
Since the early 2000s, images have spread online of huge human skeletons being excavated, often claimed to be from India, Saudi Arabia or Greece, sometimes with a story that National Geographic found them and covered them up.
They are fakes. National Geographic traced the most famous image to a 2002 photo-editing contest on the website Worth1000, titled “Archaeological Anomalies”. An artist using the name IronKite took a photo of a mastodon excavation in Hyde Park, New York, and digitally added a human skeleton, then a man with a shovel for scale. It won third place. Other contest entries were also later passed off as real discoveries.
National Geographic has stated it never found any giant skeletons.
Older hoaxes
- The Cardiff Giant (1869), a 3-metre stone “petrified man” dug up in New York, was carved on the orders of a cigar maker, George Hull, to mock people who believed in giants. Crowds paid to see it even after the hoax was revealed.
- 19th-century newspapers in America published many stories of giant skeletons found in burial mounds. None has been preserved or verified, and many were exaggerations or misidentified animal bones.
What real evidence shows
Thousands of human skeletons from the ancient Near East have been excavated. They show people of normal height for their time, usually somewhat shorter than today. The tallest verified human, Robert Wadlow, was 2.72 metres, due to a pituitary disorder.
Context
Whatever the Nephilim were, Scripture doesn’t require finding their skeletons. Some scholars note the spies’ report in Numbers 13 was described as “a bad report” (13:32), possibly exaggerating out of fear.
Where they meet
Giant skeletons aren’t proof of the Nephilim. The viral photos are edited hoaxes.
What’s still open
Who the Nephilim were (see 3.7). That question doesn’t depend on these photos.
Bottom line
No. The viral photos are edited hoaxes. This is rated Settled.