Naz site -  Site dedicated to Nazoreans
Forum- Nazorean Forum

~ "The Book of Giants" ~ 
Manichaean Text by Mar Mani

("His excellent swabs are the Book of the Giants. - Mani Bema Psalm MP46)

This also appears to be called "The Writing to the Parthians".

"Content. The Book of Giants tells the story of those demons who were chained up by the Living Spirit, assisted by his seven sons, in the seven lower firmaments of the sky, and of whom two hundred had been able to free themselves and return to earth. Here the human race had already spread, and it was the period of the apostle Enoch. The demons, traditionally called "guardians" (Aram. ¿^r, Gk. egre@´goros, Sogd. pa@æe), subjugated humanity and established a tyrannical rule of terror, and, with the daughters of mankind, they begot a race of giants (Aram. *gabba@re@, Gr. gi´gantes, Copt. nngigas, Mid. Pers. kawa@n, Sogd. kawiæt )." - Sundermann This book also mentions Yeshu's revelation to Shetil. The Book of Giants is presented as a parable for the constant challenge of the New on behalf of the Old Man who is tied up to his body.

Based on various available fragments, James R. Davila has also put together a tentative summary of the Aramaic Book of Giants story: He writes:

"M1. The two hundred demons descend to earth.

M2. Their descent from heaven stirs up the other heavenly beings.

M3. They descend because of the beauty of the women they saw there (cf. Gen 6:2; 1 Enoch 6:1-2; Jub. 5:1).

M4. They reveal forbidden arts and heavenly mysteries in order to seduce these women (cf. 1 Enoch 7-8) and they bring about ruin on the earth (cf. Gen 6:5, 11-12; 1 Enoch 7; 9:8; Jub. 5:2-3).

M5. Someone (Enoch?) warns that the coming of the two hundred demons will lead only to "hurting speech" and "hard labor."

M6. They subjugate the human race, killing hundreds of thousands of the righteous in battle, forcibly marrying beautiful women, and enslaving the nations. The angels "veil" Enoch (cf. Gen 5:24; 1 Enoch 87:3-4, 70:3; Jub. 4:21, 23).

M7. The righteous endure burning and Enoch the Sage is mentioned.

M8. Shamizad (Shemihazah, cf. 1 Enoch 6:3; 9:7) begets two giant sons, Sa(h)m (=Ohyah) and Pat-Sam (=Nariman or Ahyah/Hahyah). The other demons and Yaksas beget the rest of the giants.

M9. The giants grow up and wreak ruin upon the earth and the human race. The lamentation of humanity reaches up to heaven.

M10. Yima (a transmogrification of the Jewish God according to Mani's cosmology??) accepts the homage of humankind as they plead for help.

M11. Someone boasts that Sa(h)m and his brother will live and rule forever in their unequaled power and strength.

M12. The giant Hobabish (=Humbaba) robs someone of his wife. The giants fall out among themselves and begin killing one another and other creatures. Sa(h)m and his brother are mentioned. It appears that Sa(h)m has a dream in which a tablet was thrown in the water. It seems to have borne three signs, portending woe, flight, and destruction. Nariman has a dream about a garden full of trees in rows. Two hundred of something, perhaps trees, are mentioned.

M13. Someone recites a list of proverbs involving contrasts, usually between the lesser and the greater or the derivative from the source. Nariman tells how he saw (in the dream?) some who were weeping and lamenting and many others who were sinful rulers.

M14. The giant Mahaway, son of Virogdad (=Baraq'el, cf. 1 Enoch 6:7), hears a cautioning voice as he flies along at sunrise and he is guided to safety by Enoch "the apostle" and the heavenly voice, which warn him to descend before the sun sets his wings on fire (shades of Icarus). He lands and the voice leads him to Enoch.

M15. Enoch interprets the dream, indicating that the trees represent the "Egregoroi" (Greek for "Watchers," cf. 1 Enoch 12:4 etc.) and also mentioning the giants who were born of women. Something (the trees?) are "pulled out."

