I’m referring to this recent two-page (!) study in a medical journal: “Oldest case of gigantism? Assessment of the alleged remains of Sa-Nakht, king of ancient Egypt,” Lancet: Diabetes and Endocrinology 5:8 (August 2017): 580-581. Several folks have emailed me about this.
My only questions about the article (and the news outlets reporting on it) are: (1) Did anyone read the article or the news summary? and (2) Will the more zealous nephilim theorists online read it?
I ask because the pharaoh in question was 6-feet-1-inches in height. I’m taller than that. As the article notes, this height is unusual — which has been exactly my point about nephilim on this site. There is no evidence in the Bible or archaeology for giants over ten feet tall. What’s being described is upper six-foot on into the seven-foot range. There’s also no evidence for “races” of giants in the sense that so many online want the ancient Near East densely populated by giants. What the OT describes with respect to nephilim / giant clans are pockets of people taller than average in scattered places / settlements.
Just in case the “giant skull” people come out of the woodwork on this one, here are some quotations (p. 581) from the journal article:
“Only his long bones show signs of exuberant growth (gigantism), while the dimensions of his face do not exceed more than 2 SD (with the exception of the bigonial breadth) compared with other royals . . . [1] This finding could indicate an enlargement of the mandible, although other dimensions of the face are not excessively enlarged. The alleged Sa-Nakht probably had gigantism, truly being the oldest known palaeopathological case in the world. Assessment of the facial structure faintly suggests acromegaly, which could indicate a regression of hyperpituitarism.”
So, this report is in line with my thinking, but not the hyper-nephilim diffusion / incredible height thesis propagated by many websites. It will be interesting in seeing how many times this study is breathlessly reported to defend the latter ideas.
Footnote:
[1] SD = “standard deviation”
“What the OT describes with respect to nephilim / giant clans are pockets of people taller than average in scattered places / settlements.”
Something that is very hard to get a grasp on is the numbers of people being described in several parts of the OT. I would imagine that at certain points in time entire “nations” are smaller than medium US cities. When Israel wiped out another nation, how many people did they really kill?
When you say pockets, how many is the? Hundreds? Thousands? Less?