Goliath: Tracing a Giant’s Family Tree

The Bible’s “paper‑trail” hints at why the Philistine champion loomed so large — both physically and theologically. Genesis 6:1‑4 introduces the Nephilim, born when the “sons of God” took human wives.

Centuries later, Moses recalls the giant‑clans Anakim and Rephaim in Deuteronomy 2:10‑11 and highlights King Og of Bashan, whose iron bed measured nine cubits long — about 13 feet 6 inches — as a surviving relic (Deuteronomy 3:11‑13).

Joshua reports that Israel expelled these Anakim everywhere except the Philistine citadels of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (Joshua 11:21‑22). When 1 Samuel 17:4 introduces “Goliath of Gath,” and later writers list him and his towering kinsmen as “descendants of Rapha” (2 Samuel 21:16‑22; 1 Chronicles 20:4‑8), readers naturally trace the line backward: Rapha → Anakim/Rephaim → Nephilim.

The text never states outright that Goliath — a warrior six cubits and a span tall (about 9 feet 9 inches) — is half‑angel, but it does present him as the last flicker of an ancient rebellion that God extinguishes through the faith of an unlikely shepherd.