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May 19, 20260 citationsOpen Access

Giants of Old, Giants of Today: A contextual and Decolonial reading of the book of Giants from the Dead Sea Scrolls in Dialogue with African Realities of Oppression and Resistance

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EMEdward Chard, Hon. Lect. University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mark

Key Points

  • This study aims to reinterpret the Book of Giants through a decolonial lens, connecting it to contemporary African struggles against oppression.
  • Utilized a contextual and decolonial reading framework informed by African hermeneutics and liberation theology.
  • Engaged in Contextual Bible Study to correlate ancient texts with current social issues in South Africa.
  • Examined themes of ecological justice, land dispossession, and gender-based violence in relation to the text.
  • Identified giants as metaphors for modern imperial and colonial forces in Africa.
  • Concluded that the text resonates with current realities of oppression, highlighting ecological and social injustices.
  • Proposed new interpretations of biblical narratives to empower marginalized communities.

Abstract

The Book of Giants, a fragmentary Enochic work from the Dead Sea Scrolls, narrates the violent reign of the Watchers' giant offspring, their terrifying dreams, and Enoch's pronouncement of divine judgment. This paper offers a contextual and decolonial re-reading from the perspective of the Ujamaa Centre's praxis of socially engaged biblical scholarship. Drawing on African hermeneutics and liberation theology, the giants are interpreted as symbols of imperial, colonial, and neo-colonial powers exploiting land, bodies, and communities. Through a Contextual Bible Study approach, the text is brought into dialogue with ecological justice, land dispossession, and gender-based violence in contemporary South Africa.

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Edward Chard, Hon. Lect. University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mark (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a0bfe08166b51b53d3794c8https://doi.org/10.17613/bhh4v-sv511
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