The Book of Giants retells and expands on the story given in the Book of Enoch, and scholars date the Aramaic manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls similarly to before the 2nd century BC.
There also exist Manichaean versions of the book, but those came later.
The Book of Giants focuses more on the giants than other texts, but the book’s precise original contents and order is unknown because there is no complete text.
The majority of the material in the current fragments is concerned with Enoch’s attempts to decipher the giants’ terrifying dreams and to intercede to God on their behalf.
Unfortunately, little of the book’s description of the giant’s exploits has survived.
It seems possible that these stories were inspired by ancient Near Eastern mythology such as the story of Gilgamesh, a Babylonian hero who is named as one of the giants.
Since the translations of the remaining texts are so disjointed, instead of including them here, I’m providing links instead.
- Dead Sea Scrolls version http://www.gnosis.org/library/dss/dss_book_of_giants.htm
- Manichaean fragments that were translated by W. B. Henning in 1943. The Book of the Giants (sacred-texts.com)
- The Dead Sea scrolls : a new translation : Wise, Michael Owen, 1954- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
