<P> The Brown - Driver - Briggs Lexicon (1906) gives the meaning of nephilim as "giants", and holds that proposed etymologies of the word are "all very precarious". Many suggested interpretations are based on the assumption that the word is a derivative of Hebrew verbal root n - ph - l (נ - פ - ל) "fall". Robert Baker Girdlestone argued in 1871 the word comes from the Hiphil causative stem, implying that the nephilim are to be perceived as "those that cause others to fall down". Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form "ones who have fallen", grammatically analogous to paqid "one who is appointed" (i.e., overseer), asir "one who is bound" (i.e., prisoner), etc . </P> <P> The majority of ancient biblical versions--including the Septuagint, Theodotion, Latin Vulgate, Samaritan Targum, Targum Onkelos, and Targum Neofiti--interpret the word to mean "giants". Symmachus translates it as "the violent ones" and Aquila's translation has been interpreted to mean either "the fallen ones" or "the ones falling (upon their enemies)". </P> <P> The term "Nephilim" is mentioned twice in the Pentateuch . The first occurrence is in Genesis 6: 1--4, immediately before the account of Noah's Ark . Genesis 6: 4 reads as follows (Jewish Publication Society translation, 1917): "The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown ." Where the Jewish Publication Society simply transliterated the Hebrew nephilim as "Nephilim," the King James Version translated the term as "giants ." </P> <P> The nature of the Nephilim is complicated by the ambiguity of Genesis 6: 4, which leaves it unclear whether they are the "sons of God" or their offspring who are the "mighty men of old, men of renown". Richard Hess in The Anchor Bible Dictionary takes it to mean that the Nephilim are the offspring, as does P.W. Coxon in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible . </P>

What were the names of the giants in the bible