Canaan's Anakim (Cont.)
We have, incidentally, other records besides the Bible that bear witness to the Anakim. The Execration Texts of the Twelfth Dynasty (c. 1900 B.C.), for instance, clearly reveal that the Egyptians regarded the huge Anakim as their enemy. Written on pottery vases and clay figurines, these official documents contained the names of actual and potential enemies of the state. They also enumerated Pharaoh's curses upon them. Prepared by the priest-sorcerers, these execrations supposedly gave Pharaoh great power over his foes. The Egyptians believed that when he ordered these vases or figurines smashed, the written curses immediately fell upon those named thereon. Professor Alan F. Johnson says one recovered text, now on display at the Berlin Museum, contains "an incantation directed towards certain enemy cities and territories among which are Palestinian areas and which names specific rulers of an area called 'Iy-'aneq'." These, he adds, "could well be the Anakim of biblical materials).... In Numbers 13:33, RSV, they are mentioned as descendants of the 'Nephilim'."43
Josephus offers another historical verification of the Anakim. Jews who lived at Hebron as late as his day, he remarks, occasionally dug up human bones of a gigantic size.44 A design from the interior of the great temple of Abu Simbel furnishes yet another proof. Presented at a meeting of the Syro-Egyptian Society in May, 1856, it depicted "the king contending with two men of large stature, light complexion, scanty beard, and having a remarkable load of hair pendant from the side of the head." Other representations of the same tall people were seen at the royal tombs of Biban-el-Moluk, at Medina Tabu, at Karnak, and at the tomb of Oimenepthah I, which Belzoni opened. On a wall of the latter tomb Belzoni found a picture representing a son of the Anak. He is depicted as tall and light-complexioned. In the hieroglyphic inscription Belzoni read his name as Tanmahu, "or, by elision, Talmia,' the name given to one of the tribes of the children of Anak."45
The above-mentioned inscriptions give us some idea of what the Anakim looked like: blond giants, without much beard, and with their hair done up in such a way as to seem somehow suspended--a fashion similar to the Pan-like hairstyles of the fair-skinned, fair-headed, necklace-wearing Celtic giants who later dominated much of Europe. Such then was the physical appearance of the giants that the spies saw as they entered Hebron. As they trudged the streets hawking their wares, it soon became evident to them that the three clans of Anakim giants ruled by Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai made up most of that city's population. Of course, with over two million former slaves to Pharaoh bivouacked near Canaan's southern border, the spies came under the giants' suspicion and close scrutiny. Some of them may even have been questioned. At least something happened on this visit that made a lasting impression on ten of the Hebrew scouts--something that gave them the idea that the much larger Anakim regarded them in the lowest esteem, as inconsequential as grasshoppers.
It probably was on this occasion that Ahiman spoke the words the ancient rabbis attribute to him. These doctors of Jewish tradition report that, of the three Anakim rulers, Ahiman was the most feared. They further claim that he enjoyed frightening passersby with this sporting invitation: "Whose brother will fight with me?"46 In any event, as they gazed up at these creatures, the hearts of ten spies melted within them. Only Caleb and Joshua kept their courage; no matter their size, they remained convinced that the Israelites could fight against them and drive them off God's land.
Upon taking their leave of Hebron, the spies remembered Moses' instructions to "bring back some of the fruit of the land"--to prove to all the congregation its extraordinary fertility. Gathering the samples presented no problem. It being now about mid-September, the surrounding country abounded with excellent produce. So the spies stopped in the valley of Eshcol that opened upon the city to pluck some pomegranates and figs and to cut off a branch bearing an enormous cluster of grapes. From ancient times, the Hebron region has been especially celebrated for its vineyards. Even today clusters from twelve to almost twenty pounds, with the grapes themselves being as large as small plums, can be found there. The spies tied the branch of grapes to a pole, along with the pomegranates and figs they had picked.47 Two men took turns carrying it.
The scanty vines the Israelites grew in Egypt had produced only small grapes. So when the reconnoitering party returned to Kadesh Barnea and showed their specimens of the land's fruitfulness, the enormous cluster of grapes quickly became the talk of the camp. As many Hebrews gathered around to hear their report on Canaan, the spies acknowledged that the land did indeed "flow with milk and honey," just as the Lord had said,48 and to prove it they exhibited to all the crowd the large, succulent grapes, the figs, and the pomegranates.
