Tool Beta
The Gods of the Bible
Every named divine being in Scripture, what the text calls it, and what the ancient world thought it was.
Anakim
The giant clan at Hebron whose size made the Israelite spies call themselves grasshoppers.
Numbers 13:22, in every translation this tool compares.
The giant clan at Hebron. The Israelite spies come back saying they felt like grasshoppers next to them, and the survivors are noted as having ended up in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. Gath is where Goliath comes from later.
The descendants of Anak at Hebron, compared to the Rephaim in Deuteronomy 2:11 and connected to the Nephilim in Numbers 13:33. Joshua 11:22 notes the survivors left in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, and Gath is where Goliath comes from; Walton's commentary on 1 Samuel 27:2-3 confirms that Gath's existence before the Philistines is traditionally tied to the Canaanite Anakim. The conquest's herem language targets these bloodlines in particular. Joshua 11:21-22 names the Anakim as the object of the campaign in both the southern and northern theaters, and the note that survivors remained "only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod" sets up the Goliath story generations later. DDD classes the Anakim, builders of fortified cities in southern Judah, as Rephaim under a nickname that alludes to their size, and note that the LXX mechanically renders nephilim, repha'im, "sons of Rapha," 'anaqim, and gibborim all as gigantes.
H6062, 17 occ
A speculative and little-followed proposal (MacLaurin, cited in Heiser's companion notes to The Unseen Realm) connects 'anaqim to seranim, the title of the Philistine rulers, and through it to the Aegean Sea Peoples. The overlap of Anakim and Philistines at Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod is real; the linguistic link isn't established.
- Numbers 13:22,28,33
- Deuteronomy 2:10-11
- Deuteronomy 9:2
- Joshua 11:21-22
- Joshua 15:13-14
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/numbers-13-33\/","n":"Numbers 13:33","s":"The spies report the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, and call themselves grasshoppers.","r":"Numbers 13:33"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/joshua-11-21-22\/","n":"Joshua 11:21-22","s":"Joshua cuts off the Anakim from the hill country, and none are left except in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.","r":"Joshua 11:21-22"}
- DDD s.v. "Rephaim," 692-699 (the Anakim are discussed under this entry, with no separate article)
- DDD s.v. "Giants," 343-344
- Heiser, *Unseen Realm*, ch. 24-25
- Walton, *IVP Bible Background Commentary*, 1 Samuel 27:2-3