M16. Someone reports that someone ordered him not to run away but to bring the message written on two stone tablets, showing it first to Nariman. He has brought them in order to share the contents of one tablet, pertaining to the demons, with the giants. Shamizad tells him to read the writing by Enoch.

M17. Enoch the apostle gives a message of judgment to the demons and their children, telling them that they will have no peace and that they will see the destruction of their children (the giants--cf. 1 Enoch 14:6; 16:3; Jub. 4:22). He refers to someone (presumably the giants) ruling for one hundred twenty years (cf. Gen 6:3). Then he predicts either an era of earthly fecundity, presumably after the Flood (cf. 1 Enoch 10:11-22), or else the Flood itself (cf. Gen 7:8-9).

M18. Sa(h)m exhorts the other giants to cheer up and eat but they are too sorrowful to eat and instead fall asleep. Mahaway goes to Atanbush (=Utnapistim--either another giant or another name for Enoch) and tells him all. When Mahaway returns, Sa(h)m has a dream in which he ascends to heaven. He sees the water of the earth consumed with heat and a demon comes out of the water. Some beings (the protecting spirits?) are invisible but he sees the heavenly rulers.

M19. Sa(h)m, Shamizad, and Mahaway have a conversation. Mahaway mentions his father, Virogdad. There are obscure references to weapons and a blessing on someone who saw something but escaped death. Sam and Mahaway search (?) for something?

M20. Someone gives satisfactory assurance to Mahaway that he will be protected from Sa(h)m but nevertheless Sa(h)m and Mahaway fall out and begin to fight.

M21. The wicked demons are glad to see the "apostle" (Enoch) and assemble timidly before him. Apparently they promise to reform their ways and they ask for mercy (cf. 1 Enoch 13:4-6, 9).

M22. Someone (Enoch?) warns a group (the demons?) that they will be taken from a fire to face eternal damnation, despite their belief that they would never lose their misused power. He also addresses their "sinful misbegotten sons" (the giants?--cf. Gen 6:3) and describes how the righteous will fly over the fire of damnation and gloat over the souls inside it.

M23. "They," presumably the demons, take some heavenly helpers hostage. As a result the angels descend from heaven, terrifying the two hundred demons, who take human form and hide among human beings (cf. 1 Enoch 17:1). They angels separate out the human beings and set a watch over them, seize the giants from the demons, and lead "them" (the children of the giants?) to safety in thirty-two distant towns prepared for them by the "Living Spirit" at Aryan Wezan (the traditional homeland of the Indo-Iranians) in the vicinity of the sacred Mount Sumeru and other mountains. These people originated the arts and crafts. The two hundred demons fight a massive and fiery battle with the four angels.

M24. Atanbush does battle, accompanied by Watchers and giants, and three of the giants are killed. An angel and others are also killed.

M25. Ohyah and Ahyah resolve to keep their promise to do battle, and they boast of their prowess.

M26. The four angels, by divine command, bind the Egregoroi with everlasting chains in a dark prison (cf. 1 Enoch 10:11-14; Jub. 5:6, 10) and annihilate their children (cf. 1 Enoch 10:15; 15:8-12; Jub. 5:7-9, 11).

M27. Even before the rebellion of the Egregoroi, this prison had been built for them under the mountains. In addition, thirty-six towns had been prepared for the habitation of the wicked and long-lived sons of the giants before they were even born.

M28. Ohyah (or Ahyah), the primordial monster Leviathan, and the archangel Raphael engage in a great battle, "and they vanished." According to one tradition, Ohyah survived the Flood and fought this battle after it.

M29. Three thousand, two hundred and eighty years passed between the time of Enoch and the time of King Vishtasp (who ruled at the time of the prophet Zoroaster, who, along with Buddha and Christ, was an apostle who came before the final apostle Mani)."  -  James R. Davila