But ten of the spies then solemnly warned their fellow Hebrews: "We can't attack those people. The people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.... They are stronger than we are. The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."49
The ten spies said nothing that was not true. They had, for a fact, seen many giant Anakim in Canaan. The cities there were well-fortified. And the Canaanites bore weapons that were far superior to their poorly armed divisions. These things neither Caleb nor Joshua disputed. But both men dissented from the "evil report" by their ten frightened fellows. They instead urged the people: "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."50
Moses also pleaded with the alarmed multitude: "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."51
From his study of the archaeological diggings, Werner Keller came to sympathize with the disheartened Hebrews for the dilemma
they faced at Paran. "The reports that the spies brought back telling of the strongly fortified cities of Canaan, 'great and walled up to heaven' (Deut. 1:28), and of their superbly armed inhabitants were not exaggerated," he says. "Turreted fortresses were to the children of Israel an unaccustomed and menacing sight. In the land of Goshen, which for many generations had been their home, there was only one fortified town, Raamses. In Canaan the fortresses were practically cheek by jowl. The country was plastered with them. Numerous strong points stared down from hilltops and mountain peaks, which made them look even more powerful and terrifying. Little wonder that the report of the scouts was shattering in its effect.
"Israel was quite unskilled in the use and manufacture of implements of war. They had at their disposal only the most primitive weapons--bows, javelins, swords, knives--but certainly no horse-drawn chariots which the Canaanites possessed in vast numbers. Israel was still spoiled by the 'fleshpots of Egypt,' for which the older people among them were continually sighing and bemoaning their present lot. Despite their new faith and the experiences of the Exodus which they had shared together, they were not yet welded into a community which would be prepared to risk a clash with superior forces."52
The congregation knew the ten alarmed spies as honorable men, trustworthy, "the bravest among their tribes." So what they said about Canaan and the giants carried a lot of weight. On the other hand, they did not trust Caleb and Joshua, because those two were too closely associated with Moses and too much under his influence. Supposing, then, from what they had heard from the others, that it was impossible to get possession of the promised land, all the Hebrew men numbered for war--a total of 603,550 above the age of twenty--flatly refused to go up. Caleb and Joshua tried to change their minds. But the more they sought to persuade the people the more agitated they became. As ill feelings against the two heightened, some in the crowd threatened to stone them. They also rebuffed Moses, shouting him down. They even began murmuring against God for bringing them into the wilderness to die.
"And when the congregation was dissolved," relates Josephus, "they, their wives and children, continued their lamentation. They also blamed Moses, and made a clamour against him and his brother Aaron, the high priest. Accordingly they passed that night very ill, and with contumelious language against them; but in the morning they ran to a congregation, intending to stone Moses and Aaron, and so to return back into Egypt."53
The 603,550 who refused to go up to battle because they feared the giant Anakim fell under immediate divine judgment. As punishment for their rebellion, Moses told them they must wander forty years in the wilderness--one year for each day they explored the land. He also advised them that only two men of the 603,550 previously numbered for war would live to enter the land. The carcasses of all the rest, he said, would fall in the desert. The two men who were to survive he identified as Caleb and Joshua. Moses also wrote in his journal that Caleb, as a reward for his faithfulness, would inherit the Anakim stronghold of Hebron and the surrounding territory forever.54
To pay for their insubordination, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness exactly forty years, according to Moses' word. The final days of that wandering brought them at last to the plains of Moab on the eastern side of the Salt Sea. Here, while making preparations for the Hebrews' opening attack upon Canaan, Moses ordered a second census taken. This numbering revealed an entirely new population of 601,730 men who were twenty and above and fit for war. According to the chronicler, not one man remained of those first numbered by Moses ... except Caleb and Joshua.55 All the rest of those formerly numbered in the Sinai wilderness, who had refused to enter Canaan on account of the giants, now lay buried in the desert. (See Abraham and the Giants; David vs Goliath; Israel's Wars with the Giants; Jericho's Giants; Sihon's and Og's Overthrow)
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